UQ INNOVATION SHOWCASE 2014

 Surprisingly, we were invited to UQ INNOVATION SHOWCASE 2014. It was held on 3rd Nov from 4pm to 6pm. We needed to came to Uni around 12 and prepared the showcase. It was pretty long day but it was very good experience. It was good to join the showcase and look other people`s work. Unfortunately Nick couldn`t join us, Josh and I enjoyed the event and we were happy to introduce ViRails to people.

Week 13: Journal (Whole-of-course Reflection)

 DECO 1800: Design Computing Studio 1 gave me a lot of experience regarding design skill and group work. I worked in a team and we made a successful product. Back in week 1, I expected to be doing good team work with nice people and wanted to get experience about working with team. I also wanted to improve problem solving skill within working in a team and self learning skill. What I was worried was group work and group communication because I saw many bad cases of group work due to lack of communication.
 However, I did great work with my group and the communication within group went well. I`m contented with meeting good teammates and our final product. Although Both of my teammates are so good at programming and I didn`t have many chances to join the programming work, I could experience the programming a little and now I`m very confident of html and css. I should get more skill in JavaScript.
 Furthermore, I could learn prototype, how to improve the product based on feedback and how to work in a group. During contact session, we had 2 prototype sessions and it was fun and very useful to hear other people`s opinion. With the feedback from the prototype, we could make the better product.
 I really enjoyed DECO 1800. It taught me many skills in terms of design and group work. My team finished the project successfully based on excellent programming knowledge and good communication. Since the communication and knowledge were well-balanced, we could complete the project

Week 13: Trade Show

 We had trade show to introduce our final delvery; ViRails. We dressed up like business casual. It was good experience to have trade show.
 We presented ViRails to people. Many people came to our table and experienced ViRails. I introduced the general concept of ViRails and Josh and Nick explained functionalities. People said the the idea is creative and they liked the implementation. I think our project was very successful. Before we started the project, we divided our work and kept sharing the ideas. The main successful factor of the project is communication. We also had good programmers and designer. I think it creates a synergy.

Week 13: The very Last Group Meeting

 We had the very last group meeting in the morning. We met at 7.30, had morning coffee and prepared the pitch and presentation. Time flies and I feel It has taken us short to finish the project, though 3 months are not that short. I had good experience to work in a team. 
 We had a minor problem at the beginning, which is one member dropped the course due to personal issue. However, we have gone through well and made the finished webpage well.
Whenever we need to discuss something, we had group meeting and Facebook chat frequently. I learnt how to work in a team well and communicate each other. It was very useful time to work with my team. 

Week 13: Poster and brochures

 I`ve got tasks to do for trade show, which is making poster and brochures. As ViRails` main color is grey, I made the dark grey color in the poster and brochures with brief explanation of ViRails. I used Illustrator to make the poster and brochures.

Here is what I made for the trade show. 

Week 13: Group Meeting for Trade Show

 We had group meeting at 5pm in Mac lab. Evne though It was held at a late hour, we were productive. We discuss trade show. We prepared the pitch for the trade show and designed how we will present our product to people. I will prepare the poster and brochures for trade show. When I finish the poster and brochures, Josh will print out. 

Week 12: Group Meeting

 Today, we had group meeting for the final project. We met at 12pm and it finished at 5. It was pretty long but we discuss things to do for the final. We`ve done search, watch random videos, skip, countdown and keep watching functions, Main UI and other pop-up pages for About, Log-in and Join so far. We left playlist, registration and playlist pop-up pages. 
 We worked on our tasks during group meeting. It was quite productive time to work together. We will try to finish it over the weekend and have a group meeting before the trade show. 

Week 11: Digital Prototype Session

 In the contact session, we tested our digital prototype. What we`ve done so far is a search engine, skip button, view on Trove and countdown. People tested the digital prototype of ViRails based on those functions. 

 More than 10 people came to our desk and tested it. We explained our concept of the website and let them browse it. 
 From the prototype session, we got some feedback. People recommended us to make space between buttons; Keep Watching, Countdown and Skip. We can make countdown with Flipclock then it will be shown bigger. 
 They were asked about countdown. We wanted to know the time given to users. Most people said 10 seconds is enough but some people said we might give users 15-20 seconds to watch the random video. People also suggest us to use Trove icon in View on Trove and I agreed their idea. 
 And we found some problem while testing digital prototype. People were confused about 'Save for later' and 'Add to Playlist'. Actually 'Save for later' is designed for watching the full video which user selected. We decided to remove it because there is no difference between 'Save it for later' , 'Add to Playlist' and 'Keep watching'.

 Digital prototype session was useful. We could know people`s opinion about our ViRails. Now we will work on ViRails based on the feedback. 

Week 11: Bootstrap

 I made pop-up About, Sign in, Join pages with Bootstrap. I was looking for the lightbox plug in but I found that I can make pop-up page with Bootstrap. So I followed the Bootstrap tutorial from YouTube, and customized it to our webpage. I used 'modal' to make the pop-up pages. 

 Following is what we want to make.

 Here is what I made with Bootstrap.

Week 10: Contact Session

 During contact session, we focused on our work. I found Bootstrap which tutor recommended, and it is really awesome! 

I could use all the icons I need and some layout; search bar. So I could save time to make buttons with icons. I downloaded Bootstrap and saved css and js file of Bootstrap to our folder. 

Week 9: Work-in-Progress Demonstration

 We had session for the work-in-progress demonstration and it went well although it was very early in the morning. We took each part of the presentation. I took the design part, Josh took the implementation and Nick took 'Things to do'. We got some feedback in terms of design and registration. 

 In work-in-progress, we only focused on the functionality so we will do css part from now on. I designed the general main UI and got some feedback from my team. I will do css based on the design mock up and feedback.  
 Lorna recommended to make dummy users for the registration. I think it will be easier way to make registration. 
 We also finished document of work-in-progress. Although now we have only 3 people to do, we divided work well and it also went well. As we put lots of effort on it, we have no regrets. 

Here is what I designed 

Here is things left.

   

Week 9: Group Meeting for demonstration session

 We had group meeting for 4 hours to prepare the demonstration. We tested our webpage whether it is working or not. Main functions, which are changing videos and search, worked well. We also made ppt file to present our work-in-progress. We made it with Google docs.
 It was quite long but it was worth working on it together.

Week 8: Workshop Session

 During workshop session, I worked on the webpage. We`ve nearly done the demonstration work, which is search and random videos functions. So I worked on the next step, 'skip' function. 
 'App' is a class that acts as the overall application controller. Any input received from the user is given to the App class which then passes it along to other classes to handle the result. 
 When user clicks the 'skip' button, the countdown is stopped, it goes to the next video and  the new countdown starts. 

Week 8: Group Meeting & Contact Session

<Group meeting>

 Nick and I had group meeting for the demonstration. Josh couldn`t make it due to his work. We briefly talked about the demonstration like how we will present and what aspects we will show people. 
(It was awkward to be taken picture in the middle are of GPS) 

<Contact session>

 During Contact session, we discussed demonstration and worked on the webpage. We decided to present with power point slides and show the search and random video functions. We will not touch any css for the demonstration session. But we designed the webpage.

Here is what we`ve done so far.

Week 7: Journal (Experience with Paper Prototyping)

 Today, We had a contact session with paper prototype. I had shocking news that Joey dropped a semester for personal issue so we had only two people, Josh and me. We had to work on the paper prototype with only two of us. We decided to show our prototype first and go around later. 

 We set up our prototype and give people scenarios. One scenario was that first two videos is very boring and the third one is quite interesting. Other is that user want to search the cat video. I did mistake at this point. I shouldn`t let people know next step after the first scenario but I gave them instruction to make them add the video to playlist. 

 Most people tested the prototype quite well. They used 'skip button' to move to next button and also used 'keep watching' button to watch whole video. However, some people was struggling with adding playlist and were embarrassed when the countdown is going. We also created quick button to move to playlist but some people didn`t know how to use it. 

 After testing prototype, we`ve got some feedback. People gave feedback in terms of layout of the webpage and some functions. They recommended us to put 'keep watching', 'count down' and 'skip' buttons on the same line because they are the main functions. Also, they suggested us to remove the queue for the random videos not to let people know the upcoming videos because our webpage`s aim is to show random video. 

 We also went around to test other groups` paper prototype. Josh and I tested PopEcloud, which is a website about politicians, and fighting game with famous people. It was fun to test and give them feedback. I could experience various ideas and prototype. I`m learning digital prototype as well so this session was familiar to me.  

 

Week 6: Workshop (API/Ajax/PHP/MySQL Examples)

 We worked through the examples of API and PHP today`s workshop session.
Last week, we set up our UQ Zone and today we did PHP and API exercise bases on our Zone. We did 'Simple database CRUD' example and learnt how to set the users and create database on phpMyAdmin. phpMyAdmin looked boring but when I worked on it, it was quite fun to create database. 
 For API exercise, we did Flick Twitter example. But I don`t have twitter account, I just watched tutor`s work on screen. This exercise was pretty complicated. I remember Lorna showed this webpage on lecture, that time I understood the concept but when I watched the process, it was difficult to follow. I need more practice for these API, PHP and Ajax .

Week 6: Contact Session

 Today`s contact session we brainstormed and drew the big picture of the concept for our project. 
 Our webpage is about a video snapshot from Trove. It will be shown only one page and we will add some contents for login, basic search and playlist. We worked on the key concept of our webpage, and these are video, login, search and playlist. We will focus on these key concept for the website and there are also some wish list. We haven`t decided to include other option for the website yet though, these are recommended videos and Add to favourite. 
 We also discuss paper prototype for next week. We separated our task for the prototype. Nick will not be able to make the contact session next week. Josh, Joey and I got task for the prototype. I will work on the video, login screen and login button and skip button. 

Week 6: Group Meeting

We had a group meeting with Nick and Joey. Josh couldn`t make it. ( We forgot to take a photo every time we have group meeting, so this is the first time to take the group meeting photo.) We discuss paper prototype for week 7 contact session. We have done markup of the webpage when we did project 1. We decided to use the markup to do paper prototype. 

Week 5: Journal (Poster & Pitch Reflections)

 This week, we had a presentation for our project concept, 'ViRails'. We printed and brought our poster to contact session and introduced our concept to others. We did presentation by turns and I was a bit nervous when I took my turn. I think it was successful. We did our best to do our first project, 'Poster and Pitch'. I took design part and made poster successfully, and other members did documentation part and it also went smoothly. While I was doing my poster, I showed the process of design and got feedback from my teammates. They provided good feedback and I could complete my poster well. Since the new design of poster was a bit different from first design, I had to change the frame and color but I could make better poster.

 We got feedback through our presentation in contact session. Lorna asked whether users can watch the random video or not, and we planned to give users a specific topic`s video randomly. She also suggested to show a visual images of the video in Playlist to users. I think it is a good idea for user-friendly website. It helps users to remember and find video which they saved. We also think of adding thumnail and description of the video.She asked what if users don`t type the keyword, and our answer was that the website will suggest other playlists to users. It was useful time to improve and get feedback for our concept. We will start our following project based on the feedback.

 We also looked our teams` presentation. There were interesting ideas. I like 'Pop e Cloud'. It is a music discovery website and users can explode the story behind the music. I`m very interested in music so It will be good and useful website for those who are interested in music like me. They also combined the idea with timeline. So users can also see news report relevant to the music. I think their idea is quite interesting but it will be a bit hard to implement the idea.  
 'Pick Flip' was one of attractive concepts. It is simple memory game for kids and teenagers. I like their concept which is to match the images. It will be fun to play the game and they said it will have more level as users finish one step successfully. 

Week 5: Project - Poster

 I`ve done a poster for our project. It was fun to make a poster using Illustrator. The concept of the poster is vintage because our webpage aims to show old video from Trove. I researched vintage posters from Google and got some inspiration from them. I made a frame of poster and title with wrap and 3D effect of Illustrator. It was first time to use Illustrator though, it wasn`t that hard and complicated to use. I also used mock-up image of our website which Nick created. It shows how our website will be and interact with users. The design of the poster is slightly changed from first design. When I was making the poster, I ask for feedback to my teammates. They said they like the main design and I can make highlight point for each of section. I accepted the idea and finished the poster. I liked the way we discuss during this first project and will do it again for next following project. 

<Our final poster>

<feedback from my teammates>

Here are posters which I got inspiration from.