ProjectProposal-YenPai

From CS160 User Interfaces Fa06

1 Revenge of the Scrapbook or Web Mash-ups for the Common Man Using Anoto Technology
2 Background
3 Problem
4 Target User Groups
5 Context and Forces
6 Solution
7 Variations
8 Related Solutions & Products

Revenge of the Scrapbook or Web Mash-ups for the Common Man Using Anoto Technology

Background

The Web, at least version 2.0, has become very programmable. Blog services offer content feeds and many Web-based services like Flickr (popular photo sharing site), YouTube (video sharing), and GoogleMaps (mapping site) have published APIs and more are sure to be published in the near future. These programmable APIs allow Web developers to create so-called Web "mash-ups", that is, Web sites that combine select features from several services. For example, a Web mash-up for social events might embed videos/photos from YouTube/Flickr, while displaying a GoogleMap of the location.

WebMonkey's Top Ten Flickr Mash-ups: http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/06/08/index4a.html

The opening up of Web-based APIs presents users of the Web with numerous possibilities for increased utility and creative expression. Because of obvious technical hurdles, Web mash-ups are often been the brainchildren of cutting edge Web technologists, so a large portion of users who use the Web for entertainment and socializing - the MySpace/YouTube/Flickr generation - are left to fend for themselves, usually maintaining multiple accounts across various services.

The aim of this project is to use Anoto pen technology to enable Web mash-ups for the digitally inclined but technically not-so-savvy. The goal is to bring traditional methods of self-expression (handwritten blog-like entries, notes, photo captions, diagrams/doodles) to the digital realm, while taking advantage of the traditional paper/pen interface to allow users to create and layout their own mash-ups.

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Problem

Though sites like MySpace offer some mash-up functionality, the interface is limited. In giving users maximum control, MySpace, for example, chose for the most part not to regulate content on profile pages. However, users were granted only limited layout options. The result is that profile pages are overcrowded and jumbled collages of self-expressive materials, but are badly designed from a usability and information presentation point of view.

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Target User Groups

This proposal will describe the project with a slant towards "MySpace"-type users and/or powerbloggers who maintain multiple accounts across various services like Blogger, Flickr, Yelp (peer driven review site), etc., with the end goal being a "digital scrapbook" that combines traditional blog entries with photos, video, and other data available via Web APIs. Potential target users might be "MySpace demi-celebrities": aspiring bands, musicians, and models - those members of the social networking community who use such services for self-promotion and audience creation. Demi-celebrities are both more likely to have an existing audience that would be interested in a Web scrapbook and more likely to invest in a technology that enhances audience retention and expansion through the creation of original, interesting, and celebrity-cult content. For example, an indie band on tour might keep a tour journal that combines miscellaneous handwritten notes with photos and venue information.

MySpace demi-celebs:

It should be noted that many demi-celebs on MySpace have already established a separate Web presence, so it is likely that an Anoto-enabled digital scrapbook would be more a supplement to the existing content.

DJ Spider's MySpace page:

DJ Spider's separate Website:

The ideal user groups within the social networking universe may be social and industry bloggers (motivation: more interesting blogs - many blogs already try to combine multimedia). These users are often early adopters of technology and and likely to have active accounts at the various services that we seek to integrate using an Anoto-based "scrapbook".

Another potential user group is online daters (motivation: more compelling profiles).

An alternative target user group would be Web industry professionals looking to quickly prototype a new Website, possibly a new Web site using a combination of already-available services or features. Some attention to the professionals user group is given in the Variations section below.

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Context and Forces

From a user point of view, a service that combines multiple features is already a familiar concept. Taking Web sites such as MySpace, YouTube, or Yelp (peer-driven venue/restaurant/merchant reviews) as examples, it can be conjectured that many Web services are already hybrid sites - often beginning with a single concept and adding features as the service grows. MySpace users can avail themselves of a blog, photo gallery, music player, and forums/groups. Yelp is a useful service that also provides maps, forums, and social networking features.

These services are user-driven and user-centered. The increasing number of available APIs published along with improved browser/JavaScript technology will only accelerate the trend of popular Web content being organized around users and metatags, rather than around service provider brand names, as service providers move increasingly into the background ("powered by" status).

A cursory survey of MySpace shows an eclectic group, generally under 30 and self-expressive. A typical MySpace profile page is crowded and overloaded with content. Profile pages of Bands and other demi-celebrities are especially overloaded with content. And users often leave personalized multimedia in the form of images on each other's profiles.

It is clear that some effort has been put forth to personalize the page and that the MySpace layout is inadequate to neatly accomodate the demands of its users. It is also clear, based on the general disregard for traditional Web design principles demonstrated by a typical MySpace profile page, that most users in the target group are comfortable with the Web but unaware of what might be considered "good" and "bad" design among Web professionals.

Overcrowded MySpace page:

In summary, trends on the Web point towards increasing adoption of published APIs and mashups; and target users demonstrate high motivation to customize their Web presence despite a lack of Web programming knowledge, and are willing to express themselves through a variety of formats (text, images, video, music, etc.) - making them likely to be open and receptive both to a new form of expression (handwritten notes and doodles) and a new method of creating/supplementing an online Web presence with a higher level of customizability.

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Solution

The underlying technology here would be a Web-based service that allows the creation of customized mash-up Web sites. It would provide an easy way to include popular services in a hybrid Web page and generate HTML templates, CSS templates, and the appropriate JavaScript/AJAX necessary to run such a Web site.

The Anoto pen and paper would be an interface to the service. Users would be able to create an "online scrapbook" full of handwritten blog-like entries, and selected RSS entries from news organizations and blog services, images from photo gallery services like Flickr, and video from video upload services like YouTube. Layout of mash-up elements might be determined using drawn boxes (and appropriate information written within a box) like those used in ButterflyNet. Design would lean towards maximum flexibility for the user but initial versions might focus on a few standard layouts, providing specific zones that can be used for mash-up content.

The interface could be a notepad of Anoto paper. Each page could be dated and designed by the user using an Anoto pen. The physicality Anoto pen/paper automatically enforces a certain level of organization to the user data: pagination would automatically enforced, sections in the notebook might develop, sidebars or additional notes would be jotted on the side.

Idealized example of how Anoto-based scrapbook might work. Flickr and date added by software based on pen stroke data and timestamp, respectively. In a more realistic example, more information would have to be passed to the Flickr API and the notebook paper would likely be gridded to aid the user in being more precise with his/her strokes.

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Variations

Though it is generally more exciting to contemplate a more populist idea like that outlined in the proposal above, a compelling and perhaps more viable and focused effort might be to customize the solution towards rapid Web UI prototyping. Such a solution might allow a design team to draw up individual Web pages and link them together. The underlying software would generate a HTML-based prototype, enable basic features like account creation, login/logout, and even enable mash-up content.