Course CSG170

Team Assignment #3: Activity Design

Project Name: Kid’s Remote Control

Metaphors

Finding a program to watch is like…ordering dinner at a restaurant:

• Often one knows ahead of time what is on TV at this time (or on the dinner menu)
• Typically have set of favorite choices
• Sometimes have hard time deciding and need more info or a sample

Finding a program to watch is like…selecting a video at the video store:

• Usually want to watch the hot new shows (new video releases)
• If nothing new looks good, go to old standby channels (or favorite classic movies)

Watching a DVD is like…listening to a music CD:

• Similar functionality and tasks involved in both
• Have capability to pause, stop, fast forward, rewind, adjust volume

Watching a DVD is like…eating a meal

• Preparation involved (i.e., gather materials)
• Usually pleasurable
• Can stop, pause, eat quick, adjust ingredients

Restricting channels young children can watch is like…keeping the dog in the yard

• Several ways can restrict (i.e., for dog, can use leash, fence, monitoring; for child’s television viewing, can use technology-based solutions or monitoring)
• Systems vary in terms of how easy they are to circumvent
• Some systems are easier to implement than others

Restricting channels young children can watch is like…staying on a diet

• There are good foods (channels) and bad foods (channels)
• Plan out a menu of good foods to eat
• It is tempting to cheat and eat bad foods (watch bad channels)

Activity Design Scenarios

Problem Scenario	Activity Design Scenario
Jimmy wants to find a program to watch Jimmy is a first grader. He likes to come home from school and watch the show “Barney.” When he gets home, he gets a snack from the kitchen, and goes to the living room. His Mom usually doesn’t come home until 5 PM. Jimmy is able to turn on the TV, and enter 2 on the remote control to turn the TV to channel 2. He watches Barney from 2PM to 3PM every day. When Barney is over, the next program on channel 2 is boring. Sometimes, Jimmy hits the channel up button and down button, scrolling through different channels. Usually, he gets bored of what else is on TV, though. So, he usually turns off the TV and plays with his toys. There are so many channels on his cable TV that Jimmy does not remember the channel numbers of some of the cable cartoon channels. He usually waits for his Mom to come home to help him.	Jimmy wants to find a program to watch Jimmy comes home from school. When he turns on the television, he sees the familiar six large buttons on the TV screen. Each of the six large buttons has a picture representing one of Jimmy’s favorite programs or DVD’s. Jimmy wants to watch “Barney.” So, he touches the “Barney” button on the TV screen. The show “Barney” appears, and starts playing. After watching “Barney,” Jimmy decides he wants to watch something else. While the credits to the “Barney” show are playing on the screen, Jimmy pushes the stop button located at the bottom left of the TV screen. The menu screen with the six large buttons appears again. Jimmy then pushes the “Finding Nemo” button. The DVD “Finding Nemo” plays on the TV screen. Timmy enjoys watching the movie until his Mom comes home at 5 PM.
Mary puts in a DVD for her child Sarah to watch Mary is a stay at home Mom with three children. The youngest child is only 3 months old, while the oldest child Bobby is 4 years old. Her 4 year old child likes to watch a lot of Disney movies. Mary has about 20 or so Disney DVDs, but Bobby only watches about 3 or 4 of them regularly. While Mary is caring for the younger children, she sometimes puts in a DVD for Bobby to watch. Mary asks Bobby what he wants to watch, then picks out that DVD and puts it in the DVD player. Bobby usually is quite attentive for a half hour or so. This gives Mary time to care for her other children. When Bobby gets bored with the movie, he usually goes to another room and plays with toys. Sometimes, he will go to his mother and want her attention.	Mary puts in a DVD for her child Sarah to watch Mary wishes that her 4 year old son Bobby could go to the TV room and be able to watch a DVD without any help. Over the last week, Mary has been teaching Bobby how to use the Kid’s Remote Control TV System. Bobby now knows how to use it. Today, Bobby wanted to watch “Toy Story.” Bobby went into the TV room, saw the TV screen with the large picture buttons, and touched the screen where the “Toy Story” button is located. The movie “Toy Story” played on the TV, and Bobby watched the movie for a couple of hours. Mary is so happy now that she has more time to care for her younger children.
Martha wants to restrict the channels her child watches Martha and her husband Phil both have full-time jobs. They have one child, Sarah, who is 8 years old. When Sarah comes home from school, she is by herself until one of her parents comes home, usually around 4 or 5 PM. Martha worries about what TV shows Sarah might watch when she is not there. There usually isn’t anything too bad on in the afternoons, Martha thinks. But, then again, she is concerned about some of the cable movie channels to which they subscribe. Martha’s solution is to shut off the cable portion of the TV, so Sarah can only watch non-cable TV programs in the afternoons. Martha still worries about her daughter, though.	Martha wants to restrict the channels her child watches Martha and Phil have bought the Kid’s Remote Control system, hoping it would solve their problems. Martha spent about a half hour setting up the system. She scrolled through the list of TV programs she wants her child to be able to watch, and selected four programs. For each program, she had a button placed on the menu page. When she was done, the menu page contained four large buttons, each one with a picture representing the program. Now, each night when the parents are done watching TV, they remember to set the TV to the child menu page. So, when their child Sarah comes home from school in the afternoon, she sees the menu screen and selects from one of the four approved programs. The parents have a remote control, which they keep in their bedroom drawer, which allows them to change the TV into “parent mode,” so they can always edit the menu of programs for Sarah.

Pro/Con Analysis of Design Features

Proposed Activity Design Feature	Pros (+) and Cons (-) of Feature
Imposing maximum on number of buttons to allow on child’s menu screen (e.g., 12)	+ Allows buttons to be large enough to be recognized, and will have less errors related to touching the wrong button -- What if you want a wider selection of channels?
Allow more than one menu screen of buttons, with an arrow, for example, to move between screens?	+ More selection -- Young kids may not understand the arrow, or how to scroll to the additional menu page(s)
Menu buttons should use pictures only, and no text	+ Good for young kids since it uses all space on button for picture, and young kids can’t read -- What if there is no good picture to represent a TV program or DVD? -- Could you use text if no picture available, or have the option to use text? Older kids can read.
When watching a movie, there is the stop function to stop movie and return to main menu. There is no pause function.	+ Young kids may not know what pause does + Tough to represent “pause” as a picture icon -- Limits functionality of user
Use big ear/small ear icons for child to press to incrementally increase or decrease the volume	+ Pictures are easier for young children to understand -- Learning curve involved for younger kids
Switching between child mode and parent mode is accomplished by using a remote control	+ Toggling mechanism not on touch screen, so child may be unaware that there even is such a thing as “parent mode.” -- Not foolproof (child can circumvent) -- Remote can get lost
Can only add channels to menu. Can’t just lock out certain channels.	+ Parents know the full set of programs/DVDs their child could watch…they set it up. -- What if parents just want to lock out one or two channels?