Figure 6.3: Example of visualisation of the buttons concept.
so, how? Should transparency be used? If so, how? Other user interfaces on PDAs seemed to use dark colours and primary black, grey and dark blue. They also used a lot of gradients to create a feeling of depth in the interface. Black, grey and dark blue are colours that give a professional and serious impression. Instead of choosing the same colour scheme as the other PDA application interfaces the Apptoo logotype was chosen as the role model. The colours were taken from the logotype as well as the shapes.
Gradients were used since they were used in the Apptoo logotype. When the graphics were tested in the PDA provided for the master thesis the gradients became granulate on the screen. The graphics was reworked without any gradients.
6.4 Evaluation and redesign
The three suggestions buttons, tree and drag and drop were further developed and decisions about how the different views should look and work were taken. Pictures of the suggestions were made and put together so that they could be shown in the PDA.
Figure 6.4: Example of visualisation of the tree concept.
The pictures were shown and explained to six students at the education Interaction technology and design and to two persons without technical education. The persons were showed the pictures and an open interview was held with each of them. They were asked to talk about what they thought were positive and negative about the suggestions, what they liked and disliked and if they had any suggestions that could make the interfaces/the application better. To end with, they were asked to choose which suggestion they liked most. One person could not decide between two suggestions and therefore voted for two different suggestions. In the end, all three suggestions got three votes each. A decision about which interface to use in a software prototype had to be done, and since no suggestion won in the small vote, the suggestion that felt most fun to implement was chosen. Consequently, the drag and drop suggestion was implemented as a software prototype. Before the implementation, the things that had been pointed out as problems in the evaluation were taken into consideration and corrected.
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Figure 6.5: Example of visualisation of the drag and drop concept.
Chapter 7
Results
The first results of this master thesis are five conceptual model suggestions, the cube, the flip chart, the button suggestion, the tree and the drag and drop presented in the previous chapter. Out of these, the tree, the drag and drop and the button suggestions were further developed. After evaluation the drag and drop suggestion was redesigned and implemented in a software prototype. In this chapter the final drag and drop interface suggestion will be described. In figure 7.1 a device held by a hand is shown to demonstrate the approximate size of the device and its screen.
7.1 Functionality
The main functionality of the application is to combine instant messaging with position-ing. The application therefore has much of the functionality taken from ordinary desktop applications for instant messaging and some of the functionality from GPS navigators.
Additionally, the application has some functionality that is specific for the combination of positioning and instant messaging. The most obvious function is that you can see your contacts on a map. There are privacy issues with showing a person’s location, and therefore the functionality is designed in a way that helps the user to take control over what positioning information is showed about him/her self.
There are three main areas into which the functions can be divided, instant mes-saging, positioning/map and menu. Since there is only one application and not three different applications, these areas are of course closely connected. The three areas are closer described in the following sections.
7.1.1 Instant messaging functionality
As mentioned earlier, much of the instant messaging functionality in this application is the same as in an ordinary desktop instant messaging application. For example the application havs a list of contacts, you can administrate the contacts, choose if the contact should be able to see your position and you can choose a contact. Of course you can read and send messages. Since this application is to be on a phone, the user has the ability to choose if he/she wants to send a message via internet, send an SMS or make a phone call. The user can choose to see the position of his/her contacts on a map. A figure describing the functionality can be seen in figure 7.2.
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7.1.2 Positioning/map
The idea is to have a map and show different information on the map and to be able to interact with the information. The information can for example be the positions of the contacts in the contact list, the closest way to a particular address or information about good restaurants in the area. The user can choose what information should be shown and can edit some of the information. Of course the user can zoom in and out on the map. A figure summarizing the functionality can be seen in figure 7.3.
7.1.3 Menu
In the menu the user should have the tools to change the general things in the interface such as sound, language, graphical style, chat settings, text input and privacy settings.
In the graphic style the user is able to choose between three different suggestions, the buttons, the drag and drop and the tree suggestion. Chat settings gives the user the ability to group contacts, add contacts and remove contacts. The user can choose in what way he/she wants to make text input. MessageEase is one of the input options an is an input method developed for handheld devices with touchscreen. A figure of the functionality can be seen in figure 7.4.