Week 5: 6 thinking hats activity

For this week's contact session, we ran our concept through the six thinking hats.

From http://johnkapeleris.com/blog/?p=418

Concept:

This project, Web Historians, aims to highlight the importance of archived websites and their potential decay, by providing a solution through an interactive educational experience.  It will use a combination of Trove and Wayback Machine APIs to access archived websites that are then evaluated through a HTML5 validator.  Users will be able to choose websites in a category of interest to them, select a specific site to restore, fix the highlighted problems, and save the completed, restored files for the future. Users will also be able to save their progress by creating an account.

White hat

The information in our concept is the html of archived websites.  The html is validated and is presented to the user as html mark-up, a list of errors, and the displayed website.

Red hat

Our concept has feelings of nostalgia and a respect for history and its preservation.  

Yellow hat

Best case scenario, we complete the app with all the 'if there's time' features, the technical requirements are challenging and we learn a lot but is not beyond our skill level.  The product is useful for our target audience and provides users with a positive experience of html. 

Black hat

There are a lot of technical components and it will be hard to draw a line in the sand for what we deliver.  There are a lot of things I would like to do with the project (like use web components) but not necessary to the delivery of the project.  Worst case scenario is we don't get the minimum requirements over the line and spend too much time in getting individual elements right at the expense of the bigger picture

Green hat

The initial concept is a creative way of using archived content by turning it from something static to something interactive.

Blue hat

The concept seems like a great way to both save historical content and provide a learning tool for students.

Week 5: Trove API limitations

We met today (meeting minutes to follow) to refine our concept and discuss our research so far.

There is an initial problem that we are currently working through regarding the brief requirement of using the Trove API.  During our research we discovered that the trove API does not provide access to the websites listed on the trove website.  We can however, use the Wayback Time-machine API (that Trove refers to) to get this information.

A closer read of what the Trove API can and can't access says:
"Search Trove newspaper articles, lists and works. (Works are made up of “versions”. They can be books, images, maps, music, sound, video, archives, journal articles…) Archived websites, people and organisations have not been included at this point."

We also looked at the search function of the API, and the 'search all' does not include archived websites:
"Search across the records in Trove. The same records you search from the Trove homepage, excluding archived websites, people and organisations."

We are in the process of discussing solutions with our tutors and course coordinator and have contact Trove to see if there is any support or workarounds for accessing archived websites.

Our current suggested fix is to organise the websites accessed via categories (e.g. sport, arts, education, government...) and to illustrate the categories (background, button?) with trove images (related to the category but not the actual websites) which are pulled using the trove API.

We would still need to use the Wayback Time-machine API to get the website details to validate but at least we are not by passing Trove altogether.

One of the risks we discussed today was having to make design decisions based solely on checking off a box in the brief and not on what would make the best product that suits our user needs.  While for the most part these two considerations are not opposites and inform decisions in consort, we are hoping that this problem is not the case of the former.

The core part of the brief that we are answering is to:
"highlight, reveal, [or] focus the content available through Trove ... something that goes beyond the simple search paradigm that they currently have and that sheds light on rarely visited corners of Trove."

We believe our concept definitely does that.  Stay tuned for more concept updates.

UPDATE: The course coordinator emailed back straight away with an OK to go ahead with our proposed suggestions.  We also chatted more with our tutor at the workshop and with the course coordinator after Friday's lecture.

(Originally posted on our team blog: Restoring the web)

Week 5: Refining the target audience

As part of refining the target audience for the web app, I looked into the current IT curriculum for high school students, specifically when and how web languages (HTML and CSS) are taught.

The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority has a draft national curriculum for Information Technology (up to grade 10).  The draft curriculum introduces the concepts of HTML and CSS for grades 7 and 8 (pages 89 and 90).

As I am not a teacher (and have been told the national curriculum is open to interpretation), I  also plan on speaking to an IT teacher to confirm what they actually teach and when.

Even though this forms a minor part of our assessment, I believe having a specific target audience will help us develop a more useful application.  The target audience will also go to forming the basis of any personas we develop.

(Originally posted on our team blog: Restoring the web)

Week 4: Forming Teams

After presenting our concepts, everyone voted on their top 3 preferences for concept/group.  During the following workshop session, we finalised our groups.  Even though my Shipwreck concept received enough votes, I chose to work on another concept:  Restoring the web.  I really liked the problem that it solved.  I will be going into more detail in the near future as our team refines the concept, but here is a brief overview:

Project Description

Restoring the Web is a web-based learning environment aimed at teaching high school students basic web design skills.

Week 4: Design Exploration Concept

This week in class we presented our final Design Exploration Concept and submitted an A3 poster.  Here is my final concept.

Early Australian Shipwrecks (-1900)

Concept

Early Australian Shipwrecks is a web app detailing shipwrecks on the Australian coast up to 1900.  The concept is aimed at people interested in Maritime History, particularly early modern history.

The web app would consist of a marked up Google Map of shipwrecks around the Australian Coast.  When you click on a particular spot.  It brings up historical photos and newspaper articles through the Trove API.

Relevant Information

The Western Australian Museum has a website on its Shipwrecks with an API with relevant data at http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/wrecks/map and http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/sandbox/.  This would only be useful for part of the coast.

Wikipedia has a list of Australian Shipwrecks including dates and locations at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_of_Australia.

The Australian Government also has a page about Early Australian Shipwrecks, which is where the definition of up to 1900 comes from at http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/early-austn-shipwrecks.

Design Mock-up

Clicking on a particular article will bring up the details within the frame.

Map Research

There are many examples of maps displaying more detailed information on click.  There was a notable style in having a ‘pop-out’ for this information, headed by Google maps and maps made with the Google Maps API.

Map Research

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/

make-beautiful-interactive-maps-even.html

Week 3: Teamwork

Teamwork reflections after completing the teamwork module http://teamworkinaction.ceit.uq.edu.au

While there were a few good points, most of it seemed like common sense.  It was good to be reminded of teamwork best practice before beginning teamwork though.  And as also, open and clear communication is the key to interacting successfully with fellow humans.

Major Concerns & how to avoid them

At the outset I don't have many specific concerns about our group.  We put together our team charter quite quickly and agreed on how we would communicate, what behaviour is expected and how we will handle group conflict.

The main concern I have about any group work (at least in the student context) is people not pulling their weight.  I expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say (and expect the same of myself).  If you think there might be a problem when we're assigning tasks, speak up, if something comes up and you might not be able to complete in time (and it does for everyone at some point or another), speak up.  One way to help that is to ask the question at group meetings (is everyone OK with their tasks, is it too much, too little) and make sure we are checking in with each other regularly.

The other concern I have (which reflects my previous experience) is the inclination of the team leader/coordinator to take charge and how that affects group dynamics.  In previous group work, sometimes the person leading the discussions appears to have more ownership of the concept which can stall group progress if that person misses a meeting.  One way to avoid this is to share the responsibility of leading group meeting and minute taking.

How you think you can be a good team member?

Good communication, practice what I preach (say what you mean and mean what you say), and encourage other to speak up.

Week 3: Concept Ideation

In our contact session this week, we each bought 5 concepts to discuss ahead of our concept presentation next week.  Before the session was rescheduled due to the public holiday, we thought we might not get a chance to get input from our classmates before the assessment was due.  So, in a small group, a few of us collaborated on a Google Doc with our 5 ideas to help garner feedback. 

Both approaches had their pros and cons.  The benefit of discussing ideas online was being able to take the time to absorb the idea and think about it and give feedback later.  I also got more detailed feedback through this process. The benefit of discussing in person was being able to have a conversation about the idea and have more "well what if I change this or do that" conversations.  The main downside I found from discussing in class was idea fatigue.  Two groups, five people, five ideas each equals listening to forty ideas and talking about my five ideas twice - that's a lot of information!  It may have worked better if we either had fewer ideas to present (e.g. 3) or one group to discuss with but was still a worthwhile exercise.

Here are my five ideas and the feedback I got both from our small group work and the in-class session.

Idea 1: Dear Diary

Choose a date to see letters, logs, newspaper articles and diary entries written on that day. 

"I wanted to come up with an idea that could use the old letters, but I can’t think of anything so far… I like this one though"

"Sounds really good. Maybe need a scope with the dates thought (lot of data)."

Group discussion two: liked this idea.

Idea 2: Shipwreck map

Interactive map marking shipwrecks around Australia.  When you click on a shipwreck, different data is presented.  Photos, drawings, news reports, ships logs, etc.

Group discussion one: favourite idea among group.

Idea 3: Online Quiz

Pick a category or a year and do the quiz online based on past quizzes from newspaper archives.  Maybe similar in style to Google Feud.

"I just tried the google feud quiz, it’s fun! I like this idea"

"It took me a good minute to understand the google feud haha.  I like the use of newspapers as there are the most widely available on Trove."

Idea 4: Archived Websites

http://trove.nla.gov.au/website has a number of archived websites

You could pick a year to see how different websites looked or be presented a particular page and have to guess the year.

"It could be really interesting for the MM student ( see the evolution of trends in website design)."

Group discussion two: liked this idea.

Idea 5: Historical Maps

Might have to be limited to a specific area (like Brisbane.  Overlay old maps over google maps to see how things were and how things have changed.  

Group discussion two: liked this idea.

Presentation of my ideas to first group to discuss

After all that I'm still not too sure which idea to pick to present.  A task for tomorrow :)

Week 2 Workshop: Trove API

Workshop session

For our workshop session, we had another look at Trove, but this time the API and how to access it.  The first couple of times, it was really frustrating to use the API, but by the end of the workshop, having gone through the process half a dozen times (and writing down a step-by-step instruction) it became easier to understand and to put into practice.  I think it will make more sense when I start to put it in context within our assessment.

Week 2 Contact: Looking at Trove

Contact session

During this week's contact session, we looked at Trove and the vast amount of data available on it.  It was hard to develop an educational or entertaining way of presenting information in Trove when there were so many options.  Looking at what was available on Trove was similar to going down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia links!

In small groups, we started brainstorming options and once we started, we were able to come up with a few ideas.

What's up next:

We are each going to come up with 5 individual ideas to bring back to class to discuss, refine and pick one for our first project assessment.

Week 1: Expectations

Studying Design Computing Studio I this semester, I expect it to be similar to Design Thinking but more technical. I expect that group work will be both awesome and no-so-great, but that I will learn and push myself so much more when it is not smooth sailing.  Through the glimpse I got during the first lecture, I’m hoping that this course will put the Masters program in a new perspective, pulling in skills learned from different courses so far.  Most of the courses I have taken to date have stood alone but I think this course will start to bring it all together.  I’m also hoping a might get closer to a definition of what design thinking is :P 

I’m a little worried about the technical component of this course, and my current abilities.  Learning Python last semester was so time intensive so I’m hoping (but expecting) that it might be similar. 

I’m looking forward to getting stuck into a new project and hopefully having something to add to my portfolio from this.