Explanatory narrative- Design1 -- HCI Group Project

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Date Posted: 09:15:40 08/01/02 Thu
Author: Nishita Vora
Subject: Explanatory narrative- Design1

Explanatory Narrative Description About Radio/MP3 player Design Prototype

The Designs shown in figures 1 and 2 represent the front and rear views of the proposed MP3 player interface. Here are some of the features and their functions that are shown in these figures:

Figure 1:
We propose in this design that all buttons be designed as �push buttons�. This was one of the key demands by our prospective client section.
1) Power button: The power button is marked with an ON/OFF sign clearly printed on it. When the power button is turned on, the display screen (also shown in figure 1) gets lighted up, to indicate that that the device will function well. When the device is turned on, it will automatically go into MP3 mode.

2) AM/FM Button: This button is about the same size as that of the power button and located to its left. However, it is a split button such that if one pushes the left half of this button, it enables one to switch to Radio AM mode. On the other hand if the right half of this button is pushed then the mode switches to Radio FM mode. When this button is pressed, the display will show the message �RADIO� flashing, on the left side, first line of the display screen, just below the �AM/FM button�.

3) Radio station Tuner: On the top-side of the player, we see a push button, which can be used to tune to a particular radio station. The button is smartly designed to try to connect to the next valid station when pressed over and over again, thus acting as a tuner. When a station is connected to, the user should be able to see information about the station on the display screen.

4) MP3 player mode button: The button is clearly marked and located to the right side of the power button. When pressed allows user to switch to the MP3-player mode. A message �MP3� will flash on the right side of the display area just below the MP3 mode button. It doesn�t need to be pressed the first time around when the player comes on, but if pressed again, it will not create any errors or problems.

5) Navigation buttons: Allow user to scroll up and down in the screen to check the list of tracks stored in the MP3 player. Located on the right side bottom of the display screen.

6) Other buttons: Include the play and pause button, stop button, skip-one-forward button, skip-one-backward button, menu and repeat buttons, all clearly marked.

7) Volume button is also a split button like in the case of AM/FM button. The top half can be pressed to increase volume and bottom half decreases the volume. A digital value for the level of volume is displayed on the display screen for convenience. It is located on the top of the left-wall of the player.
8) Controls for connecting to a PC, recording and erasing one or multiple tracks are located to the right-wall, of the player. They are clearly marked.

9) We are providing the feature that the user should be able to recharge the battery. This switch is located at the bottom on the left wall of the player. The interviewees showed preference for this feature.

Figure 2:

This figure depicts a picture of how the reverse side of the player will look. The two main features here are the belt attachment that has to be slid into the belt line or some support and the sliding cover for batteries. The cover slides outward and directions are printed out just above the cover. This side is marked pictorially with the number of batteries that must be used and how they must be inserted.
The pictures shown in the figure are not drawn to scale. The approximate dimensions of this player would be close to: 2 inches x 3 inches x 1 inch.

Issues and Questions Raised in discussing this design

Here are some issues that are raised in the current design:
Issue 1

� Problem: All of the interviewees owned some portable player and used CD-players mostly and all of them listed the desire for a portable player to be able to play the music from these CDs. The player currently doesn�t offer this feature.

� Ideas and Current Dilemma: In figures 1 and 2 there is a button marked with �??�. This is to indicate that we are currently debating whether to provide a feature that will allow user to connect to a CD-read device, to help them copy music from their CD to the MP3 player.
In that case, must the CD-read device be provided to the user with the purchase of the MP3 player without any additional cost or must we leave it to the user to buy the CD-read device at additional cost, thus making the use of this feature optional.

� Trade-offs: The cost of the player may increase by providing this feature but it leaves the MP3 player compact and light-weight which was also one of the requirements of the prospective clients. This also allows designers to keep the interface simple enough and use the available space for buttons well.

Issue 2

� Problem: Number and Size of buttons
� Ideas and Current Dilemma :In the process of trying to make this player simpler to use we designed it so that the functionality for each and every button is clearly demarcated and as independent from other buttons as possible. This raises the issue of how many buttons to add and how to fit them into a compact space.
The users wanted the player to have bigger buttons that were clearly marked and the player to be compact.
� Trade-offs:
a) Simplicity of use vs. Too many buttons added -At some point, the line has to be drawn, and we will make assumptions about a required level of smartness on the part of the user.
b) Space vs. Size of buttons: If the buttons have to be bigger and marked prominently, then the space requirement increases. We proposed to use the rectangular shape to increase the available surface area. However, the user also desires that the portable player be compact and light-weight.
� Suggestions: We suggest that the make will be of plastic to minimize the weight. Some buttons will have to be re-used. For example we have shown in figure 1, that the play/pause button will have both functionalities- to play and to pause a track. We also split up some buttons to include two functions of the same category � for example increasing and decreasing volume, and switching to AM or FM radio.

Other issues:

� We are discussing whether some other indication must be given to user when one switches to MP3 mode. For example playing some tune or displaying a message saying �Connecting� between the time from when user presses the MP3 player mode to when the track actually begins playing.
� The icons used for some of the buttons, to mark what they do, should be as similar to what the users typically use on their music players. Is there a standard way of how these buttons are displayed? And is there also a standard set for the icons used to display these functionalities for example how to indicate the button for connecting to PC and the button to connect to the CD-read device if the feature is finally added.
� Another issue is whether to dispose off the three different buttons for Power, Radio mode and MP3 player modes. Can we use one button instead and if yes, does this make it more confusing for the user to learn to use this feature?
� When displaying the �MP3� message and the �Radio� message when mode is switched, they are displayed on different sides of the screen. Is this confusing too? The question is whether or not it is intuitive for a person, to look just below the button currently pressed to see the results of their action.
� In the discussions so far, some untouched issues are: memory, memory-stick and its features, the life of the battery. The interviews led us to conclude the prospective user wants battery to last for at least 2 hours. Memory (As mentioned in class discussion) was not an issue. Besides the prospective client, doesn�t seem to care about it much. We are providing a feature that the batteries can be recharged since the interviewees showed preference for this feature. We also haven�t considered the cost aspects in providing these features. We expect that we will be able to figure those out by the time we are ready for Stage 3.

An Un-resolved Issue:

We have not yet been able to show in the design that it will be easy and convenient for the user to be able to download music from the web, since most of our interviewees seemed to be averse to this idea for one reason or the other.
We have yet to find a way to convince the prospective client that this can be easily done.

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