Narrative for the software -- HCI Group Project

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Date Posted: 10:49:12 08/02/02 Fri
Author: Li
Subject: Narrative for the software

Explanatory Narrative Description About the Supporting Design: Companion Software

The MP3 player we designed comes with a companion software. Sketches 5 and 6 show how the user use the software to download music from the Internet, organise downloaded music, and how to transfer the music stored in PC to the player.

Sketch 5:
There are four figures in this sketch: figure 1), 2), 3a) and 3b).
Figure 1):
This shows how the windows task bar looks like after the companion software has been installed. The figure shows the lower-right corner of the computer screen. The music symbol to the left of the Windows clock is the icon for the companion software. This icon shows up every time Windows is started. The user right click on this icon, and a menu shows up (see figure 1): Play, Download, Control Center and Exit. If the user clicks on "Play", the defalt album would be played in a random order, and "Play" would be replaced by the word "Stop", the user can click it to stop playing. "Download" leads to a window to download music from the Internet. "Control Center" leads to a window to manage the albums. "Exit" will close the program.
Figure 2):
This shows what the user will see if he/she clicks "Download" from the start menu in Figure 1. At the top of the window there are menus for different functions: download, play, organise, settings, and help. The default is the download screen, as shown � in Figure 2. The left part is a nevigation bar of songs stored in the directory pre-determined while installing the software. This nevigation bar has the same style as the Windows file directory, so any user who uses Windows knows how to nevigate. The right part of the window simulates portal pages like "Yahoo!". There is a search box, where the user can type in key words to search for a song. There are also links to music downloading web sites classified by music style. If the user has experience in using Yahoo! or similar pages, this should not be hard to use.
Figure 3):
a) This is the window after the user clicks on "Organise" in the Control Center window. The table shows the contents of the current collection. It shows that there are three albums: "My Favorite", "Donloaded", and "Downloading". There are three buttons at the bottom. "Make new album" would ask the name of the new album from the user, and add a new empty album to the table. "Set as default" would set the highlighted album as the default - that is, the one which will be played automatically at start-up. "Help" gives instructions about how to use this window.
b) This is the screen after the user clicked on the "Downloaded" album. There is a scroll list of songs in the album, and the details of each song are shown. This screen also shows that the user has already added a new album called "Piano". The user can move a song from one album to another by drag-and-drop, just as the Windows file operations. We think most users know how to move files around in Windows, so this approach may be easy for them.
Sketch 6:
This sketch shows how the user transfer music from the PC to the MP3 player. The player has a socket for PC connection, and a cable is provided to connect the player to the USB port of PC. We use the USB port because most PCs have them now, and it is much easier to connect than the serial ports. After the cable is secured, the companion software will start automatically, producing a window showing the songs currently stored in the PC. The user can then use the Up and Down arrow symbols to upload or download MP3 files from the MP3 player to the PC.
Issues and questions raised in discussing this design
Issue1
Problem: Is the companion software necessary?
Ideas and Current Dilemma: We want to provide the companion software because currently the only way to get MP3 music is to download from the Internet. If a MP3 player does not provide any tools for getting the music, it would be useless for the customers. This problem can be solved in two ways: 1) Provide supporting software which runs in PC. This software helps the user to download MP3 files from the Web to PC first, and then transfer them to the MP3 player. 2) Make the MP3 player itself Internet-ready. The player has a communication port which connects to the Internet via telephone line or cable or wireless communication, and has a mini browser where the user can browse the Internet and download music directly to the player.
Tradeoff: Cost vs. Ease of Use. The software solution adds a lot of complexity since it involves the requirement of PC availability, computer skills, software installation, etc. But the gain is lower cost. Our interviews suggested that people from our demographic may not be willing to pay a lot for such a device. With the software solution the cost can be controlled well. The built-in mini browser solution has the advantage of being simple and independent since no additional equipment is required. The problem, however, is that the cost of such a system would be 5 or 6 times more than what is expected by the users, and there are also technological difficulties such as the bandwidth issue of wireless communication. Thus we decided to use the software approach.
Issue 2:
Problem: how much functionality should the software provide?
Ideas and Current Dilemma: The companion software could just provide essential functionality (music downloading), or it could also provide additional features, such as playing the music on computer, organising the collection of songs, maintaining a personal library of information about the user's favorite artists, allowing the users to make their own MP3 music, etc.
Tradeoff: Flexibility vs. Ease of Use. More functionality allows the users to do more, but the problems is if it is hard to learn how to use these fancy features, they would not be used at all. Considering the computer skills of our demographic, we decided to allow only limited features, including music downloading, music playing, and collection organising.
Unresolved Issue:
Although we have make our best effort in making the software simple, it still could be hard for a 80-year-old to use it. Should we give up the software approach, or just use this design and expect our customers could get help from their family members? We need user feedback to make this decision.

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