RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN DIGITAL MEDIA

WEEK 1

Weekly Lesson:

For the first week, we were briefed on our assignments for this subject by our lecturer. This subject's objective is to develop the ability to study and develop the theoretical, conceptual and professional subject that underpin digital media practice within a selected area of research. This will involve observing and using a range of digital research techniques to handle critical analysis on the project. Hence, we are required to pitch our idea for Final Digital Media in the first assignment.

First of all, we have to identify on the area of interest. Interest is very important at it makes us more passionate in putting more effort doing it. It helps to increase curiosity and eagerness to make the best out of it. Besides, make sure the resources for the idea chosen has high availability. The reading materials and references must be enough for the project. It is also consider an idea if we research well on various case studies and innovate something new, turning it into a new project of our own. The project has higher value if it helps to solve problem. After deciding on the ideas, lecturer introduce us to identifying the target audience, persona and research methodology.

1. Target Audience

It is a certain group of people with shared characteristics who are most likely to be interested in your products or services. It is important to identify who the target audience is as it provides a clear focus of whom your business or product will serve and why those consumers want your goods or services.

Since it is impossible to reach out to all at once, it is best to narrow the attention to a core audience. It helps in crafting a messaging plan that attracts the type of consumers who are in high chance to convert into customers. (Heibutzki, 2021) Target audience can be described by demographic and psychographic attributes, such as age, gender, monthly income, education level or localization.

2. Persona

Personas are characters which are created based on research in order to represent various user types that might use and purchase your service, goods, site, or brand in a similar way. It will help in understanding the consumers' needs, behaviours, targets and experiences. Besides, personas ease the design task by guiding the ideation processes. Designer can easily create a good experience for targeted consumers with the help of personas. (Dam, 2021)

3. Research Methodology

Research methodology is the particular ways or techniques used to identify, determine, process, and explore datas about a certain topic. In a research paper, the methodology section grants reader to critically evaluate an analysis overall validity and reliability. There are two main types of research method; qualitative and quantitative research.

Quantitative research indicates numbers and graphs. It is usually used to evaluate or confirm theories and assumptions. This type of research can be used to show generalizable facts about a subject. It commonly includes trials, observations recorded as numbers, and reviews with closed-ended questions.On the other hand, qualitative research is expressed in words. It is used to understand ideas, opinions or experiences. This type of research allows to collect in-depth perception on studies that are not well understood. Commonly include interviews with open-ended questions, observations described in words, and literature analysis that explore ideas and theories.(Streefkerk, 2019)

Activities :

This week, we did some simple discussion on types of studies which is the research methodology. Research methodology is the particular procedures or techniques used to identify, choose, process, and study information about a topic. (Libguides, 2020) There are mainly two types of research methodology, the qualitative and quantitative research. We are distributed into groups of two to analyze on these methods. My groups were given to research on the qualitative method (interview). We started off our discussion with a few simple questions.

1. Brief Description of the Method

Interviews are qualitative research technique which involves asking open-ended questions to converse with respondents and collect datas about a certain topic. In most cases, interviewer is the subject matter expert who aims to understand respondent's opinion in a more well-planned and executed series of questions and answers. Commonly known as conversation between two or more where questions are asked to a person to get required responses and answers.

2(i) Pros of the Method

- can get more accurate answers (as they are unable to give false info like gender, age or race)

- can observe the body language when comes to some questions through interview

- people who are being interviewed will be more focus or respondent on the question asked

- captured the person's emotions and behavior that online or mobile surveys couldn't achieve

(ii) Cons of the Method

- cost of time as it requires an amount of people and longer time will be needed

- interviewers might appear biases which affects the interviewees’ responses

- cost much to insert the data collected into computer

- sample size of research are limited as it requires a lot of time especially online interviews

3. How is it done?
Firstly, decide on a question you want to study. The question needs to be clear, specific, and manageable. Start off with a broad question and then narrow it down more to make it manageable enough to be researched effectively. Next, literature review is important as well. Study what others have written about your research question and particular topic. Read widely on the larger field and examine studies that relate to your topic. Then, draw up an analytical report that synthesizes and combines the existing research. Besides, it is vital to evaluate whether qualitative research is the right fit for your research question. It can be answered by a simple 'yes' or no' hypothesis or useful for answering "how" or "what" questions. Also, consider on your ideal sampling size, choose to narrow your study to a major urban area. Each of the research methodologies has uses one or more techniques to collect empirical data, including interviews, participant observation, fieldwork, archival research and documentary materials. The form of data collection will depend on the research methodology. For example, case study research usually relies on interviews and documentary materials, whereas ethnography research requires considerable fieldwork. Lastly, analyze your data and start writing up your research.

Project Progression :

Before kick starting with the project, it is important to learn to distinguish our future pathways by knowing ourselves better. This can be done by recognizing our strengths and interests. There are various of employment mode available for designer. It is important to think wisely on which one you really wish to be at. Strengths are things that you can grip on, to actually push yourself further. It is chances of an improvement in developing and building on something you're lack of. (Hyma, 2019)

I personally have high interest in interactive design. It is a field of study that concentrates on the transmission of media between human and technology through collaborative process. The aim of an interaction design is to build products that fits the objectives of the user in the best way possible. An interaction designer works on the design, development, creative or marketing team that assists in creating a design strategy. They are the one who identify the key interactions of a product, testing out the ideas by creating mockups or prototypes and keep up on current technology and trends that will impact users. The interactions involved are mostly elements like aesthetics, audio, space, motion, and more. (The Interaction Design Foundation, 2020)

Graduating from my diploma studies, I came to realization that interactive projects caught my attention a lot. I created an interactive game installation, which is an arduino project for my final year project. As a Digital Media students. I had covered subjects like computer programming, digital photography, computer animation, film studies, website design, communications, and graphic design. Digital media is a wide term that encompasses jobs at the intersection of technology and content creation. There are quite a number of career pathway available for a digital media student such as video editor, multimedia artist, videographer, web developer, motion graphic artist and more. However, I realised I am better in building arduino projects than other multimedia work especially animation. I do not favour animation that much as I am quite weak in drawings. Hence, I have a clearer picture of my future development when it comes to after college. However, I'm still willing to learn more new things to brush up my skills and knowledges which will help in my future career.

After making sure of the future path, it is then time to figure out on ideas for upcoming final year project. Since it is the final project of the whole college life, it is important to choose your idea and topic wisely. All of us started brainstorming on few ideas for the project and has a slight discussion to seek for advice from our lecturer.

1. Idea 1

Idea and Problem

People tend to find inconvenience in looking for coins especially when they are all over the place in the bag. Some wallets or purses do not have a coin compartment, hence, the coins will just be randomly kept in the bag. It then become troublesome when it comes to paying and when the bag is messy due to overloaded stuff. Besides, it is time consuming looking for those coins and you cannot ensure the coins you found are the exactly amount you wanted.

Goals

To build a pocket size coin sorting machine using IR sensors. The purpose is to count and sort the coins in different sections so that it is convenience to look for the coins when paying. An arrangement is made where IR sensors are placed to sense different size of coins, and Arduino UNO is used for processing the data and showing the total count value. This is to help people to look for coins conveniently especially women with big bags and often carries lots of stuffs. Besides, the total sum of coins can be easily check without needing to count them one by one.

2. Idea 2

Idea and Problem

Some people tend to forget to bring their house keys out or kept losing the keys. Besides, some people find manual door locking inconvenient. This is because sometimes when hands are fully occupied, it is hard to look for keys while carrying so much stuff in hand. Things might start falling apart when people are struggling when reaching for keys. These minor problems caused some troublesome in daily lives.

Goals

To protect your secret hideout from intruders with a lock that will only open when it hears or detects the secret sign. People can lock and unlock the door using secret signs that only they know. Arduino will detect the pattern of knocks or keywords and will only open the lock if the knocking pattern matches with the correct pattern.

After brainstorming on the ideas, we did some research on the topic we chose and did some proposal form to have a clearer view on the idea.

LeeSueAnn_3029MAPA Research and Development in Digital MediaFinalProjectProposal by LEE SUE ANN on Scribd

References

Heibutzki, R., 2021. The Importance of a Target Audience of Consumers. [online] Small Business - Chron.com. Available at: <https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-target-audience-consumers-37173.html> [Accessed 7 January 2021].

Dam, R., 2021. Personas – A Simple Introduction. [online] The Interaction Design Foundation. Available at: <https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/personas-why-and-how-you-should-use-them> [Accessed 7 January 2021].

Streefkerk, R., 2019. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research | Differences & Methods. [online] Scribbr. Available at: <https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/qualitative-quantitative-research/> [Accessed 7 January 2021].

Libguides, 2020. Libguides: Research Support: Research Methodology. [online] Available at: <https://libguides.wits.ac.za/c.php?g=693518&p=4914913#:~:text=Research%20methodology%20is%20the%20specific,study's%20overall%20validity%20and%20reliability.> [Accessed 7 January 2021].

Hyma , P. 2019. Why It's Important To Know Your Strengths And Weaknesses. Leaderonomics.com. Available at: <https://leaderonomics.com/personal/why-its-important-to-know-your-strengths-and-weaknesses> [Accessed 7 January 2021].
The Interaction Design Foundation. 2020. What Is Interaction Design?. [online] Available at: <https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-interaction-design> [Accessed 7 January 2021].

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WEEK 2

Project Progression :

After some research, we are all clearer on which ideas and topic to work on. Hence, in class, we started working on some drafting for our research methodology. I chose quantitative research as I am focusing on testing theories and seeking for public's point of view on the subject. Besides, it helps to understand the target audience more. The data collection method I chose for this project is survey. A list of closed or multiple choice questions is prepared and distributed to targeted sample via online.

Before sending off the questionnaire, I did a few drafts and discuss them with lecturer. The questionnaire survey is divided into two section which is Section A and B. Section A includes demographic while Section B includes some further and deeper understanding of the target audience. After finalizing the questions, I use google form to create the questionnaire survey and send it out via my social media platform so that I can engage to more people in participating in this research.

Questionnaire Survey by LEE SUE ANN on Scribd

After the research, I have clearer understanding on my targeted market that helps in develop effective project strategies. These questionnaire leads me to create user personas that assist me in knowing on who my ideal customer will be. It shaped from the real customer discovery and analysing the desires, goals, and observed behavioral patterns of a target audience. User personas help to get inside the mind of your consumer. For example, I can to observe and figure out which features best suits my target audience and also the design and look of the product, whether it is preferable to be simple or more complicated. Next, I get to know the amount of people who wishes to own a smart digital door lock, but cannot afford the one in market. Hence, from this survey, I get to know more on my target audience's thought and opinions better.

Google Form : Questionnaire Survey

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WEEK 3

Project Progression :

After sending out my questionnaire for almost a week, I managed to collect replies from around 40 participants. Based on the results observed, most of the participants are of employed young adults, who are single and staying with their parents. It can be assure that most of them do face problems with their physical house keys and have high interest on the smart digital door lock.

Section A - Demographic

Forms response chart. Question title: Age ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 1 Age Group

Forms response chart. Question title: Gender ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 2 Gender

Forms response chart. Question title: Education level ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 3 Level of Education

Forms response chart. Question title: Occupation ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 4 Occupation

Forms response chart. Question title: Monthly Income ?. Number of responses: 39 responses.

Fig 5 Monthly Income

Forms response chart. Question title: Marital Status ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 6 Marital Status

Section B

Forms response chart. Question title: How much time do you usually spent at work ?. Number of responses: 37 responses.

Fig 7 Total Time Spent at Work

Forms response chart. Question title: Whom do you stay with currently ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 8 Currently Staying With Whom

Forms response chart. Question title: Is it frequent of you to lose your house keys ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 9 Frequency of Losing House Keys

Forms response chart. Question title: Is it frequent of you to forget to bring out your house keys ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 10 Frequency of Forgetting to Bring Out House Keys

Forms response chart. Question title: Do you often find it troublesome to look for house keys in your bags ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 11 Troubleness in Looking for Keys in Bags

Forms response chart. Question title: Do you often have trouble unlocking your house doors when your hands are occupied ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 12 Troubleness in Unlocking Door when Hands are Occupied

Forms response chart. Question title: Have you heard of a smart digital lock?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 13 Smart Digital Door Lock

Forms response chart. Question title: Do you think a smart digital lock is more convenient for you ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 14 Convenience of Smart Digital Door Lock

Forms response chart. Question title: Will you install a smart digital lock for your house door ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 15 Installation of Smart Digital Door Lock

Forms response chart. Question title: Do you think the smart digital lock is a better option for you house and your families ?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 16 Smart Digital Door Lock

Forms response chart. Question title: Is the existing smart digital lock in the market considered affordable for you ?. Number of responses: 39 responses.

Fig 17 Affordability of Smart Digital Door Lock

Forms response chart. Question title: If there is a chance for you to install a more affordable smart digital lock, will you do so?. Number of responses: 40 responses.

Fig 18 Chances of Installing Smart Digital Door Lock

Hence, after analyzing on the data, I have created a few user personas and user stories for the project. There are three user personas and each of them have different identification, goals and frustrations. This helps me to notice on the user's expectation, acknowledge their problem and try to assist them. However, all of their goals are pretty similar, which is to able to unlock the house door conveniently in the shortest time possible.

User Persona / User Story by LEE SUE ANN on Scribd

After today's lesson, we understand better on the importance of ethical considerations and possibility of risk that may occur in the entire project. Hence, I've completed some forms that consider on the risks and protocols of this project before kick starting it.

Student Research Project Risk Assessment by LEE SUE ANN on Scribd

Identifying Ethical Risk In Student Project by LEE SUE ANN on Scribd

Practice Protocol In Student Project by LEE SUE ANN on Scribd

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WEEK 4

Project Progression :

User Scenario

After confirming and seeking advice of my user personas and user stories from lecturer, I then moved on to creating user scenarios. User scenarios describe in detail what and how will users use the product and specifically on why they do it. A user scenario is like a short story which designers create to show how users might act and make a move with a certain motivation and to achieve specific goal in a system or environment. It is created to understand users’ motivations, demands, obstacles and more in the context of how they would use a design or product. (The Interaction Design Foundation, 2002)

Fig 19 User Scenario

Fig 20 User Scenario

Fig 21 User Scenario

After having a clearer direction and idea of my entire project, we now have to finalize on our topic and research question. Developing the right research question is an essential element of both quantitative and qualitative research.A good research questions seek to enhance knowledge on an important topic, and will state the specific matter or problem that you want to focus your project on. Besides, it also helps to break down the project into more practicable tasks that would need to be completed. In this way, the research question defines the topic and your approach towards exploring it. (Study Higher, 2021)

Topic

"A project to produce an affordable secret code, smart digital door lock for houses to help people who are careless and forgetful about their keys."

Research Question

1. Are digital smart locks more beneficial compared to manual locks in daily life?

2. How can digital smart locks help improve the daily life of people?

3. How have affordable smart digital door locks for houses assist the daily life of people who are reckless and being troublesome about their keys?

After discussion with lecturer, I continue exploring and now I have a final topic and research question for my project.

References

The Interaction Design Foundation. 2002. What are User Scenarios?. [online] Available at: <https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/user-scenarios#:~:text=User%20scenarios%20are%20valuable%20aids,their%20unique%20needs%20and%20motivations.&text=Then%2C%20you%20create%20personas%20to,experiences%20to%20reflect%20realistic%20situations.> [Accessed 28 January 2021].

Study Higher. 2021. Research question: The importance of your research question - Study Higher. [online] Available at: <https://www.studyhigher.ac.uk/our-partners/university-of-oxford/bqlq-1-2-importance-research-question/#:~:text=Research%20question%3A%20The%20importance%20of%20your%20research%20question,-Part%20of%20Big&text=Well%2C%20because%20the%20research%20question,would%20need%20to%20be%20completed.> [Accessed 28 January 2021].

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WEEK 5

Project Progression :

After reviewing on the user scenario with lecturer, the following steps is to work on the user flow. The user flow leads users from their entry point through a set of steps towards a successful result and final action, such as using or purchasing a product. A clear understanding of user needs aids the product team in constructing a user flow and experience that is designed to meet those needs. (Optimizely, 2021) User flows are the quickest way to envision the process. While prototypes imitate the final solution, the user flows displays its all possibilities immediately in one picture. Everyone understands block, mockups with arrows. It is a magical outcome that easily demonstrate the products you create. (Thalion, 2020)

Fig 22 User Flow

Fig 23 User Flow

Fig 24 User Flow

References

Optimizely. 2021. User Flow. [online] Available at: <https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/user-flow/> [Accessed 4 February 2021].

Thalion.2020. What is a User Flow – Everything You need to Know | UXMISFIT.COM. [online] Available at: <https://uxmisfit.com/2020/08/17/what-is-a-user-flow-everything-you-need-to-know/> [Accessed 4 February 2021].

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WEEK 6

Project Progression :

This week, I reviewed the whole picture of user scenario and flow with lecturer. Lecturer came up with a question on what will happen if power is off. How will users be able to unlock and enter their house. Ideas like manual lock can be include together to solve the problem. More detail-oriented thinking needed to be done and considered in order to design a good product. It is vital to understand both the possible cause and effect of a situation on this project.

Overall look of my user scenarios and user flows:

User Scenario and User Flow by LEE SUE ANN on Scribd

Overall look of my user personas:

User Persona by LEE SUE ANN on Scribd

Components

Before kickstarting on the look of the products, first it is critical to identify the components that will be needed and used to build this project. I will be using Arduino platform to create this interactive electronic objects. Here are the list of components that I'll be using in this project :

1. Arduino Uno

2. Push Button

3. Buzzer

4. 1M Resistor

5. Power

6. Connecting wires
7. Box
8. 5v Servo Motor
9. Piezo speaker
10. Red LED
11. Green LED
12. perf board.
13. 9 volt battery clip
14. 9v battery

Core Feature

Product features, according to Dan Shewan, are “something the product has or is... this is normally functionality provided by a software programme that allows users to do something.” It is a particular piece of functionality that provides the customer with a benefit or range of benefits. The value that users obtain by using the feature is referred to as the benefits. The main feature of this smart digital door lock will be:

1. Speech recognition
2. Knock Pattern Detection

Component Sketch

Next, I continue on exploring on the arrangement of the electrical components circuit to see which suits best for this projects. I did tried and develop on a few various arrangement by sketching them out. A circuit diagram is important because it helps in giving a bigger picture of overall wiring and electrical circuit. It ease my progress during soldering and joining the components together.

Fig 25 Circuit Diagram Sketching

Fig 26 Circuit Diagram Sketching

Fig 27 Circuit Diagram Sketching

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WEEK 7

Project Progression :

After done developing and sketching on circuit diagram, the next step is to think idea on the design and look of the digital door lock. The best step to start this off is by sketching. Sketching is a powerful design tool because it often assists in the exploration of the best ideas and solutions to a design issue. It is impossible to 'freestyle' a complex design out of thin air without hashing out the details. As a result, sketching will remain a critical phase in the design and development process. Besides, sketching helps in the exploration and explanation of design principles. This is because sketches are simple to create, with just a pen and paper or a whiteboard. It is best to use something permanent, such as a pen or marker. The goal is for your sketches to be fast, rough, and dirty. This allows you to concentrate less on design aesthetics and more on rapid concept formulation. Besides, I did research for some references on the design as well to help me with the ideas.

Idea References

Fig 28 Idea References

Product Sketching

Fig 29 Product Sketching

Fig 30 Product Sketching

In the sketching, I did two total different designs based on what I feel is suitable. First, it is the design of the whole door. All the features and electric components will be include in the door itself, which means it is a manufacturing of the whole door. The whole door is representing the digital door lock itself, holding its function. However, for the second design, it is only the lock excluding the door. The lock is definitely different compared to the traditional door lock which only has the keyhole. This door lock are of advanced technology which includes all the feature like fingerprint scanner, face id, voice recognition and more in the lock.

Case Study

In addition, I did some research on previous case studies to observe and study on other's work. This is to extend experience and also adding strength to the existing knowledge through people's work. From observing, we get to compare and see the difference among the work while enhancing and do more improvement from there.

Case Study by LEE SUE ANN on Scribd

References

Tufts K. 2021. Why Sketching Is An Important Part of The Design Process. [Online] Available at: <https://www.dnnsoftware.com/blog/why-sketching-is-an-important-part-of-the-design-process#:~:text=Sketching%20is%20a%20powerful%20process,the%20design%20and%20development%20process/> [Accessed 18 February 2021].

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WEEK 8

Project Progression :

This week is the wrap up of our first assignment, CW1. So, I prepared my presentation slide before the presentation day. It is important to make sure the flow of my whole presentation goes well and everything is well prepared so people can understand clearly when it is explained.

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WEEK 9

Project Progression :

It is a new start for the second assignment of this course, CW2 in this week. We will be further developing out proposed idea by creating prototypes. Hence this week, we worked on planning process for the work, so that we can reach the deadline and work more effectively. We did a listing for the plan and discussed it with the lecturer. So here is my project steps and Gantt Chart.

Project Step

Week 9

- project management

- usability test (research)

- types of prototype (research)

- purchase electrical components

Week 10

- soldering and wiring