making the demo
IBM
Time: June 1 – June 7
Brief: Design a way to counter some of the alienating effects of remote working online.
My group: Melanie, Nayla, Lea
Taking all feedback into consideration, we started improving our platform. The thing that stood out the most was the proximity and the movement around the screen. Both the tutors and IBM agreed that it would be best if the user could move around, as it would best resemble real-life interactions.
In order to keep the customisation of the music, we created a toggle option that enables the user to change between people and music view. In the people view, one can see where the people are, move around and join the groups. In the music view, one can add music from various platforms and then move it from left to right depending on the desired direction of the sound. As more people join the space, the view with icons can get crowded, therefore when more than 15 people join, icons are minimized and as the user hovers over them the picture and the name of the person appear.
Improvements on the original features.
We also created a function, where people can form groups in order to have a more focused conversation. By dragging one’s icon on the icon of another person, a group forms, allowing others to still hear the people in the group, but quieter. We also added the option of a chat, video and plug-ins to enable professional teams to work together on different apps.
Additional features.
In our tutorial, we presented the improvements and added features to Alaistair, who really fancied our system solutions and ideas, but encouraged us to create a more subtle and organic interface.
