Pact Analysis

Assignment 1 - Design Visualisation and PACT ~ 106CR Designing for Usability ~ Thomas Davies ~ 2179955 ~ December 2008

Table of Contents PACT Analysis! People!

5 5

Introduction!

5

Foreign Students !

5

Disabled Students !

5

Activities!

5

Discovering Lecture Notes !

5

Mobile Devices !

6

Information Extraction!

6

Contexts !

7

Lectures and Library!

7

Private Study - Halls of Residence and Home!

7

Technologies !

8

Input!

8

Output!

8

Connectivity!

8

Observations! Questionnaires!

9 9

Taking notes in lectures !

9

Online Portal!

9

Role of technology in studying!

9

Observations!

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Lecturers !

9

Students!

9

Reflection!

Persona! Luke Holmes!

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11 11 Design Visualisation and PACT

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Biography!

11

Studying!

11

Goals !

11

Reflection!

11

Web Research!

12

Delicious Library - http://www.delicious-monster.com/!

12

Introduction!

12

User Interface!

12

Importing Friends’ Collections !

13

Schoolhouse - http://www.loganscollins.com/schoolhouse/!

13

Introduction!

13

Assignments!

13

Smart Notebooks !

14

Classcasts !

14

Good Ideas!

14

Sharing Information!

14

Barcode Scanning!

14

Reflection!

LOSt Design Visualisations!

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15

Main Menu!

15

Notes!

15

Lecture Notes! Notes! Searching!

16 16 17

Notes!

17

Note Taking!

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Notes!

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Transparent Messages! Notes!

Feedback on Visualisations!

19 19

20 Design Visualisation and PACT

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Feedback!

20

Main Menu!

20

Searching!

20

Note Taking!

20

Transparent Messages !

21

Reflection!

Appendix! Questionnaire!

References!

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22 22

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PACT Analysis People Introduction UK Students EU Students Non-EU Students

The people who will be using the system are students of the university. All of the students will have many differing characteristics that will have an effect on the LOSt system. Foreign Students

5%5%

As shown in Figure 1, Coventry University has over 1700 foreign undergraduate students, which equates to 10% of the university’s population (HESA 2007). Even though they are required to take the International English Language Test (IELTS), the students still may have difficulty understanding specific English terminology especially as the minimum band requirement at Coventry University for undergraduates is 6.0 out of 9.0 (Jones 2008). Therefore the system should use simple verb terms as much as possible, while also ensuring we limit the impact of cultural differences in terms of interaction.

90% Figure 1 Student Population (HESA 2007)

Disabled Students 7% of all university students have some form of disability (HESA 2007). Of those disabled, 3% suffer from visual impairment, being either blind or partially sighted. Braille displays have been useful with simple user interfaces, yet they fail with more complex systems. A combination of sound and the option to zoom into specific areas of an application could assist these users. 5% of students are either deaf or have a hearing impairment. Even though systems are very visual to use nowadays, many important alerts use sound to highlight its gravitas or urgency. To combat this issue in Mac OS X, the operating system has an option to flash the screen when something important has occurred (Apple Inc. 2008). The disability that affects the most however, is Dyslexia, with 43% of students suffering from the disability. With such a significant percentage of possible affected users, the LOSt system will have to cater for them, with Dix et al. (2004: 389) suggesting a ‘consistent navigation structure and clear signposting’ as well as ‘color coding information’ to assist these users.

Activities The objective of the LOSt system is to make it easier for students to organise and utilise all the material they receive from their lecturers. The constant barrage of information forced on students make it very difficult for them to maintain a specific organisational structure to assist their learning. Discovering Lecture Notes Making the system more automated will allow the students to focus more on their studies rather than organising notes and other materials. Currently, three of my modules require me to learn three different Design Visualisation and PACT

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interfaces just to access the lecture notes. By not sharing a consistent user interface requires students to spend more time learning several different methods to achieve the same goal.

106CR Designing for Usability

112CR Programming Concepts and Practice

120CT Computer Architecture

Figure 2 Interfaces for downloading lecture notes If the lecturers are constrained to using just one application, then students would only have to learn one method to discovering lecture notes. Another possibility is to allow automatic downloading through the application via RSS, ensuring the information will go directly to the students as soon as it is available. Mobile Devices The role of mobile devices in education is rapidly increasing, highlighted by Abilene Christian University’s use of Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch, given free to all freshmen students this year to help with their studies. Their web applications consisted of campus maps and quizzes that students can complete from their device (Cox 2008). Though quite an extreme example, ACU’s implementation shows the possibilities of the full integration of mobile devices in an academic environment. Academic institutions across the globe have noted the growth of portable media players - especially the iPod - over the last few years and are now taking advantage of it by making their lectures available to download as both audio and video content, made popular by iTunes U, a catalogue of free educational material in the iTunes Store. This is especially true at the University of Wisconsin where they have discovered that students embrace the content by ‘taking it with them on the bus, and on the airplane’ (Dunham 2008). Information Extraction As shown in Figure 3, lecture notes and presentations

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are now filled with different types of media. However it can be difficult for students to find this information

25 20

later in the course because the information is still restricted to that presentation file. For example, in the first lecture for 106CR, students were asked to purchase the book ‘Designing Interactive Systems’, and with the help of information extraction this task could be easily simplified.

15 10 Images

5 Video

Charts

0 Books

People Info

Figure 3 Presentation Content over 8 Lectures

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Write down the name of the book

Visit the library and search for it

Loan the book

Visit Waterstone's and buy the book

Search for it online

Key

Human Involvement

Automatically download presentation

Information Extraction Process

Write down the prices at different online stores

Purchase online

Computer Involvement Shows the availability at the library Compares prices of online stores / retail locations

Student makes decision based on the findings

Figure 4 Processes involved in finding a required book

Contexts Lectures and Library In the lecture theatre and the library, students are expected to be very quiet so everyone can hear the lecturer or study in a silent environment. Therefore the LOSt system needs to have an option where sound alerts can be muted, while visual cues increased. The role of the flashing screen used to help partially sighted users of Mac OS X could be adapted here to assist students. Moreover, if LOSt had access to the student’s schedule, then the application could automatically turn off sound alerts while lectures are taking place. During lectures, students need to take notes very quickly so they don’t fall behind when the lecturer is talking. Therefore a very simple and easy to use interface is required for this activity so the student can get all the notes required. Private Study - Halls of Residence and Home During private study the surrounding environment depends on the individual. Certain students require a quiet environment to study, while others need background noise. A noisier environment however, could lower the user response of a sound alert, so once again, visual cues and aids could be needed. Compared to the lecture theatre, private study will be more relaxed and calm allowing for more interaction with the application thereby increasing the number of features available.

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Technologies Input During lectures, students will need to be able to produce notes and record the lecturer talking. However, there are not many wall sockets available to students in the lecture theatres so the system will have to be as efficient as possible to conserve battery power. Yet during private study access to a power source is likely, suggesting that the potential for the LOSt application can be greater in these circumstances by allowing access to the Internet and processing increased amount of data during this period. Output The main way students will view this information is via their computer displays, and as many students prefer notebooks over desktop computers the screen size will usually be between 13 and 17 inches. These screen sizes will be more than adequate for a desktop quality application. The role of audio will play a major part in the overall system, as lecture notes can be played on students notebooks or via their phone and MP3 players. The use of portable media players can radically change the way people learn and while devices such as the iPhone can display an array of documents, their restrictive screen size will constrain the uses in an academic environment. Connectivity The issue of connectivity could affect the success of the LOSt system. A connection to the internet will be required for a significant proportion of time that the student is using the system, and therefore we have to question whether we can rely on the current wireless network around campus for connectivity.

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Observations Questionnaires Taking notes in lectures From the questionnaires sent out to students, I discovered that a significant amount did not take notes during their lectures, rather rely on the lecture slides that are usually published on CUOnline within a few hours of the class finishing. A small minority of students do take a lot of notes during lectures and use the presentation slides to assist their personal notes. Another result from the study showed that nearly 80% of students simply wrote notes down in text format, rather than using graphs or charts. Less than a single page of A4 is the standard amount of note taking that occurs in an average lecture, while interestingly those who do not take notes, 60% would like to, yet do not seem able to do so. Online Portal For those who do not take notes in lectures, I asked whether it is because the slides are posted online, however 40% were unsure how to access this material. This is because lectures are using several different ways to upload and store the files, therefore confusing students. Role of technology in studying Linking notes and lecture slides are the students main concern as they can find no decent way to associate both. Some students use a complicated method involving the standard file system and an array of folders to sort and organise these notes yet one mistake labeling or placing them in the wrong place could ruin the entire system. While all students said they used a computer to assist with their learning, only 20% used other devices such as mobile phones or MP3 players. Moreover, the questionnaire discovered that none of the respondents had heard of iTunes U, the online educational media catalogue.

Observations Lecturers For the majority of lecturers, it is after the lecture has taken place that they upload and make available the notes and presentation files. However others offer them for download before the lecture so students can read and preview the upcoming lecture ensuring they are more prepared for the contents. On CUOnline however, it is not easy to see when the notes have been available as the alert system is quite poor. Students The increase usage of PowerPoints for lectures have meant that many students now just sit and listen to the lecturer talking, believing that just downloading the presentation file later will have all the required content. This is an issue as the presentation is there simply to assist the lecturer, and therefore the student will be missing the parts where the lecturer has stressed a particular point or discussed another issue unmentioned in the presentation file. A great way to understand a concept is to discover how it is linked with other work from other modules. Yet by keeping it all on paper, or even in a simple computerised database showing connections with other modules is very difficult. Utilising automation could solve this issue as it can easily show related content, not just from other modules but from the internet as well. Design Visualisation and PACT

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Reflection I believe observations are a better way to understand how users interact with technology because we can directly see what they are doing. In an interview or if they are filling out a questionnaire the user may forget certain processes they have to go through to accomplish a task. Moreover, observing users lets us see what happens when they are confronted with a problem showing us whether they have a specific work around - suggesting it is a reoccurring fault - or if they simply ignore it. Using questionnaires as a way to gather information is a very cheap and easy method compared to others. To create and send out, the cost - both financially and time wise - is quite minimal, yet we have to factor in that not all people will complete the questionnaires. For example, 20% of students who were sent the questionnaire did not return them, yet for this project an 80% return rate was more than suitable. Another issue with questionnaires is that we are unable to ask follow-up questions, which effected the following question ‘Would you like to write notes in these lectures?’ For this question, I would have liked to ask what would help them start writing notes.

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Persona Luke Holmes Biography Luke is 18 years old and a first year undergraduate at Coventry University reading English Literature. He achieved a grade C in his GCSE ICT short course, and this is his only computing related qualification. However, he has used a Windows based machine for several years and therefore has moderate computer skills. Along with a mobile phone, Luke carries an iPod nano with him at all times and occasionally listens to podcasts as well as his music collection. Though seemingly tech savvy, he still feels embarrassed if he needs to ask his friends for help when using software and therefore appreciates it to be simple and easy to use, allowing him to focus on achieving his goals. Studying At university, Luke has a £400 Windows based laptop with a battery life of 3 hours. In his flat, Luke uses his laptop several hours a day, but rarely takes it to lectures as he is worried about running out of battery in the middle of a lecture. Currently he takes notes down in the lecture and aims to write them up that evening, though sometimes this is not the case. When researching online, Luke bookmarks websites in Firefox, yet soon forgets about them because they are not connected with his notes. Goals His overall goal is to be a distinguished author before he retires, and he believes achieving a 1st class degree at Coventry University will be a step in the right direction.

Reflection Using personas can be useful as it allows us to visualise our intended audience, ensuring we focus on their needs. It can be very easy to lose focus and not consider users abilities on computers and whether or not they like interacting with technology. For this project we are quite lucky that our intended user group - with a few exceptions - are more than likely going to be competent computer users having grown up with technology devices all around them. However by showing specific user frailties such as Luke’s reluctance to ask for help ensures we consider usability a prime concern. We do however, have to make the persona specific because ‘they should be focused on the behaviors and goals related to the specific domain of a product.’ (Goodwin 2001) while generic personas will lack focus, concentrating on other factors. For example, it is mentioned that Luke has an iPod nano to suggest he enjoys having his music collection with him, and that he has experience interacting with other devices yet discussing his music tastes or the size of his collection would be irrelevant to this project.

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Web Research Delicious Library - http://www.delicious-monster.com/ Introduction This application is a digital catalogue system for books, games, DVDs and more. Delicious Library aims to keep track of the user’s media by providing a section dedicated to loaning parts of their collections out to friends. Rather than forcing users to add all the details manually, Delicious Library will search Amazon to get the information such as price, genres and reviews. This process is made simpler by utilising the iSight cameras on Macs to scan in the barcodes from user’s media collection. User Interface Delicious Monster - the software house behind the library application - has won 2 Apple Design Awards for its product, which has a distinctive, yet controversial user interface. The library displays the collections on realistic shelving from wood to cork board to emphasize the connection with the real life objects. Simple groupings iSight barcode scanning

Graphical representation of media collection

Realistic shelving

Figure 5 Main interface of Delicious Library

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Importing Friends’ Collections Delicious Library also provides a way to share the collection with friends, by automatically creating a website with the user’s collection. If other friends are using the application then the user can import their lists and always have access to their collections. User's details

Detailed view of an item

Collection contents

Figure 6 Online version of a user’s library

Schoolhouse - http://www.loganscollins.com/schoolhouse/ Introduction Made by a independent developer, Schoolhouse is a dedicated educational organisation tool. Users can add Notes, which allows them to add their own lectures notes to the database, while Grades provides a way for students to graphically see their progress throughout the course. Assignments Users can add assignments and projects to keep all related documents together. Assignments can also be broken up into smaller tasks, each with their own due dates to assist the student with keeping on schedule. Moreover, it connects with the Address Book so users can add fellow students to a specific group assignment. Design Visualisation and PACT

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Smart Notebooks Name of the Notebook

In Mac OS X, smart folders are very popular because they automatically sort documents according to pre-defined rules. In Schoolhouse, they are called Smart Notebooks and can have rules such as specific due dates as well as containing specific keywords or tags. Classcasts

A rule for the notebook

This feature allows the user to publish a

Can add more rules if needed

Figure 7 Smart Notebooks in Schoolhouse

specific assignment to the web, allowing

others to subscribe to it. This is quite effective for their peers because any alterations in the assignment will automatically alert the subscribers, keeping everyone up-to-date.

Good Ideas Sharing Information Both applications can share the user’s information with their friends, and I believe this could be a good feature for LOSt! The Classcasts feature is very good, but it has not been fully developed to make it useful for all students. If a group of students have an assignment to complete then having remote access to all of the project’s files and documents is essential to a successful completion. The Classcasts implementation in Schoolhouse is one-way, meaning only one student can edit the assignment. Yet if all project members could add to the assignment then they could limit the amount of group sessions required, and focus more on the actual work. Barcode Scanning Using an integrated camera on a laptop for barcode scanning will save students significant amount of time searching and organising their loans and book collections. It can be quite difficult for students to know which books they have and this feature would be a simply way for them to keep track, as well as recommend related books to further their studies. Figure 8 Barcode scanning in Delicious Library

Reflection Web research can play a significant role in shaping our interface and interaction designs as we can appreciate how other companies are solving the same issues. For example, reviewing lecture notes can be considered quite boring, yet I learnt from the Delicious Library application that an exciting interface can make a dull subject more engaging. Researching Schoolhouse was interesting because the application was written and designed by a student, and therefore it was tailored to his needs. Seeing how he executed certain features that are also in the LOSt system allowed me to question whether his or my implementation was better.

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LOSt Design Visualisations Main Menu If new items have been downloaded automatically then the module icon will enlarge and wiggle.

Shows warnings and nearing deadlines at the top.

Coursework Overdue: 124MS Coursework 1 Large target areas for users to click on s p e c i fi c modules

Library Loans: Books due back in 3 days

2 new items 102CR Content Creation

112CR Programming

106CR Usability

!"#

View Lecture Notes Create a Note 113CR PDP

View your Notes 120CT

124MS Logic & Sets

Computer Architecture

Hovering over a module icon will display three options

Figure 9 Main Menu interface in LOSt Notes Another way to design this menu screen is to have the three options (View Lecture Notes etc.) next to the Module

View Lecture Notes

name. However, the issue with this is that target size is very small, and therefore difficult to select. Yet by requiring the user to hit a larger target first should mean that they are able to gain access to the options faster, as they are already closer to them

Create a Note

120CT Computer Architecture

View your Notes

Figure 10 Another Main Menu design

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Lecture Notes Takes user back to the Main Menu

Lecture notes get smaller to show they are in the past.

Back to Main Menu 11/7

Hovering over a bar will show you the date of that lecture

Controls for going through the slides

Orange border suggests content related to the current slide

David Benyon Website

Moore's Law

PACT Analysis

About Him Research

Module Document

useit Email Lecturer

Email

Bad Designs

Send to iTunes

Related content from other files in the system and the internet Options users can select concerning this lecture note

Send to Mobile

Current lecture slides highlighted by the orange border

Publications

Send to a Contact

Cite as a Reference

An example of the detailed view for related content

Figure 11 Lecture Notes interface in LOSt Notes The idea to use this searching through time interface initially came from Cordell Ratzlaff who wrote ‘time is a useful way for people to organize information on their computer.’ (2007 in Moggridge 2007: 148). This then encouraged me to consider the Time Machine backup interface that is included in Mac OS X Leopard. The five options at the bottom could have been implemented significantly better. For example, if the lectures notes were unable to be sent to iTunes, then maybe that option wouldn’t be present, allowing for the remaining four options to increase in size to fill the gap, however this would make it more difficult for the users to get accustomed to the system. Hovering over the Back to Main Menu button would have brought the button to the foreground. It was done this way to not distract the user away from the actual content, while still being present in the interface for the user to select when required.

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Searching Search bar appears after the user starts typing Background is dimmed, but still visible to not lose context

Results from the Internet

Recursive Functions

Previews of the search results

x

Python Funct.

Example Code

Functions

Consectetur adipiscing elit

Consectetur adipiscing elit

Consectetur adipiscing elit

Eset eiusmod tempor incidunt et labore et dolore magna aliquam. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerc. Irure dolor in reprehend incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris.ncididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation

Eset eiusmod tempor incidunt et labore et dolore magna aliquam. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerc. Irure dolor in reprehend incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris.ncididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation

Eset eiusmod tempor incidunt et labore et dolore magna aliquam. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerc. Irure dolor in reprehend incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris.ncididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation

Recursion

Example Code

Example

Functions

Lecture 3 - Slide 5

Python.org

Google.com

Notes - 21/11

Scrollbar to control the results

Convert Example

Python Support

Recursion

Google Groups

Module Website

Python.org

iTunes U

Groups.google.com

Dimmed out until the full content is displayed

Figure 12 Searching interface in LOSt Notes To search in many applications the user will usually have to select a Search bar first, before entering their query. Not only does this waste valuable interface real estate, it also wastes time as the user has to move the cursor to the bar and then select it. To initiate a search in the LOSt system all the user has to do is start typing and the search view will appear over the current screen. While this could be considered unintuitive compared to other standard search interfaces ‘very few interfaces are actually going to be intuitive from the get go.’ (Raskin 2008 in Golem.de 2008)

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Note Taking Simple editing section

Editable note title

Web 2.0 Notes

B

U

I

Undo & Redo will change size depending on how many of each are available

!The internet is changing !Web 2.0 is the future

Contents of the note

!Companies like Google are pioneering in this sector """""! """Using AJAX technology to create interactive web applications ! """Producing interaction similar to the desktop experience !The users are now the publishers ! """YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Wordpress, Last.fm, Wikipedia

Undo Save

Redo Print

Drop Related Content Here

!Wikipedia ! """Huge database of entries ! """Accessible to anyone for free ! """Non-profit ! """Anyone can edit it ! """Used by governments and corporations to spread lies ! """Pentagon / Microsoft

Users can drag related files to associate them with the note

Figure 13 Note Taking interface in LOSt Notes The idea behind the Undo and Redo pane is to give the user some feedback (Whether they want it is another issue) to suggest how many Undos and Redos are left. For example, if the Undo button takes up 3/4 of that pane then it could be interpreted that there are more Undos available than Redos.

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Transparent Messages A transparent message for sound muting Web 2.0 Notes

B

U

I

!The internet is changing !Web 2.0 is the future

The sound on your laptop is now muted

We have detected that sector you are currently in a lecture Undo !Companies like Google are pioneering in this """""! """Using AJAX technology to create interactive web applications ! """Producing interaction similar to the desktop experience Save

The rest of the interface is still accessible and viewable

!The users are now the publishers ! """YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Wordpress, Last.fm, Wikipedia

Redo Print

Drop Related Content Here

!Wikipedia ! """Huge database of entries ! """Accessible to anyone for free ! """Non-profit ! """Anyone can edit it ! """Used by governments and corporations to spread lies ! """Pentagon / Microsoft

Figure 14 Transparent Messages in LOSt Notes Alerts from laptops or mobile phones can distract both the lecturer and students during lectures, so the LOSt system attempts to reduce this issue. Many students use calendar applications on their computers so they know when their lectures are. By utilising this information, LOSt can check both the current time and the calendar to check whether they are using the system during lectures. If the student is in a lecture then a transparent message will come up informing the user that the sound has been muted. The larger text informs the student that the sound has been turned off, while the smaller text gives them some context, rather than leaving them confused as to why LOSt had turned the sound off. Using a transparent message over a one option dialog box is pivotal to ensure that the student isn’t distracted by the system. Transparent messages

The sound on your laptop is now muted We have detected that you are currently in a lecture

OK

Figure 15 A dialog box solution ‘fade away when the user takes any action (like typing or moving the mouse). The message is both noticeable yet unobtrusive.’ (Raskin 2006). A dialog box requires the user to select OK before doing anything else which will distract the student from their main aim of taking notes from the lecture.

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Feedback on Visualisations Feedback Main Menu This screen was well received, especially the alerts at the top that displayed warnings of coursework deadlines and library loans. One student did ask what would happen if a student had more than 6 modules, and I reassured them that the module icons would get progressively smaller to accommodate more modules. While this is true, this screen would only be able to scale to 4 modules on each row, which would display 8 instead of 6 modules on the two visible rows. Lecture Notes The main concern for this screen was the Back to Main Menu button that students felt was ambiguous as it was visible, yet behind the main content. Hovering over the button would have brought it forward, however they would prefer it at the front at all times. Despite that, I still believe that having it behind the main content allows the students to concentrate fully on their main task of reading and absorbing the

Figure 16 Back to Main Menu

content rather than being distracted by interface objects. Another issue was the slider on the right hand side that replaced a standard slider common in many other applications. The slider on this screen was designed to easily show when the content was created, by hovering over one of the rectangles to reveal its date. Clicking on one of these would instantly take the user to that lecture, rather than requiring them to scroll until they find it for themselves. Searching At first, students were unsure how the search function worked. Currently when searching their notes, only files from the local machine will be displayed. However they appreciated how LOSt’s execution of the feature brought content off the internet directly and how they could preview the content instantly from the results screen, believing this would save them a lot of time while researching. The most prominent issue was how to initiate a search as they found no search box on any other screen. When informed that all they had to do was start typing and the system would recognise the input and begin searching automatically they fully understood. Around 60% of users believed this was a better implementation than how they currently initiate a search, yet as they haven’t properly interacted with the system it may still not be the right way to tackle this issue. Note Taking The majority of the students asked liked the simple editing pane on the right hand side, whilst some wanted a larger selection of colours to choose from. They were also doubtful that the Undo and Redo pane dynamic sizing feature would affect them in anyway, yet did appreciate that they were directly available in the editing section. The ability to add related files or links was also recognised and well received, as students admitted having difficulty trying to associate notes and links together.

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Transparent Messages Though I still feel that transparent messages can replace many ‘monolog boxes’ (Raskin 2006) in interfaces, students remained unsure about them. They were worried about not seeing the messages, even after I reassured them that it would require an action from them, such as typing or moving the mouse for the message to disappear. They did however approve of how the system detected that the student was in a class and automatically disabled the audio, ensuring no disruptions.

Reflection The feedback from fellow students was very helpful as it showed me issues that I hadn’t previously recognised. The Back to Main Menu button on the Lecture Notes screen could possibly do with some enhancements, yet I still believe that it is better behind the content until the user decides to go back to the Main Menu screen, when it will then be brought to the user’s attention. Even though 60% felt that the search feature in LOSt was better than the current standard implementation, this system may still require search boxes on all screens to make the option more prominent to users. As previously mentioned this feedback has solely come from screenshots of the intended interface, and therefore students may prefer different things when interacting with it fully. Yet receiving feedback from screenshots is an easy way to get your user group’s initial reactions and comments.

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Appendix Questionnaire

Questionnaire Introduction Thank you for taking part in this questionnaire for the LOSt system. By signing this form, you are allowing the results of this questionnaire to be included - anonymously - in an academic report. ........................................! Name! ! ! !

! !

.................... Date

What gender are you? Male !

Female !

What year of study are you currently in? Foundation !

Year 1 !

Year 2 !

Year 3 !

Other !

How many modules are you taking this year?

! Note taking In how many modules do you write notes during the lectures?

! For the modules you do write notes in !

Why do you write notes in these lectures?

!

!

!

Roughly, how much do you write?

!

!

!

How do you write the notes? (Tick all that apply)

"

Text !

!

!

Charts & Graphs !

Pictures !

Other (Please explain) !

For the modules you do not write notes in !

Why do you not write notes in these lectures?

!

!

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!

Would you like to write notes in these lectures?

!

Yes !

!

Are the lecture presentations available to download?

!

Yes !

No !

No !

Don’t know !

Technology What of the following devices do you use to assist your learning? PC / Laptop !

Netbook !

Mobile Phone !

MP3 Player / iPod

If you organise your work on a device, how do you do so?

! Have you used iTunes U? Yes !

No !

Don’t know what it is !

If you have used iTunes U !

How helpful is the service?

!

!

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References Apple Inc., 2008. University of Wisconsin. [Online Video] Available from: http://www.apple.com/education/ profiles/wisconsinvideo/ [accessed 17 November 2008]. Apple Inc., 2008. Apple - Accessibility - Mac OS X - Hearing. [Webpage] A v a i l a b l e f r o m : h t t p : / / w w w. a p p l e . c o m / accessibility/macosx/hearing.html [accessed 15 November 2008]. Cox, J., 2008. Mobile learning project gives students free iPhone or iPod. Network World, 13, 10. 48. Dix, A., Finlay, J., Abowd, G.D., Beale, R., 2004. Human-Computer Interaction. 3rd ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education Ltd.

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