ContextualInquiry-Group:ThePenIsMightier

From CS160 User Interfaces Fa06

Contents 1 Group Member Contributions 2 Target Users 3 Problem and Solution Overview 4 Contextual Inquiry - Interview Descriptions 5 Analysis of Tasks 6 Interface Design 7 Proposed Design: BlogPad System 8 Analysis of Approach

Group Member Contributions

• Charles Lee - Co-interviewed Pink Flamingo with Vahe Oughourlian. Completed the eleven task analysis question, authored example scenarios in the interface design, contributed to design ideas and rationale for design ideas, and co-authored the interview descriptions. Also contributed to target users.

• Tony Lai - Co-interviewed Pablo with Tom McClure, and helped with an example scenario in the interface design.

• Tom McClure - Co-interviewed Pablo with Tony Lai. Was instrumental in designing the storyboard process and contributed to the rationale for design ideas in the interface design. Contributed drawings of the proposed user interface. Also contributed to analysis of tasks, target users, the eleven task analysis questions, and the analysis of approach.

• Vahe Oughourlian - Interviewed British Bomber and co-interviewed Pink Flamingo with Charles Lee. Contributed to the storyboard and design ideas for the interface design, and pieced together the storyboard from digital camera pictures. Also authored the overview, and contributed to target users, interview descriptions, and analysis of tasks.

Target Users

• Pink Flamingo - The Techno-Savvy Power User

Pink Flamingo is a student at UC Berkeley. He describes himself as an advanced user, particularly with Linux, and is an avid Livejournal writer, posting several times a week. Pink Flamingo appreciates the speed that the Linux command line offers him over the typical GUI interface, such as Gnome or Windows, and he looks to streamline anything he does; if it takes too much time, he doesn't like to bother with it. Pink Flamingo also likes things that are "cool" and finds any addition to make his online journal more unique interesting without requiring too much extra effort. His priorities include speed of use and availability of features, more than accessibility of features.

• British Bomber - The Social Minimalist

British Bomber is an intermediate to advanced computer user capable with Linux and Windows, but, unlike most computer proficient students on UC Berkeley campus, he does not carry a laptop with him, citing the weight of a laptop as one of the primary motivating factors. His primary goal with the online community of LiveJournal is to comment on others' writings, as opposed to writing entries himself. He does not appreciate complicated interfaces either, but uses the bare minimum features to do his roughly 3 comments a day. His priorities include conveniently being able to connect to his friends via comments, on their wide assortment of blog topics.

• Pablo - The Private Journal-Keeper

Pablo is a graduate student, and characterizes himself as a business-level computer user, only using the two more popular operating systems: Windows XP and Mac OS X. Like any graduate student, he follows a busy schedule, spending a lot of time guarding his hard-won table at Strada Cafe. He likes to travel on occasion and continues to keep a journal during his travels. He does carry a laptop with him, since, as a graduate student, he needs to be aware of important communications from his advisors and keep up working on projects remotely. Pablo blogs approximately once a week at home or from wireless hotspots where he studies, usually focusing on private journal entries or posts only meant for his friends. His priorities include ease-of-use, as well as the ability to post his thoughts and control who can view them.

Problem and Solution Overview

Blogging has become a popular pastime for many casual computer users as an extension to handwritten journal entries, but, in the translation to digital media, several popular affordances of pen-and-paper journals have been discarded. Handwritten composition has vanished, drawings, doodles, and sketches are nearly nonexistent, and without a computer with an internet connection available, users cannot compose their thoughts of the moment, but must keep them for a more opportune time.

We propose to move blogging back to its pen-and-paper roots while keeping the online sharing and ease of use that has developed during this shift into online composition. The flexibility and light weight of pen-and-paper expand the locations and availability for being able to compose entries, while decreasing the "time lag" between the thought and its entry. The Anoto system gives us this ability.

Contextual Inquiry - Interview Descriptions

• Common Themes

For all of our users, connecting with friends was an important feature of blogging, almost as important as the blogging itself. All of the participants often used the commenting system, whether they were the commenters or the comment-receivers. For blogging, the users currently do not often post pictures due to the sheer tediousness of the drawing, scanning, and uploading process, as well as potential additional cost. Multiple users mentioned the annoyance of remembering things they intended to write about in a blog post or in a comment, in response to a friend's posting.

• Pink Flamingo

Pink Flamingo was interviewed in his home away from home: Soda Hall. His time is about evenly split between Soda Hall and his home, and he blogs about equally from either location. Using a Linux machine at the command-line, he remotely connected to his home computer and composed his example entry using vi, a text editor based in the console. After using VI to compose, he posted his entry using a script that submits his entry to Livejournal automatically. He chooses this method because it is faster, and VI has more capabilities than a normal blog post in a browser window. We watched as he explained his process and the macros he used to quickly automatically feed his information to LiveJournal, which he chose over Blogger because his friends had accounts on LiveJournal. The Pink Flamingo also uses many RSS feeds to keep track of all his friends' posts, and reads them immediately.

When idly asked at the end of the interview what the subject thought of the addition of pictures and sketching to his journaling experience, he immediately became excited at the idea, and showed us a blog whose only novelty was exactly that; scanned sketches on index cards (click here to see the site).

• British Bomber

British Bomber was also interviewed in Soda Hall, specifically in the CSUA lounge. This presented no concern since all his work online through the LiveJournal interface. While also using a Linux machine, he brought up a web browser immediately, thus making his interface to Livejournal platform independent. After the perfunctory login to the web site, he also began to compose an example entry, citing some of the limitations of the interface, such as charging money to host pictures, thus he refrains from doing so (though it is interesting to note that an advertisement-supported version of the membership to the site does allow 1GB of picture hosting). He also ran through an example of commenting on others' posts, and the levels of privacy available, such as "public availability" for reading, or "friends only" to the ability to comment the entry. Another issue that bothered the subject was the lack of WYSIWYG in the interface, rather requiring the user to use some html to format the entry properly.

• Pablo

We interviewed Pablo at his favorite study spot, a coffeehouse near his home with internet access. The internet connection was down at the beginning of the interview so we used that time to ask about his past blogging activity. We discovered that he had two systems for journaling, one offline with pen and paper, and one online with the popular blog service "LiveJournal." In fact, all of our interviewees use LiveJournal.

Once the connection was available we asked him to write a blog entry so we could observe. An unexpected pattern in his use of the interface was that he was frequently distracted from the task at hand by the opportunity to read what others had posted. Most of the session was spent reading his friends' blog entries and follow-up comments. We realized that in addition to standard personal entries we should consider supporting follow-up comments with our BlogPad system.

We learned through listening to him that uploading pictures to his blog is currently so difficult that he typically just doesn't do it. A followup question revealed that if it were made easier, he would use the feature more often.

CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY CONCLUSIONS

Who is going to use the system?

This system is designed for bloggers, and provides affordances for multiple styles of blogging. Three personas we have focused on are:

1. The Techno-Savvy Power User: This user is comfortable with multiple operating systems, and harnesses all available technology to accomplish his goals faster.

2. The Social Minimalist: This user is comfortable with computers and related peripherals. He dislikes bringing a heavy laptop around with him, and most of his blogging activities are comments on friends' journals.

3. The Private Journal-Keeper: This user religiously uses the privacy options in he LiveJournal. His blog is a journal for the viewing pleasure of close friends, and in some cases, only himself. He may publish posts to the public as well, but this is rare.

What tasks do they now perform?

Users write blogs for the public, comment on other users' posts, and keep personal journals. Ideas for writing are often prompted by current events, seeing a funny or otherwise post-worthy event, or seeing something that sparks a follow-up comment to a friend's recent post.

What tasks are desired? Users would like to:

1. Blog away from laptops
2. Jot down ideas for blogs or follow-up comment responses, as ideas pop up
3. Easily post doodles, sketches, or drawings
4. Easily upload photos, as opposed to only links
5. Easily publish material written with a pen and paper interface
6. Comment on friends' blogs

How are the tasks performed?

Users post or reply as their free time allows. If they see a post-worthy idea away from their blogging environment or without enough time to blog, they make some kind of a physical or mental note to remember the topic for later (i.e. grab a business card from a restaurant they want to blog about). This may or may not succeed, as human memory is fallible.

What's the relationship between user & data?

The user writes the data, which contains their thoughts about a certain topic. Topics range from personal introspection (journals) to responses to political current events (blogs) to gossip. Data may be meant for sharing to public, close friends, or for personal uses. Other users may read and comment on the data posted by one user.

What other tools does the user have?

• Laptop Computer
• Desktop Computer
• Paper Journals

How do users communicate with each other?

Users communicate with each other via comments on each others' blogs. All participating parties must have internet access at the time that they are reading or uploading a post. Posts may be created offline.

How often are the tasks performed?

This varies for each person. Some users may constantly post and write constantly, at home and in the wild, but other users may only interact with blogs weekly.

What are the time constraints on the tasks?

One user persona blogs and comments constantly, whereas another only has time to once a week. Blogging times range from a few minutes for comments, to an hour for intricate posts. On average, 15-30 minutes is sufficient.

What happens when things go wrong?

Problems with current blogs include eating entire entries, or losing internet connection after typing a large amount. This results in having to save a backup, or losing the writing. The Anoto pen system allows for backup copies in the pen and on the paper.

Analysis of Tasks

Easy Tasks - Local Journaling (not linked to online blog)

• Store a single-page entry as an image (no OCR). Save image of text to computer at time of pen-dock. This user has no interest in publishing his journal but does like the idea of having a digital backup of his personal notes.
• Store a single-page sketch as an image. Save image to computer at time of pen-dock. Possible users include artists, designers, etc.

Medium Tasks

• Store a multi-page handwritten entry as a single image with option to auto-publish to blog. This is an attractive task to anyone keeping a personal handwritten journal that wants the option to make parts of it available online to friends and/or family.
• Maintain a sketch repository: keep an online library of current and past sketches. Artists, clothing designers, mathematicians working on equations, and cartoonists all might find this handy. Mainly our users will pick through their sketches when they want to add one to their blog entries.

Hard Tasks

• User writes multiple entries before actually docking, and "marks up" each entry to differentiate them, using some predefined bracket shapes to mark entry start and stop.
• User draws a sketch in his notepad, wants to be able to easily find digital copy of sketch later. Provides filename (or search keywords) for sketch using some standard tag-marker gesture. Filename/keywords parsed using OCR. Later, incorporates sketch into existing (typed) blog entry as image.

Interface Design

InterfaceDesign.Scenarios:

Scenario A

Our Poweruser wishes to quickly add sketches and doodles to his posts. He writes a post as he normally would on his desktop computer, and sketches on an Anoto pad with his Nokia pen. He docks the pen, and can either post his sketch as an individual blog post, or save it to his computer as an image. In this case, his sketch is part of a blog post, so he saves it to his computer as an image, and uploads this image to his blog, and lives happily ever after.

Scenario B

The night before, the Social Minimalist was reading his friends blogs. One of his friends posted about seeing pretty orange flowers while away on a trip in China, another friend posted about a great pastry he had at a local bakery, and another friend posted an angry rant about the political climate. The social minimalist had posted a rebuttal on the political blog the night before, but today, he walked past a newsstand and sees an update. He takes out his pen, and writes a comment stating that his viewpoint was in fact correct. As he strolls along, he sees orange flowers similar to the descriptions he had read the night before, and he sketches them as a comment for his traveling friend. Later that day, he visits the bakery he read about the night before, and writes a comment describing his friend's favorite pastry. That night, he docks his pen, splits his day's data into separate posts, and stores each as a file. He then posts all his comments to his friends' respective blogs.

Scenario C

As a graduate student, studying in Café Strada has become a daily routine for private journal-keeper. Today, as private journal-keeper was studying in Strada as usual, he over heard that there’s a 90% sale at Urban Outfitters. With little time to spare, he took out his Anoto pad, posted an entry about the sale that’s going on, hoping that his friends will see it, and left Strada immediately. After spending about 2 hours in Urban Outfitters fighting with other customers for the last pair of one dollar pants, private journal-keeper took out his Anoto pad once again. This time, it is for him capture the glory of his victory. Unlike the last entry, private journal-keeper noted that this entry will be posted as ‘private,’ as it is embarrassing for him to be telling his friends about his fist fight against his advisor over a pair of pants. He docks his pen at his laptop, and splits his data into two posts: The first about the sale, and then the second, private post for his friends. His posts are then uploaded to his blog account. When private journal-keeper got home that night, he saw that a couple of his friends left him comments, asking him what kind of clothes he got. Using the Anoto pad, he sketched the design of his newly purchased pants, and posted it as a reply to his friends’ comments.

Proposed Design: BlogPad System

Once the BlogPad software and Anoto drivers are installed and configured, there are two common, repeated stages of user interaction. We have mapped out all three of these stages.

• A - Install/Setup BlogPad
• B - Content Creation
• C - Content Publishing

A - INSTALL/SETUP

User is issued:

• a notepad filled with Anoto paper
• an Anoto pen

User's existing computer(s) get our "BlogPad" software installed + Anoto drivers.

Final step of installation is a BlogPad Settings screen:

The basic settings required to enable publishing are:

• Select your blog system (we will support only LiveJournal initially since all our target users are on LiveJournal)
• Save login credentials for quick publishing
• Select a local folder for saving page images
• Select a default "privacy" setting for posts
• Opt out of logging into blog after an automated publish

Users may return to this screen later as necessary.

B - CONTENT CREATION

User makes a sketch, and/or writes one or more journal entries, each potentially spanning multiple pages.

C - CONTENT PUBLISHING

1. User docks the pen.

• BlogPad software detects the dock, converts strokes to images.
• BlogPad saves images in a file named using the datestamp, into the folder specified by the user during setup.
• User is prompted for option to publish image(s) to blog. Answering "yes" brings them to the Page Selection Tool.

2. Page Selection Tool

• User selects a range of pages from the latest dock that will form the blog post content.
• Tool shown here is a rough idea, this will be tested with users and refined.
• We'd like users to be able to select partial pages with this tool.
• Clicking "Next" brings the user to Publishing Options.

3. Publishing Options

First page of selection is displayed. User specifies options:

• Subject
• Date
• Privacy Level

4. Post Status Report

• Status message reports whether entry was posted now or queued for later (say, if no internet connection is available)
• Create another entry? If yes, user may select another range of pages from this dock to post.
• If no, dialog closes and web browser is opened to the user's blog.

• Opening blog provides easy confirmation of actions
• Affords user opportunity to modify entry with system-specific options, view friends' blogs, etc.

BLOGPAD PROPOSAL SUMMARY

This proposed system lacks the sophistication to handle more advanced tasks, like adding a sketch to an existing blog entry, or adding a handwritten follow-up comment or sketch to someone else's blog entry. Nevertheless, it handles the meat-and-potatoes common task of converting a multi-page handwritten blog entry into an online blog entry fairly painlessly.

The proposed BlogPad software will provide a good starting point foundation for some of the more advanced functionality we would like to offer to our target bloggers.

Analysis of Approach

The main affordances the Anoto system provides that gives a marked advantage over similar systems such as Tablet PCs, PDAs, or Smartboards are size, portability, longevity, and familiarity with the pen and paper interfaces.

• The pen measures 5-7/8" x 7/8" x 13-1/16" and weighs 1.35 ounces. Its size, shape, and weight make it storable in almost every pocket or bag with practically no need to protect the device. The same cannot be said for the Tablet PC or the PDA; there exists an entire market that creates cases, covers, and armored storage units for these devices to keep them from damage, while the Anoto pen requires none of these extras. The Smartboard does not even enter the discussion here, due to its size and lack of mobility.
• A typical PDA lasts about two hours on a standard battery with constant use, and a Tablet PC will perform for about three and a half hours with an extended battery (which costs nearly as much as the Anoto pen alone). The Anoto pen has a rated life of two hours recording with ten hours of standby time with no extended battery required, and much longer if the cap is replaced. The important distinction here is that power is required to maintain a PDA or Tablet PC is constantly used, while the pen need not expend power to be immediately available.
• Familiarity with pen and paper means that there is a very short learning curve when using the Anoto system. Whereas with a PDA, one must learn the unnatural forms that something like Palm's Graffiti uses to perform input quickly, the Anoto pen allows users to write as they always have. With a Tablet PC, users often describe the feel of writing as "unnatural," possibly due the slick surface of the screen that offers little tactile feedback, or perhaps it is the distance between the input surface and the display pixels below that does not exist with a pen and paper interface.

There exist, however, several elements that make the Anoto system difficult for some to adopt.

• Unless the price decreases, it will be difficult for users to accept spending such an amount of money for what amounts to an idle pasttime. They would rather invest in a more expensive laptop for all the additional affordances that a laptop provides and learn the composition through the interface a laptop or Tablet PC would offer.
• The Anoto pen requires a PC to be somewhat nearby to be effective, in that no remote charger is available and battery swapping is not possible, unlike what is available for laptops, Tablet PCs, and PDAs.
• The limitation of workspace that is enforced by the requirement to use Anoto paper puts a damper on the ease of use of the pen system. The user is required to purchase and carry ample amounts of Anoto-friendly paper with them, which may not always be available at retail. Also, the current stock of Anoto paper supplies are mostly for business, and thus reflect that sensibility. For journal writers especially, this is an asthetic limitation that ruins the effect of using pen and paper for many of these users, since they primiarily wish to write in a journal-style notebook.

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