Some thoughts on blogging...and an update

First, some reflections on this blog

I am currently in the writing phase, wrapping things up and writing a first draft of my final report. It's not possible to overstate the utility in maintaining a blog during a large project such as this one. Although the frequency with which I updated this blog was often spotty -- and certainly there are some posts that are more indicative of my own mental meanderings than anything else -- there remains much to draw on as I write up the project in final form. I'd recommend to anyone working on a lengthy project to do the same. As far as I can see, there's no reason not to. The cost of writing a blog entry while in the midst of the project pays off when it comes time to present one's findings to others -- at that point, it's a huge time saver. And, if issues related to privacy are a concern, it's possible to adapt the security controls accordingly.

An added benefit has been receiving feedback from my posts -- both online and in person. Although the volume of these comments -- especially those posted online -- has been fairly low, I still think blogging has been a worthwhile endeavor. Besides getting insightful feedback, I now have a repository of project milestones that I can easily refer to. This blog has ended up serving as a kind of memory for the project itself.

So, I'm definitely a convert to blogging. Whether I can be as open about my work in the future is questionable (and unlikely) -- I am in a unique position here at Future Workspaces because Novay is such an open organization, and because the nature of the project itself.

And now a brief update

During these past four weeks, I've made three short movies meant to illustrate the three concept ideas that were highlighted in the last series of posts (i.e., Ping, the Easy Desktop Updater + the Hover Status Tool, and Bulletin Board).

Here are those movies:

1. Ping

2. Status Sharing Tools (aka, Easy Desktop Updater + Hover Status Tool)

3. Bulletin Board

They're all quite simple in their presentation of the concept ideas, but I've been asked a few times how I made them. The first two (Ping and Desktop Updater/Hover Status) were made in Flash using hand-drawn sketches that I scanned and touched-up in Photoshop. The Bulletin Board movie is simply a PowerPoint presentation that I put together with a few more of my sketches and recorded using Camtasia.

I showed these movies during a series of one-on-one interviews with mobile workers. I spent a decent part of a couple of weeks traveling around to conduct the interviews with 5 mobile workers. I had them fill out the same questionnaires that I used during the focus group sesssion and used it as a basis for a in-depth discussion of the concepts. I also had them complete an exercise like the one from the focus group, in which they had to rate their overall impressions of the concepts using stickers.

At the moment, I'm in the process of writing up the results of the last round of interviews for the final report. In tandem, I've also posted an online evaluation of the three concepts. I'm trying to recruit -- through various means, such as twitter, Facebook, word-of-mouth, and of course through my colleagues at work -- mobile workers to take the evaluation. Thus far, many have watched the videos, and few have actually completed the questionnaires. I'm giving the evaluation a few more days, though -- and keeping my fingers crossed.