Status march 23

1)Status
During the research I performed an exercise to map social and physical networks of some users, the way this two networks interact is what Is giving me the main hint for the project.

Im conducting low fi testing of different activities:

-Creating a new contact
-Organizing contacts
-Accessing own media
-Accessing contact´s media
-Sending information to individuals and to groups

And also working on the graphic language and refining the layout, Im using a initial layout of 240 by 320 pixels.

On the other hand I am organizing a small visual scenario that I will send on monday morning to you.


2)Design guidelines

-Temporal and locational value of information
There has been a lot of work around getting external services in a context base scheme, but Im interested in how to organize and present your own information in a time and location base.

"There are moments for sms and moments for a phone call"
-Theresa, 20

I am working with the concept of having a group of contacts for direct access always on screen, an a group of contacts that pop up on screen when you are getting closer to a certain event, like contacts showing up one hour before you have a lunch appointment, so it will work as a remainder and also as a quick access to send messages like "Im on my way".


-Groups information management
Im working on the idea of the value that the position of your contacts on the screen can provide, give the user a spatial organization option apart from the alphabetical traditional way, and the use of gestures to clarify the actions, like pull together all the members of a group and then just drag the collective message or content to them.
I will show you more about this point with some slides.


-Visualization of media, processes and contacts
One of the insights from the research is that users don't use mms in a constant basis, actually within my participants nobody has ever sent a multimedia message.
Of course there are multiple factors, like cost and device compatibility, but in the side of the interface what I found is that even if people is just one click away from sending a mms they need to have a clear visualization about this. Awareness of this capability is low.
The idea I am working on is a multi layered interface that allow users to drag and drop the content they will like to send directly to the contact avatar.


3)Technical issues
I have been doing some technical research now and I think the best suited way to carry the presentation is a low code or zero code based flash animation, just using the basic flash tools like go to and play with "fool" animations, in this way the version of flash lite that I could use wouldn´t affect the file but still I would be able to show certain degree of interaction.

I had a meeting with my classmates yesterday, four of us are working with mobile services or devices and we found that we can borrow some Compaq Ipaqs from the design lab.


4)What is next?
-Layout refinement through low fi testing
-prototyping the interactions in flash animations
-refine the graphical language
-Check tecnhical feasibility of loading the simulation on the iPaq
-Send you a copy of the mid presentation