M364 Interaction Design

Acronyms schmacronyms.

The DECIDE framework.

DECIDE doesn't really help with the meaty points here, what does it stand for, well this:

Determine
Explore
Choose
Identify
Decide
Evaluate

The only one of those that applies to the point of the process is Evaluate.  So obviously I had to come up with a string of characters for the key processes, not an acronym.

GQEPTPIEID

I'm sure you'll agree that makes much more sense.  Or at least it will once I explain how to remember it and what it represents.

Gentlemen's Quarterly Eats Pine Top Private I Ends In Death

It's a mnemonic to recall the key words associated with the DECIDE framework, here's what that now represents:

Goals
Questions
Evaluation Paradigms and Techniques
Practical Issues
Ethical Issues
Data

So put it all together and what have we got:

Determine the Goals the evaluation addresses.
Explore the specific Questions to be answered.
Choose the Evaluation Paradigms and Techniques to answer the questions.
Identify the Practical Issues that must be addressed.
Decide how to deal with the Ethical Issues.
Evaluate, interpret, and present the Data.

Much better, and I can remember it.  It had better come up on the exam.

Usability goals and user experience goals can be remembered using these tortuous, nonsense acronyms/phrases respectively:

Eff Eff SULM

and

SHEf Ap ScREEM

Or in real words:

Effective, Efficient, Safety, Utility, Learnability, Memorability.

and

Satisfying, Helpful, Emotionally fulfilling, Aesthetically pleasing, Supportive of creativity, Rewarding, Entertaining, Enjoyable, Motivating.

Hopefully that's of use to someone, or provides ideas for their own phrases and/or methods.

Obviously there's a need to remember what all of these processes are for and what they mean, but this is a useful trigger for use under stressful conditions like the exam.

Good luck.


Deliberate mistake now corrected;-)

Revision

The Horror. The Horror.

There's just too much to do, arghhh!

I've spent the last two weeks writing up the course objectives for M364 and M366. No, I don't know them all... I've been re-doing the exercises in the course material and I've just started on past papers.

I ended up dropping marks on an assignment and losing ground due to having flu, was absolutely exhausted for most of about 4 weeks and so lost time. I also had work commitments during quite a few evenings and weekends, and then all sorts of systems problems occurred in a short space of time.

Nightmare.

I would have needed to have been a month ahead on both courses for this to have been even slightly manageable, and I was probably only a week ahead.

I'm just getting my head down and doing it, onwards and etc!

Concussion as a consolidation technique

I was completely astonished to receive a mark of 93% for the final report I wrote for T209 after being concussed and having canaries fly in circles above my head, and to receive a distinction for the course overall.

A few simple rules and questions made a huge difference:
Who are the intended audience of the report?
What is the purpose of the report?
What is the medium of the report?
Separation of concerns.
What sequence of concerns is best for the explanation?
Check for factual and typographic errors.

Gather as much information as possible from a variety of up to date sources, and justify every recommendation and argument (for and against) with sound, tested explanations and examples.

Hard Headed Nowhere Fast

Glad to say T209 has now been completed. Can't say it was the most interesting course I have done so far but it was useful. None of the technology elements were particularly enlightening, having worked in IT for 15+ years, and done plenty of other IT courses this was to be expected from something designed to give a broad understanding. The course was getting long in the tooth, many technologies having been superseded, and this was the last presentation before its replacement.

T209 was a 60 point, course for the degree BSc (Honours) Information Technology and Computing and in its favour I can at least say I have gained the ability to write reports. Or I think I have anyway...

The end of course assessment, in place of an exam, was a sustained piece of report writing comparing WiMAX, HSDPA and other 3G technologies. The time suggested for this was five weeks, and with four full days off work after the August bank holiday I thought I had plenty of time. Bring on the gods of complacency, or is it sod's law. Anyway, I was out mountain biking on the August bank holiday, had a good day out, and at the end of the ride was heading down a steep, very rocky descent towards the Snake Pass. Of course I fell off. And of course I landed on my head. A quick wiggle of the extremities and I leaped to my feet, fortunately with no broken bones, I have no idea how I didn't break anything, the surface was just boulders.

Black eye, smashed cycling specs, blood from the side of my nose, bruise on left side of head, left shoulder, left arm, left leg, both ankles (handlebars...), bleeding from left eyebrow, etc. If I had a quid for everyone that said 'were you wearing a helmet', I would have almost 10 pounds. No I wasn't. A full face helmet might have made a difference, the sort that I wasn't wearing and everyone else was wouldn't have made a difference either.

Fortunately it was the end of the ride and we came back in the car. I should have gone to A&E straight away but my pupils were evenly sized, not dilated, I had no leakage from my ears, I felt fine, and I checked my blood pressure when I got in and that was fine too. I felt OK other than a bit of a headache, and a bit shaken up.

A day or so later I found I was unable to look at my computer monitor for more than a few minutes at a time, and I was feeling really dizzy. I couldn't do any work on the assignment that I had taken the few days off for. I eventually went to A&E, the doctor said that as I had taken a substantial blow to the head I would be unable to concentrate for a while, and I should avoid reading, watching TV or using a computer, other than that I was fine. I was hoping to be ok within a few days, but unfortunately the dizziness went on for a long time, nearly six weeks later I still have the odd moment.

It was two weeks after the event that I was back to being able to get on with the assignment, giving me two weeks to get the thing complete and handed in. I did it, just, but didn't do it justice, I could have done with one more week. My nose is still misshapen, and the few pictures I took are still not up on Google Earth. Oh well!

The M255 exam

That's M255 completed.

What advice would I give to the younger me regarding study for this course if I could go back in time?

I'd say pay more attention to what you've said about studying already, particularly reviewing work. One of the most useful elements I've found has been keeping a glossary of terms, start it earlier, check and revise it more often. Some courses give a list of relevant terms at the end of each unit, M255 for example, use it and if there are learning outcomes highlighted use those too.

I typed up all the terms that were unfamiliar and many that were familiar in to one big document, I ignored only those terms that were second nature. I used the glossary and appended it with my own explanations and code examples, I reviewed it to make sure I was remembering the terminology. It is also useful to do this for terminology ahead of the units being studied, it makes it easier to skim read and speed read and provides conceptual understanding. Do more of this and do it more often.


Those methods paid dividends when it came to revision, I had a good idea where my weak spots were and I could concentrate on them, matching knowledge against the required learning outcomes. If that sort of help is there in the units and modules then don't ignore it, it almost is like learning by numbers. I bought every past paper available from the OUSA online shop and did almost all of them under exam conditions. I struggled with some of the part two questions for all of the papers so I put a lot of effort in to practicing and understanding all the coding concepts, admittedly I only really did this in the week before the exam but by the end of that period I felt much more comfortable.

Part of the reason for struggling is that no matter how much you pretend the conditions are that of an exam it obviously isn't, and the temptation to throw the towel in and look for further assistance is great rather than actually having no option but to sit there and think about it. I still thought there may be difficulty with some parts of those questions but was surprised that they appeared easier than expected, probably a sure sign I've cocked them up... One of them was a very close re-working of one on a past paper, which was comforting, for another the question was longer than two pages, which was unsettling.

I have no idea when the results will be available.

Reflective learning and T209

On the news this morning was a story about academic Diplomas and Prof Smith's attack on them, comments which he later retracted. Comments were made in the news story about reflective learning, as this was the radio they didn't cover it in much depth and tried to set up a two-sided argument of opposing views. Reflective learning is a part of the T209 course and it caused an outbreak of messages on the First Class conference system. All the comments seemed to be opposed to it, it was seen as a waste of time, interfered with more serious work, was patronising and time consuming.

I don't really agree with those views, although in some cases I can see that they might be valid. If I want to really learn and understand a course subject then the type of activites used in reflective learning do help in committing information to long term memory. On the other hand if I am doing the course purely because it gives me 30 or 60 points and I am never going to touch the subject area again then the time spent reviewing might be considered a waste and I would use other techniques to commit information to memory for just as long as is required. However, I think the techniques are valuable in all areas of study and should aid in faster understanding of and ability to retain information.

Here's a rough analogy. Like riding a bike, if all a person does is want to ride to the end of the road as fast as possible they might learn rudimentary balance skills and the technique of turning the pedals quickly. But practise, repetition and reinforcement of the techniques of cycling would give the confidence and skill to ride anywhere.

In some respects the course material could be viewed as patronising. Many on the course have already well developed learning skills. My view is that if the work appears to be easy I get on with it and am happy that something can be covered quickly and if I pick up useful, new information on the way it is a bonus.

A topical reference, whatever next.

M255 TMA02

Pleased with the result for this, 97%. Dropped a mark for not removing a line of test code, another for not commenting a method - although I had included a comment but I had commented two methods at once, tsk. Third mark dropped for having a sentence of gibberish when trying to explain an advantage of interface types, "Your last sentence doesn't make sense to me." and having looked again it doesn't make any sense to me either even though I re-read it numerous times!

I took my own advice and reviewed my previous work before submitting the TMA, paying particular attention to the comments made about my errors last time, hey, how easy was that;-)

Have made a start on T209 Information and communication technologies: people and interactions, so far it is pretty straightforward as it is introducing areas I have already covered quite thoroughly on other OU courses. Still, shouldn't become complacent as these courses can very suddenly require greater effort and time to maintain understanding.