Interactive design: Educational tablet

Daniel Marshall

A New Beginning…

The third world/developing world has been recorded as a state of poverty for many years now. Families

and young children struggle daily to survive and life in the conditions they are faced. Existing companies

and organisations, (World Reader and Outreach International, examples), have attempted to battle

poverty, and have proven so far this can be possible by making a change. However, research has shown

only people can erase poverty when working together.

In 2007, only 25% of elementary schools students went to a high school, due to expense. This is a

problem, as this lowers innovation and skills whilst raising unemployment and dependency on foreign aid.

Children possess the potential to unlock new opportunities for people when properly educated, therefore

making this issue significant to resolve.

The aim of the project will be to identify and develop a new solution of interaction and education for

young children. The solution must be affordable, easy to use, sustainable, highly eco-friendly and

educational. To achieve these deliverables research will be conducted in the conditions of existing

education in these communities, exploring what lacks within the schools and testing what technologies

could be used within the system solution.

Briefing of the project:

Facts about the Education:

• 141,000,000 people in East Africa live on less than $2US a day.

• Typical families have 6 children.

• Cost of education remains the largest obstacle: $750 full board, $30 uniforms, $30 school supplies.

• In 2006, 101 million children were not attending primary schools.

• Crowded and dilapidated classrooms, coupled with insufficient teaching resources.

• Advanced learning is impeded due to non-existent basic math and science materials.

• Today, only 1 in 10 children finish high school.

Environments of education

Organisations who care:

Organisations such as Asante, aim to provide hope to those who desperately need it. Only people around

the world can put a stop to poverty by working together.

The e-reader, provided by World Reader, gives children the joys of reading through a more interactive, fun loving experience.

The organisation focuses on books, reading and literacy. They are a US and Europe-based non-profit social enterprise transforming the way the developing world reads.

Today’s best e-readers are less than $200, with some versions selling under $100. The cost will continue to fall, due to new technologies emerging onto technical markets. Thus is still expensive for these developing communities however, World Readers donors and partners help subsidize the gap between the cost of the e-readers and the price parents and local governments are willing to pay.

Thanks to authors, publishers and other corporate sponsors, the cost for an e-book is 50 cents each.

Projects that have helped to change lives

The $35 tablet

The OLPC XO

computer

The Hole In The Wall Computer

Computer hole in the wall

• Introduced by Professor Sugata Mitra in a Delhi Slum in 1999.• “I think we have atumbled across a self-organising system with learning as an emergent

behaviour”.• “The children barely went to school, they didn’t know any English, they had never seen

a computer before and they didn’t know what the internet was.”• He saw children teaching each other how to use the computer and picking up new

skills.• One group in Rajasthan, he said, learnt how to record and play music on the computer

within four hours of it arriving in their village.• "At the end of it we concluded that groups of children can learn to use computers on

their own irrespective of who or where they are.“• "No child would play with it inside the classroom. If you leave it on the pavement and

all the adults go away then they will show off to one another about what they can do."

OLPC XO:

OLPC = One Laptop Per Child

“Our Name, Our Vision”

• The organisations aims to create educational opportunities for children.• It is designed to work in tough conditions and remote areas. • It provides activities and software to help kids learn, explore, create and share.• Whatever language, wherever you are.• Connects to the world, and a brighter future.• Non-profit organisation and mission based, NOT market based.

The 5 principles:

1. The kids keep the laptops2. Focus on early education3. No-one gets left out4. Connection to the internet5. Free to grow and adapt

Features and facts of the OLPC XO:

-Name: Ann Wanjiku-Age: 8-Knowledge gained: she responded when asked to her love of painting thanks to the device, allowing her to be creative and expressive with the painting tool.

-Only a few sessions needed to get use to the device.-The computer became very popular shortly after 2005, and because of the high market prices, it went up to $180.

OLPC XO-Hardware:

1. Open position

2. Rotation

3. Compact

4. Tablet design

OLPC XO-Software:

Diary

New doc. Internet

Talk to

your

neighbourBatteryVolumeUSB

Your ID

Neighbours

via WIFI

The interface of the OLPC, (One Laptop Per Child) is very simplified for children who haven’t used this basis of interaction or interface before.

No extremely complicated images or logo’s are used to present each application, unlike technical products like an iPad, in which use icons as presented below.

Research has shown that when people are presented with technology; in relation to this product, a Music note icon = Music, so the user would ‘click’ the icon.

Paint

Icon examples:

India’s $35 tablet-Hardware:

“We own our children a better future, a better education and a bigger library to explore”

-CEO of Datawind, Suneet Singh Tuli.

The motto of the company is “Bridging the digital divide”.

• The tablet is known as being the cheapest in the world, retailing from just $35.

• Retailed to communities such as South Asia, East Africa and Latin America.

• Allows people to make the product their own; not technically, instead, by using a personalised label.

• Cellular connectivity for internet; used in mobile phones to allow them to connect to any internet any where.

India’s $35 tablet-software:The products user interface runs on Androids operating system 4.0, the ‘Ice-cream sandwich’. The system is able to self-update itself as other popular products that share this operating system, such as the Samsung 10.1 note tablet.

The Android interface is simplified spacious, allowing people to navigate with ease and browse applications, identified with additional text under the icons.

Internet access is available everywhere on a GPRS network at $1.80 for 2GB.

Internet access through sim and phone functionality.

In addition to a micro-SD card slot, a full-sized USB port is integrated into the unit allowing pen-drives, external keyboards, web-cams, dongles and other inexpensive peripherals to be attached.

What Exists Now?

Alternative methods of charging

Information ergonomics• Human-computer interaction, (HCI), involves the study, planning and

design of the interaction between people and computers. This term

will firstly look at computer science and what aspects needs to be

reviewed in terms of hardware

• The computer science behind tablets, (as this will be the primary focus

of this project), looks closely at how tablets actually work. Tablets are

built with a touch screen, enabling users to have a more personalised

experience.

• Some tablets are built with stylus’s, enabling users to use the product

in another form of interaction; this tool is useful for a tablets

applications, (software).

• Every touch screen has a gesture or touch controller microchip which

helps detect and process the touch interactions from the end-user.

• Accelerometer is a component that helps determine motions and

movements in a tablet.; widely used whilst playing games.

• Gyroscope is another such component which determines the

orientation of a tablet display; horizontally or vertically held.

• Graphics processors helps run graphic-intensive apps and games. It

renders high definition pixels on the display.

• Network connectivity comes into picture when you talk of mobility. A

user should be able to connect to the Internet via different types of

networks depending on its availability.

• This study of HCI will now analyse the behavioural sciences of design:

• Behavioural sciences encompasses all the disciplines that explore the activities of and

interactions among organisms in the natural world. It involves systematic analysis and

investigation of human and animal behaviour through controlled and naturalistic

observation, as well as experimentation.

• Humans learn through a variety of modalities, including observation, trial and error, and

instruction.

• Mental models and conceptual models often play role; the mental model being the

‘Actual’ system and how its intended to work and a persons mental model, hope a person

‘thinks’ it works, by picturing what to do through the mind and then sending signals to

different parts of the body, causing it to interact with the device.

• When designing products with interfaces, there are two type of important languages to

remember:

1. Natural human-machine language.

2. Artificial human-machine language.

• Natural human-machine language is how people interpret design and how they feel they

should interact with it; push or pull a door handle, symbols reflecting a application, etc.

• Artificial human-machine language is the intelligence of machines or software; it enables

the system to communicate to humans; such as a triangle ‘play’ symbol. The triangle is an

agreed semantic, as we understand this symbol is pointing in the direction to proceed.

This is a study of how humans recognise languages. 01 00:12

Project Plan and Considerations

Summary of research:

• Children enjoy learning new solutions on their own, so making the

interface easy-to-use, however not instructive.

• It must provide activities, software, class based subjects and educate

young children, (6-12).

• Internet connectivity must be accessible.

• Nothing too overly complicated; IOS and Android OS, (Operating

System) would be too overly complex for this age range, as research

has shown these OS are for older users.

• USB Ports featured.

• Voice recognition software for interaction.

• Information Ergonomics to be strongly considered through designing.

• Appropriate use of natural and artificial machine languages.

• Use of state transition diagrams to map out the software, hardware

and interaction between them.

• Use of nice elegant shapes and colours; user friendly.

• Reflect on the alternative methods of charging the device as resourced

throughout the project.

Concept Development• Within these concepts I have explored different ideas in order to identify an appropriate solution for the project.

A New Beginning…

State Transition Diagrams

The Interface of the product

Welcome Welcome

213

16

11:02

WEB PAGE ART MATH SCIENCE LANGUAGES

MUSIC SPEAK CALENDER CAMERA PHOTO TECH

BIN

• Operations take place upon the user pressing the ONbutton on the tablet:

Fully Touch based

‘Inspired’ logo enables user to turn device on/off in a recommended process.

settings

WIFI

Time

VolumeBattery

• Applications on the tablet will be educational, fun and highly interactive.

ART APP

• Here are basic layouts of how the following applications will look.

MATH APP

SCIENCE APP

A New Beginning…

EASY

NEW

INSPIRE

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