After presenting August 24, 2007

After my presentation today, Adam suggested that instead of having to use a finger to rotate the block (by dragging in a circle), the iPhone can be shaked to one side slightly? I think i’ll use this idea since Emma said that the tetris blocks might be too small on the screen for a person’s finger… but then Michael said the iPhone screen is pretty big anyways? Hmmm.. I did think of using a shaking method to rotate the block (in the earlier blog entry called ‘Tetris </3′, August 5, 2007) but that was like shaking the iPhone continously and I wasn’t sure if it would work out? But then Adam told me that there was XYZ accelerometers in the iPhone just like the Wii and they would be able to pick up movements. Hahaha why am i so slow? I didn’t know the iPhone had these accelerometers XD!!

Well I guess i’ll have to research about these accelerometers later.

Ohhh and i think, it was Rob or either Kaz (or was it Michael?), who suggested that I broaden my target audience since alot of people do play tetris x] So I think i’ll change my target audience to 10 to 30 years old.

Presentation 1 finished! August 23, 2007

Okay my presentation explains my concept, who my target audience are and what prototypes i’ll use to gather user requirements.

SLIDE 1 – Introduction to my concept
My application for the iPhone is an online tetris game and community, which allows users to play a double sided tetris game against other users across the world. Users will also be able to add friends to their friend list, buy items using fake money, modify their avatars with the items and also have mini profiles. To be able to do this, users will be able to navigate through different parts of the application such as:
- Game rooms: users enter rooms or create their rooms. Up to 5 players in one room and each game in the room lasts five minutes or ten minutes depending on the room maker’s decision.
- Inventory: items you have bought for your avatar are kept here. You can also edit your avatar here.
- Shop: different items you can buy using the fake money. Items for your avatar to wear or even game items such as items that allow your blocks of tetris to be patterned with cute faces, certain colours, etc.
- Highscores: top 50 people for that week can be displayed here. They get rewarded with a limited edition item (one that is not available at the avatar shop).
- Profile: edit your own profile, only includes your avatar pixel, highest score, name, age & what country you live in.

The tetris blocks will fall down the centre of the rectangular screen. The user will have to turn the iPhone 90 degrees to the left or right so that the iPhone sensors will rotate the block’s direction of fall to one side of the screen. Once directed to one side of the screen, the block can be rotated by dragging your finger to control the direction of rotation. The down arrow can then be touched so that the block will fall down quickly. Basically you’re playing tetris on two sides of one screen. Instead of having chat like multiplayer tetris games, users will be able to talk to each other through a mic on the iPhone.
To create a bomb, 3 lines of blocks must be cleared. To bomb another player you will have to select a bomb from your bomb inventory and then touch another player’s tetris screen. Bombing will cause the other player’s iPhone to vibrate and also gain 3 gappy lines of blocks to affect their performance in the game. Also during the tetris games fake money coins in between tetris blocks will come out once in a while. If you clear a row of blocks with coins you get to keep them. These coins can be used to buy items for your avatar or items for your friends.

SLIDE 2 – Target audience
Anyone at any age can use this application but since it is a tetris game, the target audience will be mainly young male and female people in their twenties and teens. Around about 15 to 25 years old?
The application allows these people to not only play tetris against each other but to also help establish a community of friends.

SLIDE 3 – User requirements and prototypes
What are you going to do to test your idea ?
To test my idea I’ll first make index cards by using html pages uploaded on the web. I will create a basic layout consisting of links for the different sections of my application (game rooms, inventory, shop, etc). Each section of my application will have a separate html page which will display roughly how each page works (i.e. buttons, tables, text, etc). The links allows users to test how the navigation will work in my application.

As I develop my prototype later on I will make proper graphics or create a flash.

How are you going to gather user requirements?
Firstly I need to find my target audience which are people who are in between 15 to 25 years old.
After I have finished my index cards I will show them to my target audience and explain how my double sided tetris game works. I will then interview them for feedback The interview will involve questions such as:

- Is playing tetris by yourself more fun than playing against other people?
- Do you like meeting new people online?
- Does the double sided tetris game sound hard to you, or rather challenging?
- Is the layout of the application user friendly (efficient, easy to use, etc)?
- Would you rather touch a rotating arrow picture to rotate the block, or use your finger to control the rotation of the block?
- Do you want side arrows to be available? Would it make the game too easy?

Im having blackouts August 10, 2007

Okay we’ve been having blackouts at uni over the past few days @___@ we had no afternoon tutorials yesterday. The lecture was about user interfaces (including weird things about rules of conversations and such ._.) and then Robert showed us a video on the Microsoft Surface. Looks pretty cool but also very expensive. But i think i’d prefer sitting in my computer chair at my computer than a low chair for the table-like-computer. Anyways i kinda tuned out towards the end of the lecture, and looking back a the slides (slides 4 file) now, on page 25 isn’t that a picture of an instant messaging application??o _O?

For today’s lecture it was mainly on about expressive userfaces and user frustration. Expressive userfaces include changing icons (like the recycling bin becoming full), sound effects for closing windows, the paperclip “Clippy” from Microsoft Word, etc. User frustation was about things like error messages or bad design; things that give us negative feelings from the user interface. Then we looked at a video on the possibility of having computers saying ’sorry’, and if that will help minimise user frustration? Bah, i just think that weird computer voice saying sorry may of made it sound more annoying? Although its aim was to calm the user down, the voice should be more real, smooth and soft like a real human.

Regarding my tetris application (still thinking of a name), i really want to make use of the camera as well. Hmmmm but I can’t to seem to think of an idea that will fit it in? Anyways in the afternoon tutorial today, Robert told us some things we could do to help inspire us. This is what i wrote:

- Research more about iPhone.
- Find a application that runs on the iPhone and change it; think of how it could support the user better. A good design can be justified really good.
- Mix up applications, e.g itunes + photoshop?
- Put ideas on paper and draw from a hat
- Improvise and talk to other people

I think I should try these out xD

Cute graphics August 3, 2007

Today’s lecture was mainly on cognitive models, stuff about how our human brain thinks, plan/make decisions, solve problems, etc. We went over the two common design implications of attention; 1. Using techniques (e.g color, layout, etc) to draw attention and 2. Avoid cluttering. After that the slides were about using simplicity for icons and such so that we can remember them and recognise them through perception. Also stuff about design interfaces encouraging the user to learn, explore and play. This made me think about my graphics to use for the tetris application; I’ll make the theme cute and simple. I’m thinking of using a different shape instead of squares for the blocks, something that’s cute and can fit together well (like a puzzle). Possible a rabbit head? But they won’t fit together well, @__@. Also the graphics will be nice pastel colours that won’t hurt eyes and other cute icons for bombs, items, etc?

Anyways, Andrew (Trinh), told me that instant messaging for the iPhone has already been made, so I guess that idea will go into the bin >_ >

Basics and some more tetris August 2, 2007

Interaction design starts with the user.

Today in the morning lecture with Rob we were shown a clip from Matrix, however I was not able to hear due to the small speakers ._. so I guess i missed out although I tried hard to listen. But from reading the text on the slides, I guess the main idea was that if the user’s requirements is not taken into consideration then the problem will not be solved sucessfully. The design should support the user by solving the problem. We should understand the design problem first before using the latest cool technology or creating beautiful graphics. He also showed us a slide of questions we should ask ourselves to help check our design.

In our tutorial today we accessed our student directory, created the index.html page and also uploaded it to the student directory. It was very simple seeing how I’ve been webdesigning as a hobby ever since my middle high school years. With the spare time, I decided to draw pixels =) I ended up drawing a rabbit head, and repeated it with different faces.

They look weird, oh wells.

Anyways during the morning tutorial with Rob, I told him about my initial idea on the instant messaging application and then the multiplayer tetris game. He encouraged me to think of more ideas to enhance the tetris application, to create more interaction with users. He suggested one where the colour of the blocks would need to be detected in real life (through a camera) in order to obtain a certain block? But then I thought that’d make the game really easy to cheat with a colour grid, then you’d have all the blocks you’d want and complete rows very easily. The game would become boring??

Now, seeing how there was sensors on the iPhone that detect when you move it around, maybe the tetris game could be abit shuffled into one where you have to move the phone around to stick the pieces in? Sounds too difficult to play though. You’d be madly rotating your iPhone around. Hmmm maybe as well as bombing other players, you could cause their phone to vibrate while playing? That way it also increases the chances for them to make a mistake while placing a block. Bombing an opponent non-stop sounds fun. It still doesn’t sound unique and web 2.0 like enough to me … oooh but what if the phone vibrated so much that they dropped their phone? O_O?!?

Hmmm.. I also want to make use of the touch screen; how you can zoom in and scroll. Using a finger to lead blocks into lines would make the game too easy.

I need to think more =x .
Oh by the way, I added the link to my website on the right bar.

Hello DECO1200! July 28, 2007

Ohhh no, blogging. Whenever I try to keep any diary or blog of some sort, it always ends up dying because I forget to keep updating it. But for DECO1200, I must try to get used to blogging regularly =D Anyways here is a small summary for our lectures in week one.

With Rob
- Introduction to Interaction Design: Why bother with it? What is it? What is the process of interaction design? What is the usability & user experience?
- “Interaction design is concerned with the design of interactive products that are easy, effective and enjoyable to use.”
- Introduction to Studio Project: Information on our assignment and the iPhone.

With Justin
- Web 2.0
- Recommended websites such as wordpress and tiddlywiki
- Information on our assignment

So basically DECO1200 has one project, which is the design of a Web 2.0 application for the Apple iPhone.

Apparently you’ll get better marks for having a unique design that has never been created before…. hmm. I think I’ll be designing an application for either social networking or entertainment.