Journal 2: Visualise ideas, brainstorming and and challenges

1. Visualise ideas

My basic idea is creating a page including timeline and map to display the soldier portraits in World War 1.Timeline can be switched to each time point. With the timeline changed, the information on map will also change. Soldiers name and war events are shown on the map. User can click the name or events to see more information about that. Then, photo of soldier and personal detail will be shown on the right side.

The map can be zoom. More specific location information can be displayed. Using different colors to compare the density of soldiers population, casualty cases and army situation.

Also, the soldiers who in this location are list.

People also can read the history event in each year. 

2.  Reflection on methods of brainstorming

    The group was allocated in this week. In my group, my team members and I had brainstorming about our general project topic. There are many methods of brainstorming used in my group. Discussion with peers is one of the most helpful ways of brainstorming ideas. In the discussion, my peer might agree or disagree my ideas and give their ideas. If they disagree me, they would give their reasons which highly likely inspire me. Therefore, I will think in a different direction deeply and iterate new ideas.

    Analyzing database structure is also helpful for brainstorming ideas. Different datasets contain different schemas. It is important that to consider clearly which information or which type of attribute needs to be used before designing the APL project. The benefit of analyzing database is that types can be recognized in detail such as date, address and photograph. These data can help us to think about how to create a timeline or map in order to display data on the interface. However, this method has some drawbacks. Some data type only dealing with specific interface functionality. For example, Location information is merely used for maps. In this case, it would limit the idea generation.

    Another method is looking at some similar project simple on the website. I Searched some good example of interface project created by other students. It helps me to understand the concept and identify ideas easily. However, the disadvantage of this method is that it is different to turn these examples to my own origin idea.

    Moreover, a great deal of raw data was acquired when we finished background research. I think it is not very useful in brainstorming step because it is different to process these data and then get a conclusion in a short time.

3. key opportunities and challenges

    After brainstorming, my group selected “World War One museum” as the topic according to SLQ datasets resources. There are some key opportunities and challenges for the next 2 week. The main challenge is to narrow the topic. Firstly, the dataset and attributes needed to be identified. I try to figure out which dataset is relevant to the topic and find a way to display them. Secondly, the potential users of interface should be known. The final project should not only be a search engine, but also maintain some properties. Understanding customer needs can be better to develop follow-up plans. To achieve this aim, I will do some client interview and research related papers about my topic. For instance, I will ask people what do you using do when you are using SLQ in the Questionnaire. Thirdly, available concepts need to be made. When the theme of objectives is determined, I will use the time to make the paper prototype. How to use the digital method to complete the interface design will be a big challenge, which need sufficient time to prepare and practice. I will study some programing language and tools such as JSON and PHP in my free time.