LA 2.1 – Personas

Personas are documents that describe typical target user. They can be useful to your project team, stakeholders and clients. With appropriate research and descriptions, personas can paint a very clear picture of who is using the site or application and potentially even how they are using it.

(Unger & Chandler, 2009)

Max Garner

54 Year old Organisational Psychologist working in Melbourne.

Max Garner, BSc, MSc, Med PhD, is eminently qualified with over 20 years experience working as an Organisational Psychologist. Now working as a Director for a large Melbourne based consultancy, Max is also the author of many respected books on corporate team building. Max lectures twice a week at Melbourne University on Item Response Theory, which he believes is a more accurate method of computerised psychometric testing.

However, Max came to computing late in life and so is not particularly computer literate himself. He is extremely conservative and reluctant to adopt the latest that technology has to offer, despite owning the latest model iPhone and iPad. He prefers to use Microsoft Windows XP, although he has never used any other operating system. While he enjoys the easy-to-use interface of his iPhone, the iPad is yet to be unpacked from its box!

He likes to further his already extensive knowledge of his field with text-books, rather than ‘waste his time’ with fiction or television. While he reads extensively, he prefers books to websites.

Max has been married to his wife, Rebecca for 20 years and has two young adult sons who are both at university, Jonathon and Lachlan. Jonathon is studying Medicine, while Lachlan is following his father into psychology.

Max plays competition tennis every Thursday night with four long-term friends. This is his only sporting activity other than irregular visits to the gym.

More about Max

Economic status: Max earns a considerably above average income and so lives in comfort, holidaying overseas each year.

Personal Computer: Microsoft Windows XP, with Microsoft Office.

Mobile Phone: Max uses an iPhone for its convenience and ease of use. He is not particularly interested in the many features of the phone, believing it to be a device for talking to others.

Social Networking: Max has a Facebook page, set up for him by his youngest son, Lachlan. He has never understood the point of social networking and does not use it.

Television: Max rarely watches television unless a particularly pertinent documentary is being broadcast.

Magazines: Max subscribes to InPsych magazine, but does not regularly find the time to read the entire publication.

Aspirations: Max claims to be planning to retire within five years. His wife and sons dispute that he will ever really retire.

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Charlotte Whiting

44 year old Clinical Psychologist

Charlotte runs her own psychological self-help practice in Wellington, New Zealand. She is focussed on helping others to attain a better understanding of their capabilities by examining themselves. Although Charlotte holds a Master’s Degree with first class honours in phsychology, she is now a practicing Buddhist and has shunned the corporate world in favour of attaining enlightenment for herself and her clients.

While Charlotte appears to have discarded much of her previously held material wealth, she continues to live relatively comfortably and is quite computer literate. She uses her current model Mac Book Pro, running OSX 10.7.3 to connect wirelessly to her high-speed broadband connection. Charlotte configured her WLAN entirely by herself and has no problems understanding new and emerging technology.

Charlotte is an avid user of Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and spends hours online researching Eastern spirituality as well as remaining up to date with developments in psychology, both online and using her extensive personal library.

Charlotte lives with her long time partner, Catherine who has one teenaged daughter from a previous, failed relationship. She has three cats, Moe, Larry, and Curly who she treats as her surrogate children. Catherine barely tolerates the cats, but adores Charlotte.

When not working or researching spirituality, Charlotte practices yoga and meditates in Botanic Gardens, near her home. She also occasionally attends short course at Victoria University.

More about Charlotte

Economic status: Charlotte earns a comfortable income and so is reasonably well off. Her partner, Catherine works as primary school teacher and so also contributes to their family income.

Personal Computer: Current Mac Book Pro. Charlotte is an avid fan of all Apple products and also has an iPhone and iPad. She is quite computer literate and rarely requires the help of any IT specialists.

Mobile Phone: Charlotte uses her iPhone to it’s fullest potential, relying heavily on the calendar feature to keep her appointments.

Social Networking: Charlotte is a regular user of Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, which she uses to keep in touch with friends and for networking.

Television: Charlotte does not watch television, preferring to spend her spare time communicating with friends.

Magazines: Charlotee does not subscribe to any magazines, but does occasionally buy and read them on an ad hoc basis.

Aspirations: Charlotte’s life is somewhat chaotic and as such lives her life day to day. She claims to seek enlightenment, but does not follow any strict plan for her life.




Reference

Unger R. & Chandler C., 2009, A Project Guide to UX Design for User Experience Designers in the Field or in the Making, New Riders, an imprint of Peachpit Press, USA, ISBN: 10 0 321 60737 6 

LA 1.4 – Telstra T-Box Technology

The Telstra T-Box is based around a N8000 Series NetBox built by the French IPTV specialist Netgem. The T-Box includes two digital TV tuners and a 320GB hard disk for high definition video recording as well as network connectivity compatible with Wi-Fi 802.11n.

The basic operating system for the device is Linux supporting Apache websever software, which in turn supports Javascript, allowing for the smooth delivery of dynamic content. The interface is a proprietary browser, written by Netgem for the NetBox and T-Box.

The Linux OS combined with Sun Microsystem’s Apache webserver is recognised as one of the world’s most stable platforms. Indeed, the open source Apache webserver represents a massive 59% (compared to just 22% for Microsoft’s web server IIS) of the world’s web servers

(Tech Tips, 2012).

The use of Apache and Javascript allows for constant expandability and the flexibility of supporting most web based applications, including: 

• HTML 4.01
• JavaScript 1.5
• CSS1&2
• DOM1/2 Events IGMP
• HTTP1.1
• SSL 2&3
• RTP/RTSP
• SNMP
• HCP
• VOD & Web TV: RTSP, Progressive download, Apple HTTP Live streaming, Microsoft Smooth streaming.

(Netgem, 2011)

Additionally, as the device supports web-based applications, content can be streamed directly from Telstra’s Media division, as well as other third-party services such as YouTube.

While the T-Box uses the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) standard to combat piracy, it allows the user to record standard and high-definition free to air broadcasts directly to the T-Box’s hard disk.

References

Tech Tips Website, 2011, http://techtips.salon.com/secure-microsoft-iis-server-apache-server-1575.html

Netgem Data sheet, 2011, Hybrid STB & MediaCenterN8200, available online from Netgem: http://www.netgem.com/

Netgem Data sheet, 2011, Middleware, available online from Netgem: http://www.netgem.com/

LA 1 – The Telstra T-Box Design

This review will compare the Telstra T-Box to that of the Apple TV device, as it appears that the T-Box is an attempt to replicate the successes of Apple.

First Impressions

Aesthetically, the Telstra T-Box looks and feels cheap and poorly constructed. The semi rigid black plastic casing completely fails to reflect the $299 price of the device. The Apple TV device ($129), which conversely (like most Apple products) has a solid and well constructed feel, which conveys an air of quality that the Telstra machine lacks.

Clearly influenced by AppleTV

Smaller with much better build quality

The T-Box measures 200mm x 200m x 40mm, yet feels to be a largely empty case, while the Apple TV case is small and compact (98mm x 98mm x 23mm). The front of the T-Box has a single USB port, while the back, features aerial connections, HDMI, S-VIDEO, Digital Audio, RCA and Ethernet should the wireless interface prove to be insufficient.

While Apple TV features the now well known Apple icon embossed on the top of the device, the T-Box has a slightly awry, small Telstra ‘T’ icon screen printed on the front. The T-Box branding is extremely poor.

So before installation, the overall design of the T-Box fails to engage the user or convey any confidence in build quality.

Installation

While user installation of the T-Box presupposes a reasonable level of computer literacy, plugging the various cables into a television is relatively simple. Despite this, the only documentation relating to installation, covers plugging in the few cords that ship with the device. There is no manual supplied at all. The user is left to assume (hope?) that the device itself is preloaded with online manuals, tutorials or wizards. In terms of communication design, it is difficult to appraise this component as it is totally absent! In fact, there is no tutorial nor manuals loaded onto the T-Box.

Connecting the device to a broadband connection is possibly the most difficult aspect of the T-Box. As mentioned in an earlier post, the device is simple enough to connect to wireless gateway, providing that the user has a basic understanding of HTTP and WLAN. Configuring the device to log into a network with more than one router is not as straight forward and will result in a lot of ‘Google searching’ for third party instructions.

Documentation

Possibly the biggest failing of the Telstra T-Box, is the almost complete lack of readily available documentation about the device.

Online searches reveal a number of blogs and forums that explain features and offer solutions to various problems, but Telstra itself appear to be focused solely on sales of the device.

However, a reasonably comprehensive, 62 page user manual for the T-Box does exist and is available as a PDF download from Telstra (http://www.telstra.com.au/tv/download/document/tbox-user-guide.pdf). That this manual is not easily found or preloaded onto the T-Box can only be described as extremely poor.

Additionally, there are a series of instructional videos available to aid the user in setting up WLAN connections (http://www.telstra.com.au/tv/tbox/setting-up-tbox/). While these will help most users, any deviation from the standard Telstra supplied gateway may cause problems.

Calls to Telstra will connect the user with much sales advice, but are unlikely to result in any technical solutions. Indeed Telstra staff appear to be unaware that user manuals or any documentation even exists. While this may be somewhat acceptable from sales staff, the absence of any technical advisors is not.

Foxtel

Foxtel, Telstra’s pay-television channels are also available via the T-Box. These extra channels can are available to subscribers, allowing users to view Comedy, The Discovery channel, Sports and additional movies, while Nickelodeon and the Disney channels are available for children.

Subscribing to Foxtel through the T-Box itself is relatively easy, with the onscreen TV guide including Foxtel channel information whether the user is subscribed or not. While this feature may have been intended to advertise the pay television channels, it in fact only illustrates the poor selection of programs available through the service. Indeed, being able to view what would be available through subscribing only reinforces the decision to avoid Foxtel altogether!

The Interface

Although the external casing of the T-Box suggests otherwise, the onscreen performance of the device is quite good. While the interface itself is clearly inspired by Apple TV, the design and layout of the screens is relatively clear and easy to navigate. There did appear to be a few too many ‘layers’ of screens, but it is not easy to become ‘lost’ while navigating through the various features. The screens are well designed and pleasantly coloured. Consideration also appears to have been given to the fact that the screens may be accessed in darkened rooms, where bright colours would be unpleasant to navigate.

Apple's icon driven menu extends across all their devices

Influenced by Apple. Bigpond Movies is one of the few instances of onscreen branding

The screens themselves are clearly labeled and use simple language where necessary. While Apple TV nor the T-Box used any discernible onscreen branding, Apple used icons that are clearly identifiable from their other devices. The Telstra device tends to overuse the word ‘My’, as in ‘My recordings’, ‘My movies’ etc, while simple one word titles would have sufficed. The personalising language comes across as somewhat forced (similar to Microsoft Windows).

Clear and easy to navigate TV guide allowing the user to record with a single click

To exploit all the features of the T-Box, a good connection to a reasonably high speed broadband connection is required. In addition to functioning as a digital receiver for older analogue televisions, the device offers a gateway to exclusive Telstra television and music channels, as well as offering the ability to download and view programs from Telstra’s fairly extensive online library. With a 320GB Hard Drive, up to 30 hours of HD recorded content (100 hours of SD) is achievable.

Once configured, the T-Box is an enjoyable device to use with clear easily navigable screens that become easier to use with time and experience of the device.

While many of the device features tend to be discovered during use rather than found in non-existent documentation, the capabilities of the T-Box are significant. The ability to record an entire season of a series with a single click of a button or record a program on one channel while watching another make owning a T-Box an overall enjoyable experience.

Summary

So, while the actual device has a look and feel of inferior quality, the T-Box has a very clear interface, with some good UX design. That the device is used and navigated by so many users without any documentation at all reflects on how much communication/graphic design contributes to the overall user experience.

Minecraft

A random post about user experience. At a time when computer games have the ability to portray the action with almost 100% realistic high resolution graphics, I think it's interesting that the biggest game to sweep through the primary and secondary schools at the moment is a game called 'Minecraft'.

A real lesson here to be learned by all computer software companies! Stop thinking about the graphics, the interface and the controls. Stop worrying about whether your game is fast paced enough... It all about the overall experience of the user.

Minecraft has some of the worst graphics I have seen since the early 80's, yet the overall immersive experience that it engenders is phenomenal.

It comes back to an old adage: In business, you are not what you think you are, you are what your customers think you are.

Seems to be true of games as well! Your game is not about what you think it's about. It's what your customers think it's about.

For quality of graphics, Minecraft fails dismally. In providing an addictive immersive experience, it's a winner.

Check it out!

Pizza?

Pizza isn't something that usually links to UX design. But...

Tonight I was caught short with feeding the hungry hordes. Ok, so two young boys don't really constitute hordes, but it felt like it at the time. So, like many parents who forgot to pick up anything earlier, I decided to order a pizza.

My local pizza restaurant is 'Golden Pizza' and actually does quite a good range of gourmet pizzas. As I couldn't find the phone number to do my usual dial up for one, I thought I'd fall back on my good friend, Google.

Wow... what a website for a small pizza restaurant! This site was on e of the best I've seen for ages anywhere. Forget that it's for a small pizzeria employing four people.

The site features clear pictures of what the pizzas look like. Roll over them to see what's on each one.

Click on one and you get to select what you want to include or exclude with check boxes. You can also click an add extras to add anything else you like.

As you add to the order,  you get a running total of the cost. Click the check out and you are taken to a payment gateway where you just ad in your credit card details. About  a minute passes and an SMS text message pops up on the cell phone and an email is sent through as well to verify.

I live close by, so it took me 10 minutes to walk up to collect the food and it was ready! Delivery was also available. I asked the staff about the site and they said it is actually faster than phoning through as it links straight into their system.

There are thinking people at the other end too. I made a mistake in the ordering process (my fault, not theirs). Unprompted, the woman serving me told me of my error, explained that the site overcharged me and handed me a cash refund.

This was the smoothest, easiest and fastest process I have ever used to buy a pizza. Check them out. As I said, the pizzas are good too.

http://goldenpizza.com.au/

The Telstra T-Box

While I am not usually someone who responds to sales calls, I did succumb to Telstra’s offer of a T-Box when I recently upgraded to an admittedly more expensive bundle. For an extra $10 a month and a new modem to accommodate it, I am now on Cable 3.0, which is a lot faster than the old Cable I was on. Bundled with this was a device that I had not actually ever heard of.

The Telstra ‘T-Box’, is probably one of the most disappointing devices to look at that I have ever unwrapped and plugged into a power socket. A boring black box with a single USB socket in the front of it.

The most interesting thing that I found is that there is no documentation with it. I am not a big manual reader (who is?), but this didn’t even come with more than an A4 sheet with ‘plug it in and then turn it on’. All the information is gained either from the device itself or by searching Google.

For those that have never come across a T-Box; it basically acts as a digital receiver for television. Imagine an overblown set-top-box. However, the device can also record many, many hours of television, on multiple channels. It can even be set to ‘record series’ for lazy, forgetful people like me that want to see whether Sir Harry gets his job back in the latest series of ‘Spooks’ or not, but will probably forget to watch or record the last episode. The T-Box supposedly does this for you. It also wirelessly connects to the broadband internet connection to download movies, television series etc. I recently discovered that it plays movies from small USB flash keys (remember the single USB socket) or anything else that is connected to it, either wirelessly or via a cable.

There is a catch though. Telstra assume that you will use the basic and boring, vanilla flavoured network that they offer.

As anyone living in very old Victorian houses will be able to tell you, wireless networks don’t penetrate too far through solid brick walls. Especially not through multiple, thick solid brick walls. To further complicate matters, there are at least 12 other wireless networks in my area that fight for the airwaves and frequencies.

My solution was multiple routers, slaved to the main gateway, to boost the signal in the back of the house, where the home office and most of my computerised toys live. Simple? Not for a T-Box. It appears that the T-Box doesn’t like to be given a dynamic IP address. As the loungeroom and consequently the T-Box as well is both located in the middle of the house, it picks up the signals from all the wireless routers. It does not like being told to choose which hot spot to select from!

As the house is on concrete, the choice was drilling holes in a 12 foot ceiling and dropping bright blue Cat5e cable to the T-Box (not really something I relished) or working out how to fix the problem with software.

At one point I had some old HTTP course notes out and a massively heavy text book ‘HTTP, the definitive Guide’ spread across my knees trying to come up with a solution.

A great book, if you ever need the information!

A call to Telstra to sort anything out only leads to an hour in a phone queue and the inevitable ‘We only support Windows XP…’

I eventually discovered the solution was/is to hard code the device to look at a particular router and ignore the others and to set the T-Box up with a static IP address.

Using the T-Box

While the interface is relatively intuitive, the control is similar to that of a traditional DVD player. While the device requires extensive text input, the controller has a simple alphanumeric keypad like an older style mobile phone, which makes entering more than a word of text a painful exercise.

Another complaint is that the interface appears to be just based around looking good. While Apple manage to do this well, they never seem to compromise on the ease of use. The T-Box has far too many layers of superfluous screens that are little more than embellishment, with clunky, time consuming steps that do nothing to enhance the experience.

Channel selection can be likened to that of the process of configuration; a painful experience that once finished allows the viewer to finally sit back and relax. This is not a device for users who like to channel surf.

So is the T-Box worth the worry?

It is good in that it replaces a DVD player/recorder and it also allows for the playing of various media, but it is effectively only a copy of the Apple TV device, which (although I haven’t got one) has to be easier to configure. Apple stuff is truly plug and play.

So, while I probably wouldn’t have chosen a T-Box, it cost me nothing and now that it is actually configured, it is useful. Maybe next year after I finish my Masters, I’ll have time to actually watch something on it!