Project+Proposal+and+Storyboard



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** Product Proposal and Storyboard ** Chris Blais, Vanita Gupta, Robin Halbert, Jeannette Jackson

Summary of Virti-Cue Revised Project Proposal and Storyboard

Foremost in our minds is our original goal to help children with Asperger’s Syndrome negotiate their social worlds through the use of an interactive product that is easy to learn, effective to use, and will provide an enjoyable user experience. Our Virti-Cue product will allow users to easily create social scripts to support students/children with Asperger’s Syndrome. However, the actual target users for our product are the parents, educators, and caregivers of such children.

Feedback from our most recent usability testing of the Virti-Cue application indicated that several users did not understand the meaning of some of the buttons displayed. Other users suggested that instructive tutorials for first time users would be beneficial. To clarify and demonstrate the function of various buttons and to support first time users, the Virti-Cue team decided to produce a series of short tutorials. We will create how-to tutorials to guide our users through key processes in using Virti-Cue.

Our initial project proposal is to produce a video tutorial to guide users through a specific aspect of an essential task. This tutorial will be accessible to users by clicking on the help button while using the application and by choosing this particular tutorial from several provided on our product website.

Our planned process in creating a video tutorial for this project includes:
 * Researching various tutorial formats and the design considerations that support their use. Our preliminary research reveals a range of text, text and photo, video-based and animation approaches for creating tutorials.
 * Exploring various combinations of suitable tutorial formats in order to be in a better position to justify our design choices.
 * Developing a mock-up of a tutorial that may incorporate graphics such as icons, photographs, etc., voice-over, text, animation or real-time video, other sound clips, etc.
 * Creating a video tutorial on the key process of creating a story and adding pictures.
 * Engaging in usability testing to improve the tutorial: Is this format user-friendly, easy to follow, effective, etc.?
 * Evaluation of the tutorial: We will engage in iterative design evaluations done through usability studies. Users will work through the tutorial and then demonstrate their learned understanding of the process by performing the particular steps using a mock-up of the Virti-Cue product.

To follow up on our preliminary research investigation of various tutorial formats, we produced a trial animation. We plan to produce further graphic/video/sound samples in order to assess challenges, time, and budget constraints, available expertise, and suitability for demonstration of the particular product process. In addition we are seeking research regarding the optimal length of video tutorials related to type of operation and particular user(s). We initially compared techniques used in:
 * A walk-through for the Nintendo game, Star Tropics, which is designed to guide players through the game using a purely text-based format:[| http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587653-startropics/faqs/3094]


 * A website that instructs users how to make fabric flowers by combining still images with text in a step-by-step presentation:[| http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2011/01/diy-fabric-flower-tutorial.html]


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A series of video tutorials for Google SketchUp, which provides users with animated visuals and instructional voice over:[| http://sketchup.google.com/training/videos.html]


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A Twitter tutorial created by Commoncraft that uses line drawings manipulated on the screen:[| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(These are included in our collection of samples and related research at our current group Wiki site: http://virticuetutorial.wikispaces.com/)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We will be closely attending to the class resource of wiki pages demonstrating attributes and/or drawbacks of various media and seeking related applications that we may be able to use during our product development.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Peer feedback on this proposed extension product for Virti-Cue was positive. The sample animation was appreciated and promoted discussion regarding whether voice-over instructions, real-time video of an instructor’s hands/face, and use of follow along text would be of benefit. Further research about instructional video was deemed necessary to inform our product development.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">General comments and questions from our peers in response to all product proposals offered by the class will also guide development: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">questions: This may generate new ideas rather than yes/no answers.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Will segment length of tutorials differ depending on the expected level of comfort of the user—novice or expert?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use of video type tutorial may be of benefit to a novice user, as they will be able to rewind and review at any time.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We should investigate ‘Mrs. Blossom’s’ best tutorial video, now linked in the class wiki.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We need to evaluate for functionality, effectiveness, and learn-ability.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How much fidelity is necessary: How realistic does it have to be?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How complex does it have to be? Sometimes we over-complicate tasks!
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We need to consider observation, questioning, and interviews during evaluation and include the use of open-ended and closed
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We should consider parallel, in addition to iterative design, during user testing.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We continue to add to our research base as we experiment with ideas and move toward product development decisions.