GLOBEMASTER

An interactive table that allows users to look up geographic information

For "Studio 2" we had to create a physical interaction. This meant something that didn't use a keyboard, mouse or rely on traditional touch screen interactions. Our project had to be inspired by science fiction and be something that could be used 'every day'. We ended up creating an interactive globe that displays information about the selected location. The user would physically turn the globe, and when they stopped moving it which ever location was on top would have information about it projected on the table surrounding the globe. For such a complicated interaction we used a very low tech solution. We had an exercise ball, which is what the user interacted with, sunken into a circular table. The information and an image of the world were projected onto the table and globe. When the user moved the globe the projection of the world changed in realtime to reflect their manipulations.

The interaction worked quite well. The users who came by on the exhibition seemed to really enjoy playing with it, and would look up information across many different countries. We had quite a few people bring their friends to come play with the table as well, which was awesome because it showed that they really did enjoy using it.

Within this project I helped out with the initial conceptualisation and then for the creation of the table my main task was designing and creating the information visualisations. This was created in Action Script 3 after spending a few weeks attempting to create it in Apple's Quartz Composer. The design for the visualisations was constrained by certain external variables. We were using a low resolution projector in a location that could be many different brightnesses. This meant that the visuals had to be as high contrast as possible, and the text very simple. This lead to the choices of doing everything except the images in black and white, and having the text set in Futura, a simple sans serif typeface which also fit in with our aesthetic theme for the presentation.

ADDQOL

Is an iPad web app survey that is used to evaluate the effects of Diabetes on people’s lives

The Adult Diabetes Dependent Quality of Life Survey is designed to see how much of an impact diabetes has had on people's lives. The University of Queensland was using it as a research tool to test how well their diabetes education consultations were working. Originally a paper survey was used which was filled out and sent to an office somewhere to be typed into a computer. There was all of this wonderful information but it wasn't being used in the consultation because they couldn't analyse it quick enough.

I was asked to create a digital version of the paper survey by the university. Once I got to meet with the people who would be using the app it became clear that there were some small changes that could make it more effective. Namely, the consulting nurse had two iPads that she could use; It would make things easier if the results from the first iPad could be communicated to the second. The nurse also made it clear that she was not very good with technology, so I decided to use a pre-existing method of interaction that she was used to - email. The final process is that one iPad is kept behind the desk at the reception. The patient picks it up and fills out the survey on it before returning it to the receptionist. The Nurse then gets an email on her iPad that has a link to the results as a graph. It also has a spot to input the user's ID and then the data is appended to a spreadsheet that is in the department's Dropbox.

For the patient I made all the buttons quite large to fit larger text on them, since the users of the survey would skew older. Aesthetically the buttons are the only items to have colour, and they were given quite bright colours. This was to draw attention to them and highlight that they were interactive. They were also given some depth (with shadows and a light bevel) to make them look more touchable.

Overall the application was a resounding success. When I followed up with the clients they said that "on the first day in use it was handled by 7 clients aged between 40s and 80yrs.  The Diabetes Educator reported that everyone found it easy to use and all completed the survey and said that they found it better than the paper version."