amy zerba

Building a news prototype, phase one

By azerba, July 17, 2011 12:33 pm

In the Knight-Mozilla Learning lab‘s first week, I was introduced to a concept workflow for developing ideas by Aza Raskin (@azaaza), who is an interface designer and a cloud of (good) ideas. It was the first time I’ve had instructional training in developing a concept. This weekend, I tried out his words of wisdom.

The concept I came up with brings together work applications, news sites and social networking tools that users may use the most into one browser window. I call it Mod Deck. Who is my audience? Young people (under 30). This is the age group who tunes out of the news the most. Although I realize other age groups might find it useful. The idea is that users should not have to bounce through sites, applications and windows to get their news, socialize and do work. Mod Deck is one space.

Here was the idea process:

1. Aza humorously warned us that our first idea will likely suck. Well, I’m prepared for that. But I need people (in kind ways) to tell me such. I surround myself with family, friends and colleagues who are polite and encouraging, not so much harsh critics. Our second speaker, Burt Herman (@burtherman) — the brains behind Storify and Hacks/Hackers — encouraged us to surround ourselves with people who will push us. I’m in need of that circle. So please, give me your thoughts below.

2. Aza also advised to try to finish the first artifact in one day. Well, that’s what I did. I actually timed myself. But I won’t put the time here. That’s an (embarrassing) secret.

3. He reiterated in his talk to try not to put too much detail into sketches. That was the easiest step to do.

4. Going through iterations is normal and necessary, Aza says. I noticed that ideas kept coming to me as I continued sketching. Perhaps I piled on too many ideas, a common mistake, he says. I struggled on this step, without any feedback.

5. Prepare to change the problem that you are trying to solve. This is where I am right now. I recognize this is phase one. I can’t wait to see where this idea will be in three weeks; that is if I keep it.

6. Create a video prototype to explain a concept. This was my first video attempt at a prototype. Aza said that an idea isn’t as important as how a person communicates that idea. The video was my way of explaining “Mod Deck.” In it, I applied two major takeaways from Aza’s talk: 1. Ideas try to create behavior in people. And 2. Answer “how does it make life better?”

7. Borrow ideas. That, I certainly did. My inspiration came from: mobile apps; modules available to add to CMS, like WordPress; Google Reader; a cloud-computing video by @jdsutter; my frustrating news and laptop experiences; and observations from watching students multitask.

Would you use Mod Deck? And how can the idea improve?

journalism, MoJo, news

https://twitter.com/ShinNoNoir Raynor Vliegendhart

The idea is interesting, but at first I was concerned about screen estate. There’s only a limited amount of information you can display on a screen. Luckily, most of this concern was taken away when you introduced the ability to collapse mods.

Would I use Mod Deck? I’m not sure, yet. You have to keep in mind some people are quite used to task switching and it will be quite hard to get them to change their behaviour. In my case, I have most (if not all) of my windows maximized. On my Windows 7 machine, I pin my most important applications to the taskbar such that I can instantly task switch to them using Win+ key combination.

Now, I’m not sure how the idea can be improved, but I do have a question for you. Is it possible with your idea to have multiple Mod Decks? This is basically what I’m currently missing in my current way of working. I normally don’t mind taskswitching the way I’m doing it now, but I do mind it when I’m running multiple programs for multiple conceptually different tasks.
- azerba
  
  Thanks so much for your feedback. It is very true that people are used to task switching, and changing that behavior may be a challenge. I sometimes worry that I get so caught up in technology that I forget if the average everyday person seamlessly moves from task to task. I do like your idea of multiple Mod Decks. I had not thought of that but I can see that need for folks who use different programs and sites for different projects. Thanks so much for providing feedback.
  - http://stdout.be Stijn Debrouwere
    
    Well, I’m not sure it’s a behavior that you would *want* to change. If you ask twenty persons whether they’d be interested in having all their news and social networking and commonly used whateveritis in a single browser window and the response is lukewarm, it’s your app that should adapt to what users want, not the other way around
    - azerba
      
      Thanks Stijn. I agree the app should adapt to what users want. I appreciate your thoughts.
  - https://twitter.com/ShinNoNoir Raynor Vliegendhart
    
    Btw, this morning when I was driving in my car I was thinking about my previous comment. There is one drawback of having multiple Mod Decks. It makes your idea more complicated: it’s another feature you have to explain and convince people of it being useful…
    - azerba
      
      I appreciate your thoughts Raynor. I do think it might get too complicated. But I do like your idea. Wonder how I can simplify a complex idea of multiple decks.
      - Joy Berry
        
        My career is far from journalism. However, constantly researching medical and clinical studies another person’s idea that challenges mine, even beyond my work, intrigues me. A person’s passion in their work to explain and convince people is a resource I look for. Like I said, I am a far cry from a journalist, but Ilove complex ideas.
http://www.shaminderdulai.com Shaminder Dulai

Very interesting idea and I must say a very nice well thought out video. I especially loved the attention to detail, such as the spot color in the design and how you made an effort to relate your idea to existing familiar things like how PhotoShop treats tabs and Google Reader organizes information.

I think you’re on to something here and have hit the nail on the head, it’s all about time and making it simple for people to get information. I never for a second, despite the bemoaning of the industry, thought that people didn’t want the news anymore. They just want it on their terms.

If you’re interesting in pursuing your idea, I’d suggest looking at Rockmelt (They tried a similar mod system for organizing your social profiles and feeds), Google Chrome OS (the laptop is all about web native apps and helping your organize tasks and manage your profiles) and the latest beta build of Chrome (which has introduced personal profiles for users so when you log in to your browser, you get your customized information how you want it). It might be good to analyze what they are do so you can #7 it and improve it for news audiences.
- azerba
  
  Thanks Shaminder for pointing me to Chrome. I appreciate that very much.
http://tribal.mx Juan Gonzalez

My first reaction was to assume this was an iteration over the old portal concept where you have multiple widgets (or mods) programmed to pull content from various sources. This model has been popular before and overwhelmed users for a while only to be relegated to search engines front pages. People would argue that many RSS readers are based on this very premise. Even modern digital magazines like Flipboard do a very decent job at compiling from various sources and presenting things in a very elegant layout that resembles my traditional daily.

I agree with your observation about younger generations having problems consuming news the traditional way… but a portal of widgets may not be the right answer. Check out my proposal for a visual dashboard and perhaps there is an opportunity to join forces.
- azerba
  
  Thanks Juan for your input. I will check out your proposal.
Trina Chiasson

First off, I loved your video pitch. It was well-organized and really sold the concept. I’m amazed that the planning and execution only took a day

That said, this concept reminds me of a couple of other products. Did you ever use Flock while it was around? I tried to use it for a couple of weeks and I really liked the idea of having easy access to my different notification streams while I browse the web. The problem was that it took so much bandwidth and/or processing power to keep everything running at the same time that I found there was a tradeoff between easy access to notifications and my ability to work quickly and efficiently. I’m not sure if that was part of the reason why it was discontinued, but that’s why I stopped using it.

I had a slightly different problem with iGoogle. Although I was able to access many different tools and services in the same page, it was a scaled-down version of each. Therefore, none of the tools were as useful to me as they would have been in their native formats. With these types of tools, I’ve noticed that there’s often a tradeoff between compact multitasking ability and overall usability and usefulness.

There are some aggregation tools that I absolutely love, such as Google Reader. It all depends on what features are most important to me, and how I can keep the core features that I use and get rid of the features I don’t need.

I’m a bit of a tabaholic and I’m always looking for new ways to streamline my workflow, so I see potential in this idea–at least from my own self-interested perspective
- azerba
  
  Hi Trina, Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback and the time you took to talk about your work habits. I really appreciate it. I will research Flock. Best of luck to you, Amy
Flora

First of all Amy, I watched the video twice, last night and again just now and I must say that I thought your presentation was really good and that your voice is very pleasant and easy to understand, in a “network news announcer” sort of a way (I mean this in a good way, if I’m not being clear). I am also one who is concerned about “screen estate.” I mean, can’t you already sort of do all of this with what we have now? Most of my work involves PhotoShop as you know, and in my world what I would love is a collapse-able or fold-away-able second monitor that would take up little or no “desk-estate” if you will, where I can show my FB, NYT, Google mail, etc. and I can glance at it when I wish while still having my entire main monitor free for my graphic. Sort of how I used to have a second monitor, just for my PhotoShop palettes, but small enough and lightweight enough to get out of my way when I don’t need it. Then, I think the “Mod-Deck” idea would be more attractive to me, in my work environment anyway.
Best,
Flora
- azerba
  
  Hi Flora. You’ve always been a big supporter of my work, and I thank you for that. Thanks for taking the time to write. Yes, screen estate is a big issue with this idea and I need to go back to the drawing table. It’s especially sacred space for creative people like yourself. I will think more about this. Thanks so much for your thoughts. Come visit in Gainesville. Amy
http://www.j-thinker.com Brian B

Looks interesting. Kind of bringing apps to the desktop … I’d have to play with it a bit to have a stronger feel for it, but I think you’re onto something here. Keep it up!
- azerba
  
  Thanks Brian, for taking time to look at my work. Hope you’re well.
http://phillipadsmith.com Phillip Smith

Great video, Amy. Thanks for putting in the extra effort.

One resource you may want to check out in the context of ‘mods’ is the growing movement around ‘Web apps’ like these examples by Mozilla. These ‘web apps’ — and also the ones that work in Chrome — are kinda’ like the ‘mods’ in your demo, i.e., little apps that can live on their own, but powered by the Web.

Looking forward to your next post.

– Phillip.
- azerba
  
  Thanks for showing me Mozilla’s “web apps”
  
  *bang my head against the wall*
  
  It does make me feel like I had something there. I’m working on a new idea for my final project. I’ve just been enjoying the idea process — the techniques taught are all so new to me.
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Building a news prototype, phase one

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