Cloud is a research and brainstorming tool for product designers. Product designers in this context addresses a focus group engaged in a creative process of designing services, softwares , applications used on an everyday basis.
Cloud provides the core functionality of quick Browsing and Brainstorming aid.
Designers tend to mashup features instead of creating new ones.
This is because there is little recreation as opposed to re-combining.
There is a prevalent influence of what similar existing applications do, the application defaults to combining a varied set of feature sets with some usability simplifications.
The underlying problem is of creating new applications using the same thought constructs and idealogy.
A large number of people design software applications and tools today.While there is easy access to data and reliable search engines , there are no tools to aid the creative design process.
Also many open source tools almost do the same thing, there is a clear replication of an existing product once an application is past the design and evaluation phase.
The two functions of brainstorming and research of existing entities are simultaneous and indispensable to the critical design and evaluation phase.
Cloud serves as a prototype for an end to end creative process aid to tackle the above issues.
DESIGN CHALLENGE:
Designers need a lightweight tool that facilitates
-Quick Browsing
-Serves as an aid to brainstorming in a way that it helps break out of the structured thinking process.
METHODOLOGIES:
Research of existing design tools online.
Paper prototyping.
Heuristic Evaluation tests.(Usability Engineering)
CONCEPTUAL MODELS:
Exposure of a user: Resources and tools available
Thought process:
Thinking and brainstorming methodologies:
What do designers need:
Interpretation of Needs:
What cloud aims to provide / Concept model of application:
Conceptual Model: Quick Browse Schema
Conceptual Model: Aid to Brainstorming
Design Implications :
(Aggregated via understanding user goals and how Cloud meets and supports these goals)
* Should support quick and efficient browsing.
* Users should be able to switch between category searches.
* Supporting detailed Analysis: Clicking on the snapshot should open the link in a new window so a user may carry out detailed study.
* Users should be able to move beyond the first 10 results on a page and have a sense of where they are.
* The 2 point feature set should be clear and visible
* The way keys are being generated should be clear using animation techniques.
* There should be mapping between browsed pages and keywords
* Users should be able to store ideas that are being generated from these word associations.
VISUAL TREATMENT DETAILS
* Visual treatment should convey two things.
a)Reliability that search results are being produced congruent to a preferred search engine
b)Offsets of the link holders in x explain relevance to users keywords.
Evaluation and tests using personae and scenarios:
Task Analysis :
Paper Prototyping tests:
Usability Tests:
Design Iterations:
SUMMARY /CONCLUSIONS
CORE BIBLIOGRAPHY
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