Human-Computer Interaction for Commercial Applications - Case Study Example

HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION FOR COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS By Presented to Wednesday, September 07, PART Describe the system The Motorola Razr2 entails great user interface that is considered the most user friendly around the world especially in United States of America. The phone on the exterior side has a clamshell case that features a large touch screen panel in accessing a number of quick launch buttons. The touch screen at the front as shown can be used to launch the camera, which as well has a hard quick launch button on one of its side. The screen can also be used to launch TV streaming and TV viewing even without opening the flaps (Richmond, 2007). The phone has multiple functions and besides being used for communication, it can be used to stream TVs and online contents as well as for playing music and other entertainment functions. The phone has a good camera that can be used to take photos. The phones’ user interface anatomy is shown in the figure below. The functioning of the keys is illustrated in the diagram above. The left soft keys, the volume keys, the right soft keys, the OK button and the navigating button have the normal usage as in other basic phones. The functionality of these keys is standard on almost all basic phones. The MEDianet key, the smart key, the open cellular video key are the special keys designed to improve the user interface so as to enable quick access when using the mobile phone. To add on that the phone is equipped with more functional keys on the cover of the flap. These keys enhance the functionality of the phone. This is illustrated as in the figure below. With the smart keys, one is able to create shortcuts and access the required application just by clicking on the smart keys this makes accessibility of the phone to be ranked among the best. Moreover, the phone has an external display which makes it easy to read text messages, see the clock, see incoming calls among other functionality without opening the flap. Also, one is able to change the home screen shortcuts to fit his/her own desires. This can be simply done as illustrated in the figure below. PART 2: The users Motorola Razr 2 is a general usability phone for those who do not really require phones with advanced functions, such as the use of 3G technologies, high pixel cameras, radio, and GPS function ability amid other specialized features (Richmond, 2007). The phone is, thus, a general phone for an average user who does not demand extensive use of a phone for most of their daily functions. The large touch screens at the exterior of the phone makes the user interface of this phone to be problematic. The phone has multiple functions. This is the reason has a wide variety of users using the device for various functions. Most users use the device for basic communication services this includes making and receiving calls. Besides being used for communication, most users also use then phone to stream TVs and online contents as well as for playing music and other entertainment functions. The wide range of functionality of the phone creates several categories of user, those using the phone for basic communication, those using the phone for entertainment and finally the ones who use the phone for video and audio streaming. The phone has a good camera that can be used to take photos. PART 3: User Observations Motorola Razr 2 is used to accomplish various activities by different users. The first user I observed uses the device mostly to make and receive calls. The second user uses the device mostly for live streaming of online videos. He spends most of the time watching online vides and TV through this device. The third user explores the internet mostly with this device. He uses this device to browse the internet for research purposes, for social sites like Facebook and for entertainment PART 4: Activities: Goals, Tasks and Actions The Systems Motorola Razr 2 has several user goals. This includes; 1. Allowing users to make calls 2. Allowing users to receive calls 3. Allowing user to compose text messages 4. Allowing users to send text messages 5. Allowing users to receive text messages 6. Allowing users to save contacts into the phone book 7. Allowing users Stream video 8. Allowing users to watch internet TV 9. Allowing users to stream live audio 10. Allowing users to access the internet 11. Allowing users to receive IM services 12. Allowing users to send and receive Email messages 13. Allowing users to play music both video and audio 14. Allowing users to use different apps and a wide range of games. To send a text message, the procedure below is followed. From the home screen, select messaging>create new message. This text area is as indicated in the figure below. Press keypad keys to enter texts and numerals into the text area. To insert an multimedia article i.e. sound, image or video, the user presses the center key and then selects insert, scrolls down to what he/she wants to insert. After composing the message, the user presses the send to key. After which he/she has an option of selecting the recipients contact from the phone book (can either be a phone number or an email address) or having to input the contact from the keypad. After selecting the recipient. The user then presses the send key to send the message. To receive a message, after the phone plays a new message alert, and displays new message with and indicator of an “envelop” on the screen, the user presses the read key to open and read the message. The keypad of this phone is a the basic keypad which has alphabetical characters arranged sequentially from A to Z. This is a problem that hinders first typing of a text message. This is a major drawback since most phones have employed the use of qwerty keypad to enable easy texting. To use the touch screen, one navigates through the menu by touching the icons using either a calibrated pen or fingers. This doesn’t require use of keys on the keypad to perform an action on the device. Despite the accessibility of the touch screen of this device, it has various draw backs. First, it’s highly sensitive to touch in that it can trigger an action without the conscience of the user. This can trigger things like video streaming, text messaging, internet browser among others which will end up consuming the power and calling units . PART 5: HCI analysis of the Actions: visibility, affordance and feedback The visibility of this device is considered as the best yet in the market. The device has got great labeling which aids in the visibility. To aid in visibility and affordance, the device idle screen is equipped with various icons as illustrated in the figure below Moreover, the device has got status bar when loading a page as one browses the internet which attempts to aid visibility. The user interface of this device is an improved one from the previous versions of the Motorola products. Thus most users of this device have upgrade from using another device of the product. As a result, affordance is linked to the previous experience of using Motorola device. For instance, to read a text message, there is an “envelop” that pops up on the screen. A user who has used the device before will immediately know there is a new message and he will know exactly what to do to read the message. This device has got very many positive feedbacks with most people having good experience in using the device for the various functions. PART 6: Low-fidelity paper prototype Storyboard showing playing music when the phone is closed First, the music touch key is pressed to open the music player. This will bring up a menu as illustrated in the figure below The scroll keys are then used to navigate through a song of choice to be played. The OK key is then pressed to play the song. There are other various operations that can be done when playing the music like Pressing to play or Pause the song, Pres sing to skip to another song, Pressing to rewind or forward the song, Pressing the volume keys to change the volume Holding the smart key to lock or unlock the keys To enable a greater experience and comfort of the user when texting, the basic keypad should be replaced with a more advanced qwerty keypad which not only makes texting an easy tasks but synchronize the use of the phones keypad and a computer’s keypads thus enhancing affordance. PART 7: Task Analysis To create a text message, the user clicks on the messaging on the home screen menu to select it. This opens the notepad which the text will be entered. After opening up this text area, the user uses the keypad to input text into the text area. User Action Device response Click on Messaging Messaging menu opens Click on new text message Text are opens Type in your text The text is displayed in the text area Click send The text message is send. The system gets an input from the user in this case a text message, encodes it in the required format and enables the user to send the text message. Read More