functionality



Hi,

Thanks for welcoming me, Dave, and thanks for all the useful hints! :-)

>> Do you have ideas or hints of how to interact with the box, please
>> help the design process by explaining them in plain words: If I just
>> turn it on, will it work? No?
>
> Not the first time because it will need some "set up" configuration
> from you. The information design profession has a deep understanding
> of form design which has been captured in some software to some
> extent, by eg wufoo.com and also autoconfiguration can go quite far;
> the "set up" configuration process of WordPress has become a gold
> standard I think :-)

Thanks for pointing at the field of design. Obviously I haven't expressed myself clearly enough. My question is meant to be more directly aiming to provoke developers to fill us in on their ideas of the concrete content of any basic interaction.

>> What do I need to do as a user to make it help me save the World?
>
> First you need to understand why you need it, which you can learn by
> being told stories about how people like you used it to achieve
> certain goals.
>
> Authoring those usage stories is, I hope, something the Technical Lead
> that the Freedom Box Foundation website says is soon to be introduced
> will do, because knowing them is integral to contemporary software
> development.

I think that every bit of information we collect now could be useful to any serious future design team or maybe just for my own funny (or boring minimalistic) developer version of a FB. :-)

In my opinion we can't just sit and wait for the thing to be developed - we should take part in the development. Without trying to overrate our importance it is my belief that designers can be valuable contributors on a deeper level than skins and presentations, because in order to design we need to understand; we need the developers to answer our "stupid" questions and express their visions, which then can spawn discussions and maybe new ideas. 

> From the initial PostIt Note sized
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_story comes the full
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenario_%28computing%29 and that's where
> someone with your skill set comes in - to create
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storyboard :-)

> If the storyboards are good enough, perhaps they can be presented
> directly to those user groups so such people can learn why they each
> need a Freedom Box - something like
> http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.html
>
> I suggest that motion graphics is a better medium than a graphic novel.
> Do you have any experience with graphic novels or motion graphic design? :-)

Well, I'm glad you asked! I did create a graphic novel in another decade, and I would like to help presenting the FB concept to the World, but since communication design is not the aim of this thread, let's move future talk on that subject to another thread. :-) 


Hi Siri!

On 20 February 2011 20:39, Siri Reiter <siri@jones.dk> wrote:

I'm a Danish self-employed allround graphic designer and illustrator.
I currently work with identity design, communication design
(brochures, packaging, posters etc.) and web design (CSS hacking). I
also photograph, paint, draw and give drawing lessons.
Great to see you here! :-)
Lately I have been much occupied with design matters concearning
Freedombox, and I have many unanswered questions.
:-)
Do you have ideas or hints of how to interact with the box, please
help the design process by explaining them in plain words: If I just
turn it on, will it work? No?
Not the first time because it will need some "set up" configuration
from you. The information design profession has a deep understanding
of form design which has been captured in some software to some
extent, by eg wufoo.com and also autoconfiguration can go quite far;
the "set up" configuration process of WordPress has become a gold
standard I think :-)

After that, yes, I think it would.
What do I need to do as a user to make it help me save the World?
First you need to understand why you need it, which you can learn by
being told stories about how people like you used it to achieve
certain goals.

Authoring those usage stories is, I hope, something the Technical Lead
that the Freedom Box Foundation website says is soon to be introduced
will do, because knowing them is integral to contemporary software
development.

From the initial PostIt Note sized
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_story comes the full
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenario_%28computing%29 and that's where
someone with your skill set comes in - to create
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storyboard :-)

If the storyboards are good enough, perhaps they can be presented
directly to those user groups so such people can learn why they each
need a Freedom Box - something like
http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.html

I suggest that motion graphics is a better medium than a graphic novel.

Do you have any experience with graphic novels or motion graphic design? :-)
Does any example of user interaction in commonly known devices or
gadgets spring to mind? Please spell out the obvious!
I wish it was obvious. Figuring out good user interaction scenarios is
extremely challenging work. Fortunately, methodologies for achieving
success in that work are widely publicised and anyone can learn them
if they invest time to do so :-)

Cheers
Dave