“An exclusively technical civilization … is threatened … by the splitting of human beings into two classes—the social engineers and the inmates of closed social institutions.”
– Jürgen Habermas

How I Spent My Time

I was able to knock out two more scenarios this week—scenarios two and three. This means I only lack one more scenario.

A video walkthrough for scenario two is available here and a video walkthrough is available for scenario three is available here. The live prototype is available here.

If I am able to continue at my current clip, I might be able to start user testing this coming weekend.

What’s Working

Elbow grease. Also, being a little bit more quick and dirty with the prototype knowing that I will be making another pass after testing to clean it up.

What’s Not Working

Not applying elbow grease. Also, trying to get things just right.

Substantial Changes

Nothing to report.

“Most proposals for enhancing our privacy treat it as an end in itself. Instead we need to be talking about how to best stimulate democracy—a balancing act that laws or market mechanisms can’t achieve alone.”
– Evgeny Morozov, The Real Privacy Problem

How I Spent My Time

I focused my time on completing scenario one of the prototype. Having the first scenario completed is milestone, as it is quite large considering all the possible states and content. It also represents what I believe to be the most socially complex moments and is therefore a paramount scenario for my topic. Completing it also means I have established the framework and processes I will be using for prototyping the remaining scenarios. In other words, I expect the other flow

A video walkthrough of the scenario is available here and the live prototype is available here.

While scenario one is ready for testing, I will be waiting to begin testing until the other remaining scenarios are completed in the prototype.

What’s Working

Elbow grease.

What’s Not Working

Not applying elbow grease.

Substantial Changes

Nothing to report.

“It is the whole man The Organization wants.”
– William Whyte, The Organization Man

How I Spent My Time

I fell of the radar. Between a banner fall/winter of personal illness and getting caught up with a busy project at work (see William Whyte quote above), focus on my thesis fell to the wayside from October through early December. I managed to maintain an okay level of bibliographic research throughout, but the work that really needed done—the visual component—went untouched.

However, since late December, I have devoted a lot of energy to thesis work. I have narrowed and strengthened my topic and have covered a lot of ground with the visual component. I have produced sketches and hero screen wireframes and am well into creating the alpha prototype.

I have revised my timeline with a goal of completing all thesis work in the spring quarter. The visual component should be finished by the end of the winter quarter allowing me to focus on completing the written component in the spring quarter.

What’s Working

Focusing almost completely on the visual component has been paramount. Tangible deadlines are being met and my thesis topic is naturally narrowing and strengthening as a result.

Using Axure (especially the new version) to develop the written component is also working very well. I suspect it will continue to serve me well with the upcoming user testing session.

What’s Not Working

Everything is going pretty well at the moment.

Substantial Changes

I have narrowed my focus to that of just the participant experience of a system that observes personnel behavior in the workplace. This focuses my thesis more squarely on the issue of how a system can facilitate policy negotiation and communicate respect to the user given the context of such a sensitive subject.