jljw

Jeanna LeClair and Jessica Wang (jljw)

Project 1: Envision
Our focus for this project will be on students/researchers and how the website will be re-created to become a more helpful and beneficial interface for their studies and research.

Goal
The overall goal of this project is to create an interactive atmosphere that encourages the development of good research.
 * To create a more visual/interactive way for viewers to browse and interpret the information available on the web site
 * To provide an interface for viewers to research, organize and collect information. By having the ability to click and drag information into collection piles, the student/researcher is then able to organize their research in any fashion that suits them (within the constructs of the site that has yet to be confirmed). The goal is to create an area for students/researchers that is similar to how they would organize printed material.
 * By having the research process online, the option of making it "public" and "private" allows viewers to see how artworks have been organized by different people
 * Interactive elements such as the ability to add comments, tags, and links will help the sites data and information become more intertwined. The connection between data will in turn help students and researchers find similar and relevant information, thus aiding the compare and contrast process during the research.
 * To include a 'visual search' of artworks that's based on tags that indicate more of the visual aspects of an artwork (i.e., blue eyes, red spot, yellow line, etc.) That way people can search more freely. Another option we want to create is one where you are able to draw a basic outline of the artwork you are searching for and get results based on your sketch.

**PACT Analysis**

 * **People** || **Activities** || **Context** || **Technology** ||
 * Students & Researchers || * Research
 * Inspiration
 * Class Assignments
 * Thesis
 * Add to knowledge || * Grade School
 * High school
 * University(grad/undergrad)
 * Writes/publishes papers, books, documents || * Computer screens
 * Using the mouse to drag and drop
 * Using the mouse to draw ||


 * **People: Students and Researchers**
 * Could be from diverse geographic areas (i.e., locals, other areas in Canada, or even from other countries)
 * Could be culturally different and/or even conflicting
 * A wide range of languages could be spoken
 * Could have different past experiences using research engines/tools
 * Could be from various age groups (accessible to anyone who has Internet access)
 * **Activities**
 * Research
 * Inspiration
 * Class assignments
 * Thesis
 * Add to knowledge
 * **Context**
 * Physically, browsing the web site can be done on any computer with Internet access
 * People might be using them in classrooms, in offices, or at home on desktop computers
 * With laptops, people can access the web site at more remote areas such as on the bus, or while waiting in line.
 * Socially, it may happen with a group for discussion purposes or it may be done alone as one person tries to find information on the site.
 * Organizationally, the context is all about finding the needed information on the web site and being able to organize them in a way to aid the user's goal to complete projects.
 * **Technology**
 * Output is displayed on computer screens.
 * Using the mouse to drag and drop may be required to organize files
 * May be required to use the mouse to draw simple composition of artworks for "visual search"


 * //who is using the current system? (eg. research by curators)//
 * People from diverse cultural backgrounds whom are probably from different age groups. For our project we will mainly focus on students and researchers and how they currently use the site.
 * what other systems currently exist?
 * Search engines (i.e., google, yahoo)
 * Arts and Museum websites
 * //what are the current interactions are available? How are they beneficial?//
 * There is a section where you are able to view an artists work within a time line and view two of his/her works at once. This is an interesting way to compare and contrast the individuals work.
 * Basic searches, such as keyword search, advanced search, where all information is induced within the website.
 * Groupings of categories, such as 'designers', 'artists', 'curators', which helps viewers to quickly identify themselves and in turn to help them quickly find the kind of information they need.
 * //in what new ways can the vast amount of content be accessed/presented?//
 * We hope to expand on the concept of viewing multiple works at once by also including more of the artist's factual information. So you can view what they were doing during the time line as well as what they were creating. In addition, we want to add the option/ability to view two separate artists work(as well as their factual information) at once.
 * With addition to the new abilities of the website, we want to create a more interactive and an easier to navigate design.
 * //what can be added/deleted to enhance the user experience?//
 * added functions such as tagging, comments and internal linking of people and their work, or factual information will enhance the ability to search through the site. Say you are looking up this artist who paints in only yellow. He had a show somewhere that was called colours, where from that information you find out the other artists who were showing their work and found someone who paints only in blue. Now your research on colour painters is expanded.
 * //how can the design be improved visually?//
 * With a simple but highly thought out design we hope to:
 * not compete with the artwork (i.e., through typography to create visual hierarchy for the content)
 * create easy to navigate system that is not language based. Thus it will use icons and way finding concepts.
 * we want to //entertain// the students and researchers, so it's fun and rewarding to do research on this website.
 * //how can the overall user experience be more enjoyable, informative and efficient? Consider from visual and interactive design perspective?//
 * By having a more interactive system, where it brings a seemingly more tactile way to organize information, we hope to keep students and researchers withing the site longer and to become more active within the site as well.
 * Comments, tags and linking will bring about a 'facebook' effect. People will engage themselves more within the social structures the site. Through commenting, people get a chance to interact with the artists and other people who are interested in the piece. In addition, by commenting on the collection of research will help people to foster more research and broaden connections of information.
 * Visually we hope to make the site simplistic and rely on the understanding of icons. This will make the site less daunting, and more friendly. Being simple will also not interfere with the artwork.

Narrowing down of Functions:
What the students/researchers editing and organizational abilities are within the site:
 * Login to the website:**
 * Free to join! Create an account that alows you to collect and organize your favourite Canadaian artist's works!
 * Brainstorm:**
 * Browse the site and quickly have the option to click and drag images into their personal collection boxes/piles. Option to tag or note images before they go into the box.
 * Organize:**
 * Go into their boxes and see their tags as type in different sizes based on the amount of images within the group. Click on tag word to view thumbnails images within that section.
 * Options available:**
 * Make groups (name, tag, and description of group)

System Map
[|3005w_p1_systemmap_jljw.pdf]

Flowchart/Scenario

 * USER PROFILE:**
 * Name: Kathy
 * Sex: Female
 * Major: 4th Year in Fine Arts / Photography
 * Interests: Photography, Environmental spaces, Painting, Music, Coffee, Psychology, Reading
 * Project: Research for thesis, looking for photographs or photo-based artworks to support her thesis statement
 * Experience of the CCCA Web Site: Frequent user

[|3005w_p1_flowchart_jljw.pdf]
 * OUTLINE**
 * Opens a browser window and goes onto the website.
 * Kathy: Is confidant that this site will help her organize all her work and make her research 10 times easier to manage and go through.
 * Login to account → Just starting her research. She has been on the site before and has started collecting images she finds appealing.
 * Kathy: A few months ago she randomly decided to sign up to the site. She soon began to collect images she liked. It was a fun experience and one that today she realized was actually handy to have done.
 * Opens the Box → She wants to start looking through what has already been collected to see if any of it applies to her research.
 * Kathy: because she is a photographer herself, she had already gone through the website collecting images related to photography.
 * Decides to go to the ‘Tags’ section → browses through tags.
 * Kathy: spins through the tags and notices that they are not only organized alphabetically but also colour-coded to represent how many images are within each tag (the warmer the colour the more images there is).
 * Chooses the ‘photography’ tag → browses through thumbnail images.
 * Kathy: Found that scrolling sideways was actually a better way to look through thumbnails then vertically scrolling.
 * Chooses an image → full view of the image pops up → Decides that she’ll use this image, and puts it into the ‘loose pile’ section.
 * Kathy: Notices she hasn’t yet created a file for her thesis project, so she puts it in the loose pile section for the time being.
 * Repeats the last two steps several times until satisfied.
 * Kathy: Found that she picked a good thesis to write about because she had already collected 24 images that related to her topic.
 * Goes to ‘Piles’ section → see’s her previously made piles as well as an unorganized pile, the ‘loose pile’. There are two loose piles: one is from today, and the other is from pervious days.
 * Kathy: Ah! Crazy! Now she doesn’t have to go through all of the loose images, but only the ones from today. She was a bit worried about that because last time she was here she only collected and didn’t bother to organize anything.
 * Creates a new pile → selects images she wants to use for her research → Titles the pile ‘Photo’s Relating to Space’ and writes a note ‘For your photography thesis!’
 * Kathy: Found that it was really easy to organize her research so far…
 * Decides that she needs more images that she had not previously tagged.
 * Kathy: So she is now inclined to find more!
 * Goes to Home page → Browses through the sites Photography section.
 * Kathy: Decided that instead of doing a search she’ll just leisurely browse through the images, this way she can collect images that may not go with her thesis as well as ones that are relevant.
 * Finds image that fits her thesis → full views the image → chooses to collect the image and places it into the ‘Photo’s Relating to Space’ pile.
 * Kathy: Likes how she can now directly put an imaged into her thesis pile.
 * Repeats last step until she is satisfied.
 * Kathy: Ends up finding 50 more images by a bunch of different artists.
 * Goes into her ‘Photo’s Relating to Space’ pile → views an image in full view → chooses to write a ‘sticky-note’.
 * Kathy: Originally just wanted to view an image again, but notices the ‘sticky-note’ application and tries it out.
 * Repeats this step for all the images within the ‘Photo’s Relating to Space’ pile.
 * Kathy: Found that the ‘sticky-note’ application was extremely helpful! Now she can write down exactly why these images are apart of her collection, and what she might write later about them in her paper.
 * She now has spent the day on this site doing her research and decides it’s time for dinner → logs out for the night.
 * Kathy: her stomach begins to growl and she looks at the time. She is shocked at the fact that the full day has gone by; she completely didn’t realize she had done so much work simply because it was fun to do.