Reflections on NM4210
After going through a series of lectures and assignments in NM4210, I learnt a lot of things that I never pay attention to and that those little things that we see actual reflect a lot on that person.
In the first lecuture, we were tasked to find a bad design. It was tough for me initially. I thought most of the products were good, if not I had forgotten those bad designs. However, along the way, i foung many bad designs. I realised that we need to pay attend to those bad designs. Sometimes, they don't occur to be a bad design immediately. Only after using and observing it then you'll notice that it is truly a bad design. After attending this course, I often take the initiative to ponder if it's a good or bad design before actually buying, and if it's a bad design, why.
Subsequently, we were taught that objects talk! I never realised that an object gives others the image of our status, eduacation etc. It was really interesting. Sometimes, when I look at the objects that people have now, I tend to wonder why they buy this object. Is it because they want to feel good about themselves, or is it because it's something that they need?
While working on the project, I realized that it is important to conduct research and surveys before producing an actual product. It is absolutely impossible to design an item or service and expect everyone to like it. Furthermore, I learnt that though a team of designers might come to a consensus that such a function is the best for the users, but users might think otherwise. Therefore, it is very important to identify a group of target audience and their similar needs. As all of us know, there are unlimited wants. Everyone hopes to have a product designed specially to suit their needs. If that’s the case, I think we need to increase tenfold the current number of designers, or probably more to meet the unlimited demands by the customers.
Therefore, what we can do is only to target on a specific group of audience to determine their similar needs. From there, we can determine what type of product is necessary, the look, functionality and appearance of it amongst the other factors.
Although some of the concepts taught were not new to me, since they were covered in other modules before, I thought laddering was effective and useful. It helps us understand how the users exactly feel and find the root of the cause.
During designing process, I was taught the low and high fidelity prototype. Initially, I saw no point in working on the paper prototype for our project as it would be a chore to put every screen (in our case the ePan). That would add up to about 30 screens! However, after doing the paper prototype, I realized that paper prototype is a good method before the actual design actually. Imagine one going through the high fidelity product straight away using expensive materials. The outcome might not be desirable and it would be a huge waste of resource and money to re-make a new high fidelity prototype for testing.
Even when the high fidelity prototype product is out, we cannot make sure that it is really suitable for the users. Therefore, we need to conduct further tests to ensure that the product would be the best tat the product can be. In reality, huge amount of money is spent on designing. Therefore, the designers would hope to have a successful product so that they can earn back whatever is lost during the production.
User experience design may seem difficult in my opinion. We need to understand users thoroughly, and target this group of people. However, it may not seem easy in any sense too, because what we eel is most appropriate for the users may seem otherwise when the users actually uses the product.
This module is useful and has learnt the tedious processes designers have to go through. Though the steps look easy to follow, it is actually difficult to follow in real world.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Relections on Article
User Research Smoke and Mirrors
After reading this article, I thought it was insightful. There were some things that I knew or heard about before reading this article, but it didn't occur to me that it would be useful when it comes to user design experience. One example is the eyetracking. However, the concepts in this paper did enlightened me.
One example is the eyetracking. It is a good technology in my opinion, because it allows companys and designers to know if it is easy to locate some important buttons on the websites and thus if it needs any changes. From the article, I realised that eyetracking can to used to tell the way they look at the website, However, I did not realised that though it can tell us what people are looking at, it does not necessarily meant we can tell what they are thinking when they look at it, whether they are trying to understand what's on that particular view or whether they find that interesting for longer viewing.
In the article, the author mentioned that research is not required, when you have a good user interface designer. I beg to defer. In my opinion, no matter how good the designer can be, he cannot understand how the product users will feel when they use a certain product that he designs. He may understand, but not totally. Therefore, I think that research is still required no matter how capable the designer is.
I was surprised tthat the autor mentioned card sorting, usability testing, user personas and other research methods are subjective and even a little touchy-feely in nature. However, without such such testing methods, we will not know what's actually best for the users. perhaps we have missed some important components in the process of designing the product that may seem obvious to the users.
This article discussed both scienctific and non-scientic methods. Personally, I feel that both methods should be employed during the designing process. Focusing on just one method would not be desirable. Most of the times, we are uncertain if the numerical data we obtained from scientific research methods are totally unbiased and if it totally reflects the needs of the users. Therefore, we still need to conduct non-scientific methods to ensure that what we got from the scientific research tally with the non-scientific methods we proposed. This will thus help designers to undestand the users better and design something that is what the users really need.
After reading this article, I thought it was insightful. There were some things that I knew or heard about before reading this article, but it didn't occur to me that it would be useful when it comes to user design experience. One example is the eyetracking. However, the concepts in this paper did enlightened me.
One example is the eyetracking. It is a good technology in my opinion, because it allows companys and designers to know if it is easy to locate some important buttons on the websites and thus if it needs any changes. From the article, I realised that eyetracking can to used to tell the way they look at the website, However, I did not realised that though it can tell us what people are looking at, it does not necessarily meant we can tell what they are thinking when they look at it, whether they are trying to understand what's on that particular view or whether they find that interesting for longer viewing.
In the article, the author mentioned that research is not required, when you have a good user interface designer. I beg to defer. In my opinion, no matter how good the designer can be, he cannot understand how the product users will feel when they use a certain product that he designs. He may understand, but not totally. Therefore, I think that research is still required no matter how capable the designer is.
I was surprised tthat the autor mentioned card sorting, usability testing, user personas and other research methods are subjective and even a little touchy-feely in nature. However, without such such testing methods, we will not know what's actually best for the users. perhaps we have missed some important components in the process of designing the product that may seem obvious to the users.
This article discussed both scienctific and non-scientic methods. Personally, I feel that both methods should be employed during the designing process. Focusing on just one method would not be desirable. Most of the times, we are uncertain if the numerical data we obtained from scientific research methods are totally unbiased and if it totally reflects the needs of the users. Therefore, we still need to conduct non-scientific methods to ensure that what we got from the scientific research tally with the non-scientific methods we proposed. This will thus help designers to undestand the users better and design something that is what the users really need.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
NM4210 Final Project
Our final project is about ePan, an entertainment system for Fish and Co. My group consists of Huiyan, Joel, Eunice and myself. Initially, when we first met to decide on our project, we had other ideas in mind- an administrative database system for an orchestra, a product to aid Singapore’s tourism and an interactive camera manual. Eventually, we decided on the ePan that allows online ordering and entertainment.
In the early stages, our system consists of an ordering system as well as an entertainment system. We decided on this project theme because more and more fish and seafood based restaurants are coming in Singapore and it is difficult for Fish and Co. to survive as the sole competitor. During peak hours, Fish and Co. quality of service seem to decline. We hope that with our system, faster and more accurate orders can be received and while waiting for the food to be served, they can use the entertainment system to keep themselves occupied, thus improving dining experience.
However, during the first few presentations, we realize that the ordering system was not very well received. Sakae has such technology already therefore the classmates think that it is not a new idea. Therefore, we decided to focus on the entertainment system only.
Our entertainment system consists of games, cartoons, nutritional calculator, drawing pad and gallery. Our target audience for the system would be families with kids, big groups of friends and health conscious adults. We had initial doubts on our system initially because of our broad target audience. Classmates commented that we should focus on just one group of target as it would be difficult to meet the needs of three different groups of people. However, we thought that it’s possible to cater to three groups of people because our system will be in a form of flash which is able to cater to different groups of people.
Generally, the games will consist of roughly 4 games, 2 of which for multiplayer and 2 for single player. The games will keep huge groups of friends entertained. Kids can watch the cartoons available on the system so as to minimize the chances of them running around in the restaurants. Parents can eat in peace without having to look after their kids most of the time. For the health conscious people, we have created a nutritional calculator that shows them the nutritional values in the food that they have chosen. It also provides fun facts about fish and marine life to enhance their general knowledge. We realize that students like to scribble and draw on their lecture notes when they are bored. Therefore, the drawing pad gives them the space to showcase their creativity, which can be saved to the gallery for future viewing
Classmates were generally pleased with our idea. However, My Reddy posed a question on how the entertainment system will be placed in the restaurant. We had an initial idea to clamp it on a holder that is adjustable and extendable, but comments were that it would be troublesome and distracting to the rest who are not using it. Therefore, during the final stage, we decided to have a holder under the table so that users can take the ePan out when they want to use and slide it back to the holder when they don’t want to use it.
During final reviews and feedbacks, some people suggested that the ePan is too childish and only the kids may like it. In response to complaints that the interface was too “childish-looking”, we might in future even provide customizable “skins” consisting of a variety of different colour schemes and themes to choose from that personalize the look and feel of the ePan based on individual diners’ preferences. We might also have added more interactivity to the ePan by using more animations and sound effects which would have made the ePan more visually and aurally appealing.
In the early stages, our system consists of an ordering system as well as an entertainment system. We decided on this project theme because more and more fish and seafood based restaurants are coming in Singapore and it is difficult for Fish and Co. to survive as the sole competitor. During peak hours, Fish and Co. quality of service seem to decline. We hope that with our system, faster and more accurate orders can be received and while waiting for the food to be served, they can use the entertainment system to keep themselves occupied, thus improving dining experience.
However, during the first few presentations, we realize that the ordering system was not very well received. Sakae has such technology already therefore the classmates think that it is not a new idea. Therefore, we decided to focus on the entertainment system only.
Our entertainment system consists of games, cartoons, nutritional calculator, drawing pad and gallery. Our target audience for the system would be families with kids, big groups of friends and health conscious adults. We had initial doubts on our system initially because of our broad target audience. Classmates commented that we should focus on just one group of target as it would be difficult to meet the needs of three different groups of people. However, we thought that it’s possible to cater to three groups of people because our system will be in a form of flash which is able to cater to different groups of people.
Generally, the games will consist of roughly 4 games, 2 of which for multiplayer and 2 for single player. The games will keep huge groups of friends entertained. Kids can watch the cartoons available on the system so as to minimize the chances of them running around in the restaurants. Parents can eat in peace without having to look after their kids most of the time. For the health conscious people, we have created a nutritional calculator that shows them the nutritional values in the food that they have chosen. It also provides fun facts about fish and marine life to enhance their general knowledge. We realize that students like to scribble and draw on their lecture notes when they are bored. Therefore, the drawing pad gives them the space to showcase their creativity, which can be saved to the gallery for future viewing
Classmates were generally pleased with our idea. However, My Reddy posed a question on how the entertainment system will be placed in the restaurant. We had an initial idea to clamp it on a holder that is adjustable and extendable, but comments were that it would be troublesome and distracting to the rest who are not using it. Therefore, during the final stage, we decided to have a holder under the table so that users can take the ePan out when they want to use and slide it back to the holder when they don’t want to use it.
During final reviews and feedbacks, some people suggested that the ePan is too childish and only the kids may like it. In response to complaints that the interface was too “childish-looking”, we might in future even provide customizable “skins” consisting of a variety of different colour schemes and themes to choose from that personalize the look and feel of the ePan based on individual diners’ preferences. We might also have added more interactivity to the ePan by using more animations and sound effects which would have made the ePan more visually and aurally appealing.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Assignment 4
Task: Improving learning experience in lecture theatres (LT)
For this assignment, Huiyan and I realised that firstly, we need to find out what are the factors affecting learning experience, and how actually, is the learning experience being affected negatively. Therefore, we listed down a long list of factors that we could brainstorm.
Possible Factors:
Lecture theatres:
- Size (if it will affect the learning experience for students)
- Architectural design (can students see the lecturer from the end-corners)
- Accessibility of the LT
- Ambience of the LT (sufficient light?)
- Seats in the LT (are they comfortable for the students to sit still throughout the whole lecture?)
- Technology in the LT (is the projection clear, is the sound system good, are the equipments working well?)
- Temperature control (is it too cold?)
- Lecture timings (is it too early/too late?)
- Sufficient number of power points for laptops?
Lecturer/Pedagogy:
- Punctuality (start and end)
- Clarity in pronunciation
- Class interaction
- Presentation style (OHP/slides)
- Give breaks?
- Webcast
- Delivery of lecture (is it interesting/ interactive?)
- Tone (monotone/speak too fast?)
- Upload notes promptly?
- Quality of notes (useful/ too little information?)
Students:
- Attentiveness/Concentration
- Ability to comprehend the lecture
- Eating in class?
- Punctuality
- Noise level
- Time of lecture
Possible LTs to work on:
- LT 27 (largest LT)
- LT32 (bad location)
- (lecturer uses OHP instead of PPT)
- ST2131 (no lecture notes)
- LT7(rundown)
Possible questions to ask the students:
- What they like/dislike about the LT
- What they like/dislike about the lecture
- What can be improved to enhance their learning experience?
Methods
With the items listed, we began to conduct surveys and questionaires to find out how learning experience can be affected by various factors. After some preliminary discussions, we decide to use the methods below to conduct our findings.
Laddering
- We used this method to understand how the lecturer and LT affects the student.
Modules that we observed:
- CS4265 Advanced topics in E-commerce
- CN4118 Research Project in Chemical Engineering
Ethnographic Study
- Modules that we observed:
- CS4265 Advanced topics in E-commerce
Laddering:
Ching Hui is a student in CS4265.
Q: Do you like the lecturer’s teaching method is this module?
P: Yes, I like it very much.
Q: Why do you like it very much?
P: Because the lecturer conducts the lecture in a very interesting way.
Q: How interesting is the teaching style?
P: There is in-class activity in almost every lesson.
Q: What is good about the in-class activity?
P: The in-class activity presents us the concepts that she (the lecturer) is going to teach for the session, and this allows me to understand concepts better.
Q: Why do you need to understand the concepts better?
P: So that to do well in this module and to improve my CAP.
Q: Why do you need to improve on your CAP?
P: Don’t you want to do well in your studies?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric is a student in CN4118.
Q: Do you like attending lectures in LT7?
P: No.
Q: Why don’t you like in LT7?
P: Because the table and seat don’t go very well, so you don't feel very comfortable resting your hand on the table
Q: How will the bad designs affect you?
P: It affects my concentration.
Q: How does it affect your concentration?
P: I get distracted very easily and will fall asleep after some time.
Q: What is bad about falling asleep in class?
P: I lose track of the lecturer’s teaching, moreover, there’s no webcast for me to go through when I get home.
Q: How will losing track in the lessons affect you?
P: It will affect my CAP.
Q: Why are you concerned about your CAP?
P: I need to do well in my studies.
In summary,
Relevant class activities --> Understand concepts better --> Do better for the module --> Improve cap --> Do well in studies
Bad LT chairs and tables --> Lose concentration --> Affect CAP --> Do badly in studies
Enthonograpic Study
We perform enthonograpic study for CS4265 and observed something interesting.
- Lecturer has class activities for all lectures
- Class activities very relevant to the concept that will be taught during that session
- Students participate in the activities actively.
- Lecture is held during lunch hour (12-2pm), yet nobody eats in class
- Many students answer the lecturer when she poses open-ended questions to the class
- The class is very attentive and participative despite not having any breaks during the lecture.
During this ethnographic study, we realised this is an excellent counterexample of not having breaks and yet active participation remains throughout the lecture.
Summary of findings
After conducting all the studies, we have found out that learning experience in LTs are influenced by:
1. Environment
- Size
The larger the LT size, the class size will be bigger, and it is harder for the lecturer to interact properly with the students.
Without interaction, lessons become a boring give and take thing, and students find it harder to clarify any questions.
- Architectural design
When the lecture theater gets too large, students at the extreme ends are unable to see the contents on the screen when lecturer uses the visualizer.
Students have to squint hard to see what is on the screen, straining their eyes, and the added strain cause them to get tired easily, thus losing their focus after some time.
-Ambience of the LT
Some lecturers like to turn down the lightings when using powerpoint slides, but it creates a very nice dark place which encourages students to fall asleep.
- Seats in the LT
Some lecture theaters, e.g. the LT7 still have plastic chairs which is very uncomfortable for long sitting hours, and students start to fidget after some time, causing students to lose their attention.
Some lecture theaters have broken chairs which are not mended. As there are not enough seats, students are forced to seat at the extreme ends of the lecture theaters, and strain their eyes when trying to read the slides off the screen.
- Technology in the LT
There are some lecture theaters, e.g. LT25, LT32 where the equipments are frequently spoilt.
Precious time is wasted waiting for the technician to come and solve the problem.
Some times, the sound system is spoilt, but the lecturer still carries on with the lecture. Students sitting further away from the lecturer are unable to listen to what the lecturer is teaching.
- Temperature control
Some lecture theaters, e.g. LT19 have temperature that is too cold for students to sit throughout the lecture.
Students can be seen to leave in the middle of lecture to buy hot drinks back. Precious time and information is lost during the trip out to buy drinks.
- Sufficient number of power points for laptops
Some lecture theaters have only 2 power points for the whole theater, e.g. LT33.
Students can be seen to come in extra early to choose the seats near the power point.
Students who are unable to get a power point will be able to use their computers for some time before their computer battery runs out, leaving them unable to view the lecturer’s notes.
- Size of the lecture theatre
Some lectures in NUS are very huge. One example is LT27 at Science Faculty. With such a huge LT with an occupancy of 600 students, students will have difficulty listening to the lecture or to see the projection screen clearly from the back corners.
2. Place
- Accessibility of the LT
LT32 is on a hill and very far from the central of science faculty.
Routes to LT32 are marked with signboards that disappear halfway, making it very hard to find.
Students are tired out after the climb up the hill, affecting the ability to concentrate in lesson.
3. Timing
- Lecture timing
Lectures that start at 8am are too early.
Students are either late for class, sleep in class or skip class altogether
If lecture is not being webcasted, students miss out on lecture
4.Human factor
- Punctuality
Some lecturers tend to end lesson late, causing students to be late for other lessons
Students have to rush for their next lesson will lose out information when they leave before the lecturer ends his lecture.
- Clarity in pronunciation
Some foreigner lecturers have a very strong accent, which is hard for students to understand.
Students have to concentrate extra hard in order to comprehend the lesson, else they will be lost in the middle of the lesson.
- 1 module, Multiple lecturers
Some modules can have up to 3 different lecturers teaching 1 module.
Students have to keep adjusting to different lecturer style.
Added strain on students as it is very hard to adapt to each lecturer’s teaching style in a short time.
- Give breaks
Some lecturer do not give breaks.
Students actually have very short attention span (no more than 15 to 20 min at a time)
Students can be seen to be nodding off in class, eating in class, or going out halfway during lesson to buy food.
Information that actually reaches the students’ mind is greatly reduced.
- Webcast
Students prefer to have their lessons webcasted, as they can choose their own time to listen to the lesson, according to their own pace, without missing out any of the lectures.
Some lectures are not webcasted, and students who are sick either force themselves to attend lesson or they just miss out the whole lecture, which is very unfair to them.
- Delivery of lecture
Some lectures are not interesting, and students tend to lose focus very fast.
- Tone (monotone/speak too fast)
Some lecturers speak in monotone/speak too fast.
Students are unable to catch what the lecturer is talking about, and soon lose attention.
- Prompt upload of notes
Some lecturers do not upload notes one day before the actual lesson (Upload slides at 5am in the morning of the lecture which is at 8am).
Unaware students go to lesson without notes
- Quality of notes
Some lecturer upload notes that has a lot of colorful images but little useful content
Students find it very hard to follow lecture
- Availability of lecture notes
Some lecturers do not give softcopy of notes at all.
OHP slides are released on the spot and students have to copy on the spot
Students who are sick are forced to attend lecture, or they will miss out the whole chapter
- Attentiveness/Concentration
2 hour lecture is too long
Studies have shown that adult learners only have attention span of 15-20 min
Students can be seen to doze off, missing out valuable information
- Ability to comprehend the lecture
In some lectures where the topic is too hard for the students, it can be seen that students are lost in the middle of the lecture, and start chatting away, creating a lot of noise.
Students come out of lecture without learning anything.
- Punctuality
Students are late for lecture, and when they enter in groups, they cause disturbance to the class
- Noise level
Some students go into lecture to chit chat, creating a lot of noise
Students trying to listen to the lecturer are affected
The need to improve learning experience
From the studies, we have found that the most important thing to students is to do well in their studies. On average, students in NUS spend 10 hours each week in lecture theaters. Hence it is very important that students have a good learning experience in lecture theaters to help them achieve the best in their studies.
Solutions
- Keep class size small to increase interactivity between lecturer and students.
- Keep lecture theatre size within a manageable range so that students sitting at the extreme ends will still be able to see the screen and hear the lecturer speak.
- Turn down the lightings near the screen only, keep the lightings where the students sit well lit. This will prevent students from getting too comfortable and fall asleep.
- Change the seats to cushion seats so that students can sit more comfortably.
- Maintain the seats in good condition.
- Lecturers can go into lecture theaters 10 min before lecture to check whether the IT equipments are functioning, so that even if there is something spoilt, there is enough time to call the technician in without disrupting the class.
- There should be a way for the lecturer to control the air conditioning temperature in the lecture theater, so that the temperature can be changed when it drops too low.
- Power points can be increased to accommodate students use of laptops.
- As there is no way to change the location of the present lecture theaters, it will help if the signs leading to the lecture theaters are clearer and well designed.
- Lecture timing can be changed to start at 10 am instead of 8 am, so that students living far off the campus will be able to attend lesson on time.
- The projector can be programmed to auto shutdown 15 min before lecture time finish, so that lecturers will not over run their lessons.
- As clarity in pronunciation is a cultural problem, there is no solution to improve on the accents. Maybe lesson can be webcasted so that students who cannot catch it the first time can go through the lesson again in their own time.
- Short breaks can be given from time to time to keep students’ attention span up.
- It will be good if all lectures can be webcasted.
- Lecturers should make it a good practice to upload their notes at least one day before lesson and at least provide a softcopy of notes for the students online.
- When lecturers realized that students are talking instead of listening to their lectures, they should stop and ask whether the students are lost and if there is any point he needs to repeat. This will ensure that the students are not lost and lose attention.
- Lecturers can make it a point to get students to come in from the back of the lecture theater when they are late, so as not to affect other students and disrupt the lesson.
- Lastly, students should make it a courtesy not to talk unnecessarily in lecture theater as it creates a lot of noise. As it is a cultural problem, there is no solution for this problem, except for lecturers to keep the noise level down.
For this assignment, Huiyan and I realised that firstly, we need to find out what are the factors affecting learning experience, and how actually, is the learning experience being affected negatively. Therefore, we listed down a long list of factors that we could brainstorm.
Possible Factors:
Lecture theatres:
- Size (if it will affect the learning experience for students)
- Architectural design (can students see the lecturer from the end-corners)
- Accessibility of the LT
- Ambience of the LT (sufficient light?)
- Seats in the LT (are they comfortable for the students to sit still throughout the whole lecture?)
- Technology in the LT (is the projection clear, is the sound system good, are the equipments working well?)
- Temperature control (is it too cold?)
- Lecture timings (is it too early/too late?)
- Sufficient number of power points for laptops?
Lecturer/Pedagogy:
- Punctuality (start and end)
- Clarity in pronunciation
- Class interaction
- Presentation style (OHP/slides)
- Give breaks?
- Webcast
- Delivery of lecture (is it interesting/ interactive?)
- Tone (monotone/speak too fast?)
- Upload notes promptly?
- Quality of notes (useful/ too little information?)
Students:
- Attentiveness/Concentration
- Ability to comprehend the lecture
- Eating in class?
- Punctuality
- Noise level
- Time of lecture
Possible LTs to work on:
- LT 27 (largest LT)
- LT32 (bad location)
- (lecturer uses OHP instead of PPT)
- ST2131 (no lecture notes)
- LT7(rundown)
Possible questions to ask the students:
- What they like/dislike about the LT
- What they like/dislike about the lecture
- What can be improved to enhance their learning experience?
Methods
With the items listed, we began to conduct surveys and questionaires to find out how learning experience can be affected by various factors. After some preliminary discussions, we decide to use the methods below to conduct our findings.
Laddering
- We used this method to understand how the lecturer and LT affects the student.
Modules that we observed:
- CS4265 Advanced topics in E-commerce
- CN4118 Research Project in Chemical Engineering
Ethnographic Study
- Modules that we observed:
- CS4265 Advanced topics in E-commerce
Laddering:
Ching Hui is a student in CS4265.
Q: Do you like the lecturer’s teaching method is this module?
P: Yes, I like it very much.
Q: Why do you like it very much?
P: Because the lecturer conducts the lecture in a very interesting way.
Q: How interesting is the teaching style?
P: There is in-class activity in almost every lesson.
Q: What is good about the in-class activity?
P: The in-class activity presents us the concepts that she (the lecturer) is going to teach for the session, and this allows me to understand concepts better.
Q: Why do you need to understand the concepts better?
P: So that to do well in this module and to improve my CAP.
Q: Why do you need to improve on your CAP?
P: Don’t you want to do well in your studies?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric is a student in CN4118.
Q: Do you like attending lectures in LT7?
P: No.
Q: Why don’t you like in LT7?
P: Because the table and seat don’t go very well, so you don't feel very comfortable resting your hand on the table
Q: How will the bad designs affect you?
P: It affects my concentration.
Q: How does it affect your concentration?
P: I get distracted very easily and will fall asleep after some time.
Q: What is bad about falling asleep in class?
P: I lose track of the lecturer’s teaching, moreover, there’s no webcast for me to go through when I get home.
Q: How will losing track in the lessons affect you?
P: It will affect my CAP.
Q: Why are you concerned about your CAP?
P: I need to do well in my studies.
In summary,
Relevant class activities --> Understand concepts better --> Do better for the module --> Improve cap --> Do well in studies
Bad LT chairs and tables --> Lose concentration --> Affect CAP --> Do badly in studies
Enthonograpic Study
We perform enthonograpic study for CS4265 and observed something interesting.
- Lecturer has class activities for all lectures
- Class activities very relevant to the concept that will be taught during that session
- Students participate in the activities actively.
- Lecture is held during lunch hour (12-2pm), yet nobody eats in class
- Many students answer the lecturer when she poses open-ended questions to the class
- The class is very attentive and participative despite not having any breaks during the lecture.
During this ethnographic study, we realised this is an excellent counterexample of not having breaks and yet active participation remains throughout the lecture.
Summary of findings
After conducting all the studies, we have found out that learning experience in LTs are influenced by:
1. Environment
- Size
The larger the LT size, the class size will be bigger, and it is harder for the lecturer to interact properly with the students.
Without interaction, lessons become a boring give and take thing, and students find it harder to clarify any questions.
- Architectural design
When the lecture theater gets too large, students at the extreme ends are unable to see the contents on the screen when lecturer uses the visualizer.
Students have to squint hard to see what is on the screen, straining their eyes, and the added strain cause them to get tired easily, thus losing their focus after some time.
-Ambience of the LT
Some lecturers like to turn down the lightings when using powerpoint slides, but it creates a very nice dark place which encourages students to fall asleep.
- Seats in the LT
Some lecture theaters, e.g. the LT7 still have plastic chairs which is very uncomfortable for long sitting hours, and students start to fidget after some time, causing students to lose their attention.
Some lecture theaters have broken chairs which are not mended. As there are not enough seats, students are forced to seat at the extreme ends of the lecture theaters, and strain their eyes when trying to read the slides off the screen.
- Technology in the LT
There are some lecture theaters, e.g. LT25, LT32 where the equipments are frequently spoilt.
Precious time is wasted waiting for the technician to come and solve the problem.
Some times, the sound system is spoilt, but the lecturer still carries on with the lecture. Students sitting further away from the lecturer are unable to listen to what the lecturer is teaching.
- Temperature control
Some lecture theaters, e.g. LT19 have temperature that is too cold for students to sit throughout the lecture.
Students can be seen to leave in the middle of lecture to buy hot drinks back. Precious time and information is lost during the trip out to buy drinks.
- Sufficient number of power points for laptops
Some lecture theaters have only 2 power points for the whole theater, e.g. LT33.
Students can be seen to come in extra early to choose the seats near the power point.
Students who are unable to get a power point will be able to use their computers for some time before their computer battery runs out, leaving them unable to view the lecturer’s notes.
- Size of the lecture theatre
Some lectures in NUS are very huge. One example is LT27 at Science Faculty. With such a huge LT with an occupancy of 600 students, students will have difficulty listening to the lecture or to see the projection screen clearly from the back corners.
2. Place
- Accessibility of the LT
LT32 is on a hill and very far from the central of science faculty.
Routes to LT32 are marked with signboards that disappear halfway, making it very hard to find.
Students are tired out after the climb up the hill, affecting the ability to concentrate in lesson.
3. Timing
- Lecture timing
Lectures that start at 8am are too early.
Students are either late for class, sleep in class or skip class altogether
If lecture is not being webcasted, students miss out on lecture
4.Human factor
- Punctuality
Some lecturers tend to end lesson late, causing students to be late for other lessons
Students have to rush for their next lesson will lose out information when they leave before the lecturer ends his lecture.
- Clarity in pronunciation
Some foreigner lecturers have a very strong accent, which is hard for students to understand.
Students have to concentrate extra hard in order to comprehend the lesson, else they will be lost in the middle of the lesson.
- 1 module, Multiple lecturers
Some modules can have up to 3 different lecturers teaching 1 module.
Students have to keep adjusting to different lecturer style.
Added strain on students as it is very hard to adapt to each lecturer’s teaching style in a short time.
- Give breaks
Some lecturer do not give breaks.
Students actually have very short attention span (no more than 15 to 20 min at a time)
Students can be seen to be nodding off in class, eating in class, or going out halfway during lesson to buy food.
Information that actually reaches the students’ mind is greatly reduced.
- Webcast
Students prefer to have their lessons webcasted, as they can choose their own time to listen to the lesson, according to their own pace, without missing out any of the lectures.
Some lectures are not webcasted, and students who are sick either force themselves to attend lesson or they just miss out the whole lecture, which is very unfair to them.
- Delivery of lecture
Some lectures are not interesting, and students tend to lose focus very fast.
- Tone (monotone/speak too fast)
Some lecturers speak in monotone/speak too fast.
Students are unable to catch what the lecturer is talking about, and soon lose attention.
- Prompt upload of notes
Some lecturers do not upload notes one day before the actual lesson (Upload slides at 5am in the morning of the lecture which is at 8am).
Unaware students go to lesson without notes
- Quality of notes
Some lecturer upload notes that has a lot of colorful images but little useful content
Students find it very hard to follow lecture
- Availability of lecture notes
Some lecturers do not give softcopy of notes at all.
OHP slides are released on the spot and students have to copy on the spot
Students who are sick are forced to attend lecture, or they will miss out the whole chapter
- Attentiveness/Concentration
2 hour lecture is too long
Studies have shown that adult learners only have attention span of 15-20 min
Students can be seen to doze off, missing out valuable information
- Ability to comprehend the lecture
In some lectures where the topic is too hard for the students, it can be seen that students are lost in the middle of the lecture, and start chatting away, creating a lot of noise.
Students come out of lecture without learning anything.
- Punctuality
Students are late for lecture, and when they enter in groups, they cause disturbance to the class
- Noise level
Some students go into lecture to chit chat, creating a lot of noise
Students trying to listen to the lecturer are affected
The need to improve learning experience
From the studies, we have found that the most important thing to students is to do well in their studies. On average, students in NUS spend 10 hours each week in lecture theaters. Hence it is very important that students have a good learning experience in lecture theaters to help them achieve the best in their studies.
Solutions
- Keep class size small to increase interactivity between lecturer and students.
- Keep lecture theatre size within a manageable range so that students sitting at the extreme ends will still be able to see the screen and hear the lecturer speak.
- Turn down the lightings near the screen only, keep the lightings where the students sit well lit. This will prevent students from getting too comfortable and fall asleep.
- Change the seats to cushion seats so that students can sit more comfortably.
- Maintain the seats in good condition.
- Lecturers can go into lecture theaters 10 min before lecture to check whether the IT equipments are functioning, so that even if there is something spoilt, there is enough time to call the technician in without disrupting the class.
- There should be a way for the lecturer to control the air conditioning temperature in the lecture theater, so that the temperature can be changed when it drops too low.
- Power points can be increased to accommodate students use of laptops.
- As there is no way to change the location of the present lecture theaters, it will help if the signs leading to the lecture theaters are clearer and well designed.
- Lecture timing can be changed to start at 10 am instead of 8 am, so that students living far off the campus will be able to attend lesson on time.
- The projector can be programmed to auto shutdown 15 min before lecture time finish, so that lecturers will not over run their lessons.
- As clarity in pronunciation is a cultural problem, there is no solution to improve on the accents. Maybe lesson can be webcasted so that students who cannot catch it the first time can go through the lesson again in their own time.
- Short breaks can be given from time to time to keep students’ attention span up.
- It will be good if all lectures can be webcasted.
- Lecturers should make it a good practice to upload their notes at least one day before lesson and at least provide a softcopy of notes for the students online.
- When lecturers realized that students are talking instead of listening to their lectures, they should stop and ask whether the students are lost and if there is any point he needs to repeat. This will ensure that the students are not lost and lose attention.
- Lecturers can make it a point to get students to come in from the back of the lecture theater when they are late, so as not to affect other students and disrupt the lesson.
- Lastly, students should make it a courtesy not to talk unnecessarily in lecture theater as it creates a lot of noise. As it is a cultural problem, there is no solution for this problem, except for lecturers to keep the noise level down.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Assignment 3: Four Pleasure Analysis
RMA profile
Subject: Paul Lim, 28 years old single Singaporean marketing manager in a renowned multi-national company based in Singapore. He is 180cm and 80kg.He has always been on the dean's list since his first semester in NUS, and after which the top business student for his cohort, graduating with a first class honours in business management. Subsequently, he got in to the MBA course in Oxford University under a scholarship from Temasek Holdings and graduated with excellent results. He was invited to join his current company as a marketing assistant manager upon his graduation in 2006, where he did his intership during his undergrad days. 6 months later, he rose to marketing manager. He wants to be as successful as possible, hoping to be a regional head manager in his current company in 2 years time.
With an monthly income of approximately $20,000, he owns a bungalow at Sixth Ave along Bukit Timah. He lives with parents as well as his dearest companion, a Jack Russell. Though he lives in an exepnsive town, his bungalow's exterior and interior designs are not very complex, as he enjoys simplicity. Though he is rich, he chooses not to buy a car because he has no time to maintain his car. Therefore, his daily trasport revolves about taxis.
He is a very hardworking person, and is prepared to put in a lot of effort as he believes hard work is the key to success. His working hours are not very stable, but it averages out to about 16 working hours per day, 6 days a week officially, but he stays at home to prepare his documents on Sundays on his new VAIO laptop. Though he works hard, he knows when to relax. While working, he likes to play some music from his cd collection to ease his mind and to reduce the stress that he might have. He only appreciates instrumental and accapalla, and has a huge collection of them.
As he spends most of his time in the office or out meeting clients, he has got very little leisure time. In fact, he thinks that interacting with new clients has became part of his main hobby. His clients are not always based in Singapore, therefore he spends large amount of time flying and travelling around too. Thus, travelling has became another of his hobby.
During the off-peak periods where he needs to meet relatively lesser clients, he goes to a country club for a swim and a session of golf with his friends as he knows that it is important to keep fit, providing a good balance to sendentary nature of her job. Sometimes, he meditates and perform light workouts after a busy day at work. Occassionally, he meets up with his old classmates and friends for a social gathering. During festivals like Chinese New Year and Christmas, he sends greeting cards and SMSes to all his friends and clients.
As he has to interact with many clients, it is inavoidable for him to carry a namecard book (like a photoalbum), with all the namecards carefully categorised and managed.
Four Pleasure Analysis of Paul
Physio-pleasure
- Takes meditation and workouts as part of her de-stress routine, which he needs because of extremely hectic work schedule (need pleasure)
- Listen to soothing music to ease his ever-thinking mind (appreciative pleasure)
Socio-pleasure
- He is a member of a country club, so that gives him a distinguished status to many of his rich clients. (appreciative pleasure)
- Meeting up with his friends to know their well-being helps him maintain social interaction and friendship bonds despite hectic schedule (need pleasure)
Psyco-pleasure
- He meets up with his friends occasionally for social gathering to clear his mind from work. (need pleasure)
- He plays golf occassionally with his friends where he can learn from one another. (appreciative pleasure)
Ideo-pleasure
- He works very very hard to maintain his position in his job but makes sure that it is done efficiently and not over-stressing to the extend that he cannot cope. (appreciative pleasure)
- He does not believe in any religion, but he reads on Buddhism as he believes that Buddhism studies changes a person's way of thinking and let him see things more positively. (need pleasure)
Product Benefits Specification
- Internet calling with intergrated web camera
- Email application and support for webbased emails.
- Easy chatting over SKYPE
- Waterproof, so that the phone can be used even when he goes swimming.
- A maximum of 2 colours and elegent as he prefers simplicity.
- Being a music lover, the phone should also be equipped with a MP3 player
- Internal large storage so that he can store all his favourite music and listen to them whenever he wants to. It is also required so that he can organise his appointments in the phone. Furthermore, it hould be large enough for him to store all his clients' information and phone number.
- East transfer of music from PC and laptops.
- Built-in, high quality stereo speakers.
- Integrated GPS receiver
Therefore, with the above analysis, the ideal phone for Paul will be merge of Nokia's 8800 Arte physically and N76 technically.
Nokia 8800 Arte
Description
- State-of-art design and craftsmanship. Made from exclusive materials including glass and metal.
- Tap-for-time to display time and missed events by double-tapping the steel surface below the display.
- Turn-to-mute to gracefully silence incoming calls and alarms by a simple turn of phone, screen-side down.
- Ambient light sensor adjusts the brightness of the screen according to its surrounding to provide vibrant display of light and contrast.
- Living wallpapers specially designed to match the design of the phone, and provide a truly unique decoration
- View your pictures on the brilliant, 2” OLED QVGA display, supporting up to 16-million colors
Dimensions
- Volume: 65 cc
- Weight: 150 g with battery
- Length: 109 mm
- Width: 45.6 mm
- Thickness: 14.6 mm
N76
3G Internet in a Beautiful Package
Surf the Internet in landscape on a 2.4" up to 16M color display
Your favorite Internet services in your pocket including Amazon and more
Find what you need with Mobile Search
Use Download! to personalize your N76 to your daily needs
Send & automatically receive e-mails with attachments
One-Touch Music
Control music and FM radio without opening the product with dedicated music and volume controls
Listen with compatible 3.5 mm headphones
Take up to 1500 songs* with you on optional 2GB micro-SD card
Memory Functions
Up to 26 MB internal memory
microSD memory card support (hot swappable)
Approx. memory capacity indication with 1GB microSD card:
Video (QVGA @ 15fps ): up to 250 min
Photos (2 megapixel) : up to 2200 photos
Music (AAC): up to 750 tracks
The combination of these two phones will definitely enhance Paul's user experience because it has got a simple yet elegent design, coupled with advanced storage and technical capabilities.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Assignment 1: Pleasure with Products
Reflective
Product 1: Croton Women's Stainless Steel Bracelet Watch
This dazzling timepiece is made beautiful with a white mother-of-pearl dial accentuated with roman numerals at the 6:00 and 12:00 positions, and diamond markers at the 3:00 and 9:00 spots. The reputable "Croton" name and logo are situated below 12:00 with "Diamond" scripted above 6:00. Stunning stainless steel crafts the rectangular case in rose-tone, silver-tone or gold-tone, and is set with 80 diamonds on the bezel and lugs for breath-taking drama. Dial hands coordinate with the bracelet in either rose-tone, silver-tone or gold-tone.
Retail Price: US$1250 (approx. S$1900)
Bracelet: Stainless steel
Crystal: Sapphire
Crown: Push/pull
Clasp: Push button flip lock closure
Bracelet Measurements: 16"L x 9mm W
Retail Price: US$1250 (approx. S$1900)
Bracelet: Stainless steel
Crystal: Sapphire
Crown: Push/pull
Clasp: Push button flip lock closure
Bracelet Measurements: 16"L x 9mm W
Viseral: Expensive, yet attractive and visually pleasing.
Behavioural: There is no emphasis on clarity and accurate reading of the time under all conditions (clearly marked digits, easily visible hands, large watch faces, etc.).
Reflective: has great show off value and more for self-image. The diamonds on the watch tells people their social status which others can tell how wealthy their family are. It apeears to others that the watch is collectible.
Viseral
Product 2: EleeNo's Eclipse watch
Image from: http://www.tokyoflash.com/en/watches/eleeno/eclipse/
A Total Eclipse is a rare event, but with EleeNo's Eclipse watch you can witness one every hour.The watch features 2 dials, one indicating the hour, the other minutes. At one point during each hour the spheres will intersect, hence the name Eclipse.
Retail Price: ¥13,700 (approx. S$200)
Viseral: attractive, artistic, pleasing to the eye
Behavioural: not a good watch for timely reading. Needs some time before user can read the time off fast from the watch face.
Reflective: not something which has great show off value. Looks like a normal watch from far. Does not look like a collectible.
Behavioural
Product 3: Smiths Shockproof Mchanical Wrist Watch
Image from: http://www.woodford.demon.co.uk/watch009.htm
Offered for sale is a Smiths British made mechanical Wrist Watch from the 1960s, these watches were made at the Smiths/Ingersoll factory at Ystradgynlais near Swansea in South Wales - the factory closed in the early 1970s. The watch is in exceptionally nice condition and is fitted with a new and unused black leather arm band with a gilt clasp. This watch winds and sets smoothly, runs nicely and keeps good time - it would certainly make a good watch to wear everyday or a nice addition to your collection of British watches.
Viseral: Common and not very attractive. However, visually pleasing.
Behavioural: great performer because the watch runs forever without having the battery to go flat. Easy to use and easy to read time from the watch face.
Reflective: Not something which has great show off value. It looks like a common analog watch that many people have.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Assignment 0: Bad Design
Below is the bad design that I will be writing about- Samsung Universal Controller.
Oh, how great, I've got 2 controllers that look quite similar. But, the left one is the universal controller that I'm talking about. The right one, it's the DVD remote control.
My dad bought us a new universal controller that controls the TV, DVD player and cable box. It's amazing you might think, "Oh! What a great invention. Now with one remote control, I control all everything". However, when my sister and I decided to watch DVD at home, we pressed the red button on the universal controller, yet nothing happens. It took us quite some time before we realised that we need to press on the individual button "TV", "VCR" or "DVD" to operate different machines. So we pressed the TV button followed by the red button. Tada, TV's on. Next, the important thing. How to we switch to the Video channel? There's no button that says video or whatsoever.
Sister's reaction:
On another occassion, my mum was watching a korean serial with dual sound. She wanted to change it to mono chinese sound, but she tried all means. There's a dual sound button, so we both assume that that's the right button. But, pressing the button doesn't work at all!
Mum's reaction (in a very irritated tone):
Oh, how great, I've got 2 controllers that look quite similar. But, the left one is the universal controller that I'm talking about. The right one, it's the DVD remote control.
My dad bought us a new universal controller that controls the TV, DVD player and cable box. It's amazing you might think, "Oh! What a great invention. Now with one remote control, I control all everything". However, when my sister and I decided to watch DVD at home, we pressed the red button on the universal controller, yet nothing happens. It took us quite some time before we realised that we need to press on the individual button "TV", "VCR" or "DVD" to operate different machines. So we pressed the TV button followed by the red button. Tada, TV's on. Next, the important thing. How to we switch to the Video channel? There's no button that says video or whatsoever.
Sister's reaction:
"This is so troublesome.
Wonder who came out with this user-unfriendly remote control.
And the best part, how do I use this controller to open/close
the disc tray?
Now, how do I go to the video channel?
(ok, when it's fianlly done)
And I have no idea how to fast forward my disc now.
Does it mean that I still need to use both the universal and DVD controller to control my DVD player?
So what's the point of inventing the universal controller?"
On another occassion, my mum was watching a korean serial with dual sound. She wanted to change it to mono chinese sound, but she tried all means. There's a dual sound button, so we both assume that that's the right button. But, pressing the button doesn't work at all!
Mum's reaction (in a very irritated tone):
"I don't know how to use this remote control.
I took so long to figure out which remote control is for which.
And now, it's too much of a trouble to look through the user-menu just to change the sound.
I've pressed all the possible buttons on the remote control.
But it's not working.
And now, I'm confused about what to press for each remote control to watch the DVD.
I give up. "
I stood there, completely helpless because I don't know how to fix that thing. It looks complicated to me too.
My reflection on this product and user reaction:
This product is absolutely useless to me. And for me, there's no way I will meddle with this remote control because I don't know what to press. It does look like a normal remote control right? But it's functions are just too different. I rather not watch TV, or wait till someone who knows how to handle such remote control to assist me. Right now, only my dad knows how to use this remote control. I can't be bothered to learn how to use it now, and I don't think i will in the future.
Ok, someone might just say that I can go over to the TV set to press those buttons. however, there's no button on te TV set for me to control the volume, channels etc.
TV remote control is something that we use ver often. Therefore, I think that remote controls should be made and designed as simple as possible. All we usually do is to on the TV< adjust the volume and change the channels using the remote control. How many people will bother to read the instructions before using the remote control?
This product is just one of the the many bad-designed products. I believe there are many much worst products that we'll encounter. Sigh.
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