GR4

Platform requirements

  • Android 2.1+ device
  • Google libraries (Unmodified Android phones should have this already. Hacked phones with no google .apk package will not work).
  • Phone-sized screens only. Android devices with tablet-sized screens are untested and may not work correctly.
  • The device must be connected to a cell or wireless network.

How to install and run our app

  1. Using your phone, navigate to the URL given at the end of this document.
  2. Install the app on the phone
  3. Have at it

Prototype depth

Our application relies on a fair amount of backend functionality. We omit some of the backend implementation, resulting in the following:

  • Location services are random - we do not use sensor data.
  • No camera integration - adding photographs does not work
  • No contacts list integration - adding contacts does nothing
  • The sharing button does nothing. A context menu for Gmail/G+/Twitter/Facebook/etc. should come up.
  • No undo functionality - deleted items should fade away over a few seconds instead of disappearing abruptly.
  • No smooth curves. The path between journal entries shown on the map should be smooth and continuous, but we only show a jagged straight-line path.
  • The map shows all journal entries instead of only the ones visible at the scroll location in the list. Discovering the scroll location is very hard and we are still working on it!
  • Deleting an entry while in the view mode does nothing.

http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/ilebedev/www/ui_prototype.apk

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7 Comments

  1. Lauren M Ouellette

    Cool idea, and really nice work! I had a lot of fun testing your prototype.

    In addition to the design-related comments I made in my heuristic evaluation, I also noted a few small bugs in the application. I thought I'd make a note of them here, just in case you didn't already know about them.

    • On the main page of the application, the entry text is showing up vertically, such that only one or two letters of the text are visible. I'm not sure if this has to do with the platform I'm on (Android 4.0.4). (Screenshot_2012-04-21-15-22-42.png)
    • Each time I open and then close the menu on the edit entry page, a new save button shows up. (Screenshot_2012-04-21-15-45-48.png)
    • The entry dates are one month too early; the entry I made this morning is dated March 22.

    Good luck with the rest of your project! I'm looking forward to seeing how your final implementation turns out.
    heuristic_evaluation.pdf

    1. Ilia A Lebedev

      O oh. We developed and tested with Android 2.1. It seems that Android 4 is different enough that our rendering code gets really messed up. Sorry about that! We never tested for this platform, and it's too bad that it looks so broken. If you wish to see it displayed correctly, run it on a phone running 2.1-2.3 or in a 2.1 simulator (we checked this on numerous devices and in the simulator). The month discrepancy seems to be a version thing as well.

      Thanks for letting us know! We'll see if we can make it work with the new version as well.

      Thanks for the feedback.

      1. Chrisantha J Perera

        I'm running 2.3.4 and I still have the month problem and the multiple save buttons problem. The entry text is fine, though.

  2. Tyler C Thompson

    Good job, guys. I can't wait to see how it looks with the back end in place.

    -Tyler

    The Travel Book Evaluation.pdf

  3. Chrisantha J Perera

    Well done! I like the idea as well, and I also like a lot of the implementation details. I certainly didn't find any "catastrophic" level problems. I hope you find this evaluation useful!

    -Chrisantha

    hw2cperera.pdf

  4. Tiffany J Lin

    Cool concept!  There was 1 bug (detailed in the pdf), but overall, pretty cool!

    hw2.pdf

  5. Unknown User (juhokim@mit.edu)

    "Wiki presentation
    : Concise and complete. Good!
    Fidelity: Very cool map interaction. Getting them to look better, obscure less, and still make sense will be hard but exciting :)
    Usability: - It would have been great if more visual representations (curve, trajectory) have been completed.
    - enabling navigating between detail views?
    - visual mapping bet. a point on the map and an entry should be there.
    - icon design and sizing can be improved.
    Overall: Nice stretch, turning a seemingly popular app idea to something more exciting. At the core is a heavy use of interactive map. Looking forward to more interesting map integration. Cool!
    "
    "Wiki presentation

    : Concise and complete. Good!

    Fidelity: Very cool map interaction. Getting them to look better, obscure less, and still make sense will be hard but exciting :)

    Usability: - It would have been great if more visual representations (curve, trajectory) have been completed.

    - enabling navigating between detail views?

    - visual mapping bet. a point on the map and an entry should be there.

    - icon design and sizing can be improved.

    Overall: Nice stretch, turning a seemingly popular app idea to something more exciting. At the core is a heavy use of interactive map. Looking forward to more interesting map integration. Cool!

    "