Final Post

Here are links to the project and other useful pages;

The program demo Demo can be found on the desktop as Mediastream.exe

Mobile Demo

To Load the Mobile Demo application on the phone simply turn on the mobile phone supplied

Select "Start Phone"

Hit Menu option

using arrow keys move the circle to the folder icon "File manager"

push down on arrow keys to option "other"

Select "open"

Select "view"

Allow to demo to load, this is a simplistic version to test and give an idea of what it looks like.

Mediamax

My Curriculum Vitae

Enjoy the work!!!!

End of show profile(100 words)

I wasn't sure what to write to feel this gap on the wall, so I will leave you with this. The main piece of work that I was interested throughout the course was the User centered design module and how people interact with software and products. This gave me a new perspective on design and an interest on the concepts by Jakob Nielsen and Donald Norman 2 Usability Gurus. I enjoyed the course and hope to find a job within the design industry hopefully looking at the usability and web sector and designing around this.

ORISON Swf2Go

Swf2Go allows the use of flash to implement programs for new mobile phones and helps professionals create programs quicker and easier. If this was released earlier it could of helped me majorly in this project. It could help in the future to get this project up and running.

http://www.orison.biz/products/swf2go/
Cost $69.95

PP: Final Showing

The ideas that i have for the final show, as we have gone for a 'idea's lab' them i am thinking about placing post it notes of relevant work on and around the monitor to give it more of a difference. I am also going to create a few buisness cards and interactive CV's for people to take away so they will have some reference to me from the show. The idea's i did have was to bluetooth the program to people so that they can see what i made on there phone but with some phones not having flash i feel this could be dangerous for them to open them so im thinking of making a bluetooth buisness card that way it will really get peoples attention.

New technology

EDGE is getting faster by 2009

http://www.3gnewsroom.com/3g_news/mar_07/news_7723.shtml

Vodafone alone hit 10 million 3G users

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4813534.stm

PP: Final Project Overview

Ok the project is complete and hasnt gone as i planned. It has taken longer to implement coding into the project and means that the full working model isnt complete. I believe this is mainly my fault as i under estimated the time constraints. I feel that the working model is ok but not as good as it could of been. Throughout the project i missed a number of deadline dates and stressed towards the end because the project was not yet finished.

I enjoyed doing the project and my knowledge of flash, Device central and flash lite has vastly increased in both design and coding. What i didnt take into account is that its all well and good making something completely ashetically appealing but when loaded onto a device it can have mixed results in my case text size and text font were unreadable. I found the work load really heavy and this could of been down to my time management. With the number of projects on top of this i found it difficult to concentrate on all of them and spent the majority of the time and other projects and this till last.
This was the wrong thing to do and i realise this.

I love the concept of this and with this technology rapidly coming into the market i believe that i can get a working model going over the next year. The idea is to get the model working and see if anyone is interested in purchasing. Streamload would be the obvious choice to approach but if it came down to i would look at other options. With programs like mobizine coming it shows that it is possible. I need to improve my coding knowledge and look at other coding languages such as .asp, php and java. I enjoy using flash and believe it is an extremely powerful tool.

The majority of hardware with GUI are starting to implement flash lite. Designing the software for this would be job i would enjoy and looking at the usability aspects and the User Centered Design. This was one of my strongest modules and would like to go down this path. This project is centred around this aspect and will help in the future. People like jakob neilsen and donald norman have inspired me throughout this course, considering i had not even heard of them at the beginning of the course. Overall a success the program has a demo version and shows the aspects behind it but needs more work on the functionallity. I could of done better in the time that i had and will look at this in the future. I know how i am going to implement the functionality and how it is going to work.

PP: Project Vs Jakob Neilsens principles

Jakob Neilsens 10 Usability heuristics and does this comply and if not why;

Visibility of system status
I have created a loading menu that will be implemented when it is needed to inform the user that the system hasnt frozen and that it is still in progress of loading.
Match between system and the real world
I have used the same buttons that you find on basic household items like video recorders and CD players so the association is already there.
User control and freedom
I have made the mapping as easy as it can be so the user can navigate using the joystick and entering with the middle button. The back button is also mapped to the top left hand button so that it easy to associate as going back to the menu.
Consistency and standards
The back button follows all the way throughout the program and never moves. The software has the same template all the way through aswell. This allows the user to see where they are at anytime with the headers at the top.
Error prevention
The small amount of buttons means that user dont have much chance to go wrong. I have made the buttons big and simple so that its easy to see where the user is going.
Recognition rather than recall
I have used all the font sizes the same and made sure that all the program matches and the buttons for play, fastforward and rewind are the same as on normal players so that its easy to recognise.
Flexibility and Efficiency of use
The menu is straight forward and giving the user only one way in and out of menus means the user cant get lost along the way. The user can find the files easily with the scrolling menu.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Again the design has been made as simple as it can be so that the user can find items they require but it still has the design aspect so that it is pleasing to the eye. This is not sacraficed for usability.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
There is no current way of the user being told that there are errors this will have to be added in to show that this occurs, for example and error with the connection. Although most phones tell you this anyway.
Help and documentation
The program is straight forward to use but a user page will be provided on the internet so that users can access to see how to connect along with FAQ.

As you can see the program matches all the above heuristcis apart from the recognize, diagnose and recover from errors which will be implemented.

PP: Redesign #1

Redesign:

http://www.mediamax.com/mellono/Hosted/Mediastream1.swf

Video of the Redesign:

Upon making this redesign i found that the usability had increased and made it easier for them to navigate and find what they wanted. With the simple feeds from the site to show the files available and the bold face types meant its easier to read and doesnt lose the user to much. This is the final redesign and now its down to the coding.

As you can see the login button has changed from the right hand button and the text has been made bigger so that it is easier to read on a mobile and the same has been done with the main menu. The bigger buttons mean that navigation is far more easier to use. The simple buttons make it easier to see for disabled and so that it looks a lot less busy.

The main change to this version is the new menu that will work using xml to bring in the data from the server to the phone. This would navigate up and down so that the user can easily locate the file that they require. The links will then link to the picture view page where the user can view the picture fill screen. This is the same with video and music.

I have removed the about page because the page had too much writing on and was to small to read on a standard mobile phone. The stripes were added in the background to give the program more unity throughout and to make it look better and not to plain. Overall i am happy with this redesign.

EPP: The Area in focus

Employment and Self Employment:

There are a number of advantages of being self employed, You have total freedom for when you are self employed and are able to choose the jobs you want rather than get what your given. You are also able to organise your time around your own life rather stuck to the hours dictated to you. You gain all personal respect and recognition for your work and get your name known. The main benefit that this has is that you get the full profits rather than a fixed wage.

The disadvantages to being self employed is buisness can be slow at times and the lack of projects can effect your wage. Your also in the spotlight so if things go wrong there is noone else to help. All the main things that would be dealt with by a company. E.g. Tax, Materials, Sales, Customer service has to be done by yourself so the work load is alot more than you would normally.

Design Council

The design council was known as Council for industrial design but changed to The design council in the 1970's. it was set-up to

"helping buisnesses become more successful and public services more efficient
and designers are more effective".

The idea is to help setup buisnesses that have a good idea and need the funding to make the product available. Buisnesses would pitch ideas to the design council and if there pitch is successful the council with grant them the money to go ahead with the project.

The BBC has its own commissioning board that works across the media internet, mobile and film.

This allows regular joe public to be able to submit ideas to the bbc and see if they will get the funding from tbhe bbc to make the project. They also allow e-commissioning which makes it alot easier to submit ideas. This gives you an idea of how this works;

The BBC has updated its commissioning process by introducing an electronic
system for submitting proposals. The new system will cover ideas for network
content on TV and all other video platforms (e.g. websites, mobile, interactive
TV). e-Commissioning enables the BBC to handle the huge volume of proposals it
receives faster and more effectively so producers submitting proposals to BBC
Vision will find them quicker to respond. The system is not designed to replace
any of the creative conversations BBC Commissioning teams have with producers
already. But by making the process of filtering and comparing ideas much easier,
we hope it will free up more time for creative discussion around the best of
those ideas.

According to USA today this is what makes a good sales pitch:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/abrams/2003-08-01-abrams_x.htm

These are the key principles to gain the funding needed for the project.

EPP: Banking

We spent the afternoon in cardiff centre for this EPP lesson. We met up outside the museum and then split into groups and made our way to the banks. On the agenda was to visit banks and find out what you need to set up your own buisness and become freelance. The banks that we chose to visit was the Cooperative and lloyds. We went into the cooperative and the staff were very helpful but unfortunatly didnt have the facilities or knowledge to help us regarding this matter. They gave us a phone number to ring to get more information. We then made our way to lloyds buisness bank and when we entered the bank we found that there was no-one there to help at all and was told to go to the lloyds normal branch to see the buisness manager. We walked to hear only to find that he had an emergency dentist appointment so was unable to help us at this present time but would contact us or we could contact him. We managed to pick up some leaflets but unfortunatly it was an unsuccessful day. We hadnt managed to get the information we were looking for and feel that appointments would have to be made next time to be actually able to speak to someone. One thing we did find out is that the coop will not support anyone whose buisness is unethical or ecological. They turned down £10million worth of buisness because of this.

Coop ethics