Reflection on Week 9

As we had the presentation this week and received a lot of good feedback, I have been feeling quite content with the progression of the assignment. 

After finishing redesigning the Suggestions Page this week, Angus recoded the page to bring all the pages up to date, ready for the presentation. As of now, all pages are live on our websites (albeit they are not completely 100% functioning with all their features e.g song randomisation on Suggestions Page or the search bar on the Home Page). We also removed the UQ login page from displaying before being able to view the page. Now anyone can view the website (there was no actual reason for this, just felt like doing it). 

Hiep and I have also been researching composers and songs for the Suggestions pages, currently we have a good selection of songs for each mood. Next week more songs will be added to the lists, so there will be a larger list of possible songs to be recommended for each mood (user will be able to 'soft refresh' their suggestion page multiple times and have multiple songs recommended before double ups occur). The songs have also, obviously, been categorised into their respective moods. 

Next week we will search for Trove articles to implement on the Suggestions page, as well as finding HQ versions of the songs on YouTube. 

Feedback from Presentation (22 Sep.)

During the presentation during this week, we received positive feedback on the design of Moody Music and were suggested a few changes. We sought specific feedback regarding the colour scheme and the new layout on Home and Suggestions pages. 

It had previously been suggested by hypothetical users, during the paper prototype session, that the colour scheme be altered depending on the mood of the song. We contemplated changing the vibrancy of the colour scheme depending on the mood, but it had been advised that the colour scheme be left as is because differing colours could cause confusion.

With the addition of the ‘soft refresh’ button, we enquired whether the feature was a positive addition and if there should be a limit on how many times a user should be allowed to refresh and have another song suggested. It was recommended that there be no limit and that the word ‘refresh’ be changed to ‘next song’ in order to avoid confusion. Other than this piece of feedback, the ‘soft refresh’ button was accepted as a useful addition.

Lastly, feedback was sought on the addition of the YouTube plugin. It was suggested that perhaps a SoundCloud plugin could utilised instead. Depending on the overall aesthetic, Team Loki may change over to this plugin option. At this moment, however, it is likely that the YouTube plugin will remain because it balances the Suggestions Page, with information on one side and the YouTube plugin on the other. The SoundCloud plugin is thinner and has less of a page presence. This could create an unbalanced looking Suggestions Page, which is why it is not likely to be used.

Reflecting on Week 8

Unfortunately I was sick on Tuesday so I never actually went to the class, however I do know that they spoke about next week's presentation.

As there is a presentation and progress report due next week, I have been busy this week writing up the design doc and putting together a few notes to follow during the presentation. The progress report is filled with changes that have been made to the website, scope for implementation, an implementation plan and (will also include) any feedback given during the presentation.

The implementation plan serves as a guide to completing the next few weeks as there are multiple objectives to complete by certain dates. If these are reached, Team Loki will be able to finish this assignment at a good pace and hopefully to a high standard.

Implementation Plan:

Our team works really well together so I am very confident that we will be able to reach these goals and finish this assignment without having to rush to the end. 

My plan for the next week is to finish this file with the recommendations given during next week's presentation, and hopefully also incorporate recommendations into the design.

Reflecting on week 7

This week the biggest changes occurred to the website. With the major alterations done to to the Suggestions and Home pages, I'm quite certain the website will flow better now and provide a better user experience.

My team and I worked very well this week, after I did finished redesigning the structure of these two pages, Angus was quick to update the coded copy. It has genuinely been so nice to not have to do everything myself. There's definitely a good balance between Angus and I where we split the work load and focus on different aspects. As he's better as coding than I am, and I better at writing documents, we kind of split the work load evenly.

There's a progress report and another presentation due in the upcoming weeks, so next week I plan on smashing out that document and preparing a speech for the presentation. Having documented all the changes on this blog, I think it'll be pretty easy to compose the document. Hopefully it won't take too long!

Redesigning the Website

The Home and Suggestions page have both been redesigned/altered.

Home Page

Previously I had uploaded an image proposal of how this page would look with the addition of the search bar. Below is a screen shot of the actual website currently. The search bar has been placed below the prompts, but as the screen involves no scrolling, it is constantly visible so users know about its existence. Originally I had designed it to have a darker red colour fill, but Angus chose to make the fill plain white so users can easily view what they are writing (a fantastic idea).

Suggestions Page

The Suggestions Page is also home to a list of changes. The original layout featured a music player that was placed over composers’ portraits. We decided that this design would not be easily implemented, so for this reason the layout underwent reconstruction. A major problem encountered on the Suggestions Page was the probability of having two songs by the same composer recommended at the same time. Due to song randomisation, if two songs by the same composer were suggested at the same time, there would be a double up of information about the composer shown on screen. To remove this issue, the new design now only recommends one song at a time. To solve the music player issue, a YouTube plugin is utilised so users can pause/play and adjust the volume with ease, which was another concern of Team Loki’s.

The last big addition to the Suggestions Page was the idea of a ‘soft refresh’. This refresh option provides users with the ability to refresh the page and have another song recommended regarding their mood. It is called a ‘soft refresh’ as it doesn’t restart the entire search, it only provides another song. Each mood has a minimum of four possible songs that can be recommended. Below is a screen shot of the current website layout. (When users hover over the refresh button, it spins in a circles, just for aesthetic reasons.)

Other than these changes, no other alterations have been made to the website as there was all round positive feedback on the colour scheme and layout. 

Paper Prototypes

In class today, we held paper prototype sessions so we could see how users would hypothetically interact with the websites. Initially we let users tap certain icons and show them what would appear, and then we sent them to do certain tasks. 

As I forgot to take photos during the process, here are the paper prototypes and process if a user were to randomly select a prompt.

Next we sent users on a mission to find the About page. Some users were quick to find the link on the original page, others 'entered' the website before finding the About page. 

INSTANCE ONE

Some users were quick to realise there is a link to the About page on the Initial screen (in the footer next to the Trove link)

INSTANCE TWO

Other users entered the site before finding the About page link.

(pretend that finger isn't touching a prompt)

Users were asked if the page flow made sense to them, the difficulty level of finding links and buttons and thoughts on the overall structure of pages. The general consensus responded positively to the questions saying that the flow made sense and that they were easily able to navigate through the pages, links were in obvious places therefore easy to find and that the structure of pages was easy to read - elements were crammed and cluttered. No comments were made about possible additions at this stage, though perhaps once the website has been implemented and users are given a better visual guide, constructive criticism can be given.

The session has been, overall, very helpful as it confirms that the website is on a good path to completion. 

Music Players

So I've been searching for some potential music players. There are the basic players that are modules that sit on the top or bottom of the screen but those aren't ideal, nor fit the desired aesthetic of Moody Music. 

~ Basic Music Players ~ 

If worst comes to absolute worst, we'll have to redesign the website in order to suit this type of basic music player, which would kind of be disappointing but you can't have everything.

This one could work. The colour would need to be customised to fit the colour scheme.

I'm not sure on how to add audio to these yet.

Alternatively we could use SoundCloud or YouTube. As the previous players don't look too appealing, perhaps one of these plugins could be utilised.

Reflecting on Week 6

This week we redesigned the Home and Suggestions Page, adding a search bar to the Home page and a pause/play button to the Suggestions Page. I'm not sure if this is the last time we will redesign, but it is definitely an improvement to the initial design. 

I'm quite happy with the current progression of the assignment and I hope that our coded website can be updated within the next week to match the new design. As of right now, our website has most of the basic html/css already written by Angus, and it is all looking pretty fantastic. 

I hope that in the next week I can look into music players for the Suggestions Page and hopefully we can find a way to implement a music player that matches our design. 

Redesign Prospects

So, after having received feedback post presentation, these screen mockups have been produced to create a visual guide of the probably end application.

Home Page

The addition of the search bar is featured above the prompts. Users type they mood and key words are selected to redirect to appropriate recommendations.

Suggestion Page

Above the composers' portraits, the play button is positioned. The left portrait shows how the play button will appear when the mouse is not hovering over it. In that state, the play button is is at 35% opacity. The play button over the right portrait is at 100% opacity and is a demonstration of how it will look during a mouseover.