Hey! so here are the three prototypes (each fairly crude at this point, but then it’s about getting the idea out of my head and on to something representative, right?)
When I first began, I simply recreated the mind map we had come up with as a class last lab.
Then I started asking those around me about the first things that came to mind to them when asked about “personal family life”…
The same sorts of buzzwords kept appearing: work, proximity (both physically and emotionally), and health, so I decided to do my practical, abstract, and futuristic prototypes based on these concepts.
After a further round of brainstorming to these particular ideas, I finally came up with:
My POV: Karen is the mom of two boys, living in a two story house with her husband, Barry. She is done running around trying to stay on top of the chores of the house, and wants a better way of holding everyone in her family responsible for them.
Housework: how does one best appropriate the chores of the day?
Manage your family chores– now easier than ever!
- click on the side bar to switch to a different way of organizing the chores
- click on each icon to see what the chore involves
- the bottoom (this I have not included in prototype) allows one to move between floors
Prototype 2: Abstract
My POV: Joey is looking for a new job, and had heard at one of the numerous family reunions about a second uncle that had been involved in the sector he is interested in, health care reform. He would like a better way to maneuver the family history and family connections in order to figure out who best to ask.
iPhone prototype 2
Family Ties: who is close to whom?
Abstract App: People and their connections
Find those family connections– who likes whom best?
- click on each (well, in this case, at least three) of the “ppl” to see a close up of their relations to friends and family (the different colored stems indicate degree of “closeness”, the size indicates the proximity, although in our digital day and age that means increasingly less and less)
Prototype 3: The Futuristic
My POV: Janie is really worried about her grandfather, because he is getting forgetful as his meds become increasingly complicated. At the same time, Timothy seems to be refusing to take his potassium pills, and she just doesn’t have time to look out every morning. She would like a way to be certain her family members are taking the medication they need.
iPhone prototype 3
Medicine-Alert
Futuristic App: People and Medicines
Keep your family safe and sound by knowing when they’re on top of their meds!
- Check out each of the family members: their light status (green-yellow-red) indicates if they are up-to-date with their medicines (or may not even need any)
- Click on a family member and their “card” will pop up, with more specific information about the medication they are taking, and when the last time they took the medication was.
Soon I hope to flesh out these prototypes, test them on some more of my relatives/friends, and come up w/ a cool icon for each of them!
What I need to work on in class is figuring out how to do “loops”… and of course more visually stimulating/finished versions of at least one of these prototypes.
The difficulty I had, just starting out on this venture, was a) getting a hold of working machinery! and b) using the SAME images as templates when slicing them up in photoshop. resizing the image you began with does not help… 
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