Overall, we finished our design and implementation since GR4.
TODO: Design in gory detail with screenshots
Overall, we decided to focus on presentation of the timeline. The view and edit functions are functional, but we have not innovated in that area.
We decided to disable selection of the map markers - It is a little practical because the touch screen has so many markers, and the arrow partially obscures them.
TODO: talk about the color choices and arrow design (taper).
We made the following design changes in response to user feedback:
Map/Journal view mode:
Entry View Mode:
Entry Edit Mode:
We have two main "Activities" in our code implementation. One is "JournalMapActivity", which corresponds to the journal/timeline screen. It is in charge of presenting the map, recalculating the arrow positions, and plotting the star markers. It also keeps track of the scrollable list of entries.
Once you tap to view or edit and entry, you enter "ViewEditActivity". This is the second activity that deals with both view and edit modes. It keeps track of which mode (view or edit) should be active, through the use of a Boolean value. It is in charge of displaying the appropriate "+ Photo" and "+ Contact" buttons, the photos and contacts themselves, and the textual descriptions.The menu items are also different for each mode.
We implemented the class Entry, which stores everything that can be part of an entry. This includes the timestamp/location of when/where the entry was made, its photos, text, and contacts. These entries are all stored in our database. Whenever a user views a previous entry, the system will look it up in the database, and retrieve and display the appropriate information.
---Talk about database---
---Talk about the map---
TODO: talk about what is missing from a complete app.
TODO: talk about the main challenges.
TODO: ??
First, we told users about the purpose of our application. We also explained that it will be on an Android device, and mentioned that using the back button, menu button, and the context menus are standard for Android applications.
Our tasks have not changed since the paper prototyping phase. We asked users to perform the following:
Task 1 - View a previous entry on your timeline.
Task 2 - You are traveling in Siberia. You see a beautiful view of some snow-capped mountains. Create a new entry that includes 1) a small textual description, and 2) a photo (that you will be taking).
Task 3 - You realize that your photo is blurry. Edit the post to replace the photo with a new one.
Task 4 - Share your entry online.
Finally, we asked each user to explore the app and give general feedback.
All our users are in their early 20s and are very technologically capable. They like to travel and experience new things. Although they are usually quite busy, they find time to make occasional weekend trips. Because of these traits, they are good representatives of our target user population.
The only difficulty User 1 had was with deleting a photo. Although it was possible to delete a photo by holding down and triggering the context menu, this was not obvious to User 1. She claims that it is because she is an iPhone user. We can fix this by adding a small "Edit" button to the entry view mode, as this is more similar to how edits are done on iPhones.
Other Feedback:
User 2 had no problems with the assigned tasks. A very possible reason is that she is a regular Android phone user. However, she did not understand the star markers on the map, even though we had pre-added some entries to the journal.
Other Feedback:
User 3 knew that she was supposed to hold down on a photo to delete it, but she tried to do it in View Mode. It took her a little time to try the menu button and press "Edit". Right after that, though, she had no difficulty with the deletion. The same fix we mentioned for User 1 can also be applied here. An "Edit" button in a corner of the View Mode will make it more obvious, especially to iPhone users, about how to edit the entry.
Other Feedback:
TODO