How can the design of an online information triage system support users in managing information and making decisions about nutrition?
My point of intersection between thesis and our symposium is:
Relevance (and triage, authenticity, credibility, trust, critical thinking, filtering)
My investigation for project #3:
How can a filter be designed to visually privilege relevance?
I decided to use the construct of a movie rental kiosk for my investigation. The system begins by asking the user for their three favorite movies. The system then creates a symbol to represent the user and create connections to all other movies.
Here are my investigative iterations....
Relevence Filter: Iterations... from Liese Zahabi on Vimeo.
In iteration #1, the amalgamated symbol generates a wireframe structure. Relevant categories and movies are located spatially upon the structure. The user would be able to interact with the structure and any information coming off of it to examine further.
In iteration #2, the categories and movies are arranged in space again, but this time relevance is shown by proximity to the user. Again, the user can interact with the information in a spatial way.
In iteration #3, the categories are arranged in a much more static way. This time relevance is shown by scale and use of the amalgamated symbol (color coded according to which favorite movie is most relevant.)
I still want to do more iterations and investigations, and want to build something out in flash to show how the interaction could start to work.
Liese, I wonder about your choice to place this investigation in a kiosk, where one's range of selection is already fairly limited. I think your thesis direction is concerned more with situations where one is confronted with an overwhelming onslaught of information, and a kiosk might not effectively illustrate the principles you're trying to mine.
ReplyDeleteWould it be worth considering how these principles might come into play in a more extensive rental system, like Netflix? Obviously, they've done a lot of thinking on how to help users find what they're looking for, so you wouldn't be starting from scratch. I don't believe they've explored much in terms of the kinds of visual cues that interest you, though — there's definitely room for some experimentation there.
Also, it's not totally clear to me how you're thinking about this in terms of "the rhetoric of authenticity." Visually privileging relevance to a particular user could imply construction of a more customized, personalized, hence "authentic" experience — but at this point I'm not sure that's there. How might a user be made to feel that his/her interaction with the system is more than just using a computer to get stuff? What might it take to feel that the interaction affords a fuller expression of oneself — full enough, at least, to transcend the commodity paradigm that dominates in typical monetized scenarios? I think an authentic experience probably entails something more (or different) than a quick input of a user's three favorite movies… this "something more" might be in the quality of the prompts or in the visual aspects represented by the system.
I appreciate that you are attempting to create a filter for relevance and I think it would allow for more relevance if up front you ask the user a few more questions. I noticed that in your categories of movies that you have given the user to choose from you have "more viggo" and "more elijah". This is interesting in the fact that you are assuming that the user may just be interested in a movie for the actor. Maybe having this information up front would allow for much more relevant and authentic responses from the system. I think that Iteration #2 gets the most at visualizing relevance by placing the "more relevant" selections closer to the viewer. (I think I have reached my quota for the day with the word relevant.) But I believe you definitely have some room to explore these visuals more. You are dealing with movies here but only showing text. In what ways could you bring in visual cues and aspects of film. What if their were "trailers" for the suggestions. Just some thoughts.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I know that you said you were using the construct of a video kiosk. But are you just thinking of that as a basis but this thing would/could live somewhere else? online? on your tv? iphone app? What are your thoughts?
Liese, I think that you've identified three key ways that relevance could be 'managed' - through abstraction of irrelevant topics (in #1), 3-d scale (#2) and, size/color scale (#3). but, there are some design (or illustrative) issues that I am wondering about:
ReplyDelete1. what is the meaning behind the collage of images? What is the symbol giving to 'them; - is it about identity - creating an amalam of likes that somehow attaches them to this system?
2. And what are these more dynamic interactions / animations giving the user that a simple prioritized this wouldn't? What are you telling them and how are they managing information? What is this giving you that a "You viewed X, You might also Like Y, Z, A, B" ala Netflix isn't?
3. You mentioned making connections in some way - I'm wondering how your key is making those connections? What is the color coding representing? It seems like something more 'self-selecting' could be helpful. Like, remember in the music raleigh project - we thought maybe there could be recommendations, and through the users saying 'yes' or 'no' the system started to get a richer understanding of who they were and what they might respond to? Seems like something like that would work here (over time)
It feels like without asking more from the user up front they may be tasked with doing most of the triage and filtering themselves. I am interested in the user specific symbol and what role it plays. Is it visually representing the values of the user in a meaningful way? Can I tweak those representations to change the relevancy of the returns.
ReplyDeleteI am interested how you might visually represent genres, concepts and people (who I know by name but might not recognize, a director for example) or will these be dealt with text.
Your iterations make me want to drag one thing and put it in or near another as a way to refine the results.
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ReplyDeleteSpatial sorting has potentials in terms of saving space, grouping genre and finding a specific movies. I wish I can to see close-up and behavior of the moment of attaching/detaching on your “filter for relevance.” I want to see visual language/behavior of attaching/detaching on the swirls. For a movie rental kiosk, there are other ways to tag a particular genre of movies. It might be interesting to see system of user customizations beyond top-down approach. What are attributes of filters that help user-side filtering?
ReplyDeleteSam
When designing to make decision making easier, I think of not only how you can visualize relevancy between their current interests and the other selections, but also between them and other users? Like the amazon.com "viewers of this item also viewed" stream of thought. This also brings to mind easy ways of collecting data that you might find useful, like a choice of return slots: one for "dislike" and another for "like"...
ReplyDeleteI like this idea of filtering to save time and allow individuals to gain access to information that pertains more specifically them and their interests. I question limiting this to a kiosk, it seems like it could function quite well as a Netflix app or in some other web format. Have you considered the possibility of adding movie trailers as part of the overall visual experience?
ReplyDelete