Learning Outcomes

1. Explain and discuss practical and theoretical aspects of Human-Computer Interaction.
1. Discussion about aspects of Human-Computer Interaction
   
2. Apply Human-Computer Interaction principles to practical problems.
1. Personas
1. Ricardo Winner
2. Phil Mitchell
3. Judy Geller
4. Michelle Fox
5. Simon Sims
   
2. Questionnaires
   
1. DigiCab Prototype Questionnaire
3. Testing prototype
   
4. Heuristics and Walkthrough Evaluation
1. Heuristic Evaluation
2. Cognitive Walkthrough
3. Re-Evaluation
   
3. Participate in analysis and design work in Human-Computer Interaction.
1. Brainstorming
2. Background Research
3. Case study
   
4. Questionnaires
1. First Draft
5. Observation from nursery visit
   
6. Requirements
   
7. Prototypes Designs
   
1. Prototype
   
2. Electronic Version
3. Revised Prototype
8. Critical appraisal
   

Finally! We have finished the DigiCab!!!

Finally, children all over the world will be able to enjoy the magnificence that is the DigiCab! It will be in stores worldwide by this time next year and will make us all billionaires!!

That's all folks.

Re-Evaluation on Revised Prototype

We finally have created our revised prototype. The modifications we made reflect the results we got from testing with the personas, and from the questionnaires given to parents.

1. The handle - This solves the portability of the product. Parents are able carry the DigiCab more easily. The device can now be carried with one hand only.
   
2. The colour of the product itself – body of the product - We have decided to create the product in two different colours. We have decided to make it pink and blue colour. When we went to the nursery, we observed that girls like pink colour (this can be seen by the Barbie dolls they play with) while the boys tend to go to blue colour items (most toys such as gardening toys are in blue).
   
3. Speaker size - Because we decided to reduce the size of the DigiCab this meant that the speakers also needed to be smaller. We also make them round and more aesthetically pleasing.
   
4. Number of pictures - We have reduced the number of pictures appeared on the screen to 9 pictures instead of 16. This is so that the button size is as big enough for 2 to 3 year old children to press easily.
   
5. Edges - Some parents raised safety issues on the DigiCab's sharp edges and remarked that they may hurt a child if an accident were to occur. Therefore, we decided to change it to a curve edge when redesigning.
   
6. Button Touch Screen - We noticed when observing the children at the nursery that they liked pressing buttons - with a bit a bit of force. We decided to replace the touch screen with buttons to ensure that babies understand that they are meant to be pressed. The buttons are transparent and reveal a the screen underneath which displays the pictures making the buttons appear to have their small screens.
   
7. Colours at the edge of the pictures - We decided to allow the parents to customise the colour scheme of the buttons (Multicoloured or white). We did this because the DigiCab is aimed at 2 - 5 years old and in that time the child may want the DigiCab to be less babyish when they grow up. The parents have the option to choose the colours of the buttons.

Revised Prototype

Here is the final version of the DigiCab. Click the thumbnails for enlarged photos:










The following modifications were made:

• DigiCabs designed for both Girls (pink) and Boys (blue)
• The DigiCab' s corners have been smooth and curved
• The touch screen has been replaced with buttons that the child can press
• Parents can choose between coloured or white buttons
• A handle has been added to make the DigiCab easier to carry
• Story mode has been added

Evaluation: Heuristic Evaluation

Feedback
When the user tries to press on an image on the device, the device enlarges the image and tells user the name of item they have pressed. The voice played gives feedback to user and tells user that they have already pressed an image.

Language
The system provides very simple words for users to use. The child does not need to know any complicated words as the word that appears on the screen is simple that is used everyday such as ball, chair and car. The system menu for the parents is quite easy for the parents to understand as they will be going through a set of instructions while setting up the program for their child. The instructions are quite simple as they are numbered in orders and some simple English sentences that are constructed is:

1) Please select level of difficulties – Parents know that they have to choose the level of difficulties of the device.

Undo
When the user tries to press on the pictures on the screen, the picture will enlarge and there will be back and forward buttons that allow user to get back to the previous image or to the next image. The device also has a main menu button at the bottom of the screen (when the screen is enlarged) that allows user to get to the main menu when they press on it. If user does not press anything, the screen will return to its main menu after 5 seconds.

Consistency
Every time when user clicks on any images on the screen, it will enlarge the image and the design layout is exactly the same every time user presses the images on the screen. User gets the same layout every time they press on the images.

Recognition over recall
The back and forward buttons on the device are similar to the normal back and forward buttons in real life. A back button always has an arrow that points to the left and a forward button has an arrow that points to the right. This clearly tells user what those two buttons meant.

Simple
The system is relatively simple to use as the user just needs to press on the image and it will generally provide a feedback to user. The button is straightforward and it is easy to identify them. When the screen is loaded, user gets a number of images and they just need to press on those images to enlarge them and learn from them.

Expert Use
As our device is for children aged between 2 and 3 years, the expert use needs to be adjusted according to the 2 and 3 years old mind and their view of perspective. Since there are no key input (since the user just have to press on those images), it is very difficult to implement such a device to have an expert use.

Error Recovery
The touch screen consists of 9 different pictures. When the user presses on an image that the system does not recognised, there is a built in error recovery that automatically checks for the correct image and display it to user.

Documentation
The device is simple to use. However, parents who are going to set up the device for their child may need some help on some complex issues. The parents’ menu has a wizard that allows them to get help and instructions if they have any problems.

Evaluation: Cognitive Walkthrough

Task: To add new category (accessible by parents only)

Steps:

1. Unlock the device.
2. When the main menu is shown, select "Add new category".
3. Key in the name of the new category.
4. Select "Save".

Evaluation: When a new category has been successfully added, there will be a new tab with the category name on the screen else an error message will be shown.

Task: To add new picture (accessible by parents only)

Steps:

1. Unlock the device.
2. When the main menu is shown, select the category that you want to import the picture to.
3. Select "Import Pictures".
4. Choose the picture that you want to import from.
5. Select "Save".

Evaluation: When a picture has been successfully added to the selected category, it will be shown on the screen else an error message will be shown.

Task: To record sound (accessible by adults only)

Steps:

1. Unlock the device.
2. When the main menu is shown, select the picture you want to add sound to.
3. Select "Save".
4. If another sound is added to a picture which already has a sound in it, it will be replaced by the new sound instead.

Evaluation: When a sound has been successfully added to the picture, a sound icon will be shown on the bottom right of the picture else an error message will be shown.

Task: To learn new words with spellings

Steps:

1. Select a picture from the touch screen.
2. When the image is maximised, the word spelt and read out, press the forward button
to go to the next image or the back button to go to the previous image.

Evaluation: Pictures are accessible by touch and the use of buttons for navigation. When a picture is selected, it should be clear that the word spelt and read out is for the current selected picture.

Critical Appraisal

Starting the DigiCab is easy with just a click of a start button. The menu is straight forward and a wizard is provided to guide parents through step by step instructions on how to import pictures and sound. The grid layout displays 16 coloured pictures at a time and each picture can be enlarged into full screen. The speakers on both sides of the device reflects typical audio speakers. Navigation is easy with back and forward buttons.

Testing DigiCab on Personas

After designing our first prototype, we decided to test it on the personas we originally created to see what (if any) modifications were needed. The results are displayed below:

Simon Sims - Spoilt 1 year old boy

When initially presenting the prototype to Simon’s parents, they pointed out that they were not happy with the DigiCab’s sharp edges. They suggested smoothing these for safety reasons. They mentioned that Simon could be a little clumsy sometimes.

When Simon was first presented with the DigiCab prototype, we noticed that he was not entirely sure what he was meant to be doing. The touch screen was not something he was used to. He would hit the screen to make sounds but did not appear to consciously choose which picture he selected. We asked his parents whether they thought that he may react better to buttons instead of a touch screen and they agreed that it would probably be better.

Suggested Modifications

• Smooth edges for safety reasons
• Have buttons instead of touch screen

Michelle Fox - Quiet girl

Michelle when presented with the prototype instantaneously recognised the picture of the cat displayed on the touch screen, pointed her finger and touched it. The sound “This is a cat” was played. This made her smile and she pressed it again, and again. She then started to press some of the other pictures on the touch screen, but her favourites appeared to be the Cat and the Rabbit pictures.

It was difficult to see whether she actually knew that the prototype was teaching her the words of the objects but her reaction to the prototype was promising as she showed an understand that if she pressed the pictures it made different sounds.

Her parents mentioned that they believed that generally parents would be willing to help their children to understand the devices purpose and that it would help them as well as the child as teaching the child how to speak is not a quick and easy task. They liked the idea of being able to customise the pictures and sounds with their own but were concerned about how easy it would be to do.

Suggested modifications:

• Make sure that the software for parents to upload pictures and sounds is easy to use and understand.

Judy Geller - Hyperactive, 2 years old girl

Judy appeared to be attracted towards similar things as Michelle – but was able to successfully pronounce a few of the words. On the other hand, compared with Judy she quickly lost interest and wanted to go play with her dolls house instead. One of her parents mentioned that Judy seems to like role playing with her dolls and make up a stories for each doll character. Even though her parents can’t understand a some things Judy says for her stories they know she has a great imagination. We mentioned to her parents about our story mode idea, which they thought was brilliant and would help keep children interested.

Suggested modifications:

• Incorporate a story mode into the DigiCab to keep children interested

Phil Mitchell - Technology Loving 3 years old boy

Phil took to the DigiCab straight away and seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He was more drawn towards pressing the pictures of the car, bus and computer and repeated quite a few words when asked to. He already knew how to form short and simple sentences but appeared to struggle with his pronunciation. It seemed that he had somewhat already outgrown the basic idea of being told, “this is a car” as he appeared to have already learnt these words. On the other hand he would probably benefit more from being taught how to use the words in context. In this case the story mode idea would have been ideal. Phil’s father being a technology lover loved the idea of being able to customize the DigiCab with their own photos and sound as long as it was easy and not too time consuming to do so. Phil's father did not like the colour scheme, mentioning that it was too babyish. Phil himself should his head when he was asked if he liked the prototypes colours.

Suggested modifications:

• Incorporate story mode to teach more mature children how use words in the right context.
• Make sure that the software for parents to upload pictures and sounds is easy to use and not time consuming.
• Change colour scheme to something less babyish.

Ricardo Winner - Active 3 years old boy

Ricardo had no trouble in understanding how to use the DigiCab. He hit the touch screen quite hard when making his selections. Once again we noticed that he knew quite a few words but sometimes struggled to form sentences and pronounce words correctly. When asked about whether he liked the colours he replied "no". When we asked him what was wrong with the colours he said: "They are girly".

Suggested modifications:

• Make sure that Digicab is durable and able to withstand hard blows without breaking.
• Design different coloured Digicab devices for both boys and girls.

Questionnaires to Parents on DigiCab Prototype

We came up with some questions to ask the parents who are going to use the DigiCab product with their children, as they are the ones who are going to play with them. We would be doing some questionnaires on the initial prototype, use heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough for our evaluation methods. We went back to the nursery that we visited about a week ago and asked the parents about our prototype design. The questions that we asked were related to the non-functional requirements that we have initialised Even though our system is workable, we have to ask the parents for their feedback so that we can redesign it and make it better. Some parents may have problems in understanding the questions that we asked so We showed them what we are going to do and how it should work. The bold fonts show the explanation that we had done during the questionnaire.

Questionnaire on the product

1. What do you think of the colour that we have put on this paper design?
(This refers to the prototype that we showed them)

Response: Too colourful – might confuse the child when playing with it.

Response: The colours are just right but maybe the total number of colours could be reduced.

Response: Some parents think the borders should be done in white colour.

Percentage: 65% of parents said it is too colourful, 25% think it is good enough but needs to reduce the number of colour in there, 10% think they should make it plain.

2. What do you think of the screen design?
explaining why we decided on the glass (touch screen)

Response: Parents have doubts on the product type that we are going to use in the design. Some of them think it would be better to have plastic type of touch screen and some were concerned about the child’s safety on the glass touch screen.

Percentage: About 85% parents were worried about the design especially the safety of their children, 15% of parents think the glass screen is fine but would be better if we design the product with safety as our priority.

3. Looking at the design (referring to the prototype), what do you think of the placement of the start button?

Response: Placing the start button behind is useful and it is easier for them to turn it on and off.

Percentage: All parents agreed on the placement of the button.

4. Do you think the picture screen is too small?
(Referring to each picture on the grid layout)

Response: Most parents think the pictures are too small and they want to reduce the number of pictures on the prototype itself as it might confuse children if there are too many pictures on the screen at a time. Also, many think that cartoon pictures are not really useful for their children to learn because children might want to get more exposure to real pictures (probably photos) rather than cartoon pictures, which are not realistic.

Percentage: About 70% of the parents think that there are too many pictures on the screen and that they are too small.

5. What do you think of the edge of the design? (Sharp cornering)

All parents prefer to have a curved edge device.

6. What do you think of the speaker shape and size?

The shape does not look like a shape of a speaker.

Percentage: About 87% of the parents do not like the square shape of the speaker.

Questionnaire Analysis

Based on the questionnaire that we have done with the parents, our product has to follow the proper health and safety issues especially for young children aged between 2 and 3 years old. We would have to consider on the type of material that we are going to use to design the screen of our product. Most parents think the product does not have to be too colourful as it could be to complicated and parents would not want to buy this product for their child if it is too colourful. Some parents have suggested that we could use red, green and blue only on the product. Parents are satisfied with the buttons placed behind the product as the young children would not be able to look for them and this is a good design for not letting the young child to know where the on/off button is placed. Many parents also think the pictures are quite small for a young child between 2 and 3 years old to touch it. These children tend to smash or touch the image in the screen and the size of each picture does not cover the size of a young child’s hand. We would try to place the placement of the pictures so that it fits with the young children’s hand.

Parents want to have a curve shape at each corner of the product. This is important as most toys in the market have curve shape cornering to make it usable for young children and it is also one of the health and safety issues – young children will not get hurt easily if there is a curve at each corner. Parents would love to have a round shape speaker because it really matches to the design of the speakers that are used in the market, which are round shaped speaker. Parents know that the shape is referring to a speaker. They were able to recognise the shape.

At the end of our questionnaire, some parents actually suggested that the product could be very useful if it can be moved or carried around at any time the parents want. Some of them have suggested to have a handler at the top of the device so that they can carry them - just like how they carry a laptop bag. Since it is a technological device, it would be an advantage to make it portable.

We are considering that for our final prototype and we hope we could design a complete prototype that meets the requirements of the users.

Meeting with Dr Russell Beale

We were presented the opportunity to have a meeting with Dr Russell Beale - our HCI lecturer, who has a baby of his own. He mentioned that a good idea would be tell stories as the pictures on the touch screen are pressed. For example, rather than just having "This is a car" played when the car picture is pressed, it could play "Simon went for a drive in his car", or if the apple picture is pressed it could play "Simon bought an apple from the shop". This would help make the learning experience more enjoyable and give an example of how the words are used to form a sentence.

After the meeting, we thoroughly discussed this idea and came to the conclusion that we could incorperate it as a different setting that parents could choose to set for their child. For example, there could be normal mode and a story mode for the Digicab.

The DigiCab's parent interface

Here is a preview of the software that parents will use to upload their own pictures and sound to the DigiCab. Click on the picture to see an enlarged version:

Our Prototype - Electronic Version

The first image shows the options menu which is only available for the adults. Here an adult can add new images and sounds and also tweak the sound and display setting of the device.

The following screen shots show the actual flashcard application. If the child presses on any image it will maximise that image.

There are also back and forward buttons to navigate through images.

We have made this prototype and changed the speaker shape into round/circle shape. We evaluated that with the personas and one of the feedback these personas responded is that colour should be changed as the green background does not give any good view to users.

Our Prototype

Here is a photo of our first prototype of the DigiCab which will be tested on the personas.

We have made the screen to be rectangle shape and to have a sharp edge at each corner of the screen. The screen on both left and right hand side are made in square shape because it looks like a speaker kind of look. Most speakers are designed in square shape (the structure) and we believe it could be helpful to use that in our design. We have used both red, yellow and blue colour for our prototype. We believe they are colourful and since children aged between 2 and 3 years are going to use it, they would love the colour that appears on the screen. Initially, we thought of putting 20 different photos on the screen but after having some discussions with our members, we decided to put in 16 photos instead due to a large number of photos that might confuse the users.

Even though we have made this decision for our initial prototype, it is not really our final design. This is what we believe our end device would be based on our observation at the nursery and the personas that we have created. We would be evaluating our prototype with the parents and our personas to get their feedback before re-designing them.

Initial Non-Functional Requirements

Here is a list of non-functional requirements:

Usability – Users will get a display and sound straight away when they press on the buttons.

Efficiency (performance) – The DigiCab should have an average response time of 2 seconds when the child presses on the button because he or she would not have patience to wait. It will not hang if the child kept pressing the button non-stop.

Reliability – DigiCab should be available at least 99% of the time when it is used at home or at the nursery.

Standard – DigiCab should be designed according to the child requirements standard. DigiCab has to be a product that can be played by children aged between 1 and 3 years old.

Health and safety issues - DigiCab has to be developed according to the child health and safety regulation. When a child tries to bite or eat DigiCab, it should be safe for the child. The product has to be designed to be sturdy and electric shockproof. The child would not get electrocuted and there will not be any leakage of electricity when the child uses it.

Visit to the Nursery (Video)

Here is the video we took on our visit to the nursery school. Unfortunately, there was a technical problem with the video and therefore no sound can be heard. We did not have permission from all the people in this video so you will see a white box on some faces. Enjoy!

Photos of Nursery visit

Our Nursery Visit

It was a great visit to the nursery today. We enjoyed playing with the young children. These chidren are aged between 2 and 3 years old (which matches our target users) We were amazed on how these children responded to technology and things around them. We identified some of their ability to learn a new skill and adapt to new techniques. Here are the observation questions that we have put:

Observation Result: Based on our observation, we found that the boys were quite lazy to do a task and they had a hard time learning the skills that we were trying to ask them. Whereas, the girls were more interested towards everything that was put in front of them. The children tend to eat whatever toys that they had in hand. This shows that they were not really interested to learn particular toys but to play with them. We have taken a video that shows one of the boys stepping on a vacuum machine and do not know how it works. When it comes to learning, the boys needed more attention and have to be guided to learn something at a young age. For example, we gave them a puzzle that comprises of 5 different shapes and they were asked to solve it. They seem to know the name of the shapes but had no idea where to place the shapes onto the puzzle. However, after giving them a clue of where it should be placed, they had a rough idea on where to place the next. Without guidance, boys would never learn a new skill or knowledge. On another occasion, the boys had no idea how to use a washing machine. As indicated on the video, one of them started to turn the buttons, even though guidance were given to him, he still continued to do the same thing.

The girls spent most of their time in kitchen area; familiarising with all the objects in the area. They knew some of the products and how to operate them, but some of the products were not familiar to them, so they tried to use their initiative. For example, as shown in the video, one of the girls tried to put the kitchen utensils into the washing machine as she did not know what to put in and how to operate the device, but she knew how to operate the vacuum cleaner and how to change the bag. There were willing to learn any thing that is interesting to them including colours and texture. They were attracted to objects that seem interesting such as our camera, which were accidentally left on the table. Most of them were excited to see the photos and insisted on using the camera. However, when they could not operate it, they tried to throw it on the floor instead. Nonetheless, numerous questions were asked.

We realised that most children know something that they have been taught before but did not know how to express them verbally. One of the boys were given a microwave oven toy and asked what it is for and how it works. He did not know how to describe it but knew that he had to put something in it. He chose a plate and animals (as food) and put it together into the microwave oven. This indicate the child’s recognition ability rather than recalling them. The boy knew what the microwave oven toy is because he has seen it before (most probably at home). However, there were some toys that the boy has no idea of and yet is lazy to learn them.

Another observation was with the group. We put the boy with the 3 other kids and asked them to build something from the Lego toys. Again, all 4 boys had no idea what to do with the Lego pieces. However, after being told to build a tall building, they started to build it as instructed. However, none of them was doing it together as a group. They tend to do it by themselves. This indicate that they did not like sharing their toys and playing with others.

We observed the boys based on heuristic designs such as the colour, texture and type of product as well. We have given 2 boys 3 different dolls (1 brown doll, 1 pink barbie doll and 1 black doll) to play with. Both of them chose the brown doll as their first choice. The colour choice had probably resulted from their parents or guardians way of choosing colour. The boys' fathers may love dark colour, which made the boys think that they prefer dark colour too rather than pink dolls. The boys seem to be happy to look at different texture of design. We have given them about 4 and 5 texture to touch and they were really excited about it. However, they did not have any particular interest in texture. Nonetheless, we had to take into consideration on texture too because some kids may be sensitive to certain texture.

We found out that the boys tend to play with the gardening, computer and musical instruments toys such as the spanner, screwdrivers, computer, guitar and the piano. We tried to place them at the kitchen area where they can cook or do some washing. They just stayed there for a minute and decided to walk away after that. When we put them at the gardening area, they spent a longer time playing with the toys there and they enjoyed themselves by trying to describe the toys they were playing. That shows their particular interest due influence from outside world, including their parents. When we observed girls in group, they also tend to work on their own. Most of them knew the products, as their main interests were the kitchen products.

Summary: As elaborated above, the requirements for our product design implementation do fit both male and female categories that can be played by young children aged between 1 and 3 years old. This product is beneficial to parents as it is less time consuming and programmable.

Debate on naming the product

We had a meeting today to discuss about our visit to the nursery and decide on the name of our product. As we are combining 3 different products from the brainstorming, we decided to name it DigiCab. Here is our discussion:

Preparation for a visit to the Nursery

We had our meeting today, to prepare ourselves to go to the nursery to get some information from young children aged between 1 and 3 years old.

It was not easy for us to do as we had to contact the nursery for permission to visit the children and observe their daily lives. We had to get a letter from the university (to prove that we are students of University of Birmingham) and to get consent letters for the parents to sign because we have to take some photographs of the children. Thanks to our lecturer, we managed to get it on time and arranged a meeting at the nursery.

We have prepared a brief description to show the nursery Manager, please click to enlarge. The description is almost the same as the information we had in the consent form.

After doing all those things, we came up with a set of questions which would help us during our observation.

Observation Video

This video shows one of our member's one year old nephew. Given a mobile phone, the baby was trying to eat it instead. He was not aware of the technology and what it is for but just treats the mobile as a toy. This clearly describes one of our personas, Simon Sims- a baby that is spoilt, loves crying and tries to eat everything that is given.

Persona - Ricardo Winner (Active Boy)

• 3 years old boy
• Loves sport - especially football
• Clumsy
• Naughty - tends to break or throw toys around
  
• Plays Lego
• Full of energy - runs around the house all the time
• Screams when needs attention

Family

His Dad, 28, the sole breadwinner of the family is a businessman. His Mum, 27, is a full-time housewife. He has a younger sister aged 1 year old. He is closest to his Dad as they both are passionate about football. His Mum is on a two-year leave from work to take care of her youngest child as they do not have a nanny. She believes this is the best solution to the current situation as it can be quite difficult to juggle between two work.

A Day in the Life

He gets up at 8am and has cereal with milk for breakfast every morning . As he enjoys football, he likes to spend most of the day outdoor to practice his football skills. Once, he hit his Mum's favourite flower pot and almost broke the kitchen window. He looks forward to the weekends in particular, when his father is free to teach and play football with him. He is quite aggressive with items that he sees. For example, when the neighbours bring their kids of around 3–4 years old over to his place, he tends to throw his toys at them for no apparent reason. Other time, he would just grab other kids’ toys and break them when he does not like it. He often comes home with mud all over his face and clothes. Occasionally, he watches football matches on television with his Dad and goes to bed by 9pm.

Goals and Fears

He wants to become a professional footballer with his favourite club, Arsenal when he grows up. He is afraid of his parents as they would scold him and confiscate his favourite ball as a punishment when he misbehaved.

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities
He does not have any knowledge about computers. He treats every other item just like a ball and some times throw his toys at a computer or a television. He is ignorant with the fact that his actions may cause harm not only to himself but to others as well. He prefers to play football than playing video games or other technology embedded toys. Sometimes, he sits by his Dad when he checks match results on the Internet but do not know how to interpret it unless his Dad explains it to him.

Communicating

He is learning to speak but with some broken sentences. One of his favourite phrases is "Let's play football".

Persona - Phil Mitchell (Technology Lover Baby)

• 2 years old boy
• Loves to copy his big brother
  
• Loves video games even though he cannot really play them
• Likes to watch his brother play games on the television
  
• Favourite video game: Super Mario Bros
  
• Likes to look at pictures in books
  
• Favourite program: Thomas the tank engine
  
• Tries to play on his brothers mini Gameboy
  
• Does not communicate much
  
• Loves chocolate milk

Family

His father is a computer scientist and his mother is a teacher. He has an elder brother aged 5 and a younger sister aged 1.

A Day in the Life

He is an early bird and likes to get up as soon as the sun rises in the morning. He likes to drink chocolate milk before starting his day. At every opportunity, he tries to get hold of his brother's Gameboy and attempt to play it. Even though he is unable to play it and keeps dying in his game, he never gives up as he likes the music and noises the Gameboy makes and is fascinated that he make the little man on the screen move just by pressing buttons. He usually cries when his brother or parents try to take the Gameboy from him. During weekdays, he likes to watch children's television after his brother gets home from school and gets up early at the weekend to do the same. He has a small obsession with trains and other moving vehicles and never fails to be amazed when he sees a plane or helicopter in the sky. Because of his sister being so young, she tends to get the most attention from her parents and sometimes Phil gets jealous. His Mum and Dad are thinking about sending him to play school for a few hours each day to socialise with other children but he does not want to go.

Goals and Fears

His father thinks that his son will become a Computer Scientist like him because of his fascination with technology and computers. Being a bit timid, he does not like being talked to by strangers and hides behind his Mum or Dad. He is worried about going to play school and meeting other children for the first time. His main goal is to get his own Gameboy and drive a train.

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities
He seems to understand that computers are somehow controlled by pressing certain buttons and has learned to switch on the television after watching his father do it a few times. He likes to watch his father on his laptop and gets excited when his dad lets him press keys and fiddle with the mouse pad. He loves to see new technology and will always try to play with them even though he does not have any idea what they are used for. He likes pressing buttons just to see what they do.

Communicating
He does not speak very often other than when he wants something. He likes to try and mimic his brother and learns most of his words and phrases from him.

Persona - Judy Geller (Hyperactive Girl)

• 3 years old girl
• Has a ton of energy and is hyperactive
• Very strong and athletic
• Always on the move, never slows down
• Talks loud and fast, sometimes has trouble completing sentences
• Craves sweets and especially chocolate ice-cream
• Eats a meal then says she is hungry after a while
• Has trouble sleeping
• Prefers to play with others than by herself
• Quite when meeting new people
• Has one sister

Summary
Both of her parents are doctors and in their late forties. They spend their time with her only during evenings and weekends. They are quite rich and like buying her new toys but not too many as they do not want to spoil her. They prefer buying her educational toys that mainly help her exercise her skills.

Her grandmother takes cares of her whenever her parents are working or when she is not at the nursery. Whenever her parents are not working they love spending time with her and her sister by taking them out to the playground. They also spend time reading her books and teaching her new things.

She has extreme anger moods that consist of kicking, hitting, and screaming. She also has one 11-year-old sister. They do not go along very well and they fight quite a lot. Her parents are very lenient with her as she is the youngest. Her diet is not very strict but very balanced as both of her parents are doctors.

A Day in the Life
During the weekdays, she wakes up around 8 in the morning to go to the nursery. She spends half of her day in the nursery playing with other children. She is very hyperactive and energetic, enjoying playing along with other children in the nursery and especially running around and screaming at the top of her lungs for long periods of time. She rarely sits down calmly to draw or play with toys on her own like other children in the nursery. Her grandmother is responsible of taking her to the nursery and also picking her up.

When she comes home, she spends most of the time with her grandmother and sister until her parents come back from work. She is usually watching cartoons on television and playing with her sister. She has all kinds of toys that a normal 3-year-old child would have but she rarely plays with them as she prefers to run around the house, play with balls or play with her sister's dolls She likes taking her sister's toys, that are mostly dolls, and dressing/undressing them and throwing them around. This makes her sister very angry so they end up fighting and screaming most of the time.

Later in the afternoon when her parents come back from work she gets excited to see them and spends the rest of her time until her bedtime with them. She normally goes to sleep around 10 but because she is so hyperactive most of the day, it takes two hours on an average to get her to slow down enough to fall asleep at night.

Goals and Fears
She always wants things her own way and likes when people do what she wants. She also wants to be in charge when she is around other children. She always tries to have fun whatever the cost. She loves sweet and especially ice cream and she will do anything to have some. She loves her parents very much and wants to spend more time with them.

She gets really upset when she is all alone and especially when her parents go away for a couple of days. She also hates when her parents ground her, as this means she would not be able to do whatever she likes.

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities
Although she has many toys, some of them educational, she prefers not to play with them, as she gets bored after a while. She does not mind playing with some of them but only when her parents are present. When she decides to play with a toy, she avoids the complicated ones that require thinking or involve using her hands to construct something. She prefers having fun effortless by interacting mostly with other people. She knows how to count up to 20 but sometimes haves trouble counting correctly.

She knows about devices such as the television and the telephone and knows the concept of pressing buttons on the remote to change channel and pressing numbers on the keypad to dial a number. However, she does not know how to use them properly. She gets easily fascinated by electronic devices especially those that have bright colours, sounds and a lot of buttons. She gets calm and focus when she sees something new and interesting but she easily gets bored after a while.

She also shows great interest for toys that are for older children than toys designed for her age, as she loves playing with her sister’s dolls.

Communicating
She normally speaks too fast and very loud. Because of that, sometimes she has trouble completing whole sentences and most of the time they do not make any sense. She never listens to her parents’ advice and normally screams and yells at them when she does not like something. She always yells when talking with her sister. She always wants things her own way when communicating with other children in her age. Very shy and quiet when meeting new children or adults but after she gets to know them well, she does the same with them.

Persona - Michelle Fox (Quiet Baby)

• 2 years old girl
• Seldom cries - only cries when she gets hungry or sleepy
• Short blonde hair
• Small mole above her lips
• Obedient
• Loves touching her face
• Has two older brothers (5 and 7 years old)
• Plays play-doh
• Shy to strangers at first but interacts with them after getting closer

Summary
Michelle's father is 40 years old, a lecturer at a University and her mother is a 38 years old housewife. Even though she has two older brothers, she seldom talks to them. She has learned to speak some simple words describing fruits, shapes or animals. She has some friends around the neighbourhood where she spends her time playing with them. Her best friend is Grace, who lives next door. She picks up quite easily when it comes to dealing with toys. She knows a microwave oven is used to cook food and she can describe the item. Her mother spends most of her time with Michelle and teaches her new words and sentences by showing the device and teaches her each word. For example, when her mother showed Michelle a television, she described the television to her and Michelle learns new words and sentences through it. So far, she has learned words such as "computers", "television", "remote control" and "laptop".

A Day in the Life

Michelle always wakes up at 9 am every day. She goes to the nursery during the weekdays. She loves to play with play-doh in the nursery. Things that she always builds with are animal-looking such as chicken, cat and dog. She is quite nervous to speak with her friends in the nursery. The nursery play worker always tries to teach Michelle different words from different aspects such as kitchen utensils, gardening tools, musical instruments and technology devices. Michelle loves to play with the washing machine toy, kettle toy, toaster toy, computer toy and microwave oven toy. She gets really excited and happy when there are visitors who come to visit her. She can be shy at first but gets better after she gets used to the environment. She sleeps in the mid-day for almost 2 hours. She tends to sleep well during the day rather than at night. She does not need to be looked after when she sleeps. When she gets back home, she tries to tell her mother about what she has done in the nursery. She goes to bed at 9pm every night.

Goals and Fears

Her main goal is to follow her father's footstep and become a lecturer. She wants to teach English because she is interested in learning new words and vocabulary. She learns most of her new words and sentences from her mother. Her main fear is being unable to identify or describe things she sees. She cannot describe a new device properly without initial guidance from her mother. For example, there was one time when her mother showed her a web camera and asked her what that was. She was interested to know about the device but cried for not being able to identify it. She calmed down after her mother told her about the device and description.

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

As mentioned above, she is quite aware of things around her at home and at the nursery. She knows what a microwave oven, kettle or vacuum cleaner is. She can describe these devices after being guided by her mother. When new devices are given to her, she tries to learn them by describing the items but it takes some time for her to identify the name or the functionalities of the items. When her mother describes the items to her, she grasps them easily and quickly memorises it and tries to speak it out loud. She tries to relate one device to the other that she has seen before. For example, she knows that a computer laptop screen is used to display pictures just like a television as they both look similar.

Communicating
She learns a lot of new words from her mother especially things in the house. Her mother always guides her by showing her a device and asks her what it is used for. She always describes the item according to what she knows. When she is unable to do so, her mother will describe it to her. She seldom communicate with her father as he is busy with his work and seldom communicates with her brothers as well because they always play on their own. In the nursery, she seldom talks to anybody else except Grace. She always sticks together with Grace and talks to her the things that she has learned.

Persona - Simon Sims (Spoilt Baby)

According to BBC, babies aged between 2 and 3 years old start to say words, babies aged between 3 and 4 years old start to ask questions and babies aged between 4 and 5 years old start to form sentences.

(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ – 7/2/2007)

We have decided that our target users will be babies aged between 1 and 3 years old. We are combining the ideas that we have brainstormed in our last meeting which is the baby button communicator, baby voice recognition and digital flash card.

We have defined 5 personas that would help us to identify our target users. These are our predictions of how our target users would react to our technology design. It may not be specific ones but we tried to match these profiles and implement them into our design.

Simon Sims - Spoilt Baby

• 1 year old boy
• Has difficulties drinking milk - tends to spill it
• Has problems sleeping
• Only child
• Attention seeker
• Very shy
• Cries a lot for attention, and whenever he sees strangers
• Likes to play toys on his own
• Does not interact with other children

Summary

Simon comes from a wealthy family. His father, aged 35 years old is a CEO of his own company. As he is the only child, he became the centre of attention of his relatives. He received a large number of presents from his relatives last Christmas. He does not understand how to play with half of them especially toys with advanced features. Since his father is very busy with his business, Simon spends most of his time with his nanny. His nanny is in her mid-20s and loves technology. She tries her best to involve Simon into using the toys. He has very little interest in technology and therefore does not adapt well to it. His mother is in her late 20s and is a businesswoman who spends most of her time working. Due to her workload, she spends very limited time with Simon.

A Day in the Life

When Simon wakes up in the morning, he starts to cry to get attention. His nanny prepares milk for him to drink. He is very clumsy and manages to spill his drink even though it is in a bottle. During the day, he loves to crawl and sometimes walks small distances between furniture. He likes to play with his toys but sometimes gets hurt by falling on them. On occasion, when his parents’ friends bring their children over to visit, he becomes jealous and cries. He does not like other children playing with his toys and has difficulties in joining them. He is very shy when approached by strangers which makes him cry for attention from his nanny. He usually goes to bed around 9 pm when he needs to drink milk before he sleeps. His nanny sings lullabies to help him get to sleep but he still wakes up every two hours and cry for attention.

Goals and Fears

His main goal is to have as many toys as possible. He pays less attention to complicated toys with unattractive colour and texture design. When his nanny tries to get him to interact with technological toys, Simon refuses to play with them on his own but when his nanny participates, he takes slightly more interest in it. This indicates that Simon either fears to play with new toys or is not willing to learn new skills. When playing on his own, he gets scared and starts crying especially when his nanny is not around. He does not like being alone and gets cranky when he is hungry.

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

As mentioned above, Simon does not like computers or any other technological devices around him. He treats a television or a computer as a toy. He takes less pride to know new products, as it requires knowledge and skills. His ability to adapt new skills is almost zero to none. For example, when his nanny tries to teach him to play with toys that require some skills, he ignores her and takes a longer time to explore the toy. Even though his parents gave him a new toy to play with, he sticks himself to the normal toys he used to play with, as he knows how to play with those. Sometimes, he tries to eat any small toy that is given to him assuming that it is edible. He also likes to crawl onto large devices and jump on it.

Communicating

Most of the time, Simon communicates with his nanny and seeks her attention by crying. He seeks attention from his parents by crying too. He only tries to communicate with his nanny or parent when he is hungry, sleepy or to get personal attention. He seldom communicates with strangers or any other children as well relatives. This limits his communication with the outside world and certainly the adaptability to learn. He is able to speak some simple words such as "Papa", "Mama", "milk", "Nana" and "sleep".

Some of the personas description were taken from real observation. We watched a few videos on what a one year old baby usually does in his or her daily life. These personas will help us to design our product and ensure that they can be used by babies with different characteristics.

Note: Thanks to Richard for drawing all the persona pictures! These pictures are original and we did not copy or get it from any other resources. If you like to save those pictures for other purposes, please let us know!

Our next meeting & blog activity

After meeting with our demonstrator, we have to change our persona information. We need to do some research about our persona as well. We need to make sure that our product does meet the persona's need. We are currently in process of obtaining permission from the university to visit the nursery. We hope to get some feedback from parents by using interviews techniques and observe the children to learn about their development.

On our next blog activity, we shall post up some videos on babies' learning, lifestyle, interest and some photographs that we might take from the nursery. We will put up our personas together with some sketch photographs drawn by Richard. These personas will have more detailed information about themselves.

We will create a prototype of our product soon. We will sketch them on paper before trying to create some 3D image on it. That would be our next meeting discussion about our design.

Our first meeting with our demonstrator

We had our first meeting with our demonstrator to discuss about our current blog progress. Apparently, our blog needs more information about personas and the questionnaire that we have done is not sufficient to gather information for our device.

Some questions in the questionnaire seems unrelated to the information gathering. For instance, on question 3, "What outdoor activities do you do with your child" does not really reflect our findings of information. As we are trying to convince parents to buy our products, we need to get as much details as possible from them on how they respond to the product that we are going to design.

We have to ask more questions about the product that we are going to design. In addition to this, we have to edit our personas and add more information into it. Since we will be going to the nursery to observe on the children's lifestyle, we should be able to get some ideas on the child needs. We have to search for more information from the website on what a 1 - 3 years old baby would like.

We have some inspiration from cartoon series such as Rugrats which will help us a lot with defining personas.

In Rugrats, these characters are aged around 1 - 3 years old and they already have their own imagination in the the baby world.

This could really help us to understand how these babies really respond. We could also know that some babies may have different needs and have different personalities. This could really help us a lot in defining our personas. We hope that we will know more of a baby's lifestyle after visiting the nursery.

Note: Hey, anyone of you who are reading this blog, please give your personal comment about this page's design and content. Your feedback is really useful to us. No worries, we are happy to visit your blog and give comments as well.