Our final design attempts to address the majority of issues that arose from our first two prototype stages. We will separate this into individual sections below:
HARDWARE
The key issues that arose here were that the initial size of the netbox unit meant that people could not fit the unit underneath their television set. We have therefore made netbox slimmer, to achieve this outcome. We also want to offer the user achoice of colours, as this seems to be important to people too. Therefore the final netbox unit will be available in two colours, silver and black.
HARDWARE
The key issues that arose here were that the initial size of the netbox unit meant that people could not fit the unit underneath their television set. We have therefore made netbox slimmer, to achieve this outcome. We also want to offer the user achoice of colours, as this seems to be important to people too. Therefore the final netbox unit will be available in two colours, silver and black.
INPUT DEVICE
The key issue here was that people had considerable difficulty typing text using the original remote control. We original mobile phone style text input design proved too troublesome for older users who were largely unfamiliar or inexperienced with this method of input. We therefore redesigned the remote for prototype 2 and offered the user a wireless keyboard for typing. From prototype 2, the preferred remote control was the one using the touch pad to navigate across the screen. We therefore decided to choose this style for the final design, however, we wanted to go back to our original aim of having one input device. We therefore chose to have a thin, minimalist keyboard as part of the remote control, which is accessible by pulling out the keyboard from the side of the remote control. This feature was inspired by new technology reported here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6345869.stm
The key issue here was that people had considerable difficulty typing text using the original remote control. We original mobile phone style text input design proved too troublesome for older users who were largely unfamiliar or inexperienced with this method of input. We therefore redesigned the remote for prototype 2 and offered the user a wireless keyboard for typing. From prototype 2, the preferred remote control was the one using the touch pad to navigate across the screen. We therefore decided to choose this style for the final design, however, we wanted to go back to our original aim of having one input device. We therefore chose to have a thin, minimalist keyboard as part of the remote control, which is accessible by pulling out the keyboard from the side of the remote control. This feature was inspired by new technology reported here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6345869.stm
Touchpad navigation with bottom 'select' button,built-in voice recognition and scroll out mini keyboard.
SOFTWARE
The original software used in the first prototype was well recieved. People particularly liked the new way that internet pages were displayed using the simplified format we introduced. For the final design, we have:
The original software used in the first prototype was well recieved. People particularly liked the new way that internet pages were displayed using the simplified format we introduced. For the final design, we have:
- Introduced an on-screen video companion that can guide people if they are having trouble. This feature is fully customisable, in that the person can be changed, as well as their voice, or the feature can be turned off completely. This improves the overall user experience by making access to all of the netbox features through this guide and provides users with a friendly 'person', with whom they can interact, rather than just being faced with a succession of text-based menu screens.
- The user can asks questions to the video companion through talking into the remote control. The video companion responds through the TV output speaker.
- The main menu used numbers from the keypad in the original. These have been removed because people preferred to use the controller to navigate through the menu.
- We have also introduced a new graphical interface resulting in a more intuitive, user friendly display.
- We have changed the email application to allow easier access to the individual's account.
- We changed the chat login name to be the same as the email name.
- Chat software now allows users to talk to each other directly, as well as providing speech to text functionality so that conversations can be transcribed for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
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