DAT203: Interface for interactive kiosk part II: the pages

Designed with ease of use in mind, the interface is inspired by mobile tablet devices, namely the iPad, and also, some of the principles of the Metro interface used in the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, which is optimised for use on touchscreens. In addition, some pages use a concertina design, where the contents are displayed once the menu item is pressed, and information is expanded below. When the item is pressed again, the information retracts, and other menu items are displayed once again. Here are the pages from the interactive kiosk:

The map's overlays are provided by the Urban API, which provides information about where the points of interest are, your location, and zones, such as pedestrianised areas.

The Travel Information page is split into 3 different colour schemes: green for buses, red for rail, and blue for ferries. Data would provided via a central source, or a dynamic source, e.g. rail information would be provided by the station and National Rail, whilst bus information would be provided by real-time GPS tracking.

 Here, the Early History section is expanded. Although the user can go back to the History menu by pressing the header, the user can also advance to the next section by pressing the button on the bottom right-hand corner, and vice versa.

The Tourist Information Page, like the Travel Information, is split into different colour schemes.

The colour of the day highs and night lows vary according to the temperature: hottest is brighter, coldest is darker.

DAT203: Interface for interactive kiosk

Whilst we were planning on how we're going to implement the interface, the idea we had was to design the interface like a tablet computer. Tablet computers like the iPad, for example, is known for its usage of icons laid out like a grid, which makes it perfect for the environment and context the kiosks are going to be used in.

Because of this, I had to design the interface with large and easy-to-read text, in case of people with visual impairments, as large icons are regarded as being easy to understand, even if only part of the icon can be seen, and also, with metaphors, which helps people, even those that may not speak English very well, still understand the basic meaning of each section of the kiosk interface:

The weather, news, information, events and the time are updated in real time, meaning that whenever each is updated, it will be reflected in the kiosk. Also, the weather icon will be dynamic, which will update according to the weather, like for example: when it's clear and sunny, the weather icon will display just that. Transport information will be picked up from each respective source; bus information will displayed real-time, train information will be relayed from National Rail, and ferry times will be relayed from the main ferry port.

DAT203: Idea for kiosk platform: Raspberry Pi

Since the release of the miniature Raspberry Pi system last week, this has given an idea of cutting down the footprint and cost for the information kiosk systems. Costing only £22 each for the Model B variant (with Ethernet), Raspberry Pi reduces the need to build large housings for the touchscreen terminals, and due to the open nature of the platform, it also doesn't require licensing, unlike the Windows-based embedded systems.

DAT203: Interactive Information Column/Kiosk for Bretonside

This is a mockup of one of the information kiosks that are being proposed for Bretonside; this one is situated outside one of the entrances to the Bus Station outside the RBS building:

The kiosk will provide information about the city, a map to help visitors find their way around the city, and advertise events. Touchscreen monitors will be placed in a hexagonal configuration, with the screens tilted back at a slight angle. The software will be provided by PCs that will be mounted behind each display, and both the PC and the display will have weatherproof casings to protect the equipment from harsh weather and interference. Auxiliary information, such as the time, weather, outside temperature and events feeds will be broadcast from a scrolling dot-matrix display that will be mounted around the column structure.

DAT203: Ideas for Bretonside: interactive, visual and architectural features

After we identified key areas of improvement at Bretonside, we've outlined some suggestions for our project:

• Installation of interactive kiosks inside the bus station, and at the information column outside of RBS
•  A full, proper facelift of the façade, including some architectural sails (similar to the Sainsbury's in Marsh Mills, but done in a style that is closer to the sails that feature in yachts, thereby reflecting Plymouth's sea-faring heritage), and the interior
• Visual effects and light features installed on the exterior, and projections onto the station floor through translucent tiles on the public footpaths that run above the station interior
• A collaboration with the local College of Art to produce a mural on one of the walls
• Installation of interactive departures and arrivals boards for bus and coach services, to be placed at convenient locations, and to be linked with the GPS systems utilised by local bus operators (Plymouth CityBus and First Devon & Cornwall)

The idea of an interactive departures and arrivals board came from a coach journey to Edinburgh; whilst waiting at London Victoria Coach station, an airport-style information board detailing the departures is used, and this is very useful for providing more information to passengers, something of which Bretonside lacks. The idea has been taken further to become an interactive feature, with a wealth of travel information provided for passengers.

As we didn't notice the translucent tiles on the footpaths that run above Bretonside, we were given the suggestion to provide environmental and interactive projections that can project images, moods and effects onto the station floor, which would brighten the atmosphere for the bus station and make the environment safer for visitors.

In addition, we also suggested that the information column outside of the RBS building could be converted into an interactive information kiosk, since it has become under-utilised, slightly vandalised and fly-posted over the past many years it has been standing. Because the information column is situated closer to the city centre, and to the footpath leading into the main shopping district, it made sense that we also included that in our plans, because a rather under-utilised feature could be put into good use in an era of interactivity.

DAT203 - A better gateway for Plymouth

To attract people into Plymouth, a gateway is needed, but to attract more requires a better gateway, because first impressions of the city is what makes people think about the city in general. To put this into context, whenever you're going into Plymouth by road or bus, you should be seeing something that will make you look forward to the city and its many attractions that form part of the city's heritage and cultural scene, as well as to make the whole experience more memorable.

At the moment, whenever you come in on the National Express or any other inter-city coach service to Plymouth, you would be faced with a façade of a city that has long been under decay by slow redevelopment, and its juxtaposition by the Drake Circus Shopping Centre and an underpass that gives the impression of danger and pessimism does not help with the first impressions, so the focus of my project is to improve the Bretonside Bus Station area. Initial ideas being mooted for the project is to provide an interactive and immersive experience for tourists, although at the same time, the façade needs to be improved to provide a vision of safety and a better experience for people coming into Plymouth.

DAT203 - Infrastructure

In every city, there is an infrastructure - London has one, Birmingham has one, Manchester has one, even our own Plymouth has one as well. However, the infrastructure of Plymouth isn't as well developed as other competing cities around the UK, in fact, pretty much every major city in developed Europe. In today's lecture, we was shown many examples of urban infrastructure, both in fiction and reality, of which we were then introduced to our assignment, a joint project with Plymouth City Council.

The reason for Plymouth's slow development dates back to after World War 2, when the city was bombed by the Nazi Luftwaffe. The city had more bombs dropped on it than Coventry, and as a result, most of the city had to be rebuilt from the ground up. in 1943, Sir Patrick Abercrombie drew up a plan for redeveloping the city, and was then enacted after World War 2, with 20,000 new houses built by the 1960s, and a new Civic high-rise completed during that same period. 

The city was designed with the automobile in mind, which has resulted in an American-influenced infrastructure and architecture, which was typical of many American cities at the time. In addition, it was also fitting for Plymouth, as it was a city that has historical links with the Plymouth in the United States, of which the Pilgrim Fathers discovered, but following a trend of pedestrianisation in the 1980s and the 1990s, the main roads going through the city centre's main shopping districts were paved over, and this has resulted in an important piece of infrastructure being severed or severely curtailed. 

In addition, the ills of the existing transport infrastructure were then felt in the 2000s and the 2010s as other comparable cities were then becoming fully developed, and with the recovery from the global financial crisis still underway, this has now come more important than ever, with the airport now closed and better railway links being needed to help boost growth in city commerce and to increase the speed of redevelopment.

DAT203: Augmented Reality: more about it

Although it has been said that the Wizard of Oz can be considered to be the very first example of augmented reality (or a model of which a typical AR setup is based upon), the first documented example of a form of augmented reality dates back to the 1950s, with the advent of Sensorama, which was a machine that produced visuals, sound, movement, and even smell. However, it was not considered a success, as there was no financial backing to support the project and to apply patents to it.

In 1966, the first form of visual augmented reality, the head-mounted display (HMD) was invented by Ivan Sutherland, which provided the user with a view of a virtual world, which applied the principles of the Wizard of Oz model. Whilst the phrase 'augmented reality' was coined in 1992, the first, modern functioning form of augmented reality was created in 1992 by the US Air Force Research Laboratory, known as Virtual Fixtures, and in 1999, a standard platform of augmented reality, ARToolKit, was created by Hirokazu Kato of the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, and has since been ported to many platforms, including mobile devices, of which their potential was not realised until the boom of smartphones in the late 2000s.

A more recent implementation of augmented reality was created in 2008 as Wikitude, a travel guide that utilises the smartphone's built-in camera to overlay information onto the screen, and then provides the user with information about places to visit, shops, restaurants etc.

DAT203: How not to design a website, and the future of the iPad

In today's practical, we've had to pick two of the world's worst-designed websites, and we managed to come up with these examples: alexchiu.com and the official Space Jam film website at www2.warnerbros.com/spacejam/movie/jam.htm. alexchiu.com featured a rather inconsistent design theme, a profusion of formatting and spelling errors, and a heavy reliance on animated GIFs to add emphasis on links and certain titles. Also, we found out that when we click on a different language, the design of the website is completely different, rather than having the same design throughout, which is supposed to be the convention no matter what language is used.

Although the official Space Jam website was designed sometime in October or early November 1996 (which was approximately about a month or two before CSS existed, and before CSS became the norm), it featured many bad design features. The website used repeating backgrounds, inconsistent text, frames as title bars (which can cause confusion as the user cannot tell whether or not the logo at the top left actually is the button that returns to the home page of the website),  usage of the frame as a menu bar, and clashing colour schemes in certain pages, thereby rendering the text hard to read. We also found validation errors and spelling mistakes after we ran the Space Jam website through an online validator, so, even though it is almost an online 'museum' page, someone at Warner Brothers didn't really pay attention to ensuring that the website at least complies with W3C standards at the time and didn't think about the many little spelling errors that the website had. Even some of Disney's older websites had more of a consistent theme, at least.

Now, on to a different subject. We had a debate about how the hypothetical iPad 5 would evolve, and how it would eventually render conventional computers (desktops and laptops) obsolete. There is evidence that mobile devices are starting to overtake conventional computers in terms of sales, and with the proliferation of cloud computing, it could eventually replace the need to sync the device with a conventional computer. According to the IDC, an independent technology research firm (source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9199918/In_historic_shift_smartphones_tablets_to_overtake_PCs), they are, indeed, outnumbering conventional computers, and even though they are already ahead of performance, the evolution of mobile technology is starting to make mobile devices outperform desktops and laptops in terms of speed, and eventually, they would be just as fast that even the most graphically-intense task could one day be performed on mobile devices such as the hypothetical iPad 5, or even its successor.