Exercise A on prospects and barriers of future ICT tools

List and comment some prospects and barriers regarding specification, design, implementation and use of future ICT tools for collaboration and knowledge transfer.

Vision yourselves as the company group to formulate the company ICT strategy. [To trigger discussion ask - what, who, why, when, where, how].

Exercise B on collaboration tools functionality

Describe some ICT based collaboration tools in terms of functionality, system requirements and possible use. Imaging yourself as responsible for setting up a virtual caollaboration environnment for your company involving 3 offices at different places.

Search the WWW for synchronous collaboration tools. Include at least Microsoft Messenger, Groove, Yahoo Messenger. Also comment on asynchrounous tools like BCSW. Install and use one synchronous collaboration system.

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Exercise C on future User Environments, UE

Tasks:

• You are required to form groups of 5-6.
• Discuss the following assignment question in group. Discussion time : 1 hour 30 minutes
• Share your discussion result(s) in front of the class (yes, it means to present the discussion results). Each group will have 10 minutes to present the results. You are required to submit your presentation material(s) at the end of the class.

• As mentioned in the course material, knowledge is one of the important strategic resources of an organisation. Knowledge has been identified as intellectual asset that may improve competencies of organisations, and most knowledge is tacit. Anthony is a famous architect in the city and he owns an architectural firm for more than 20 years with 50 employees work under him. Anthony faces dilemmas of high employee turnover rate, increased mobile workforce and globalisation, which challenge his mode of practice. If you were asked to spend some time to help Anthony out of these dilemmas with your background knowledge and ICT skills, what will you do?
• Hints:
  • Firstly, you may use your own fantasy to illustrate the current mode of practice of Anthony’s architectural firm.
  • Secondly, you may analyse in depth why Anthony needs to change his mode of practice. You may need to specify the methodology you use for your analysis (e.g interview, ethnographic study, etc).
  • You may use your fantasy filtered with what you have learnt from this course (Master of IT and Building Management) to draft a new system for Anthony’s firm that may cope with Anthony’s problems that you stated previously. REMEMBER to share with us ALL of your results of discussions.

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Exercise D on Contextual Design and user needs capture

Envision yourself as advisor for a company who is going to re-engineer its knwoledge management system, CHAPS, and user environment, UE. (You may e.g. use the Anthony Architecture firm from exercise C, the company you are working with in your project or even the project work itself).

1. Write a few lines describing the Goals with CHAPS
2. Describe the focus system user groups
3. Draw rich pictures of CHAPS. Formulate a Vision.
4. Compose the work modelling team.
5. Capture and list user needs (contextual inquiry).
6. Draw simplified work flow models showing users/roles and in the proposed environment. Describe formal and informal communication, as well information containers (existing and new)
7. Draw sequence models (corrsponding to the work flows) showing the works steps to achieve desired goals/intents.
8. Describe in the cultural model the constraints on the system caused by organsational culture.
9. Describe the artifacts/tools that will support the use of CHAPS.
10. Update the vision.
11. Make a storyboard to decribe the User Environment
12. Sketch the physical (distributed) environment where CHAPS will be used.
13. Sketch user environment system interface
14. goto 5 (or goto next point if you have enough user-needs/system-requirements formulated)
15. Detailed user environment design (you just give some comments on functional focus areas of the CHAPS).

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Exercise E on interactive web-based 3D-models

The aim with this exercise is to produce an interactive 3D model accessible from the web. Choose one or several of the alternatives.

• Use the course site to download the Cult3D drawer. Program the left door to open and close as you click on it.
• Put a leg on the chair. VRML exercise
• (Produce a VRML 2.0 file from the Cad program ArchiCad
• Produce a 3ds file from AutoCad (ADT) and transform it to a VRML file.)

Exercise F on interactive story telling

Plan two to three story telling cases (you may take examples from your ongoing semester project and the previous exercises in this course).

Formulate a condensed aim with respective story in a 'premise' sentence.

Make a synopsis - a written overview of content and composition of your proposed production. Use it to sell your idea to the client. Start with a short description of your ideas - what you intend to tell and story telling elements/technique. (E.g. explain that you can use interactive web-based 3D models and short video clips as two types of interactive story telling elements).

Create scenarios (<= four), that forms the rooms for stories about (how to use, understand, discover, appreciate) the proposed system, e.g. a roadmap (usage, resources,...), a shop with resources, a theatre (with show cases).

Try to keep the scenarios together with a theme like 'discover a new world of collaboration', 'provide extended forms for knowledge communication ', 'be convinced that our company provides you ultimate service in your project' etc.

Decide what resources (data sources, competences and tools) you need and practically can utilize to implement the story. (See also the 'MM project' slide and if appropriate user needs derived in the earlier contextual design process)

Sketch a web-based user interface for accessing your story. Explain your choice of different information media

(Plan your video recordings carefully on a story board to minimise recording time. Capture and edit the digital video in your group room using a digital video camera provided by the lecturer or later in the Media Lab where you also have access to Adobe Premier.)

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Exercise G on evaluation of usability

Plan the evaluation procedure of 'CHAPS'
Use the DECIDE framwork.
DECIDE: framework to guide evaluation (Preece, 2002. page 348)

• Determine the overall goals that the evaluation addresses
• Explore the specific questions to be answered
• Choose the evaluation paradigm and techniques to answer the questions
• Identify the practical issues that must be addressed, such as selecting participants
• Decide how to deal with the ethical issues
• Evaluate, interpret, and present the data

[exercise work results]

Questions. Examples from lecture notes

Collaboration Tools

• Give examples on some IT based collaboration tools. Comment on their properties and when they can be used.
• Sketch on a mixed reality distributed environment for design review of an alternative building solutions. Which are the pros and cons?

Knowledge Management

• How would describe a Knowledge Management System?
• How do ICT change management of knowledge within and between companies?
• Are there dedicated systems for knowledge Managenemt?
• Sketch a scenario where computerised knowledge management would be beneficial.

Contextual Design

• Why do system developments often fail?
• Describe the basic elements in the Contextual Design method.
• In what forms may the User Environment be presented and evaluated to the user?
• Describe how Contextual Design may relate to the Rational Unified Process using UML (Unified Modelling Language)?

Human Computer Interaction

• What is Multimedia?
• Sometimes people have talked about hypermedia. What do you believe that could be?
• Describe the function and content of a user model stored in a computer.
• Comment on some milestones in the multimedia development.
• How can we deliver intertactive 3D models over the www?
• What is VRML and what can it be used to?
• Describe the basics of Virtual Reality Markup Language.
• How is VRML models produced?
• What is Cult3D?
  
  
• Give some examples on tools and their properties for development of multimedia applications
• Describe how you could organize incremental development of a multimedia application (a demonstrator).
• Which competences do you need during multimedia production?
• What type of information contents can you house in a multimedia production?
  
  
• Which are the cons and pros when using bitmapped respectively vector graphics?
• What do we mean by 2 raised to 8 color depth?
• Explain some of the graphics and multimedia file formats and when they may be used.
• How can an intercative image be made and for what can it be used?
• Explain how you could control image display in a web-based interactive story.

Interactive Story Telling & Digital Video

• When is it advantageous to use video in story telling?
• vWhat additional qualitites/drawbacks do 'interactive stories' have compared to 'linear stories'?
• How can you lead a 'reader' through an interactive story?
• Elaborate on the relation between form and fact in video presentations.
• What do synopsis and scripts for video production contain?
• How can sound support the story?
• How can you use video clips and different image sizes in the story?
• What are the main differences between linear and interactive story telling techniques?
• Which data and material can you use in an interactiv web-based story?
• What practical limits are there to use digital video in WWW based presentations?
• Give examples on formats that can be used for digital video.
• What software and hardware tools do you need to produce digital video for presentation on WWW?

Usability Engineering

• What do usability engineering stand for?
• Elaborate on the '8 Golden Rules in HCI Design'
• Discuss different evaluation paradigms.
• How do the end user profile influence the HCI design?
• How can expert HCI review be performed?
• How do believe the HCI will change in the future?