Friday, December 15, 2006

Final Document

Well, I am no more editing this blog.

This is to inform that documentation is available on 
www.freewebs.com/ruchiraparihar/graffi-v.exe 
which can be downloaded to understand the concept. 

Friday, October 27, 2006

Exploration- User Testing Prototype 1

First level user testing involved two people,

one male and one female to test the working of the prototype

It was quite an interesting experience to watch them interact with the system

The video of prototype 1 is uploaded at www.freewebs.com/ruchiraparihar/proto_upload.htm

The videos of the user testing are uploaded at

www.freewebs.com/ruchiraparihar/proto_test1.htm

Exploration - White Paper ( Final Stage)

Well, the project white paper is turning out well, It was an experiment so as to find out what do people write ( as textual graffiti ) if given a chance to.

There were big white sheets being stuck in three computer laboratories where students work for almost 24 hours

The three laboratories differed in the following terms:

IT Lab had 24 students , 1 paper and no writing instrument provided
New MediaLab 8 Students, 1 paper and a sketch pen as a writing instrument provided
SUID Lab 5 Students , 1 paper and no writing instrument was provided

The project carried on for 4 days.

here are the images at

the first stage:


the intermediate stage:




the final stage:



The observations and deductions were:

For such a thing to take place, the instrument with which they write is a major factor which holds them from writing, i.e. if people don’t have a pen in their hand ( or in the vicinity ) they wont attempt to write even if they have something to write

The above point makes it clear that users would be happy to use voice as a tool to make graffiti because, they wont have to wait for an instrument to be in their hands, all they need is their voice.

Very few people take the initiative to be the first ones to write, i.e. the initialization should be done already for people to carry on the chain reaction.

Hence, the system of Graffi-V should be such that it initiates graffiti on its own and is exciting enough to invite people.It can do things like generating a random quote on its own, or start saying something like "who is it?" , and there can be people answering to the questions being put up and there will be graffiti in response to whatever they would say.

Usual scribbles on the white paper are often answering the one who has written before them.
It is interesting to note an answer back pattern.

Which gives an idea of a chat based interface, where two people talk and they create graffiti.

People use it as a messege board to leave messeges for all.

Hence the idea of a messege board, or a thought for the day board.

People crib a lot when given a chance to write on the paper, and when their identity is not revealed.I found obscene stuff on one of the whitepapers.

Hence there should be word filters if such a system is to made public.
Also , it can be used as a place to vent out one's frustrations.

I also found reminders on the whitepaper.

Hence it can be used as a reminder board.
It can also be used to save stories ( as in saving the memories for the others to scroll back and see )

I realized that the three labs were differing in their scenarios, it makes clear that the more the number of people involved , the more is the fun and more is the involvement in turn.