Meeting with Noa - Summary

Date and time: 3/4/13 12:30

Participated: Noa, Sharon, Itamar, Ran & Omri.

Decided that we need to start working on the physical display:

1. Decide on size

2. Remember that has to accommodate for power supplies for all phones

3. Start working on a CAD file*

Still need to design exactly what is displayed on the "stations".

Need to add a vibration notification to the storyboard.

Decide on a location for the end-of-semester street soiree.

Find headphones for the permanent headphone rack.

Decided on using Galaxy S1's for the "stations".

Still need to gather street data.

Meeting with Noa

Participated: Noa, Sharon, Itamar & Omri.

Noa mentioned that we should be ready on Sunday for a short demo of what we have.
We should also try to start working with the 7 segment displays.

Emphasized that for next paper-prototype we should take a closer look at whether people understand that what they're listening to is live and what (if any) differences do they expect from different locations?

Class summary

During class we decided on several issues and received help from Oren, Oran and Orad. 

• We agreed that we have 2 powerful parts to our experience: The device and the app.
• Suggested to separate between a "tourist" use case and a "resident" use case.
• Suggested to try and get a sponsorship from an audio importer.
• Suggested to add a physical switch at each output jack to allow users at the device to toggle between songs, increasing their perceived control.
• Started discussing what is a good way to divide the city (and therefore be able to define each area in the division, musically).
• Suggested another form of user study: stopping people with headphones in the street and ask them what they're listening to.
• Discussed adding a critique of YouTube's licence agreement by adding a split-screen of videos or any other form of video display.
• Decided that demographics should be collected, but we still need to decide on the specific measures. 
• Suggested adding a button to toggle between 2 songs at each output of the map.
• Decided to have another paper-prototype study, with a better model of our product.

Next steps are:

Communications: 

Add music to App interaction flow 

Prioritize all the features 

Correct flow according to Orad's comments 

Map design - MPOIs (Musical Points Of Interest), Switches, 7 segment display.

Decide which measures to display on the map.

Application mockups

CS:

Decide on core technologies for actual device

Package App for distribution (depends on reactivating Azure server)

Add tactile/notification feedback to App 

Check battery consumption of the App 

Remind Oran that we need Android boards and ADKs/IOIO boards

Psychology:

Revise theoretical background + add element of control to it

Think about possible demographics for control & get user feedback for it 

And:

Design and implement second paper-prototype study

Perform street study (As Oren suggested).

Meeting with Noa

Participated: Noa, Itamar, Ran, Noam & Omri.

Bottom line on top - Action Items:

• Communications - Sharon & Itamar:
• Interaction flow for person at device
• Interaction flow for App
• Decide whether another paper-prototype study is required
• CS: 
• Ran- 
• Reactivate Azure
• Package App for user testing
• Noam:
• Check feasibility of multiple audio signals from one computer (assisted by Omri; already in the works)

• Psychology - Omri:
• Check feasibility of finding/creating a bus-stop or bus-stop equivalent
• Observe a bus-stop to see how long people wait there
• Update theoretical review

Noa emphasized that during the 2nd semester each team within the group must work on their own side of the project in full speed.

Presented the results of yesterday's paper-prototype study.

Discussed how the multi-user experience should be designed. To be decided by Sharon & Itamar.

Discussed the idea of placing the StreetBeat device at bus-stops:

• It's a good pass-time
• It's a good reason not to have any screens
• It has a clearly defined population
• It is better integrated as an experience
• It can be integrated with existing "smart" bus stops.

Lesson Notes

These are our action items and feedback:

Oren's feedback:

• Oren pictures the map as analog and made of old fashioned wood, with multiple metal jacks per area. 
• We agreed on the map's scale- blocks/neighborhoods/squares within a single city. 
• We need to decide if we want the experience to be targeted at a single user or multiple users.
• We need to somehow indicate that a specific location contains content (songs), an LED is recommended.
• Regarding our flow- we have two parts, data collection (this is the part we already have) and the listening experience.
• Touching the wall doesn't have the same affordance as jacking in with your headphones.
• We should thoroughly research similar projects.

Orad's feedback:

• We need to decide if we are targeting our project for the street or for a museum/show. We decided on the street.
• Statistics are secondary to the listening experience. We should focus on listening first, and display the previous ~10 played songs as a first step.
• Physically connecting headphones to Florentin (for example) is a much stronger experience than putting your hand on it and blocking it from your sight, and has a better affordance.
• The application that enables you to listen to the songs on your phone is secondary to the experience and should not be focused on.
• We should focus on the map and be very loyal to our definition of the experience: "Connecting to the musical world of people in our environment" 

Production: 

• We talked about a secondary screen that will display additional information below the map, we still haven't decided if it needs to be a touch screen (probably ideally), a tablet or an LCD.
• We need a PC/laptop that controls the screen
• Azure user- we've sent a mail to Noa regarding this
• We will need the map to be printed on canvas/wood, we still haven't discussed size.

While working on the flow and user experience ,we've encountered some issues:
We like the analog "operator" style jacks idea, but think it's gonna be problematic because of the following reasons:

1. If we go with an analog map, it means we can't display complex information on it. We are limited to the jack connection, and an LED that informs the user of new songs entering the queue, and maybe some indication of the number of songs in the specific location's queue. 

 2. This is the implication #1: If we think additional information about the songs is important, such as: the song's name (very important in our opinion), the list of songs in the queue, and additional statistics about listening patterns in a specific location, then an additional display is needed. That was the direction we were going in, a secondary screen below the map that will contain that information.

However, if we want the experience to support multiple users, we're having a hard time visioning the design. Will we have n screens (tablets?) for n locations? Will we have a single display that will automatically toggle between locations or display all locations at once? Will we allow only a single user to control the screen and decide what's showing?
Ideally, we would have combined a touch screen with the jacks and displayed the additional information on the map itself as popups next to the location. Although, we think that touch screens will ruin the magical experience of our product.

Meeting with Noa

Participated: Noa, Sharon, Itamar, Ran, Noam & Omri.

Mostly discussed ideas for changing the user experience.
The main concepts that endured throughout the meeting:

• Peeking into the musical world of people around me / around specific locations
• A concept/metaphor of an urban radio station (or playlist generator)
• Connecting the entire body to the experience (either by pressing a button on a map or by placing an NFC device)

These issues are still under discussion.

Meeting Summary

Following a short start-of-semester class, we had a meeting with Noa and Guy and discussed a new metaphor along with major advancements in CS front.

Participated: Guy, Noa, Sharon, Itamar, Ran & Omri

After discussing the comments received from Ruth (Microsoft), talked about a new type of user experience. Most prominent topics were a tactile listening experience (such as AudioVersum's experience) and maybe using a map showing the locations of StreetBeat devices. Pressing on the map causes the music collected at the respective location to be played in a headset.
The base of our metaphor is listening to the sounds of the ocean through a sea-shell. 

Meeting with Noa 7/1/13 - Summary

Date: 7/1/13

Participating: Noa, Sharon, Ran, Noam, Omri.

Discussed the new "pancake" concept (mockup and new design will be uploaded to blog soon)

Noa said this is missing personal feedback. Omri suggested feedback through phone-app.

Also discussed purchase of a ticker instead of LED strips. 

Most of the meeting was preparation and tips for the 17th:

• Noa emphasized that we are mostly an art display
• We should not promise anything that we cannot deliver
• Noa is still a bit concerned with the definition of the experience
• We should start thinking about product design

For Sunday we should have a pitch draft prepared. This includes:

• 1 Minute intro
• Movie [Noa commented that we should use more closeups]
• Collage design slide
• System Architecture slide
• ~1.5 minute Psych. Background
• Next Step/Vision/Dev. Plan
• Phone App mockup
• 3D design of the device

Meeting with Noa 31/12/12 - Summary

Participants: Sharon, Noam, Itamar, Noa & Omri.

Date: 31/12/12

Due to cost and technical issues, the concept of using multiple screen is now under re-consideration. A different suggestion is to use a strip of LEDs for the Beat display and a running stock ticker for the artist+song name. Under this premise, the top side is still a screen/projection.

For the movie/storyboard:

• Wasn't clear that the music played only in the earphones.
• There is no mention of the mobile-app in the storyboard

Generally:

• Noa said we're missing a bit of the artistic side
• "Cube" might be changed to a different form, maybe a cylinder (e.g. Pringles can)
• A concept of adding mini-jack ports to the project has been raised. 

Guy's Comments on Our Pitch + Current Work

Storyboard related:

• A bit slow paced and repetitive at first
• The "arrival" of a song on the cube must be better visualized
• Consider showing "chart" by genre or rotating between artist and genre
• Must decide on the order of display (does a single location represent a single place in the "recently played" list?)

Maya also commented that she thinks we should start with Rihanna, as it has a better beat, we should another person to the story (Guy agreed) and that she thinks a single screen might be better.

General:

• We should find a way to allow users to see a history of played songs 
• We should try to think what other types of experiences could be added
• Cost issues should be attended (though not urgent for now)

What's next?

For next week we must have the user study designed. For this we must decide on what can be prepared for it.

The storyboard or scenario needs to be revised according to above comments.

First "brick" or POC needs to be prepared. 

Brainstorming Hangout

After class on Sunday, we thought of changing the shape of our SoundWall and making it a cube. We were thinking of displaying the last four songs played on the street (pedestrians' smart phones) on the four sides of the cube and presenting the most popular songs on the top. We had a few different ideas based on this big idea, and we tried to bridge over our differences in a virtual meeting. 

Participated: Ran, Noam, Sharon, Omri, Itamar

These are the points we agreed on:

1. Display on the cube's side faces will include the 4 songs last played in the street (1 on each face), containing the playing song's beat (sound wave visualization of some sort),

its album artwork, and its name.

2. The cube's efficient size and height must be verified by physical testing- Sharon & Itamar

3. Determined by the test's results, we will decide where to display which information- current tendency is displaying the song information on side faces,

the collage on the top face. 

4. Pushing songs will be done automatically via GPS+app.

5. Pulling songs will be done by QR code.

6. Upper collage's display direction is an unresolved issue (current display idea is directional, size changing tiles that represent the songs/artists), temporary solutions

for the storyboard are (a) choosing a direction and deciding for the users where to look from/ (b) Rotating display.

Height simulation by Ran:

Sharing Music, on the Street

Following the Mayan apocalypse and the bottom line of the critique about our previous idea (Smart Street Signs), we sat down for a brainstorming session. Saturday, Dec. 22nd.
This time we had positive results!

Participated: Itamar, Ran, Noam & Omri (with Sharon virtually).

Talking about what means and information is available on the street, we started thinking about music, as 3 of us actually tend to listen to music while walking on the street.
Then we thought, what is there to do with music in an urban environment.
This was a toughie, because we were all against playing music, and we're not even sure it's legal (probably requires a licence or artist agreement).
Then we thought, hey, why not allow people to share what they're listening to, just like they probably do on FaceBook.
So... How do we allow people to share music (this also means to explore what others are listening to), while outside?

We decided to start working on a "SoundWall" - a place that gathers information about the music being played near it (via app). This music is displayed on a wall in the street, making the "sound of the street" accessible to all.

The wall could show the last 10 songs that people played near it (thereby leaving their marks and sharing their internal worlds) and show a "chart" of popular genres/artists/songs (can be visualized with tiles and their sizes).

Song/Artist info can also be displayed on the wall.

For each song or artist a YouTube video can also be displayed.

The app can interact with the wall and extract songs and info from it.

Lastly, (and this is still under consideration), a measure of "the beat of the street" could also be shown (average beat, integration of all played music, etc,).