Hello, hello!!

Just last week my group had to do some examples of personas..and since it’s my first time doing and writing a persona from scratch, so pls pardon me. okay, here are my personas..:

1. INFORMATION USAGE:
Name: Sally Wakefield
Sex: Female
Birthday: 26 April 86
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Hometown: Canada
Religion: Free Thinker
Marital Status: Single
Children: -
Income/month: $3000 (including rent and stuff)
Education: major in journalism in UNSW
Hobbies: singing and baking.
Favourite music: pop music
Fashion Inspiration: current fashion trends
Staying: In a residence hall on campus, with a roommate
Work at: part time as at Lush
position: Sales promoter

Place where she buys her groceries: safeway
Weekly spending on groceries: $100
Cook herself or eat out: cook at home most of the time
What does she normally buys: fresh food(meat,vegs), cereal, fruits, organic food. home necessity
What she thinks of the current supermarket system: she thinks it’s alrights as she goes to buy her groceries every monday at about 10pm. she tries to avoid busy time and sometimes late night food are cheaper such as the bbq chicken which safeway roasts.

2. INFORMATION USAGE:
Name: Darrell Chia
Sex: Male
Birthday: 6 October 1982
Age: 26
Occupation: Student
Hometown: Indonesia
Religion: Christian
Marital Status: Single
Children: -
Income/month: $5000 (including rent and stuff)
Education: double major in finance and marketing
Hobbies: basketball, tennis and watching soccer
Favourite music: R&B
Fashion Inspiration: street fashion
Staying: 2 bedroom apartment in the city with a housemate
Work at: part time at Pizza Hut
position: Sales promoter

Place where she buys her groceries: Coles,Safeway
Weekly spending on groceries: $30
Cook herself or eat out: Eat out all the time
What does she normally buys: junk food and home necessity
What he thinks of the current supermarket system: He thinks that it’s a place where he buys some toilet paper and household stuff, and some indo mee to keep him alive during the wee hours of the day. He goes to buy his necessity anytime , there’s no fix time.

3. INFORMATION USAGE:
Name: Alex Seeto
Sex: Male
Birthday: 11 July 87
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Hometown: Singapore
Religion: Free Thinker
Marital Status: Attached
Children: -
Income/month: $4000 (including rent and stuff)
Education: Film student in rmit
Hobbies: filming, going for gigs, hanging out
Favourite music: indie
Fashion Inspiration: indie style
Staying: In a one bedroom apartment in chapel
Work at: -
position: -

Place where he buys her groceries: richmond
Weekly spending on groceries: $40
Cook herself or eat out: cook at home most of the time
What does she normally buys: fresh food(meat,vegs), fruits, What she thinks of the current supermarket system: sHe rarely goes to the supermarket as the groceries there are a little more expensive than the small shops opened at richmond. Sometimes he feels that safeway’s seafood isnt fresh, and the sales assistants are kinda rude and useless as they dont help you very much. a little hostile.

I am absolutely excited to see the outcome of my group’s video!! We went to film it today, trying to get everything done asap. As we wanna make it perfect, give ourselves time to edit it.=) Now I understand why some kids are addicted to the game to Mario Kart! I went to Crown to play at the arcade..And I played Mario Kart to get a better understanding of what this game is all about. Yeah.

Anyways, everyone’s busy editing photos, drawing the graphics, making the short video presentation work!

Alrights, Im off to do the reminding graphics for the presentation and do my week 7 readings!

Thought:
Well, it’s been almost the end of week5 and my group have kicked off the brainstorming part for our video. We’re gonna have a blast doing it as well as editing it. But everyone knows that it’s gonna be a tedious process trying to do it perfectly. =) Anyways, I tried calling coles and the people there arent exactly as friendly as I thought they would be! I even called the headquaters but they rejected the idea of filming/taking photos in the supermarket. I later made a trip personally down to IGA(my favourite supermarket), I remember shopping at IGA for everything last yr! owells, those were the good old days. Ok, I shall stop side tracking..haha!! Well, IGA allowed me to take photos, however they do not have trolleys!! why why? cos it was IGA EXPRESS!! owells, I guess we need a group meeting to sort this out so that we can complete the vid fast. ONE WEEK LEFT people!! hurryhurryhurry!

Group Discussion:
Over the week, we’ve been msging and msning each other by means of advanced technology, and yes everyone did their part in our group..Writing personas, drawing the scenes, sketching stuff, calling supermarkets, doing the group photo, editing the mission statement, editing the wiki page, etc. GJ! See you guys tmr..

Readings:
Alrights, so here are my week 5 readings..There seems to be a few readings which I’ve read it before in week3 and week 4. And I’ve already posted my reviews on it.(go check under readings)

Lidwell_UniversalPrinciples:

I like the fact that this article speaks about the accessibility of objects/products around us. I agree that everything around us needs to speak with meaning and purpose, so that the users/audiences can perceive, use and understand the whole design.

Also, I believe that aesthetic designs are more user friendly than those products with less aesthetic purposes. This is probably due to the fact that a more interactive design would allow the users to enjoy the product more and also have the inclination to use it with the thought that it is a fun and interesting product to use.

Overall, this article is informative in the sense that it tells me the guidelines and factors that contributes to a designed product, or anything dealing with designing.

SafferPersonasScenarios_fixed:
This article helped me in writing up my group’s personas and scenarios, because initially I did not know how to create a persona, thus with the help of this reading it allowed me to understand the requirements needed in a persona. Indeed this is really helpful.

Scenarios:
This short piece of reading helped me to comprehend what a Scenario is all about. In short, I understand that in order to write a scenario, one must identify the problem and interaction needed to take place. Also, avoiding references to technology, while including all aspects of the interaction. After writing it, one must review and edit the written scenario. We must also bear in mind to not indclude any form of technology related things, while writing the scenario.

Alrights, that’s all folks!

Alrights, today’s group discussion was a fruitful one! we got to kick start and finalise our ideas for the video presentation. Also we’ve redid our group photo and stuff. But I am trying to piece the group mission statement still..Im sure everyone in my team is trying to form the perfect sentence of it too. We just got the gist of it..but we need to find powerful words that stir within us to motivate us and push us to a limit where we never stop developing this project!

We’ve also decided on which ideas we wanna focus and develop on. Not to forget, we’ve shift our focus from the ultimate shopping experience..to a FUN & wacky experience while one does her supermarketing. We’ve decided to reinnovate the whole supermarket system to one where people not only go there to buy their groceries, but also interact with the supermarket environment and other shoppers too!

Anyways, I’m excited to do the video thingy!! We’re trying a new approach whereby we are not gonna film the video presentation, but rather take multiple photos and compile them up in iMovie to create a different perspective of our video presentation. Our inspiration was the Super Mario race game, indie movies style and of course with loads of humor in our presentation.

Yupps, right now everyone’s trying to come up with 2 or more personas for next week. We’re gonna come together this friday to discuss and share our generalized personas for our project. It’s gonna be interesting as we could see one another’s typical mindset of a particular demographic group. I reckon it’s gonna be hilarious.

Anyways, I’m really glad that today’s group meeting have shifted the focus to something more narrowed down, more specific in nature, rather than just spilling and overwhelming with ideas.(not saying that having ideas are not good, but we’ve more than enough ideas) I sure am glad that we’re shifting to doing the video, allocating and dividing group work, and everyone’s putting their 2cents worth, contributing and all.

Alrights, I’m off to come up with different personas for our project. =)

DeBono_6ThinkingHats:
This article is really interesting as it tells us about our 6 thinking hats! (esp when it involves 6 different colours: white, red, black, yellow, green and blue.) It was fun reading this as it made me aware of how to pair my thinking hats together next time. the white & red, black & yellow, and green & blue. I am definitely going to try to use this thinking hats system. You guys should try it for yourselves too! I think it would be helpful to everyone in their form of developing their creativity and innovation ideas when doing our Studio I project.

Gosh, these few days have been pretty much intense for me. I feel sick and all..I really need to discuss with the group on where we need to head (fast). Right now it’s all ideas, ideass, and more ideas..I somehow think we need to have a direction and get things done..rather than just having heaps of ideas. I mean ideas are good way to start, but my group seriously need to move on into more important things, like categorizing the ideas, starting out with a purpose to drive us to the end.

I hope tmr’s group meeting would be fruitful.

These week 3 readings are loooooong overdue!! I know!! I know!! It was because I could not access it and download it to my mac from the commserver. But now I can! haha I’ve been doing my week 3 readings during the weekends. Anyways, there are some interest readings that I really enjoyed though some of them are really long (over 100pages!!). Nevertheless, it’s good to read more ya? you get more knowledgeable=)

Saffer Design Research:
This is an extremely good reading! I like how it guides one from the start of doing an interactive project, and pin points the important parts of kicking start a project. I also found the four approaches to interactive design (1.User-Centred Design, 2.Activity-Centred Design, 3.System Design, and 4.Genius Design) really useful to my group’s progress, as it teaches one to always keep in check with these approaches so that my group would not go out of point.

Moreover, the reading on research was very helpful as it taught me how to do my research properly   and that doing research and brainstorming are the secret key to interactive design.

I absolutely love this reading as it taught me a lot more about the starting key ingredients to an interactive design project.

Design Interactions:
Woah, this was an extremely long reading! But I managed to finished it with of course extracting the important parts and absorbing them into my brain!! This reading gave me a structured way to assist my group in doing our project. The structure of designing an interactive projects, with an evaluation criteria (1. Creativity/innovation, 2.Aesthetics/quality, 3.Human factors/values, 4.Performance/technology, and 5.Completeness/presentation) to follow and all.

I like the in depth of how this reading goes, as it is very explicit and easy to understand when read. The part which has this quality was the part on the Design Discipline.

In addition, it also provide useful tips and guidelines which I would share with my group on progressing with our interactive design project.

jonKolko_thoughtsOnInteractionDesign:
Firstly, I need to say that I liked the whole design spread/layout and of course colour of this reading. It was a nice and appealing sight.

Anyways, I felt that this reading brought me to see how interaction design really works and connects with everything around us, and of course us! I think that interaction design is everywhere around us, the things we do, the things we see and so on. It’s just whether we make a conscious effort to see and interact with it. We could all really see the beauty in interaction design.

Though this article was a long read, it helped me to understand why certain products are designed the way they are now! Take for example the LEGO bricks. it’s really amazing to see how mindful and now visually it allows us to interact with the product too.

This article exposed me to see how interaction designers think and how they realy bring in every factor of our lives into their creations.

Alrighty, there I’m finally done for my week 3 readings=)

Well, it’s close to the end of the weekends..Here comes monday blues when the sun is out..=(  Anyways, I’ve gave thought about how we can improve our supermarket system!! And the following are just a few ideas, I’ve been just pondering about.

 1. FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION:  This is used as a method of payment. Shoppers must have their fingerprint registered in the system, which directly logs on to their internet banking system. This is a quick method to pay, as customers jus need to place their finger on the scanner to complete their purchase. This could combine with the self check in system too, and we could have something to promote it. Eg. The computer fingerprint system would pick a particular shopper fingerprint, and load it up on the system. And, if the shopper shop on that exact day, he/she could be that lucky shopper of the day and walk away with a supermarket voucher (or something better!!).

2. GREAT DEALS ON TV installed in front of supermarket entrance:  This allow shoppers to view items and remember where to get them. It also attracts customers who are just happening to pass the place, and purchase those great deals on that day.

 3. BOILING POINTS: This is like the mtv show-Boiling Points. Where a group of sale assistants would just walk around in either plain clothes or in uniform, and play a prank on the customer. If the customer outdo the limited time, she could get away with like a discount of all her shopping items. This way, both the customer(s) and the employees would enjoy at the same time!

 Alrights, these 3 are my top 3 ideas, which I have been thinking about this past one week.

 I’m out, before the sun rises and I get those Monday Blues!

Well, it’s been quite a nice break so far. But the weather is really cold..it’s windy and cold, not my ideal temperature..haha, but then again I’ve to prepare for the coming winter that’s gonna make me very very miserable indeed. haha

Alrights, I’ve read jon’s blog and these are my comments on his post. (I can’t seem to post my comment there cos I need to be a member of blogger.) Alrights, here’s to you jon..

hey jon..

great ideas there..and here are my thoughts on what i think bout them..

1. buggies are fun and exciting, but the idea of buggies in the supermkt wld hinder the fast process of a supermarket..think bigger space, lower shelves right? = waste of space  & more $$ for renting/buying the place..yeah
that’s what i think of it..and there might be jam during peak hours and such..maybe buggies could be like 11pm-midnight when there’s not so many pple shopping..yeah

2.and the dispensers where we buy our food is a cool idea..but i was thinking of will the food be fresh? some pple like to touch the vegs and meat before purchasing them..at least for me..unless it’s some packet or canned food.

3. awesome idea..were networking between students and all would serve as a opportunity to communicate and know more pple..socialise!

4. wow, it could be a potential idea, where pple could go else where to shop while they wait for their food to get ready. but then again i was thinking how many chefs do we need? in case there might be a long queue and such.

alrights, we’ll talk more when we meet ya? just and we’re still thinking of fast and efficient system right? yeah..

in the meantime, enjoy ur break! =)

g

ok, there still seem to be a problem with the comm server, i cant do my readings!! anyways, enjoy the last day before uni starts tmr!!  =)

interactive Between Jonathan Ong, You and Phong Do

Alrighty, thanks to facebook/msn we got to communicate efficiently and with ease!

There’s what went on facebook..if you guys missed phong’s msg on facebook alrights?

Phong Do

Today at 1:33pm

Reply

hey guys, sorry i missed claass last week, totally overslept and then couldnt be bothered LOL, anyway i though ill messenge you guys to see whats happening with the porject.

also i reckon it will be easier tyo do this of msn or something, ive gotta send you guys my research too about the online shopping vs store shopping . sooo yeah add me so ill get ur emails. its…
dim_sim87@hotmail.com

cool? cool……
JAPPEG!!!

Phong Do

Today at 1:40pm

Reply

ohh yeah i got this cool idea… well i think its cool
anyway you no how you buy ringtones etc on your phone well maybe we could do a phone website where you can pay for ur items on your phone with the internet

this will probably only work when ur buying only a few items like drinks and snacks, but all you gotta do is jump on the internet with ur phne, go to the website and type in the barcode or something and the item is pay for using ur phone credit/. once done u can just walk out.

yeahh… thats just an idea but tell me what u guys think
peace.

Geraldine Lim

Today at 8:15pm

hey..phong!! i so overslept too but i BOTHERed to go for classes!! haha..see im so studious!! jus kidding…hows ur easter break coming along?? fun?? haha..

anyways,we’ve this new addition to JaPPeG!! its a student who went on a break for a yr and came back..she’s called christine..yeah..so we’re thinking of changing our group name to “SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICSPIALLYDOCIOUS”.. you know the mary poppins phrase?? yeah.. so jon was thinking of a tag line like..”u’ll shop finish even before u could say supercali….” yeah.. quite a cool catch phrase..really can work on the efficient fast supermarket interactive system we’re trying to create right? haha..=)

alrighty, enjoy ur easter break..and do check the wiki and our respective blogs for more updates on our research ya??

cheers!
G

 anyways, I had did part of the readings that we were supposed to do this week (week 3)..=) However, there are some problems with 3 of the readings like the audio one for example..I can’t seem to download it from the server and such..and in the meantime I’ve been searching and doing my part for research on some ultimate/future supermarket systems. I found some good articles and will either post it here or I’ll print it and share with you guys over the next group meeting. =)

Happy Easter folks! 

This week Jon, Pim and I went for tutorial on time! However, Phong was no where to be seen. I guess he started the Easter Holidays earlier than all of us. Haha.. I was just kidding..He’s probably sick and staying at home to rest.

While I was in the midst of Tania’s tutorial about the wiki and stuff, it suddenly dawn upon me that the wiki is a great deal of help to aid a group discussion! Wow!! I finally discovered the power of wiki!! =)

It’s a good creation to update and share information with everyone, especially my group members. It would potentially widen one’s circle of friends and enable us to gain a sense of community with our fellow CommDesign classmates. I am so looking forward when our commdesign wiki is on full force and ever updating!

Anyways, JaPPeG welcomes a new member..She’s an indon, and her name is called Christine! *claps* We all warmly welcome her to our group, and we ought to change our group name this time round. We’re thinking of the longest word, and I came up with “Supercalifraglisticspialidocious”..Isn’t it fantastic?! It has some of Mary Poppin’s magical experiences and some magic dust*. =)

We had a group discussion on:

1. Things that shoppers are unhappy bout in the supermarket

2. Things that shoppers are happy bout in the supermarket

3. Ideas/innovation on a potentially better supermarket shopping experience

Jon, Pim and I had an extensive amount of research that we contributed in today’s discussion, which we picked out and discuss about. It was a good time not wasted, but rather made us thought about things that require our attention.

We divided more in depth research work between each members, so that we could continue to be in progress and ever keeping in touch with this project. We decided that msn is a good form of communication between one another, as there is a conference thingy where everyone could come together and talk. The age of technology!! How advance and making everyone’s life so bea-u-tiful!! haha

Well, on the whole I am pleased with the way things are progressing for my group, and how our individual works when discussed and shared could be so meaningful and important for this project.

Happy Easter Holidays!!

In week 2, I did a few readings got to know more about some amazing things that certain companies in the world are doing today, particularly on the documentation of any project(s). It was indeed an eye opener to read about such stuff. However, I wrote only 2 reflections/response to the following essential readings.

The first reading was on The Perfect T-shirt which showed a excellent example of documenting a project. Are you an avid go-greener, who wants to protect our poor planet that is slowly being ruin by our forefathers and increasingly rapid rate by us? Fear not, for there’s another way to safe our world!! This is by wearing the perfect t-shirt. The perfect t-shirt is so environmentally friendly as it made from the most minimal pollution methods and such. It is also surprisingly affordable! this website is so informative as it shows the developmental ideas of creating the perfect t-shirt.
http://www.betterthinking.co.uk/perfect/blog.htm

The second was about this website/company called About Instructables. It’s quite amazing to know that makers of Instructables found a perfect and convenient way to document the projects in a fast-forward way so that we as viewers are able to see it in a brief time. It’s a fantastic site to go to if one is in doubt of doing or find out an answer for something. It teaches the best way on various ranges of How-tos. Moreover, the navigation system on the site is very precise and easy. Also, I was looking through the instructions of “The 10 Minute Laptop Stand”, it was really useful and simple to follow it. The instructions were very straight to the point and understandable. I recommend this website for all, when you want to do some DIY projects, or clueless about something, etc. It is a must go to site!
http://www.instructables.com/about/fullstory.jsp

Alrights, I’m out! Gonna explore our wiki=)