VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 20:54:42 07/30/02 Tue
Author: micheal supancich
Subject: Design Senario and Expl Narrative

Design Scenario - Karen takes her new MP3 player out

Recently, Karen's daughter gave her an MP3 player as a Christmas gift that also has a radio and plays CD’s.
Karen has decided that she is going to go for a walk to the store for some exercise. She decides that she is going to listen to some music on the way. She decides to take her new MP3 player because she wants to listen to some music and explore how it works. Plus, she can play her old CD’s in it if she wants to. She does not currently feel the need to listen to any of them, but she is glad that she has that option since those CD’s were expensive. It would be a shame, she thought, if all that money she spent went to waste. Besides, the new MP3 player is not all that different from her old CD Walkman, she feels that she already knows how to use it – at least to some extent. It was nice of her daughter to instruct her as to the rest, and get the music she wanted into the Walkman in the first place.
She thinks about where she would like to place it. She would prefer that it attach to her belt because that way it stays out of the way, and, luckily, it does. She plugs in the earphones and leaves the house. The first thing that she does is turn it on. She hits the button to the side and the LCD turns on. It says MP3 at the top, exactly what she wanted right now. She looks for the button that pushes play. It is fairly apparent, being a rather large and well marked button. Besides, there are only a few buttons to choose from. This is good because her reading glasses are back at home. She starts the MP3 player. It begins playing her selection of songs.
As she is walking, she decides that there is a particular song that she wants to listen to. She has to stop and locate the forward button. She is pretty sure that it is the same button that she would use to move the CD forward. She starts forwarding through her songs and wishes that where she knew which song it was - though she downloaded the songs in the order she wanted them - she does not remember the number of the song. She also forgot just how many songs the MP3 player can carry. At least it does not have the pause like CD players do. She finds the song and continues to the store. There she stops the MP3 player from playing and turns it off. It is good, she thinks, that it will start up at the same spot when she turns it back on because she liked that song. She then takes off the headphones and clips them to the side of the MP3 player. This is one feature that her daughter showed her that she really enjoys. She also looks for the off button. Finding it she pushes it but drops the MP3 player in the process. She picks it up and it seems OK. She is glad that it is fairly durable because her grip and reaction time are not what they used to be.



Karen takes her new MP3 player out
Situation Feature:
An MP3 player as a Christmas gift that also has a radio and plays CD’s.
Possible Pros(+) or Cons(-) of the Feature
+ backwards compatibility allows current investment in technology to be utilized
+ multiple media means that this device is more likely to be used for all music listening occasions that require portability
+ allows room for larger buttons and more visible print
- requires that the MP3 player be larger than it otherwise would in order to allow CD’s
- requires additional features be added to the MP3 player in order to allow different media
Situation Feature:
She has to stop and locate the forward button. She is pretty sure that it is the same button that she would use to move the CD forward. She starts forwarding through her songs and wishes that where she knew which song it was - though she downloaded the songs in the order she wanted them - she does not remember the number of the song. She also forgot just how many songs the MP3 player can carry. At least it does not have the pause like CD players do.
Possible Pros(+) or Cons(-) of the Feature
+ It is simple
+ It utilizes a commonly found button that is well associated with the task
+ It reduces the number of buttons required
+ It allows the information displayed on the LCD to be large and more easily readable for those with vision problems
- It is slow
- The user can find it frustrating due to the large number of songs available
- It is not as versatile as some other MP3 players in the market
Explanatory Narrative: MP3 Player with built-in CD Player and Radio
The MP3 Player with the CD player and the radio is designed to allow our demographic to be able to access the widest range of media types and utilize their current investment in prior technology while still maintaining simplicity and user familiarity. This means that the device is somewhat larger than necessary.
The size is probably the biggest tradeoff issue with respect to this design. Our demographic wants both a small and compact device and large, easy to read buttons and information. They also do not buy things very often, do not transition to new technology as quickly as younger generations do, and generally owned a portable CD player and had a decent investment in CDs. There are, therefore, several positives to including the CD player: more room for larger buttons and type, more familiarity, and backwards compatibility with current technological investment. The increase in size is not overly substantial for what we would need to implement the first consideration so this tradeoff seems to way positively toward this design.
The user will turn on the MP3 Player with a power button located on the right side. It will initially default to the MP3 mode the first time it is turned on. After this, it will maintain the same mode on startup as it had during shutdown. This mode should, more frequently than not, be the user’s the most popular and used mode. The mode will be displayed clearly in large print at the top of the LCD display. The LCD display takes up a large portion of the device to maximize its readability for a demographic that often has a hard time seeing smaller print. The mode can be switched using three good sized, well marked buttons (one for each of the three modes) located in proximity to one another below the LCD.
The rest of the buttons will be located along the bottom. The metaphor chosen for the button layout is that of a car stereo, a boom box, a standard VCR or an older walkman – as well as some portable CD players. The demographic should be familiar with these. The buttons are arranged logically in a standard linear format and are easy to read – bearing both the name and symbol that represents their functionality. Also, the MP3 player uses the same buttons as the CD player to jump through songs in both directions. The LCD displays the current song as well as relevant information regarding that song. This is done in a large type.
There are some significant tradeoffs here. The buttons to fast forward or reverse are left out to enhance button size and maintain simplicity. The lack of forward and reverse may leave out functionality that some want. However, beyond the reasons given above, this seemed acceptable because our demographic preferred simplicity to functionality. The button layout is also not standard for many current CD players. However, those CD players generally do not have any standard layout, often going for style over simplicity. Also, the use of the CD song jumping buttons on the MP3 is much slower than a menu driven song selection. This is a bigger problem for the MP3 than the CD because it may contain many more songs than a standard CD. The tradeoff was made because the LCD type can only be so small for our demographic – meaning that any menu can only list several songs at best. Otherwise, out demographic may need reading glasses to use the device. Also, it reduces the number of required buttons.
The radio buttons are very simple and standard. We have tuning buttons going left and right and an FM/AM button. The LCD in this mode displays the station and AM/FM. Additional functionality, such as an auto-search or station memory storage, may be wanted by some but it seemed that the majority of the demographic desired little additional functionality in this way.
Other buttons include the volume buttons which are in a standard location on the side of the device. Also, the power jack is located next to the power button for easy association by the user. The open button is located in the upper left and is clearly marked. The headphone jack is located at the top of the player, which is fairly standard as well. All this should provide a sense of familiarity with the player. Battery power is represented on the LCD in the lower right corner with a shaded battery image. A warning comes on when the battery is low. This seemed both to be common symbolism and better than any kind of flashing or colored light.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.