Final Questionnaire

Here is the final version of the questionnaire for gaining general information about potential users. I've tried to keep layout clear, with large fonts and simple instructions. For some reason, the borders are cut off in places in the JPEG version, but the original prints fine.

Final Draft of Questionnaire

The Final Draft of the Questionnaire:

Fig 1.0 Page One of Final Draft

Fig 2.0 Page Two of Final Draft

First Draft Questionnaire

Designing a questionnaire will help gain general information about our target audience. As we narrow the scope for our project design, we will perform more specific questionnaires and user testing.

Fig 1.0 Page One of Questionnaire design draft

Fig 2.0 Page Two of Questionnaire design draft

From this a final draft will be created.

Task Analysis Discussion

We have decided as a group to come up with initial task ideas which may be included in the final product which we are designing. Individually we will each be given tasks from the list to go away and analyse. Here is the list we came up with:

1. Logging & Inputing weight
2. Logging & Inputing blood pressure
3. Logging & Inputing blood sugar level
4. Monitoring pulse
5. Sensing Location/Movement
6. Wearing wrist device
7. Setting up input devices
8. Inputing calories from meals
9. How to set the alarm
10. Viewing stored details (weight/blood pressure/blood sugar/calories/etc)
11. Sending details to GP

Brainstorming Session 3

Now that we have chosen our idea and focused on each persona, we can now brainstorm and delve deeper into how the device will potentially operate.

Fig 1.0. Our brainstorm session

Use Case Webpage

For the MSc Internet Workshop module we have been given very useful instructions on writing use cases for software in more detail than you would get with a use case diagram. Although the page uses this specification in a more technical context, I think this could easily be adapted for our project, and is particularly useful in documenting at which stages in a task an elderly person may have problems. e.g. UTOPIA Project video:

Name: Installing a webcam driver
Initiator: Elderly woman
Goal: Given a webcam, a PC and a set of instructions, set up the webcam so that user can talk to her relatives.

Main Success Scenario:
1. Turn computer on
2. Log in
3. Place webcam CD into CD drive
4. etc

Potential Issues:
1. User cannot find the power button
2. User has forgotten their password
3. User does not know how to open CD drive
3b. User does not know which way the CD goes
4. etc

This method could also be applied using our personas as different initiators, thus possibly creating different issues.

Persona Case 3

Maureen - A Brummie pensioner who still loves to socialise!

Persona Case 2

Fiona Diamond
Age: 63
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Socialite

Summary

Fiona Diamond is 63 years old socialite who is married to an investment banker. She has two children. Fiona has always been surrounded by highly educated and influential people, she has a MBA and once had a career in business which she gave up to look after her children.



Work Activities

Fiona is an unemployed housewife yet as a woman of conscience, Fiona uses her influential position in society to put on various events for charities. One event she held was an auction event in which she raised over £20,000 for orphans in Africa.

A Day In The Life

Today Fiona is putting on a dinner party for some of her and her husbands’ associates.
After waking up and making breakfast for her husband, Fiona gets on with her daily routine of tiding up the house, she likes to keep her household as neat as tidy as possible especially when guests are coming round, she is a complete perfectionist.

Fiona then logs into her PC and checks her email, Fiona regularly keeps in contact with various charities and influential people, always networking so she can put on better charity events in future. She gets an email from her personal trainer confirming a session for later on in the week and reminding her to make a note of her weight and lung capacity.

Fiona has a brief conversation with her son on MSN who lives in France, she loves to keep in contact with her family and friends all over the world.

Fiona then searches the Internet for a few recipes, she finds one she likes and prints it off. With this she sets off to Waitrose in her car to do the shopping, whilst out shopping she makes a few calls on her mobile to some of her friends who will be guests coming later on that evening, just for a little chit chat and to make sure they will still be attending.

When Fiona gets back she makes a start on the dinner, later on her husbands gets home from work and guests start to arrive for the dinner party. Fiona is excited as a quite influential business associate of her husband will be attending which will provide some opportunity for her to mention some of her up coming charity events to him and maybe get him on board.

The dinner goes well and Fiona is enjoying a few glasses of wine with her guests and later on her guests leave.

To Fiona her day is quite normal socialising and making new acquaintances; she regularly puts on dinner parties once a month.

The day is over and Fiona and her husband turn in to bed.

Goals, Fears, and Aspirations

Fiona is very proactive and wants to enjoy the rest of her life and be as healthy as possible. Fiona gave up a successful career to bring up her children and so she wants her husband to be as successful as possible and now her children have left home she wants to achieve all the things she always wanted to.

One of Fiona’s main goals is to help as many orphans in Africa as possible, which is her main driving force in putting on her various charity events

Household and Leisure Activities

Fiona takes care of the general up keep of the house while her husband is at work. Fiona does regular exercise and has a personal trainer come to her house twice a week; she regularly has to make a note of her weight and lung capacity for her personal trainer.

Computer Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities

Although Fiona has not had any formal IT training, she is quite competent when it comes to computers. Whilst working in business she used spreadsheets and word regularly.

Technology Attribute

Fiona regularly books short trips and holidays on the internet, and she also keeps in contact with family, friends, and associates via email, MSN, and Skype.
She also regularly searches the internet for new recipes for her monthly dinner parties.

Technology Attitudes

Fiona regards technology as useful, as someone who worked in business she appreciates the benefits of various technologies.

Persona Case 1 -

Case Study: Derek Bradshaw - A man who ignores the world that is technology!

Fig 1.0 Please click on the image to view at a larger scale.

Using Personas

Having decided on designing a Device for transmitting medical details (e.g. blood pressure) straight to a GP, which is targeted at the older generation. One problem that we have as a group is access to older members of society in order to involve them in our project so that our designs can be tailored to them.

A useful tool by which we can base our designs around the older generation is to use what is called a persona. A persona is a fictional character, which has attitudes, goals, behavioural patterns, skills, and an environment.
Using a number of personas we as a group will be able to involve the thoughts of the older generation in our design based on what our persona’s attitudes, skills and behavioural patterns are etc.

When designing personas it is important that we get the correct balance of characters involved and that they are relevant to the product that we our designing. For instance the would be no point creating personas who were under 60 as we are designing for people over 60, and there would be no point creating personas who were all fit and healthy and had absolutely no interest in technology whatsoever as we are trying to design a piece of technology which is based around health. Just as well if we were to create personas who were all absolutely computer literate and knew everything there is to know about technology then, when someone who wasn’t quite sure about technology tries to use our product we may find that we have over looked a number of design issues by making assumptions about the users level of competence.The design of our persons is a very important part of our design process; here our some links to websites about designing good personas.

http://www.cooper.com/newsletters/2001_07/perfecting_your_personas.htm

http://research.microsoft.com/research/coet/Grudin/Personas/Pruitt-Grudin.pdf

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/making_personas_more_powerful_details_to_drive_strategic_and_tactical_design

The Final Choice

From the top 6 list of ideas, we finally managed to discuss the most sensible option.

The winner is (drum roll please...):

Device for transmitting medical details (e.g. blood pressure) straight to a GP

From this we have decided to create another brainstorm diagram to explore this idea further.

Narrowing the Scope of Ideas

Each team member assessed each idea within the first and second brainstorm and listed 8 of their favourite ideas:

Fig 1.0. Table showing each members scores.

Here is a list of the top 6 common-liked ideas:

1. Hi-tech glasses enabling automatic magnifying of items for better viewing.
2. A specially designed car for the elderly (e.g. for local travel).
3. Device for transmitting medical details (e.g. blood pressure) straight to a GP.
4. Storage of memories/anecdotes with ability to play/send them to people.
5. All-in-one media centre with a simplified interface designed for the elderly.
6. Lazy chair used for simplifying tasks (e.g. using remote controls).

Our next meeting will reduce the scope even further by making an educated choice on which idea should be chosen to design.

Brainstorm Session 2

Here are the initial ideas from the second brainstorm session, conducted by Rana, John, and Richard:

1. All-in-one media centre with a simplified interface designed for the elderly.
2. Online family tree and messaging application.
3. Software enabling easy sending of email.
4. Private transport service.
5. Device for testing nutritional content of food.
6. Simplified mobile phone aimed at elderly users, operated using no/very few buttons.
7. Vitality/energy drink.
8. A device allowing groups of the elderly on holidays to communicate and send information (e.g. locations, pictures, etc) easily.
9. A virtual online "buddy".
10. Device for automatically controlling house utilities (e.g. lights, curtains, etc).
11. Exercise equipment designed for the elderly.
12. Lazy chair used for simplifying tasks (e.g. using remote controls).
13. Some form of invisible protection against criminals.
14. Automated dog walker.

Brainstorm Session 1

Here are the initial set of ideas from the first brainstorm session, conducted by Matt, Richard, and Josh:

1. A specially designed car for the elderly (e.g. for local travel).
   
2. Device for transmitting medical details (e.g. blood pressure) straight to a GP.
3. Microwave with additional time saving features for the elderly.
4. Device capable of tracking easily losable house items.
5. Better means for the elderly to meet people.
6. One stop service for holidays aimed at elderly market.
7. One stop service for jobs aimed at elderly market.
8. Automated devices for performing household chores.
9. Storage of memories/anecdotes with ability to play/send them to people.
10. Hi-tech glasses enabling automatic magnifying of items for better viewing.
11. A device for helping quick recovery from falls.
12. Adapting existing household appliances to be usable without touch (e.g. speech, brainwave reading, etc).
13. Light-up elderly clothing.
14. Glasses capable of exercising an elderly person's eyes.
15. Personal automated shopping.

Groupthink, Group Dynamics and Brainstorming...

One of the main problems when trying to brainstorm various imaginative ideas can be 'Groupthink'. This can occur when a group is formed by a close set of friends, and results in a pressure to conform to one particular group member's idea. Conforming to one person's vision might stifle creativity within the group, and thus the best potential ideas may never arise.

Due to the fact that our group is made up of close friends, it has been suggested to nullify the effects of 'Groupthink'. This has been done by creating more than one brainstorming session, with each session having different group members present. This will allow communication to flow more freely and possibly promote creative thinking.

To view a little more on Groupthink:
Groupthink Hyperlink