From MediaFranca

MediaFranca is a communication platform that works on mobile devices and allows you to interact with content that has been attached to specific locations. You can access and browse your environment interacting with your cameraphone as if you were taking a picture. You would notice overlaying icons over the photographic image as you pan your camera. You may also reply, support or block all MediaFranca content so your opinion of any specific content would change its social relevancy accordingly. Finally, you can also create new conversation threads by creating new posts and attaching them to public spaces for everyone to see.

Today we'll be testing paper prototypes of the different screens of the system. I will ask you to think aloud while you interact with it.

task 1: accessing a post

It's Saturday morning and you are walking along the river shore. You want to find out if there's a new post in the area because you are interested in environmental issues.

• interact with the phone to see if there are any new posts around
• find a post related with environmental topics
• reply to the post

task 2: replying to posts

You are strolling on the park and you want to browse for posts nearby. You notice 2 different posts: one advertisement and one post about a future gathering for a special cause.

• you want to block the ad because you consider it to be "media pollution"
• you want to support the gathering so it gains visibility
• you want to confirm your attendance to the event.

task 3: creating a post

You found lots of garbage by the river shore and you want raise the issue of illegal dumping in the city.

• create a post using an existing template: "report"
• capture all media required for the post
• publish it

task 4: creating a template

You are leading a bicyclist organization that works for raising awareness of bicyclists rights as well as encouraging alternative ways of transportation.

You want to create a post template so other organization members can format their arguments consistently. You want to create a template called: "dangerous spot" for members to report dangerous places for bicyclists in throughout the city. You want this template to be very simple, just a picture and a voice message.

• define a new template
• define elements
• publish template in the group

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destiled findings

• camera icon hard to understand. Put label to icons (When they're big)
• lack of consistency with the close window icon (x)
• the text post icon should be a pencil instead of text (mixing mediums with outcomes)
• post icon and reply icon are similar an have overlapping uses
• the explore icon should be different in the picture grabbing screen because it seems to be more like a status than a filtering toggle
• audio wave is not valuable for the post, its better to have the picture instead
• audio icon needed, different than WIFI signal
• be able to reply in different ways (have options)
• illegal dumping --> be able to respond from the post itself instead than from the audio message
• be able to see the number of replies
• the action icon (Support, Block or respond SBR) is unclear
• map the group back to the post
• need confirmation window for blocking
• when confirming attendance to an event, show people on my network who are comming and then the button coming should switch to not coming
• for planting the post, you should drag it to the picture (image processing backwards) instead of being able to post it from a map interface
• thumbs down should be block
• tick mark reads as selected
• be able to pull the ghosts of posts for later
• be able to identify my posts from the others
• be able to see author's profile, grouping, etc from the post minimal view
• make newness of the post somehow correspond to relevancy
• the eye icon should appear when you have more than a manageable amount of posts coexisting on the screen (between 10 and 20 -- defined in preferences)

emerging ideas and implications

1. Develop a more exhaustive definition of a post's life in relation with the others, how it fades away or gains relevancy by the way in which people assimilate and act upon them
2. Leverage a way of being transparent with the issues that are already posted in the environment every time a person tries to create something new so the system would encourage the swarming of similar posts into more robust threads