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Ben Bitdiddle is taking notes for 6.006 on his laptop. He has to keep up with the professor and write down all of the important points. The professor begins to draw a very complex diagram on the board, and warns the class that if they don't understand all of the details of the diagram, they will fail the next exam! Ben must be able to insert the diagram into his notes without losing any of the details, and without falling behind taking notes on the rest of the lecture. As the lecture continues, Ben must be able to easily copy down both the textual description of the algorithms along with the accompanying diagrams of binary trees, heap sorts, and linked lists. When Ben used to take notes on paper, he was always frustrated when professors "animated" the diagrams on the board by adding new components and removing existing components while describing the steps of an algorithm - he would have to completely redraw the entire diagram multiple times so that his notes could show the progression! He's hopeful that a new computer-based system will make it easier to do this so he can focus more on what the professor is saying.
Later, in preparation for the upcoming test, Ben decides to do the assigned reading from his textbook. He wants to insert additional clarifications into his lecture notes on the same material, so Ben opens his notes to modify them. He goes over the notes, and inserts a few new facts that he forgot when he was taking the notes originally. Of course, being a typical MIT student, Ben waits until the night before the test to actually read through the notes he took, which means he only has a few short hours to refresh his memory on the most difficult aspects of the material. Therefore, it's crucial that he can find the appropriate notes quickly and easily - flipping back and forth through pages and pages of notes was always such an inefficient use of timeLater, while studying for the test, Ben decides to do the assigned reading from his textbook. He wants to insert additional notes into his lecture notes on the same material, so Ben opens his notes to modify them. He goes over the notes, and inserts a few new facts that he forgot when he was taking the notes originally.
Design 1
In this design, Ben's notes are stored in a strict hierarchy corresponding to school years and classes. Inserting images is done by taking the pictures on a smartphone and uploading them into your notesDiagrams are captured by taking pictures of the chalkboard on a smartphone and seamlessly integrating them into the notes. Everything's automatic and stored in the cloud, so the user doesn't even need to plug his phone into his computer or initiate a transfer over bluetooth.
Storyboard
The first time Ben uses SETENTS (which is primarily a web-app) to take notes, he is presented with a standard account creation/login page. Once Ben creates his account, he sees the note storagemanagement page, which is organized into sections with years and classes.
On initial login Ben The first time Ben logs in, he must either select the pre-populated school year or create a new one. populated school year or create a new one. The interface is mostly empty, along with a small note (and helpful arrow) to point a new user in the right direction. Once the year is selected, he can create a class, and then create notes for that class. This is not analogous to a standard file-system hierarchy in that Ben cannot create loose notes: they must be associated with a class, and classes must be associated with years. A search bar at the top of the page allows users to look for notes quickly find notes (by typing a note name, date, or content to search for) without browsing through the hierarchy. The search can also help a user find notes on a topic that has been covered in multiple classes in order to reinforce his learning. Right-clicking notes, classes, or semesters brings up a menu with delete and rename options. Selecting an item and hitting the delete/backspace key will also delete it. A prompt comes up to confirm deletes.
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Ben creates classes for the different courses that he's taking. Clicking the buttons to add a year or a class has a text box textbox pop into the list, with a default name highlighted for pending delete. Clicking the button to add new notes for a class, though, takes Ben into the text editor.
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