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This design draws from a couple of real life metaphors like movie reel and VCR recording buttons. The movie reel shows the most used or pertinent activities an elderly can join in on, for example a live chat or talking to his grandson. He can scroll through the reel to find more options. The bottom of the screen has a section to contribute or answer. There is a scrollable interface which highlights topics and discussions. There is another section, which is the ask, for which the elderly can record audio, video or both, or type a question and post it.
Sarah Han's design 1
Sarah Han's design 2
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Sarah Han's design 3
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Design and Storyboards
Storyboard 1
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This storyboard design’s backbone is a navigation bar on the left with large picturesque icons, which partitions the user tasks into categories. The default feed menu option displays relevant and current information bits for the user. If there is a question posed to the community or for the user, this appears as a top item for which he can answer.
The friend menu option opens a folder which someone can join into a coffee chat table, or create a coffee chat table. After clicking on join, the user is directed to a window where he can see the live chat and participants. The user has the option to add video, audio or text to contribute to the live chat.
Analysis:
Learnability:
- The use of VCR metaphor aids users in learning how to do video chats
- The side menu bar maintains external consistency with other websites
- The sophisticated interface may be too complicated and confusing for elderly users
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This storyboard design revolves around a movie reel metaphor which allows the user to scroll and choose different interactions. The movie reel displays images and icons as visual cues for a relevant activity. Although the user might have to scroll through many pictures to find a relevant one, the design takes into account most frequently used.
From each movie icons or image, the user can choose by clicking on an option, such as answer a question, or join a video chat. This task would take up the remainder of the screen real estate. Each action, answering a question, or joining a chat has visual feedback, and the majority of interactions can be done with mouse clicks alone.
Analysis:
Learnability:
- Simple/streamlined/minimal approach allows for an easy to learn & use interface
- Movie reel metaphor cues the users that he/she can scroll to see different events
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- Movie reel header allows for users to easily scroll/click back and forth in case of accidental page selection
- It's not clear that when clicked on the portrait an "add friend" dialog will pop up. There should be more visual affordances to indicate the "add friend" functionality
Storyboard 3
Analysis:
Learnability:
- The search bar at the top of the page is externally consistent with a lot of other websites
- Clicking on the right side bar will provide instantaneous visual feed back to disclose its functionality
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