http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php/site/index/ en rheinfrank@cmu.edu Copyright 2008 2008-10-24T01:00:33+00:00 http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/nasa_mars_mission_planning/ http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/nasa_mars_mission_planning/#When:01:00:33Z {summary} Design Lead | Team of 5 January - August 2008 NASA Ames Research Center Interaction Design MISSION PLANNING The problem was “real-time” mission planning for a remote Mars ground vehicle, in the face of 12-minute round trip communication delay times imposed by the enormous distance between Mars and Earth (minimum 61 million miles). Current near-Earth missions (on-orbit, Lunar) depend on very tight coupling between ground control and the remote astronauts, but this protocol for planning and execution will clearly not work with the extreme communication delay, especially in such a hostile environment. We were tasked to find an appropriate workflow to overcome the inherent communication delay, and evaluate it by building a system that simulates the communication delays between Earth and Mars. USER RESEARCH To learn about how planning could be done on Mars, we researched analogous domains, looking for ones characterized by hostile operations, spatially distributed human teams, and inherent time delays and communications restrictions. Building construction was found as a good surrogate, with a hostile domain that also has significant barriers separating the construction crew from the architects that designed the building. This domain also properly simulates the separation that exists between astronauts executing the plan and those who created it, ground control. SCENARIOS Since surface transit mission planning hasn’t been done since the last Apollo lunar missions in the 70s, we needed some way of understanding the needs and interactions that would be necessary on the Martian surface. We chose to create short storyboards depicting possible interaction concepts, and test them on scientists and Apollo experts to find a direction to begin designing the interfaces. PAPER PROTOTYPING Early in the design process, we used paper prototypes to simulate the high level interactions and test them on users. We quickly outgrew the medium and a higher level of visual refinement was needed, so we moved on to creating Flash™ prototypes. ITERATIVE DESIGN To assure that our system was usable and filled both mission planning and mission execution needs, many iterations of the interface were prototyped and tested. In this process, we found that many aspects we thought to be the most challenging initially were easily overcome, while also exposing unforeseen problems. FIELD TESTING We implemented fully functioning networked software to simulate and test our system out in the “field”. We created a simulated Martian surface populated with a number of “science targets” to be examined through the development of a route plan and its subsequent execution. An “astronaut” then used a compact handheld computer enhanced with the addition of our planning software, networked on a delay with a system controlled by a “ground control” out of sight on a laptop, to collaboratively explore the field, gaining as many “points” as possible in successfully attaining the science targets. This process gave us a view of how collaborative strategies could be developed in Mars explorations. PRODUCT DEMO Finally, a demo was created to introduce the project along with the main features of the final prototype (mov, streaming). For comprehensive documentation of the research and design process, see our project website. All, Interaction 2008-10-24T01:00:33+00:00 http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/pittsburgh_zoo_research_field_station/ http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/pittsburgh_zoo_research_field_station/#When:01:36:09Z {summary} Designer | Team of 6 January - May 2008 Pittsburgh Zoo Architecture & Interaction Design RE-IMAGINING THE RFS The Research Field Station was meant to be a central destination within the Pittsburgh Zoo where children learned about zoology research. Unfortunately, neglect has caused the RFS to be forgotten and unused. Leveraging materials and architectural design, I tried to establish an architectural presence for the RFS within the zoo. All, Industrial 2008-05-21T01:36:09+00:00 http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/barriers_for_trash_conceptual_model/ http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/barriers_for_trash_conceptual_model/#When:16:19:37Z {summary} Designer | Individual March 2008 Carnegie Mellon University Conceptual Modelling MODELLING EXERCISE A brief exercise in conceptual modeling, I created a visual language for describing the barriers that prevent people from finding the proper avenues for their object disposal, informed by directed storytelling, an interviewing technique aimed at provoking users to reveal and reflect upon recent experiences they had. See the presentation (pdf, 1.9 MB). All, Other 2008-02-13T16:19:37+00:00 http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/decidewithus_redesign/ http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/decidewithus_redesign/#When:03:34:53Z {summary} Designer | Team of 2 January - Feburary 2008 Charles Rivers Analytics Interaction Design COMPLEX LOGIC BACK-END, USABLE Decidewith.us is an online application that allows groups of people to formulate arguments and make decisions about topics posed by the community. The challenge we were presented with was to create an interface for users to interact with complex behind-the-scenes decision logic. We created the interfaces with two distinct audiences in mind, one for a law firm, the other focused on a Web 2.0 aesthetic. All, Interaction 2008-02-13T03:34:53+00:00 http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/armadillo_nomadic_work_assistant/ http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/armadillo_nomadic_work_assistant/#When:03:50:22Z {summary} Project Manager | Team of 5 August - December 2007 Tessera, Inc. Interaction Design MOBILE ASSISTANCE To take advantage of rapidly declining costs of mobile phone technology, we sought to create a work assistant to meet the needs of today’s blue-collar mobile service workers, who spend most of their time on the road or at remote customer sites. USER RESEARCH According to the 2006 census, America’s blue-collar workers make up over 50% of the workforce, and many of these workers rely on their autos as an essential part of their work to provide services at customer sites. To identify the range of needs facing this group, we conducted research with a variety of mobile service workers, from plumbers to bus drivers. CONCEPTUAL MODELLING Based on the user research results, we created models of the needs, behaviors, and existing tools of the blue-collar mobile worker. We found there were two distinct groups of workers within our focus, one group who saw their car as “a tool” and the other as their “workplace.” This and other conceptual models helped drive many of our early design concepts. VIDEO SKETCH The final step in the design process was to create a “Video Sketch where a short video was developed and produced to document a simple narrative and a string of use-cases for the envisioned work assistant (flv, streaming). All, Interaction 2007-12-26T03:50:22+00:00 http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/moma_information_kiosk/ http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/moma_information_kiosk/#When:22:58:58Z {summary} Designer | Individual April 2007 Carnegie Mellon University Interaction Design USABILITY TESTING Following the aesthetic of the Museum of Modern Art’s websites, I created an informational kiosk to explore a single path of the user interface. Multiple rounds of think-aloud usability testing were performed on the prototype, with emphasis on novice users. All, Interaction 2007-04-17T22:58:58+00:00 http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/pontiac_wiper_control_platform/ http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/pontiac_wiper_control_platform/#When:00:34:44Z {summary} Designer | Individual December 2006 - January 2007 General Motors Industrial Design CONTROL AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Current windshield wiper controls are burdened with incomprehensible iconography and unclear functionality. Using Pontiac as a platform, I redesigned the control to allow the user to tap or wipe the desired speed of the wipers. In addition, the proposed concept needed to be easily interchangeable with GM's other marques, such as Chevy and Cadillac. All, Industrial 2007-01-31T00:34:44+00:00 http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/blogger_image_editing/ http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/blogger_image_editing/#When:04:00:23Z {summary} Research & Design | Team of 4 September - December 2006 CMU HCII Interaction Design CONTEXTUAL DESIGN Blogger is a web application that allows users to create and edit entries in an online journal or “weblog”. From user research, we observed that one of the strongest pain-points in blogger was outside of the system itself. Even iPhoto, commonly seen as an usable image editing software, used before importing images into blogger was difficult to use because of a number of shortcomings, like cropping and resizing images. Recognizing this, we changed our design focus, from one of improving blogger, to one of creating a new interface, to support integrating the common image editing actions needed for posting images into blogger. CONTEXTUAL DESIGN With the results of this comprehensive Contextual Inquiry, we developed various models according to Beyer and Holzblatt’s method of Contextual Design. The objective was to learn about how people use the current version of the online blogger web application, and how usable innovations can be produced out of observing these work habits. USABILITY TESTING A variety of usability tests were performed on the resulting conceptual design: Heuristic Evaluation demonstrated that we had found a cheap and efficient path to usability, Cognitive Walkthrough showed that we had improved the system’s walk-up-and-use, and KLM and GOMS exposed how efficient the user’s actions are when using the interface. All, Interaction 2006-12-27T04:00:23+00:00 http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/museek_music_finder/ http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/museek_music_finder/#When:01:30:43Z {summary} Designer | Team of 3 August - October 2006 Carnegie Mellon University Interaction Design PERSONA We created an easy to use system for locating and attending local music events. We began with research to define the user demographic among young professionals, and on the basis of that research we developed a persona to drive the aesthetic and the interaction of the interface. See our final presentation (pdf, 1.4 MB) All, Interaction 2006-10-19T01:30:43+00:00 http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/earl_gray_teapot/ http://www.jrheinfrank.com/ee/index.php?/site/earl_gray_teapot/#When:21:38:11Z {summary} Designer | Individual March 2006 Carnegie Mellon University Industrial Design FORM EMULATING HISTORY Earl Gray was named after the British Earl from the 1830s, yet the flavors and teas composing it are entirely foreign to the country. I was trying to capture this paradox in the form of the teapot, evoking the snooty upturned nose of colonial Britain. All, Industrial 2006-03-19T21:38:11+00:00