Alarm Clocks Jake Graham | Leighton Makoto Ige | Sarah Leavitt Human Factors and Interface Design Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering May 2, 2005

Design Process to Date Project Selection-Primary User Groups Conducted Interviews Developed Personas, Scenarios, and Lexicon Formulated Initial Design Ideas Created Low-Fidelity Prototype Conducted Interactive Interviews Created First Interactive Prototype Heuristic Evaluation Created Second Interactive Prototype Conducted Pilot Usability Study Making Revisions to Second Interactive Prototype

Project Selection Hardware-Software Integration Manageable Sized Project Meaningful Design Ability to Implement our Results Alarm Clock! Insufficient & Inefficient Design Brainstorming Session Personal Experience with Alarm Clocks

Interview Highlights Analog vs. Digital Users Multiple Alarms / Alarm Clocks Irregular Sleeping Patterns Outrageous Ideas about Waking Up Seriousness of Problem

Personas Jackie Lee College Student Melvin Jefferson CPA Doris Jefferson Librarian Archivist Richard Sterling .com Millionaire

Scenarios Set and Arm Alarm Wake Up and Turn Off Alarm Use Radio

Modality Learning applies to all modes Simple visual feedback Color Flashing Display

Scroll Wheel Analog Analogue Reduces number of buttons Allows one-handed control Forward/backward scrolling CW/CCW motion parallels analog clock

Random Chase Verifies user’s consciousness Unpredictable Deactivation process takes time Does not allow for incomplete deactivation

Reduction Snooze Snooze Time Decreases Set Starting Snooze Time Finite Amount of Snooze

Low-Fidelity Prototype

Interaction Flows

Changes from Low-Fi to First Interactive Menu System Menu Options vs. Multiple Presses Hardware to Software Limitations due to time Radio Functionality Color / Lights

Heuristic Evaluation Problem Highlights: Functionality Prevent Errors Speak the Users’ Language Majority of problems already known Majority of problems mitigated by physical prototype

Interactive Prototype-Take Two All Severity 3+ Fixed Fixed Implementation Errors Functional (radio) Preventive (radio) Few minor problems postponed

Pilot Usability Study Gave users no background information Went through tasks one at a time Most took <25 seconds Hints given when users got stuck Error-prone tasks Setting alarm Using radio Overall, very positive Good Feedback

Interactive Prototype

Live Demo http://fsweb.olin.edu/courses/engr3220/sa2004/en gr3220-violet/phase5/violet_phase5.html

To-Do List More 3D looking Flash Prototype Iron out few remaining bugs Radio preset functionality Colors/schemes of buttons Discuss toggle interface

Lessons Learned Users want controlled defeat-ability. Good design is not necessarily innovative. Paper prototyping works well. Say what you mean. Formal Usability Study we designed would have been very beneficial.

Thank You!

Questions?