Agile Refining: The keepClose Prototype

To evaluate the initial prototype and the design strategies upon which it is built, a first study is conducted. The aim of this study is to test the technical implementation of the device. The system

Family No. Commuter / Partner at home Kids 1 father age 33 (controller) mother age 28

(psychologist) son age 2

2 father age 48 (engineer) mother age 45 (real

estate manager) daughter age 12 and son age 10

3 father age 42 (engineer) mother age 42 (con-

struction draftswoman) sons age 10, 8 and 7

Table 4.1:Demography of the pre-study participants. is adjusted to optimise the technology for an enhanced experience.

Procedure and Methods for the Agile Testing of thekeepCloseSystem

To optimise the system during testing, agile adaptations were made after each test period. For the testing to happen in a real environment, three families were recruited to use the system in situ (see Table 4.1). The commuters had a travel time of at least 30 minutes, up to a maximum of 60 minutes.

A test period comprised one family using the initial prototype in their everyday life for two days. The day before the test, both systems were installed, one system within the commuter’s car and the other system in the home. The device with the android application was placed in the family’s common space in the house. Additionally, the family received an introduction to the keepClose system. The day after the testing, the devices were returned and semi-structured narrative interviews (see in Section 2.3.1) were conducted with the mother and father of the family individually. Hereby, two commutes to work and two commutes home with thekeepClose

system were observed. All interviews were video recorded for later analysis, and the results were translated form German into English. The interview focused on the family’s perception and usage of thekeepClosesystem and provided important starting points for the system’s enhancement for the long-term study. Thus, the protoype was optimised after each test period.

The Loved Ones Expressing Themselves: Adjustments

In the testing of the initial prototype, the feature of sending messages was not used by the participant families, presumably because they habitually send messages by mobile device and also because the messaging had no stimulative nature. Therefore, two changes were made. First, the creation of messages was limited to a digital pen and paper function. Those at home can write or even paint directly on the screen with a digital pen of the android tablet. Secondly, to foster a stimulative nature, the message interface arises automatically once the commuter arrives at work and closes once he drives home. Thus, throughout the commuter’s time at work an empty paper on the screen is prompts the creation of messages.

The Commuter Conveying Their Whereabouts: Adjustments

When testing the system, Family 1 was unsatisfied with the display of the distance estimation. The mother of this family pointed out that when using the keepClose prototype just before the

Figure 4.12: The commuter’s path crosses thehome areathreshold on the homeward journey. commuter arrived, "... to our complete surprise, it displayed my husband [the commuter] to be deviating from home at the very next instance. My child was quite disappointed and me, too, of course" (mother of Family 1). The problem that occurred was that the displayed distance from car to home depended on the car’s position in the distance thresholds (see Figure 4.7), so that if the commuter drove detours or shortcuts, the system jumped between the thresholds. In the case of Family 1, after the commuter has been constantly approaching home during the return journey, the distance between his position and home suddenly increases again at one point (see marked area in Figure 4.12. In this figure it can be seen that on his drive home the commuter enters into Threshold 3, but while exiting the highway he has to leave this threshold and cross back into Threshold 4. The home device is then displayed as if the commuter drives back to work.

This issue only occurred in Family 1 and was rectified before the testing with Family 2. The problem was solved by a displaying of a direction change only if the commuter crosses a total of three thresholds in the direction away from home.

The Loved Ones Expressing Themselves: Adjustments

Family 1 also expressed frustration with the long time span between starting the system and the opening of the audio channel. The mother of Family 1 commented, "Well, we personally said goodbye and then he [the commuting husband] went out the door. Until he finally switched on the

keepClosein the car, it felt like ages passed. So it felt like we said goodbye twice." This occurred because in order for the connection to be established the system first searched for a GPS signal in order to localise the car’s position and to recognise if the system was within the home area, a process which sometimes required up to five minutes. This issue was solved by establishing a connection immediately upon starting the system, instead of waiting for a GPS signal to calculate

the position, which in the morning was then automatically assumed to be the home position. Instability and poor conections caused other problems with the audio channel. Because of the bad connection the commuter could not count on the audio channel, and therefore sometimes did not pay attention to it. As the mother of Family 1 mentioned, "... he [the commuter] had turned on the radio and didn’t notice the open communication channel." This problem was fixed after the pre-study by re-implementing the audio channel from the beginning. The reason for the bad connection was the use of aVoice over IP service, and hence the dependancy on the mobile internet network for the audio transmission.

In the countryside where Family 1 lived the mobile internet connection was poor or even unavail- able, especially since the mobile device requires a relatively strong3gconnection in order to have an open network connection and call at the same time. Thus, the communication channel was instead implemented via a telephone connection. The Android application in the car automatically called the tablet within the commuter’s home where the call was automatically answered in the background. Although this made the audio channel robust, the system in the car was now comprised of two distinct mobile devices, one for calling and another one for sending position updates via the mobile network.