Core I n te raction Na r rative: Social Overlay Metaphor Summary: This interaction narrative was created as the start point for storyboarding. It is ordered as a series of beats. This was informed in turn by exhaustive design research made available and dialogues between me and the project manager. The narrative is grounded in current technology to ensure it considers early feasibility. This ensures that in the feasibility phase, the dialogue is over “can we build it?” rather than “can it be built?” The emphasis on “core” is to indicate that this is the central metaphor for the product. Beat: Kate enters an immersive social network environment, somewhat PicLens like. It's like arriving at a new world. The visualization is organic and meaningful. You're able to see the "god" view of the community - communities being born, adapting (merge, split), dying - based on the simple rules for John Conway’s Game of Life. Beat: Communities are represented by "LEGO" like or organic building block symbols representing both identification and which communities can "fit together". Basic primitive shape can be combined to create more sophisticated shapes as communities blend or separate - completely new shapes might emerge. Beat: You're able to see communities with the most intense communities glow brighter, like a satellite image. The strongest sentiments coloured from red to black.This is the base view on which different zooms levels, overlays and actions are possible, much like Google maps with overlays of infra-red heat signatures, population demographics etc The goal is to create objects to think with, like CabSpotting and other Stamen designs Beat: As we zoom we tap into progressively more activity. As we choose overlays, we see different perspectives (or p.o.v's) for a given level. Actions are possible for a given overlay. Manipulating the zoom and overlay levers allow us to narrow it down to the area of interest. The actions allow us to interact with the community and content. Beat: Kate use natural gestures via physical computing to exert smooth, continuous control, "piloting down" to the desired level, making the experience tactile ( for example using a light sensor which lets you "palm lower or higher" or a force feedback joystick ) Beat: Searching for a community, for example Inventory Optimisation eliminates communities on the map leaving related communities. Kate selects the brightest community. Beat: Entering the community shows a "flow meter" of all conversations. New, intense conversations are larger have thicker, brighter flows, like power flows inside cables. Older, stored conversations dull with age and are positioned lower in the flow meter. Selecting a 1
Beat = Interaction
Core I n te raction Na r rative: Social Overlay Metaphor flow open a Google Wave of the last few interactions. She plays back the conversation to "check the temperature" before joining in. Beat: Modes for "what, where, when, how much and who" are possible covering objects, geography, time, quantity and people and. She switches to a "Who" mode - accepts to have her LinkedIn network read and sees Fred Carlson, from her Viking days is here under the title of Community Expert and ranked #15 on helpfulness. Fred Oakley, her former colleague is here as well. Beat: Selecting Community Expert switches the visualisation to a map mode like when she entered. She sees sub-communities present for Inventory Optimisation with Community Experts glowing. Selecting it slides out the map, like the next item in a film roll and slides in the ranked experts for Inventory Optimisation. Amit Patel is #1. Selecting Amit slides in the next panel showing artefacts created by Amit and community ratings. Selecting one shows it as a chip with qualitative text and review dimensions, shown as smart sliders. The mode as switched automatically to "What". Beat: See notices a handle at the bottom of her immersive view. Clicking it reveals an inactive translucent workspace with a "Collaborate" button in the centre. She clicks Collaborate to activate it. Its separated into a series of film strip panels: Requirements, Who, What etc. She drags and drops Amit's Solution Evaluation to her workspace. It is automatically stored under What. She drags #2 and #3 into her workspace. Their artefacts are automatically added to the What panel along with Amit's into a multi-dimensional table. Beat: She searches for "product bundles" in the What mode which returns a glued-together page.Kate picks the top rated one and adds it to her workspace. She now needs to narrow it down. Beat: She starts by dragging Amit’s chip to the Requirements panel. This opens the chip in an "Edit" mode where individual elements can be added or deleted. She deletes the qualitative part and leaves only the smart slider. She then deletes the parameters she doesn't need; leaving only the ones she thinks makes sense. She uses the email feature to send a link to this list to her team, asking them to add parameters she's missing. The results arrive as comments. Beat: She adds new parameters - network landscape details - how many DC's, RDC's, vendors, geographies etc. Saving the chip, she clicks Apply. This filters the entities in her workspace. Beat: She adjusts the slider settings in real-time, seeing its effect on the graph view of the multi-dimensional table. Once satisfied with the shortlist - she "locks" the settings, switching her into Evaluation mode. The title of the panel changes to show this, along with changes to 2
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Core I n te raction Na r rative: Social Overlay Metaphor the actions possible. She now needs to narrow the list down to 1. She uses the Send To option on the shortlist to invite Triton colleagues to help her narrow it down. This includes a snapshot of her evaluation along with links to resources so they can pick up where she left paused. Beat: She decides to review the same shortlist in the afternoon. Each panel in her workspace can be popped out to float and re-size. She pops the Who panel. The list shows statuses of the people she's added to her list as well from her network. She sees Mark Williams’ online. She selects the shortlist and selects the Invite option, chooses Mark and sends him the pre-filled IM invite making minor changes. Beat: She continues reviewing - videos are streamed in her workspace. She use the Google Wave text and voting features to indicate like & dislikes thru the presentation. Timing markers for the video are included .Mark joins a short while later, catches up on the conversation and adds his feedback. At the end of the sessions, SmartOps has moved from #3 to #2. At the end of the week, feedback from colleagues pushed it to #1. Beat: She needs to do a reality check - she selects the items in the table, does a Send To and mails Ray - asking him to check if the timelines are real. Ray needs to go to the SmartOps dedicated page, where standard timelines and buyer feedback post implementation are overlaid. Ray's rating ensures SmartOps remains at #1. Beat: She needs to engage with SmartOps.She selects the Who view enters "SmartOps" "demo" "product specialist" - Scott Firth turns up - currently offline. She adds Scott to her list . Beat: She now uses the "Schedule Appointment" feature within Who. She adds Scott, Mark and Ray from her list and add the request. In the background Google calendar creates a calendar event for Kate, under her private calendar visible to her community inside the environment. It also send invites to iPhones, Blackberry, Palm of the recipients. Beat: At 10:50 next day, her Outlook launches the environment. Now its reconfigured with the Who and What taking centre stage. The screen is arranged into a video wall and the bottom half shows the What panel. Clicking it brings up the demo and the feedback posted by Kate & Co. Beat: Scott has had a look at the feedback. They step thru the markers and dialogue at them. Beat: Satisfied, Kate closes the dialogue with thanks. She locks the 3 vendors she intends to use for the next phase. 3
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Core I n te raction Na r rative: Social Overlay Metaphor Beat: She "locks" her Evaluation panel switching her into RFP mode. The panel clears to show new parameters, with links to public sources where possible - company info from Business Week or LinkedIn, Requirements from the Evaluation stage. Beat: Done with filling in, she uses the Send RFP action. This send eRFP to the locked vendors, in a pre-formatted email, including the parameters she has just configured. Beat: Once sent, her RFP panel shows the RFP's sent so far, with the amount of time left for the RFP to expire. The Google calendar sends suitable reminders to Kate and other vendors, Beat: Satisfied that SmartOps is the best bet, she locks it in the What list, giving it a small #1 medal. She rates others as well. She locks this phase switching it to the Purchase phase and automatically creates a mail to the vendors. She checks the content once, changes it a little and sends it. Beat: The Purchase phase fills in the locked details from the RFP phase for SmartOps. This is now canter stage. The screen is an interactive Adobe form, in a pixel perfect Purchase Order format. Payment is handled via suitable gateways, in line with the terms of payment. Beat: After the date mentioned on the PO as delivery, her panel changes to Tracking. Here she sees the planned phases and Ray's feedback at each point. She can generate an Adobe form. Each is stored on her dedicated folder with a CWxx format. ... Ray's P.O.V .. to be detailed... Post Implementation Beat: Kate goes to her workspace and finds the Feedback panel. She sees Ray's final project execution data. The original criterion for selecting SmartOps re-appears. Based on her experience, she decides to move the sliders to new settings. She adds qualitative feedback for one or more slider to support the movement. Submitting it adds it to the community pool for SmartOps. After rating by peers her feedback affects the overall ratings for SmartOps. Based on the rating she is offered the option to join the Experts Community.
Beat: Zoom Out - God View - showing a changed situation. Or something like this or this for communities.
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