essay part 1 done… kind of

ok, sol I’ve got my essay handed-in… though not as complete as I’d have liked. I was going from the hci assignment sheet given to us at the start of term, which stated that the essay had to be handed in at 2pm… turns out it was changed to 12. An e-mail was sent out, but it was corrected, and ammended, saying it for one group, then aother, then another… all a bit ambiguous. So, I found out the it was 12 and not 2 just in time… by someone who works at a shop near me, who although not on my course, or in my lecture group informed me that the deadline alteration was applicable to all groups. As a result, I rushed back, and printed-put what I had and didn’t have time to print out some of the diagrams I wanted, nor get all the supporting info done. So why didn’t I get ot printed out earlier? well because I had work the day before. I asked to get the shift off to get everytihng sorted, but, I was told to go in for a couple of hours, and they’d send me home as soon as possible… as it turns out however, the person who was supposed to be on the long shift (I was only supposed to be on a short supporting shift) was delyed by a bomb scare in London, and I had to stay on at work until he arrived. I there for got home at about half eleven at night… rather than about seven. I went to print out some of my images, only to find out that my colour cartridge had about enough ink to print out half a diagram. I spent the rest of the evening cutting my essay down to 3,700 words. It was on the morning the next day, when I went out to get  new cartridge, that I went into the shop, and ws informed about the deadline change… I was not ammused to say the least. Well it’s in now, so there’s not a lot I can so about it, other than wait to see what the outcome is…

gah

ok, so I’m on my third write-up so far, each one getting more and more academically worded… which is good, but omg, I’m going mad staring at the screen. Got to get some pictures and diagrams done for it as well… I have to admit, I kinda forgot to put that timescale into my planning. ah well, I’m sure I’ll get something done.

so far…

well, we had our practical with John today, and all seems to be going well. We were given a short intro, and then watched some videos that all kind of incorporated and contextualised what we’ve been learning so far this term, and he showed us some good examples of well executed hci. He also made it implicit, that it was not just the gui, or the software architecture behind it that makes-up hci, but the hardware as well, which is reassuring, as with my chosen topic, hardware replacement was going to be a key element in the system’s redesign, so all in all, it’s going well… for now!

2000 words plus right?

hmm… why is it that when I was a school (many moons ago), I seemed to struggle to get a few hundred words together for an essay, whilst nowadays… I’ve done a word count on my basic notes for the problem analysis section of the essay, and I’m at 1,225 already. Hmm, no intro, design proposition, or indeed, have any of the notes been extended to reference the lecture material. well as I say… the brief does say 2000+ words… so I should be ok… if not a little low on ink and paper by the end of it!

survey number one

well, I’ve started holding some dicussions with some of the staff who use the system at work, those who enter the data into the system, and those who deal with once it’s given back out by the system. There seems to be a heavy emphasis on problems so far… the system is not capable enough to take enough specialist information, nor does it highlight specific areas of importance. Interestingly enough, no-one has said anything good about the system so far, nor have they simply been apathetic to it.

isad 223

hmm, so the assignment. I think I’m gonna try and do mine on my work’s computer system. Pizza Hut is not the greatest place to work, but it just about pays the bills, and has now given me something to use accademically. The system we use is archaic… there’s no other way to descirbe it! I’m in the proccess of getting some screen shots, but as there’s no other way to get a screen grab, I’m going to have to take pictures of the termianls thenselves! I decided to go into work, and completely map out the system menu by menu. It took me over an hour and a half, but now I’ve got a system map to work from, and I can start to deconstruct the workings of it. I’m looking at it from a point of view of interaction and usability to start from, and then I’ll move onto more aspects from there.