ID FMP: Framework for Developing Conceptual Models

We keep on coming back to conceptual models [define]. The reason being, a well-designed conceptual model is a fundamental element of successful product and service systems. To develop a well-articulated conceptual model designers need to think through the main metaphors, concepts, actions, and relationships of the systems they are designing before developing prototypes of any sort (including wireframes, drawings, renderings, etc).

Don Norman’s and Bjoern Hartmann’s model provides insight into how designers’ conceptual models interact and relate to a users’ mental models. It does not, however, provide any guidance to help designer synthesize conceptual models.

Johnson and Herderson’s framework, published in 2002, was developed with this purpose in mind. This framework identifies the standard components of a conceptual model. It provides a blueprint that designer can use to develop conceptual models. Here is an overview of the four components of conceptual model as defined by Johnson and Henderson:

• Major Metaphors and Analogies: Identify important metaphors and analogies used to enable the user to understand what a product does and how to use it.
• Concepts: Define the concepts that users are exposed to and that they need to understand, including the objects the concepts create and manipulate, any relevant attributes, and the operations that can be performed on the concept.
• Relationships and Actions: Identify the relationships between concepts, including whether an object contains another, or is part of it, and the relative importance of objects and actions.
• Mappings: Define the mappings between the metaphors and concepts and the user experience the product is designed to invoke.

Examples of this framework in action (albeit one developed by someone with little to no experience working with it) are available on two of my recent posts:

• The first was developed in response an exercise from the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction.
• The second was written as a personal exercise for me to apply this conceptual framework to develop a silly pet product idea that I had been toying around with for a while.

[source: Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction]

** What the hell is ID FMP? **

ID FMP: Map of Relationship Between Conceptual and Mental Models

Developed by Don Norman, the model illustrated below demonstrates how relationship between a designer’s conceptual model and a user’s mental model is mediated by the system image of products or services.

So here is my explanation of what this model means: Designers develop product and service systems based on conceptual models [define] that they create or borrow. I use the terms product and service systems [define] refer to the ecosystem that encompasses products, services and their related artifacts and resources; these can include assets such as manuals and knowledge bases, and resource such as user groups and communities.

Users do not have access to the conceptual models of designers. Their understanding of how a product works is developed based on their interactions with the product itself, their previous experiences with the world, and their existing knowledge and expertise. All of these considerations affect how people interpret their experiences with a product, and the mental model [define] they create to explain how products work.

The term system [define] image refers to the way a product or service system actually appears to a user. System images are always imperfect representations of the conceptual models upon which they were built. For a product to be usable the system image needs to enable users to develop an accurate mental model of how relevant aspects of a product or service works.

An interesting feature of Norman’s 1988 model, is that designers relationship with system images is represented as a one-way phenomenon. This implies that once a product has been designed there is little opportunity for on-going improvements. During the last 20 years advances in technology and design methodology have made it possible for designers to continuously fine-tune product and service systems. This is especially true in the increasingly service-based world of software.

Bjoern Hartmann has revised Norman’s model to reflect the opportunity for designers to play an on-going role in improving the system image of the products they’ve created. The model he proposes includes a feedback loop that enables the user to communicate to the designer via the system image.

Hartmann posits that user-initiated feedback via the system will help identify mismatches between the designer’s conceptual model and the user’s model of how the system functions. Another important consideration is that offering an instantaneous feedback option in the same media on which the interaction is taking place will generate more reliable and richer data than feedback elicited later, or via a different channel.

[Sourced from Don Norman’s website, though I know Norman's framework was also featured in this book The Design of Everyday Things; Paper by Bjoern Hartmann written during graduate studies at Standford]

** What the hell is ID FMP? **

Interaction Design Frameworks, Models and Principles (ID FMP)

Since I began my interaction and experience design curriculum six months ago I've come across a large number of frameworks, models and principles that provide guidance and insights to designers. These tools were developed by designers, psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists who have long been exploring the ways in which people interact with products, with each other, with organizations, and with the world at large.

To help me keep track of all these useful tools I will start writing posts that provide a description of these individual frameworks, models or principles. I will also include source information and, when possible, list additional information sources. All of my posts related to this series will be tagged with ID FMP.

The frameworks, models and principles that I will cover span many different perspectives and domains. Some are user-focused while others center on design-related concerns; several provide general guidance for designers while others focus on considerations that are relevant to specific niches only. The common thread that holds these tools together is their applicability to the design of interactions and experiences.

Chapter 3 Homework: What is interaction design?

This assignment was taken from the third chapter of the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interactions, written by Helen Sharp, Jenny Preece, and Yvonne Rogers.

Assignment Questions
Question A: first elicit your own mental model. Write down how you think a cash machine (ATM) works. Then answer the questions below. Next ask two people the same questions.

• How much money are you allowed to take out?
• If you took this out and then went to another machine and tried to withdraw the same amount, what would happen?
• What is on your card?
• How is the information used?
• What happens if you enter the wrong number?
• Why are there pauses between the steps of a transaction?
• How long are they?
• What happens if you type ahead during the pauses?
• What happens to the card in the machine?
• Why does it stay inside the machine?
• Do you count the money? Why?

Question B: Now analyze your answers. Do you get the same or different explanations? What do the findings indicate? How accurate are people’s mental models of the way ATMs work? How transparent are the ATM systems they are talking about?

Question C: Next, try to interpret your findings in respect to the design of the system. Are any interface features revealed as being particularly problematic? What design recommendations do these suggest?

Question D: Finally, how might you design a better conceptual model that would allow users to develop a better mental model of ATMs (assuming this is a desirable goal)?

Assignment Answers

Question A

Here’s My Take
Here is my understanding regarding how an ATM functions. The user owns a card that has a magnetic stripe that holds his/her account number. To execute a transaction using an ATM, first the user has to insert his card in the appropriate slot for the machine to read the user’s card number. Next, the user is prompted to input a four-digit pin number to access the account.

Once the pin number is entered the ATM machine connects to a central server via the internet and authenticates the user. If authentication succeeds, then the ATM machine remains connected to the server to enable the user to access various services such as viewing account balance, funds withdrawal or deposit, and potentially account transfers. When the user performs an action on his account, the ATM machine communicates with the server to execute the command.

For security purposes the ATM machine will request that the user re-enter his pin number every time s/he requests to execute a new action, e.g. withdrawing money. Other security features include that the ATM machine asks the user whether s/he is ready to quit after every transaction; it also automatically logs off a user after a short period of inactivity.

Take from Subject One Card is entered and account is confirmed after pin number entry. The amount entered is calculated in terms of number of bills usually of $20 denomination and spit out at you, and appropriate debits are made on the account. You are then told to have a nice day. Meanwhile hardly noticed by you is that your bank, the bank that owns the atm, and perhaps the operator of the atm has embezzled “so-called” fees from your account.

Take from Subject Two
ATM works like a computer. Your ATM card is like an activation key only usable with the right password. If you don't provide the right password, the machine will eat it. The ATM uses software programmed by the bank (so I guess every bank's ATM is slightly different for that reason) and depending on which button you choose for what to do next, it does various things. So I guess you can think of the ATM like a road to search for treasure... Your cash is the ultimate treasure and what you do from the moment you stand in front of the ATM until you get the actual cash is like your path in search for the treasure. The ATM is also networked, so someone is always watching your every move.

[click on the charts to enlarge them]

Question B

For the most part everyone has a pretty accurate mental model regarding how an ATM works. All of us understand that the services provided by ATMs are accessed using a card with a corresponding pin number. Another shared understanding is that ATM services are enabled by connections to bank databases where transactions are authorized and captured.

The biggest difference between the each explanation was the focus of the author. I focused on providing a technical/systems description of how an ATM works; subject one’s description covered user experience elements such as frustrations with excessive bank fees; subject two provided an overview that from a much looser metaphorical perspective. Otherwise, there were small differences related to each person’s understanding about specific elements of the user experience (e.g. amount money that can be taken out, reasons for delay, response to wrongful input, etc).

These findings indicate that most people in my social circle have accurate mental models of the way in which ATM machines work. This seems to suggest that the way ATM systems work is, for the most part, transparent. However, there are certain elements of the interaction about which the users still lack clarity or dislike, these include: the amount of money that can be taken out; the total value of the fees being applied to the account; and the inability to count the money when the ATM is in a public place.

Question C

For the most part, users have a good understanding regarding how ATM systems work. Therefore, the improvement opportunities to address user issues are mostly small and incremental in nature (e.g. addressing the small information gaps). This is not to say that new technologies, concepts and approaches could not be used to improve the experience of using an ATM in ways that current users cannot envision.

Here are a few design recommendations to address the three design gaps identified between system image and the user’s mental model:

• Lack of clarity regarding the amount of money that can be taken out. Possible solution includes: providing users with information regarding their daily withdrawal limit (as well as any ATM specific limits). This issue is only present when using ATM machines that are not from the issuing bank.
• Lack of clarity regarding the total value of the fees being applied to the account. Possible solution includes: providing users with information regarding ATM and bank fees applied to transactions. This issue is only present when using ATM machines that are not from the issuing bank.
• The inability to count the money when the ATM is in a public place. Possible solutions include: create cash dispensers that leverage arrangement of bills and time delay to enable users to count the money in the tray while it is being dispensed.

Question D

Many advances have taken place in the design of ATM systems over the past several years. The new ATM from Chase Bank in New York is a great example of a well-designed ATM system. It has several notable improvements from older systems including easy, envelope-free, deposits, and improved touch screen interfaces.

Here are a few areas related to the conceptual model of ATM systems that offer opportunities for improvements:

Access to services provided by ATM
Using presence awareness technology, similar to that available on luxury car models, banks could design ATM machines that can identify the user without the need for a card. Users would have a key (rather than card) that contains an RFID chip, or similar technology. Therefore, when a user approaches a machine s/he would be prompted to enter their pin without the need to insert a card.

Rather then focus on improving the experience of using ATM machines, it is also valuable to explore how to provide the same services using different channels. Cell phones offer a lot of promise in this area. Many people already prefer to use their cell phones to check their account balance when they are on the go. Money transfers and payment by cell phone is becoming more widely available across the world.

Despite the increased use of electronic forms of payment, there are still many types of transactions for which people need cold hard cash. From a cash withdrawal and deposit standpoint, no alternatives exist to having a physical device such as an ATM (other than cash back services available at select stores that accept debit cards). For these types of transactions the cell phone could be used to enhance the existing experience. Perhaps using Bluetooth technology it could serve as the key to support the presence awareness described above. It could also provide the user with a confirmation or electronic receipt of their transaction, including all relevant fees.

Security of services provided by the ATM
New types of technologies can be leveraged to improve the security of ATM systems. Fingerprint or other bio-authentication methods could replace the pin, which would not only provide increased security, but also reduce the cognitive load required to memorize the pin number (or rather, all of your pin number and passwords). Of course, this would mean that you can no longer take out money from your significant other’s ATM card.

Product Concept: Cyber Cat Heating Pad

Having read the first two chapters of my interaction design textbook, I decided to begin applying the frameworks that I've learned to the numerous product ideas that float around in my head all the time. These ideas will vary in subject, scope, category, and seriousness (or rather silliness). My purpose here is not to develop commercially viable products but rather to explore and experiment with the stuff that I am learning. This is just the first of several of these explorations.

Product Description:
A cat bed with a heating pad designed that is internet-enabled and able to sense and share information about the cat's presence and activities on the cat bed.

Goals & Requirements

Usabiliy Goals

• The heating pad needs to be easy to set-up, and its standard functionality (e.g. turning on heat and setting heat levels) should be available without the need to set-up connection with internet application.
  
• The online application should be simple enough to set-up without the need for a user manual. A set-up assistant (a.k.a. wizard), or limited functionality can be used to assist new users may be required to achieve this objective.
  
• The cat bed should fit a window sill (9" wide) while still being able to accommodate an average sized cat comfortably (20" long).
  
• The cat bed should to provide heat and a comfortable environment for the cat. The cat bed should leverage a comfortable fabric and the heat should be easily adjustable to support this objective.
• The online application should provide advanced user the ability to customize their virtual connection to cat bed via visual, textual and sound displays. The display should be customizable on multiple levels, via templates for novices, via advanced preferences for intermediate users, and via API for advanced users (with programming/development experise).
  
• System should leverage and interface that is memorable so that users can easily recognize how to carry out activities even after prolonged periods of inactivity.
• System should protect users from common errors, such as accidental temperature changes (e.g. mistakenly turning off heating pad), and limit action for novices to simple activities related to data visualization.
  

Experience Goals:

• Aesthetically Pleasing: what is the users initial response to the cat bed's appearance? Is it one of enjoyment, pleasure, or dislike?
• Delightful: What is users users response to the presence awareness visualizations and alerts? Is it one of delight, surprise, enjoyment, or annoyance?
  
• Rewarding: Does the user suspend disbelief to enable a remote connection to the cat on the bed? Is the user's connection experienced as rewarding, boring, cutesy, or frustrating?
  
• Entertaining: In what ways does the user engage with the cat bed on an ongoing basis? Does s/he feel entertained, satisfied, safe, frustrated, or surprised?
  

The Conceptual Model

The metaphors and analogies: Most important metaphors and analogies that can help user understand what the product can be used for, and how to use it.

The metaphors:

• The main metaphor is closeness, the idea of having your pet close to you wherever you go by receiving updates about their presence and activities on the cad bed.
  
• Another metaphor is connection, the idea of being connected to your pet wherever you go by being able to respond to the cats presence in a way that impacts an aspect of the cad bed (e.g. temperature, light, sound).
  
• Customization is also an important metaphor, the idea of being able to customize how the pet's presence is communicated and how your responses are made manifest by the cat bed.

The analogies:

• The most obvious analogy is using a standard heating pad and cat bed.
  
• Monitoring a home webcam is an useful analogy to describe the presence monitoring feature of the product.
  
• Receiving email and text messages is an useful analogy for the presence alerts.
  
• Setting preferences on web applications such as email clients, social networks, or feed readers is an useful anology for the simple customization features of the system.
  
• Selecting templates is an analogy for the using pre-created set-of-preferences options that are developed based on wide range of themes.
  

The Concepts: Concepts that users are exposed to when using the product, including objects they manipulate, their attributes and actions that can be executed on (and with) them.

Physical Cat Bed and Related Concepts:

• The comfort layer is made up of the outer fabric and soft stuffing that provide comfort and are durable.
• The heating layer includes a safe heating solution that features remote temperature controls that override virtual controls.
• The electronic layer includes the sensors and processors that enables presence awareness by supporting data collection and distribution via wireless connection.
• The protection layer ensures that all elements are kept protect from the environment (including the cat).
  

Cat Bed Application and Related Concepts:

• The communication module is the main user interface. It displays data visualization, alerts and controls. Data visualization includes real time presence monitoring, and over-time data infographics. Alerts include cat zen and standard updates via website (these can also be delivered via a widget on social networks, desktops and mobiles, emails, and SMS). The controls enable users to set the temperature of the cat bed, and activate light/laser or sound. Users can create own cat zen or use existing from other users and product developer.
  
• The preference module allows users to input information about the pet and provides customization options for the communication module, widget, and alerts. Pet information includes such as name, birthday, attitude, likes, dislikes, and picture. Communication options include setting visualization and channel settings for real-time and over-time event updates related to pet's presence, position, movement, and duration. Multiple preference settings can saved as templates and shared with others.
  
• The third module is the database. It captures data from the physical cat bed receives, stores the information in the database, makes it available through an API, and transmits it via built-in channels.
  
• The last module is the API, which enables advanced users to develop extensions to the functionality. All cat bed sensors would be accessible via the API. Applications could be shared online.

The relationships and priorities: Define the relationships between the concepts, for instance whether an object contains another, and the prioritization of possible actions.

Relationships between concepts:

• The cat bed is comprised of four related concepts described above, here is an overview of how they relate to one another: The comfort layer is connected to the electronic layer by the presence of sensors that enable the presence sensing. It is also adjacent to the heat layer, which is responsible for heating the comfort layer to provide a warm environment for the cat. The heating layer is connected to the electronic layer to enable the electronic layer to control the heat settings on the cat bed. A manual override on the cat bed itself ensures that heat settings can be changed directly from the cat bed. The protective layer encases the main components of the electronic layer and the bottom of the cat bed for protection purposes.
  
• The application contains the four related concepts described above, here is an overview of how they relate to one another: the communication module, preferences, database and API. The preferences is part of the communication module. It enables users to customize the how the data captured from the cat bed is displayed via the application interface, widget or alert. The database holds the data and makes it available for existing application and new ones developed via API.

Action priorities for cat bed:

• Priority of action for the cat bed: The bed should usable as a standard pet bed first and foremost; the next most important user action related to the bed is setting and controlling the temperature of the bed (manual temperature settings override application-based ones); this is followed by the ability to activate the electronic layer and link the cat bed to a computer via wireless connection.

Action priorities for communication module from application:

• From a general use perspective, the most important actions afforded to users via the communication module are: (a) first, the ability to easily log-in to his/her pet information; (b) then comes the ability to toggle between real-time and over-time visualizations; (c) next up is the ability to change the visualization style for either real-time or over-time visualizations; (d) then comes the ability to communicate with the cat bed via sound, light or temperature; (e) which is followed by the ability to access the application preferences; (f) then the ability to give thumbs up or down to cat zen haikus; (g) followed by the ability to submit your own haikus; (h) sharing haikus via email, social networks or SMS is next on the action priority list.
  
• From an initial set-up perspective here are the priorities: (a) to allow users to easily connect to their cat bed; (b) provide a wizard that allows users to get started quickly using predefined templates easily, without needing to access detailed preferences.
  

Action priorities for preferences module from application:

• The most important action on the preferences module is setting up of pet information including name, birthday, attitude, likes, dislikes, and picture;
  
• Next up are the preferences related to visualization which include in priority order: (a) setting of awareness preference (what events related to the cat's presence should act as triggers for visualization purposes?); (b) setting and saving channel preferences (what channels should be used for each communication triggered by an event?); (c) setting visualization preferences (how will the communication be presented in each channel?); (d) saving awareness and preference settings into templates that can be easily swapped from the communication module; (e) set cat wisdom preferences (Ability to activate or deactivate? Select haiku library, standard or user generated.); (f) saving cat wisdom preferences into templates; (g) share awareness, preference, and cat haiku templates with other users;
  
• Last are the preferences related to data visualization beyond the application, including: (a) settings for widget-specific preferences; (b) settings for API preferences and authentication.
  

The Mappings: A description of how the concepts described above map to the user experience that the product is designed to create.

• The design and construction of the bed will be guided by aesthetic, sustainability as well as comfort-related considerations. The look and feel of the artifact will be designed to be aesthetically pleasing; the materials and methods used for manufacturing each layer of the beds will be sustainable; the bed will be designed to be comfortable for the cat. These principles aim to provide aesthetically pleasing products on visual, ethical and emotional levels.
  
• The visualizations provided by the application corresponds the different events associated to the cat's presence and activity on the cat bed. Using interesting visualization options to bring the pet's presence to life across physical distances, using both reminders and contextual awareness, will serve to provide delight to users throughout their day.
  
• The controls provided by the application correspond to actions that the user can take to impact the environment of the cat bed. Users will be able to choose between multiple possible actions. These action include but not are limited to the following list: generating a sound, activating a light, changing temperature, activating a webcam. These features aim to provide the user with an interactive experience that is rewarding.
  
• Caring details, such as the cat haiku, and the open API enable the user to interact with the data generated by the cat bed in innovative ways. These features are provided to enable the user to connect with their pet in an entertaining way.
  

A Family of Products
Here are some ether ideas for my fun, and utterly silly, ideas for cyber cat products: the cyber scratching post, and fuzz ball playing field. More to come on these (maybe).

Chapter 2 Homework: What is interaction design?

This assignment was taken from the second chapter of the book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interactions, written by Helen Sharp, Jenny Preece, and Yvonne Rogers.

Assignment Questions
Question A: Compare the ways the following information artifacts are organized:

• A personal pocket-sized calendar/diary (one week to a page).
• A wall calendar (one month to a page, usually with a picture/photo).
• A wall planner (displaying the whole year).

Question B: Using Johnson and Henderson’s (2002) framework, describe the conceptual models that underlie the design of:

• An electronic personal calendar found on a personal computer.
• A shared calendar found on the web.

Assignment Answers

Question A
Here is my analysis regarding the similarities and differences of the organization embodied in the following artifacts: (1) a personal pocket-sized calendar/diary (one week to a page); (2) a wall calendar (one month to a page, usually with a picture/photo); and (3) a wall planner (displaying the whole year).

The organization scheme leveraged in each of these artifacts features many similarities since all of these artifacts offer representations of the same phenomena – time. That said, the organization also differs in considerable ways to accommodate the different types and contexts of use that each of these artifacts is designed to support. Here is a list of the key differences and similarities that I was able to identify:

• All artifacts leverage the concepts of years, months, and days in a chronological fashion as central organizational elements. The relationship between these elements is kept consistent across all artifacts. What differs is how each artifact highlights different entities and relationships based on its purpose and the primary context of its use.
• Wall calendars and diaries lay out information across multiple pages due to the level of detail that they provide. Wall calendars display one-month per page and usually feature a length of 24 pages. Diaries display one-day per page and usually include a full 356 pages. Wall planners display a full year’s worth of information on a single poster-page.
• Wall calendars and diaries enable users to add annotations to specific dates. Wall calendars do provide limited space for annotations. They enable users to add special events and identify key dates. Only diaries provide users the ability to thoroughly plan a day’s activities by devoting a full page’s worth of space to single day. Diary users often fill up these pages with appointments and other time-relevant information. On the other hand, wall planners rarely offer space for users to add annotations to specific dates.
• Wall calendars and diaries always feature day-of-week information using visual or text notations. Day-of-week information is a core piece of data for users who want to plan their activities across a month or day; however, it less important for planning across a full year. That is why wall planners sometimes do not display day-of-week information.
• Wall calendars and diaries often feature images or quotes that are thematic or seasonal in nature. These features add variety to the experience associated to using these tools. They are also usually only discovered by the user when s/he views a new month or day. Though wall planners also tend to feature interesting designs, few are able to provide the discovery” and visual differentiation offered by an artifact with multiple pages.
• Wall planners and wall calendars feature multiple days worth of information on each page. As a consequence, these artifacts are more likely to include visual presentations that display days as a part of a week or month. In contrast, diaries focus on each day individually as its own entity. This feature of diaries enables them to capture substantially more in-depth information about the activities of each day. To help people organize their day’s activities, each page of a diary divides a day into half- or quarter-hours (check out this cool diary form Muji).
• Wall planners and wall calendars are both designed as posters and meant to be used in a single place, unlike dairies that are created in book format in order to be portable. Wall planners and calendars are designed to be hung up in a room to be used for reference and for annotation of key dates and events. On the other hand, diaries are designed to help people keep their lives organized minute-by-minute, including while they are on-the-go.
• Diaries often feature additional information such as contact books, world maps, notes pages, and personal contact information. These features are supported by the diary’s book-like format and they enable and reflect the diary’s role as a life organizer. Wall planners and calendars are not able to provide these additional features, nor would it make sense for them to support them considering the context of use.

Question B

Relevant Concepts: Johnson and Henderson’s (2002) framework for developing conceptual models: This framework identifies the standard components of a conceptual model. Thus providing guidance to designers regarding considerations that need to be addressed when developing conceptual models. The term conceptual model is defined as “high-level descriptions of how a system is organized and operates.” Components of a conceptual model:

1. Major metaphors and analogies: important metaphors and analogies used to enable the user to understand what a product does and how to use it.
2. Concepts: detailed overview of the concepts that users are exposed to and that they need to understand. Description should define the objects the concepts create and manipulate, any relevant attributes, and the operations that can be performed on concept.
3. Relationship between concepts: the relationship between concepts. Important things to define include whether an object contains another, or is part of it, and the relative importance of objects and actions.
4. Mappings: the mappings between the metaphors, concepts and the user experience the product is designed to invoke.

Analysis part 1 - An electronic personal calendar found on a personal computer

Major metaphors and analogies: The major analogy is managing a day planner. Other important analogies include a using yearly planner, monthly calendars, automatic alerts, text-editing applications, which feature file save, delete and create functions, and email applications, which include attachment and social capabilities. From a metaphor perspective, “events” is the most prominent one. Another important metaphor on calendars with sharing capabilities is “invitations.”

Concepts: These include the Calendar, a calendar, creating calendars, saving calendars, modifying calendars, deleting calendars; Events, single instance and recurring events, creating events, saving events, modifying events, deleting events, receiving events, sending events, accepting events, rejecting events, linking events to calendars, attaching documents to events, adding alerts to events, setting availability status for event.

Relationship between concepts: The calendar contains calendars, which in turn contain a group of events. Events are linked to calendars directly. Events can be linked to more than one calendar or event. Events are linked to other events via the calendars. Events contain start and end dates and times, locations, invitees, personal status, meeting name, and description. The ability to schedule and save an event is more important than the ability to invite participants to it, add an attachment or link the event to a calendar. Sending an event invitation is more important than being able to respond or receive response to an invitation.

Mappings: The calendar refers to the chronological organizational structure of the interface. This organizational structure is based on years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. Calendars and events are created and added to this structure. An event corresponds to real-world events. When a user creates an event the system requires that they create a name, and define start and end dates/times. Additional optional attributes can also be defined at the time of creation or later through modification. A calendar corresponds to a group of events such as “work,” “birthdays,” or “personal.” When a user creates a calendar the system requires that they create a name only. User can add existing events or create new ones. An “invitation” corresponds to an email message that is used to invite individuals to an event. Invitations include information regarding the meeting and links that enable recipients to respond to the meeting request (accept or reject). When a recipient accepts an invitation from another user the event is automatically created on his/her calendar.

Analysis 2: A shared calendar found on the web.

Major metaphors and analogies: The major analogy is managing a day planner. Other important analogies include a using yearly planner, monthly calendars, automatic alerts, text-editing applications, which feature file save, delete and create functions, email applications, which include attachment and social capabilities, and negotiating schedules to book a meeting. From a metaphor perspective, “events” is the most prominent one. Another important metaphor on calendars with sharing capabilities is “invitations.”

Concepts: These include the calendar, private calendars, shared calendars, others’ calendars, creating calendars, saving calendars, sharing calendars, viewing calendars, deleting calendars, setting and changing calendar owner and participants; Events, single instance and recurring events, private and shared events, mine others’ events, creating events, sharing events, saving events, modifying events, deleting events, receiving events, sending events, accepting events, rejecting events, linking events to calendars, attaching documents to events, adding alerts to events, setting availability status for event, setting and changing event owner; Owners and participants, setting owners and participants, changing owners and participants, deleting participants, blocking participants, adding participants.

Relationship between concepts: The Calendar contains calendars, which in turn contain a group of events. Events are linked to the Calendar and calendars directly. Events can be linked to more than one calendar or event. Events are linked to other events via the calendars. Events and calendars can be private, or shared. Events contain start and end dates and times, locations, owners, invitees, personal status, meeting name, sharing status and description. Calendar and/or event have owners, who determine who is able to modify their shared calendars and events. The ability to schedule and save an event is more important than the ability to invite participants to it, add an attachment or link the event to a calendar. The ability to make a calendar private is more important than the ability to make it shared. Sending an event invitation is more important than being able to respond or receive response to an invitation. The ability for calendar owners to set rights privileges for events within their calendar supersedes the event owners privileges.

Mappings: The Calendar refers to the chronological organizational structure of the interface. This organizational structure is based on years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. Calendars and events are created and added to this structure. An event corresponds to real-world events. When a user creates an event the system requires that they create a name, and define start and end dates/times. Additional optional attributes can also be defined at the time of creation or later through modification. A calendar corresponds to a group of events such as “work,” “birthdays,” or “personal.” When a user creates a calendar the system requires that they create a name only. User can add existing events or create new ones to calendars. An “owner” corresponds to the person who has the rights privileges to make modify a calendar or event. “Participants” correspond to people who are related to an event or calendar but are not able to make modifications to that entity. When a user creates a calendar or event s/he is automatically assigned as the owner. Owners can modify ownership status and rights privileges assigned to participants of an event or group. An invitation corresponds to an email message that is used to invite individuals to an event. Invitations include information regarding the meeting and links that enable recipients to respond to the meeting request (accept or reject). When a recipient accepts an invitation from another user the event is automatically created on his/her calendar.

10-15 Week Self-Taught Interaction Design Course

For the next 10-15 weeks the content of my blog is going to be associated to my reading of the text book Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. This book was written by three British ladies, Sharp, Rogers and Preece, and published on Willey. Here is a link to their website, which is somewhat underwhelming considering the depth of the book. This is not to say that other topics may not occasionally pop up - the will be the exception rather than the rule.

For the past five months my personal curriculum has focused on reading and applying the theoretical knowledge and perspectives in my everyday experience with interactive devices and services. Moving forward I want to take a more structured approach to exploring interaction design before I delve into experimentation with design itself (those who would rather just dive in head first into the practice of design itself may think this sounds like looking at a porno magazine - albeit a good one - in substitution for the real thing).

So for the next few months my posts are going to feature my "homework". I will be sharing the assignments that I will be completing from the end of each chapter in the text book. Here is an overview of what the book covers (of course, I will likely focus on some areas and assignments, while glossing over others - one of the main benefit of following your own curriculum):

1. What is Interaction Design?
2. Understanding and Conceptualizing Interaction
3. Understading Users
4. Designing for Collaboration and Communication
5. Affective Aspects
6. Interfaces and Interactions
7. Data Gathering
8. Data Analysis, Interpretation, and Presentation
9. The Process of Interaction Design
10. Identifying Needs and Establishing Requirements
11. Design, Prototype, and Construction
12. Introducing Evaluation
13. An Evaluation Framework
14. Usability Testing and Field Studies
15. Analytical Evaluation