Week 12 completion and test (beware fascinating results ahead)

"Retention is a very important factor for the large number of information-based web sites that exist. It is, of course, an important factor for e-learning applications, since the user’s goal is usually to retain the information beyond the time the page is being read. This also applies to information included in e-commerce sites, since the users’ tasks are often facilitated when they can retain information from page to page."
Hall, R. and Hanna, P. (2004), The Impact of Web Page Text-Background Color Combinations on Readability, Retention, Aesthetics, and Behavioral Intention, Behaviour & Information Technology, forthcoming

From my previous post we know how important content is, but now with this we know that equally important to content is retention. In other words, we can put as much content as we like on our page, but as long as the user cannot retain the content given to them, it is a good as us not putting any content there at all.
Before who we talk about this issue is addressed, I'll talk about the project progress first.

The project progress has been good so far, we've finished the webcam module which in this case we've finished all the modules and container which we set off to do from the begining.

Webcam module which allows 3 way co-laboration, with chat window and slide window available


The webcam module turn out just the way we wanted it, 3 way co-lab and more than just msn.

Inorder to address the issue of retention we stuck rather closely to the guideline set by Jakob Nielson (as mentioned in my previous post). Using colours to make thing more noticable, allowing full attention to a particular modules and allow interactivity for user to spur on their interest.

Now to complete the cycle of this design process, after doing research and implementation, we need user testing.

Lucky for me I live in a student accomodation so..."let the hunting season begin hahahaha...!!!" (oops...sorry about that)

Firstly I must the students which I've testing this web application on are students from BEL faculity and they have more or less never stepped foot into building 1, they are also 1st year students and overseas students as well.

These are the general comments which most of them make:
1. Convenient
2. Practical
3. Cool
4. takes the place of having to meeting face to face
5. Save the trouble/time of traveling
6. Able to have cross co-laboration
7. Can be used to meet with lecturers and tutors more easily (some wished it could replace balckboard)
8. Able to look around places at own time and pace
When ask "On the scale of 1-10 (1 being not useful, 10 being very useful) how effective would this be if you're an external student doing a course in UQ?"
The average rating given was 8/10.
One of them even liked it so must, she ask if it was possible to be an external student in UQ using this mode of interaction.

Now this is just what they say, when we asked them, but what they didn't know was, we were observing them when they were "moving around" in the VR tours. These are what we observed
1. Relatively easy to navigate, knew and got used to the interface after some minor instruction.
2. Enjoys looking around just for the fun it.
3. Facinated by about of detail
4. Discovers new things about building 1 (Infenv and nursing shares the same building)

This is the interesting thing most of them will generally navigate around the entire building 1 and have a look and feel of it, then they will return to the room they "enjoyed" or facinates them the most and start looking around in detail. They actually remember the places/rooms they have been to even though they've never been into building 1 (information was retained). Apart from just remembering the rooms and places, they can even tell me what are the things that interest them in the room.
One of them was ratteling on about a pirate ship made out of form core(visual thinking "derby" assignment) during the interview.
When they lunched the QTVR in the room which interest them, them more or less do not concern themselves about the main naivgation container, their fully focused about the module which they want to explore.

I must say I was rather amazed to see such results, the content was provided and was retained as well. Furthermore these are not multimedia students who know the place well or know how to navigate in such an interface, they are students from another faculity and have no relation to this project at all.

With this research an conclusion, I feel the concept has been proven useful and effective. This successfully wraps up our project development cycle.

Week 11 - Interface completetion

Finally the coding of the interface has been completed.

The container is what we wanted it to be infact.
A Director container with a pananorama/Virtual tour with a cross section 3D map of the location and other navigation links, plus access to other modules.

This is something interesting that we've discovered so far. We set of to create a proof of concept that to create a container with a QTVR and Director base VR tour.
However the more we do and tested it out, it seems that this container is just a toll to help facilitate naivgation among the "attached" modules and QTVR tours.

Look of completed interface. With VR tour in screen for navigation, a 3D cutout map at bottom with "markers"(blue balls for hotspot, yellow ball for current location) to identify position, and additional modules by the side.
Current modules are QTVR, Wecam, and Recorded lecture


"Content is king. Even though I was often testing sites to evaluate their interaction design, the test users were far more focused on the actual page content. Most users don’t go to the Web to “have an experience” or to enjoy the site designs: the UI is the barrier through which they reach for the content they want."
Nielsen, J. Guidelines for multimedia on the Web. (1995);

With this we've decided to focus more on the content in which we can add in now, the modules and option available.
Instead of just a QTVR panorama, let allow the user to zoom in/out of the panorama to allow them to see more detail, intead of have just blind hotspots, lets give them a bit of notification so that they know that there is extra content on that particular place/node.

QTVR panel with additional controls at the bottom to allow users to zoom in/out and wonder around at free will.


Information screen panel; inofrmation panel now includes he location of the place, a rough description and photos or images of the facilities and type of work being done in the room.


All the above screen and and modules will appear in a new window, as since content is what most web users want, we've decided that content should stand alone individually and not be all mixed up on the same screen, this will allow users to focus on the content they want and not get distracted by whatever is going on in the main screen.

With all this done, we've now left with out webcam module, with the focus on providing content and user interaction(for this particular module) we've decided that it should not be just a webcam, as there would always be the question "How is this better/different from something like MSN?"
We've decided not just a webcam plus chat room, but a net meeting room, something that enables more than 1 source of webcam feeds, a chat area, and also a place where students can post things like lecture slides and be able to see it and go through it with each other.
the next function of this webcam was also so that external students can attend lectures that are on campus, now with the addition of such a function of though, they not only can see and hear the lecturer, but will be able to see the lecture slides as the same time.

This concept with really bring the university to those who cannot ceom to it.

Week 10

So far the coding has been rather on track.

I've added in some "dummy" sound just to make the site feel not so boring, and in fact all the graphics have been fully provided.

The 3D cut out of building one has also been done and so far all that is needed would be to add in all these features and the container would look a lot better.

3D cut out of building 1 level 2


3D cut out of building 1 levle 3


Information box area


I've also discovered something interesting about information layout.

"Spatial proximity had little effect on either focused attention or integration, whereas a distinct color code improved focused attention and disrupted integration."

Proximity compatibility and information display: effects of color, space, and object display on information integration.
Wickens CD, Andre AD. University of Illinois, Institute of Aviation, Savoy 61874.

Week 10 - Advisor meeting

After such a long time of doing things on our own we though we'll mett up with our project adivsor just to make sure we're on the right track.

We've showed him our current working container and yes we are on the right track, we've also managed to confirm with Matt on out research scop how deep it should go and to what extend we have to go to.

As for that the rest of the things are rather fine, he also did mention about not adding too much information into our VR portion as it would be like a "shopping list", and we also discovered that last hime he went about doing this VR tour program for building 1 it was the head of uni who actually stopped it, due the the amount of information added into it.

I've been browsing through stuff on the net trying to find citations and all, some how or rather I keep stumbling upon this name "Jakob Nielson".

It seems this person has written several books and citations with regards to online user interation.

To ensure interaction consistency across all sites it will be necessary to promote a single set of design conventions.Jakob Nielson “User Interface Directions for the Web” January 1999

The books he has written are as follows:
Nielsen, J. Guidelines for multimedia on the Web. (1995); www.useit.com/alertbox/9512.html

Nielsen, J. The need for speed. (1997); www.useit.com/alertbox/9703a.html

Nielsen, J. Be succinct: How to write for the Web. (1997);
www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html

Nielsen, J. Designing Exceptional Websites: Secrets of an Information Architect. (1999) New Riders, Indianapolis, Ind.;

Furthermore there are several more important references mentioned in his citations, I guess this is the half a step I needed to get in and begin my research.

Week 9

So far the VR tour is almost done, level 3 of building 1 has been completed, transitions and slight sound effects have been added so that the VR tour won't be so boring.
For the technical aspect we have most or less hit the right spot and are moving along the right track.
The container is out and the layout is working fine with the graphics, the graphics and colour scheme are giving the desired effect.
Transitions are giving a good flow effect and not jumping from one place to another.

The number of hotspots/nodes we have have been reduced, as the equipment in the labs are generally the same so we've decided to have just 2 lab, a studio lab and a prac lab, to reduce information redundency.

Whats left would be the integration of the map and information hotspots.

With the change of scope, we now have several research areas we have to go into.
1. Virtual reality and its effects
2. Impact of web on e-commerce
3. Colour Psycology and Interface Design
4. Placement of onscreen objects

Week 8

Slight change of scope and progress

There is a slight change of scope here for the project.
Instead of just concentrating on building out prototype or proof of concept, we've decided to add a few areas of research to concentrate one.

Being linked to virtual reality(QTVR and VR tours) we could look into the effects of how virtual reality can change the prespective people have over places or things.
Since out QTVR targets external and prospective students, research can also be done on the impact VR has on the sale of a product, as the target of prospective students is actually trying to "sell" the university to them.

Of course firstly we have to find out a clear defination of virtual reality as stated on Wikipedia

"Virtual Reality (VR) is an environment that is simulated by a computer. Most virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones. Some advanced and experimental systems have included limited tactile information, known as force feedback. Users can interact with a virtual environment either through the use of standard input devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired glove, polhemus boom arm, and/or omnidirectional treadmill. The simulated environment can be similar to the real world, for example, simulations for pilot or combat training, or it can differ significantly from reality, as in VR games. In practice, it is currently very difficult to create a high-fidelity virtual reality experience, due largely to technical limitations on processing power, image resolution and communication bandwidth. However, those limitations are expected to eventually be overcome as processor, imaging and data communication technologies become more powerful and cost-effective over time." Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia(www.wikipedia.com)

Further research also stated that virtual reality will have the following impact:

1. Virtual reality will be integrated into daily life and activity and will be used in very human ways.
2. Techniques will be developed to influence human behavior, interpersonal communication, and cognition (i.e., virtual genetics).
3. As we spend more and more time in virtual space, there will be a gradual “migration to virtual space,” resulting in important changes in economics, worldview, and culture.
4. The design of virtual environments may be used to extend basic human rights into virtual space, to promote human freedom and well-being, and to promote social stablity as we move from one stage in socio-political development to the next.

"Power, Madness, and Immortality: The Future of Virtual Reality" by Mychilo Stephenson Cline

With this I suppose our scope of research will be more or less focused and now at least we know a standard direction we are heading.

As for the progress, the photo panoramas have more of less been finished, now I'm going into the real coding of each panorama and linking them all together.
I've yet to receive any othe the information and extra details of information to add, so I'll leave it as that and concentrate on fixing the VR tour up for this week.

Mid Sem Break a.k.a MMDS project week

Since this is the mid semester break, there would be less people in the uni thus Anthony and I decided to take the images during this time, however there were several things we have to keep in mind while taking the images.

We had to decide on a time where the lighting was overcast, and not too bright, as through trial we discovered that photos taken espacially those on the foyer have areas which are either over exposed or under exposed, which in this case can't be of much use as it does not show much of the area.
Taking the photos at night would also be hard, as this time round the problem would be that our reflections can be seen on the glass.
We had a walk around the area during the afternoon and planned our route on how we are going to take the photos, where are we going to stand, which camera angles would be better, where should we take the photos first before the lighting changes.

We decided on the time to be 4.30pm in the evening, as that time, the sun is setting it is almost overcast, and we would have at least 1 and 1/2 hours to take the photos from outside and in the foyer before the lighting change becomes obvious.
The deciding on this time also explains why we needed a lot of planning, as it is only 1 and 1/2 hours, and the sun sets very fast during that time, thus we must know what to do and where to stand.

With all that planned out, we managed to get 14 out of the 16 hotspots which we've decided on, now we would be left with the editing and stitiching of the photos which can be done on our own time, there after I would be able to mark out the hotspots and create the VR tour section of this assignment while Anthony creats the QTVR tour before they are combined together.