Project 2A - Correct reading order

Power Meter reactions and usage
http://dsdn112jamesgodfrey.blogspot.com/2011/09/power-meter-reactions-and-usage.html

Project 2 - Inspiration
http://dsdn112jamesgodfrey.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-2-inspiration.html

Porject 2A - Proposal
http://dsdn112jamesgodfrey.blogspot.com/2011/09/project-2a-proposal.html

Power meter reactions and usage

In the recent holidays we were tasked with recording our daily power usage.
To be quite honest I found the device and the recording to be a nightmare. The device I was using was a cheapo from the warehouse, the "Elto Electrical Power Meter" and its design was definitely reflected in its pricing.
The device was so difficult to use that of the whole holiday period I only got 3 reliable readings.
The device told me the readings in cents
The devices I managed to get readings for were
My Computer
117.2cents over 24 hours
The Household Dehumidifier
138cents over 24 hours
An Oil Fin Heater
972.38 cents over 24 hrs


My reactions


My Computer

The power meter was quite hard to understand at first but after that I found it interesting to see how much I was costing my parents by leaving my computer on for 24 hours.

The Household Dehumidifier

I checked up on it every now and then. I wasn’t really interested in seeing how much the dehumidifier was using. I was also very annoyed at the interface as the device did not do as I programmed it to and instead of starting recording at 1 it started at 11 the next day and so when I went to check it, it had only been recording for 3 hours. I had to wait another day. It is something to think about in the upcoming project. Also interesting to note that it is using more power than my computer.

An Oil Fin Heater

Every time I use this device I see the real need for a much better designed interface. When the machine decides to, it does the job. But when it doesn’t work it can be very frustrating.

Anyway, after this terrible experience of metering I saw the great need for something low cost, efficient, and incredibly easy to navigate and use. This will form the bases of my ideas for this second project.

Project 2 inspiration

Here is an interface for an app that I like the look of and is easy and simple to use and understand. These 2 photos are from the blackberry playbook's music app. I like the colours and the buttons. When the user touches or taps the buttons they lighten in colour, in this case go a light blue.

Photo 1

Photo 2

I think in my app I will have the wording and the icon in the same button. That is how I imagine it, but it will likely change as I go on. I am also imagining it will be a portrait app and i would like to have the colours change when the button is interacted with.

Project 2A - Proposal

In terms of interface I really only have one inspiration for colours and buttons, that being the playbook music app. So based on that and other things from my head here is my proposal for project 2.

Based on my experiences with the power metering app, I want to make this app incredibly easy to use, and i even want it to be fun to use. Something someone will go onto to enjoy.

Here are the 2 pages that I handed in detailing my proposed app. I do not have a name for it yet but I am sure I will develop a name as time, and the project progress.

The app I am proposing is a social, power consumption, competition based app. 

These 2 diagrams detail the main app screen and the friends screen

These 2 diagrams detail the challenges screen and the usage screen

Here is my written hand-in to go along with the pages:

For my second Introduction to Interaction Design project I plan to create an interactive, cross-platform application that encourages competitive energy saving between users and friends, and that as a whole the application is aimed at making the users consume as little excess energy as possible.

My intention is to make the application iOS and Android compatible, Web Based, and also to make it run on other mobile devices (Nokia, Blackberry) as well. Running on these operating environments would mean my target user base would be ages from mid-late teen years through to the pre senior years, possibly 65 and below. This is dependent on how familiar the age group is with the platform they are using. I aim to make the application very simple to use and I would like it to be able to be operated without extensive instruction sheets or pages. For the detailed paper prototype I will focus on the iOS application.

The application is going to be very visually based and will depict usage in picture forms. It will be interesting to look at and be designed to be used by the general public, as opposed to stereotypical ‘nerds’ who like plain bar graphs and boring charts. (Although the app will cater for those people as well)

With this application you will add other users (friends) and with the home appliance data gathered by the app, you can then compete for the lowest per household/per person/per appliance energy usage over a user-defined time period. The user can choose from a series of application set challenges or set a challenge themselves for a friend/group of friends to compete in.