technology as the extension of vision

so we are officially over the halfway mark and the project is really getting going. We hand in our Design proposal on the 7th Octber, so currently we arn’t doing much other than writing writing writing!!! I have been put in charge of writing up introductions on the three methodologies we are triangulating in our research (which are an online survey, ethnographic studies and paper prototyping). The online survey was created approximately 2 weeks ago and has now closed with more than 242 people participating which is great! unfortunately for us, do to restrictions on our membership with the survey providers (we got the free version) we can only use the sample of 102 responses, but this is more than enough!here are some of the most outstnading results we received:

“OF OUR SAMPLE 62% ARE CURRENTLY STUDYING”
“92% ATTEND LECTURES”
“95% TAKE NOTES DURING A LECTURE”
“97% WOULD CONSIDER A PRODUCT THAT ASSISTED THEM IN RETAINING INFORMATION A BENEFICIAL STUDY AID”
“77% WOULD CONSIDER BUYING A PRODUCT IF THIS SORT”
“ONLY 7% OF STUDENTS CONSISTENTLY REVIEW NOTES AFTER A LECTURE”

What methods/ways/processes do you currently employ to help you retain information?
The majority of participants (97 people responded to this question) said repetition and writing information down were the two main processes they used to remember information. Verbally reciting (or telling someone else the same piece of information) aswell as visual association (this one may be particularly high however considering 47% of our sample are design students!) were also quite consistently mentioned

If there was a piece of technology that could subconsciously help your brain retain information, where and when would you choose to use this device?
Out of 95 responses, 47 said they would use it for study, many mentioned within a lecture environment in particular. Surprisingly, 25 said they would use it all the time, and in everyday life! Only 17 mentioned using it for work, and this usually related to organising appointments and remembering key points brought up in meetings etc.

The second method we have finished are our ethnographic studies, which involved the three of us attending a 2nd year University, 1 hour, lecture. One took notes of the information presented within the lecture, whilst the other two observed and noted the participants (who were oblivious to us being there watching them!). We asked the students at the end of the lecture to write down up to 7 pieces of information they recalled from the lecture – we then collected these off the students. We have compared this group to the second lecture group we studied, of whom were asked to recall/note the 7 pieces as they received the information, we then collected these results after the lecture finished.

We have created a timeline of the general mood/concentration levels of the students over the one hour period and noted factors that seemed to increase concentration levels (such as humor and strong visuals). This will be presented in our proposal.

Our final research method to still be completed is the paper prototyping. I believe this will be an important factor in figuring out the design and most importantly the ergonomics of the device. It will also be a strong indicator of functions our target audience would like to be converged into the product and why.

If you could please take just 2 minutes to fill in this survey, to help us with our honours design research project, it would be very much appreciated!

Thanks!

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB2289HNUJH2G