Went to the design festival on 26th November 2009, took a few images on some design I think is quite good.

- Table Design -

Looking at this table we all can tell that the designer is trying to design for space. I like this design is because the chairs is nicely fit into the table when is not occupied. This will make the place more neater and more space.

- Electric Bike -

This bike is different from the normal bike you see out there, because this bike is run by electricity. The station you see behind is actually the place for them to charge their battery. I like this design the most because I think this really is going to be useful in the societies nowadays and the designer is designing to save the earth. I think he or she have done the job by saving it. If this is going to be use in singapore, I believe that there will be less air pollution. Nice Concepts and Design!

- Not bringing shopping list with them according to survey.

- Many with baskets at grocery section. More trollies near appliances section.

- Kids running around…

- Wine section with few people in the noon.

- Does not search for items by the board section…(according to survey, they prefer walking all around to search for  item)

 - Elderly people are either alone or with their friend.

- People not in proper queue.

-Bulky goods to be purchased at different counter. Items will be delivered. Ideas

 - Calculating cost of items before payment. – Barcode scanner on baskets/trollies

Science and Technologies History & it’s Studies..

Brief Description:

Science and technology studies (STS) or scientotechnological studies is the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these in turn affect society, politics, and culture. STS scholars are interested in a variety of problems including the relationships between scientific and technological innovations and society, and the directions and risks of science and technology. More than two dozen universities worldwide offer baccalaureate degrees in STS; about half of these also offer doctoral or master’s programs.

For this week personal research, I have been out from my home quite a lot so I have made an observation research to gain ideas for our group electric antidote.

Hm.. Our group have brainstorm on ideas to make our target users or the rushing people to slow down and appreciate the life around us. Its hard for us to not rush due to stiff competition as we are striving to get a higher education or goals than others.

The considerations to note of before making an antidote:

• needs to be attractive
• fun and entertain
• to be recognize
• appreciate
• Engaging
• creative

During the days I went out, I have made an observation at the arcade since its a place to have a lot of fun. Well there are machines that allow the user to be interacted with the machine and have fun at the same time.

Below are some of the games that inspires me for brainstorm ideas for the antidote:

• Para para Dance Machine
• Guitar Hero
• Dance Machine

These machines have one thing in common – to make the user interact or engage fully into the game.  Thus from here, maybe there is a way we can slow the rushing down.. From there, I have been thinking of ideas to be added on into my teamates ideas.

Making Designs Seem Intuitive
The biggest challenge in making a design seem intuitive to users is learning where the current and target knowledge points are. What do users already know and what do they need to know? To build intuitive interfaces, answering these two questions is critical.

For identifying the user’s current knowledge, we favor field studies. Watching potential users, in their own environments, working with their normal set of tools, and facing their daily challenges, gives us tremendous insight in what knowledge they will have and where the upper bounds are. Teams receive a wealth of valuable information with every site visit.

For identifying necessary target knowledge for important tasks, usability testing is a favorite technique of ours. When we sit users in front of a design, the knowledge gap becomes instantly visible.

Amazon makes the process of returning a purchased product fairly intuitive. Once a user finds the (sometimes hidden) magic button on the order form, they have no trouble going through the return process—a multi-step wizard which asks intelligent questions and guides the user through the process of printing a shipping label, determining the shipping costs, and returning the product.

However, in our studies, users have much more difficulty finding a phone number to call Amazon’s customer service center. Amazon doesn’t want a lot of phone calls from users. They aren’t set up to handle the volume of calls and building a complete customer service call center could render their entire operation unprofitable. While it’s inconvenient to the user, they’d rather handle the problems through email, which is far more cost effective.

The designers at Amazon have deliberately made the process of calling them very unintuitive to encourage customers to find another way to resolve their problems.

Understanding How Intuitive Works
Once you understand how ‘intuitive’ works—what makes someone perceive a design to be intuitive—it becomes easier to make the decision as to whether an intuitive design is worth the extra effort. The knowledge your users have when they arrive at the design (current knowledge), what knowledge they’ll need to complete their tasks (target knowledge), and what the design needs to do to help them complete the task (the gap) are the key ingredients for making an interface that seems ‘intuitive’ to your users.
http://www.uie.com/articles/design_intuitive/

In this 2nd part of the article, I’ll mention installation environment details. Although SAP doesn’t recommend installation on laptops, I did my test installation on a virtual machine. As host machine I used Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and VMware Workstation. Here are guest 64bit operation system details:

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Installation Guest Machine details

* Windows Server 2003 R2 – Standard x64 Edition

* MS SQL Server 2008 x64 with collation CP850_BIN2 (this is very important. you can only install SAP with this collation)

* Java JDK 1.4.2_17 windows-amd 64bit. If you have problems finding a 64bit version for Java 1.4.2_? SDK, here is the link: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/SAPsite/download.html

Java SDK versions provided in above link are specific builds for SAP customers. For my installation, I used following version.

Also, you should download Java Cryptography Extension 1.4.2 since SAP Installer will ask for it during installation.

==========================================================================================

Starting Installation Process

If you have downloaded all necessary installation media as described in part 1(http://zieglers.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/sap-ides-erp-6-0-ehp4-netweaver-7-01-installation-guide/) and prepared your installation guest machine as described above, now we can start installing SAP IDES ERP 6.0.

… to be continued…

zieglers

Archaeologist: Preserving Historical sites / places / items {drop idea]

Brainstorming 1. Traditional Games
2. Historical Kallang Stadium (chosen)
Not to choose a specific place 1st from the past in the 1970s

Our new Q: How can we relive old memories from the past?

we -> who…target group?
relive -> why do we want to relive these memories?
old memories -> events, current affairs, etc…
the past -> 1950s, 1960s, etc…

Things to do:
1. research on what events / stories / lifestyle / current affairs / hot topics / articles of the past
2. finalise on topic
3. choose 3 target groups
4. question to ask
5. ways of asking the question
6. probe package (mock-up)

Why are people so attached to technological devices? Why are they so afraid of losing them?

• A study conducted by Pointsec Mobile Technologies, a mobile-data protection software company in Chicago, tracked items left behind in taxis in eight other countries. One cab company in Chicago had the highest numbers: In the final six months of 2004, it found, in its 113 taxis, 387 mobile phones, 97 PDAs and Pocket PCs and 20 laptops.
  
• Extrapolating from those numbers, Pointsec calculated that 85,600 mobile phones, 21,500 PDAs/Pocket PCs, and 4,425 laptops disappeared into Chicago’s 25,000 cabs in those six months.
• 99% of cell phone owners do not back up the data on their phones. When your cell phone is lost or stolen, that precious information is gone. – The Wall Street Journal, May 2003.
• FOX News WFLD in Chicago did a news piece where they purposely lost 2 cell phones and got them back within 3 hours. http://www.trackitback.com/media/fox-chicago.wmv, November 2005
• Three-quarters of the more than 8,000 respondents polled online in 11 countries said they take their phone with them everywhere, with Russians and Singaporeans the most attached.More than a third also said they couldn’t live without their phone, topped by Taiwanese and again Singaporeans, while one in four would find it harder to replace the mobile than their purse.
  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4975208.cms

   

There are actually several factors pertaining as to the reason why people are afraid of losing their technological devices, such as handphone or music players.

Information -
Calling mobile phones the “remote control” for life

All the information in their technological devices are gone. With the simple act of losing something, everything is gone.

Such as their mobile contacts, important documents stored in PDAs, personal information, and people would often find themselves helpless to get back all their personal data and they would often live with the fact that they lost their data.

Security -
“Mobiles give us safety, security and instant access to information. They are the number one tool of communication for us, sometimes even surpassing face-to-face communication. They are our connections to our lives.” – Jenny Chang, Synovate’s managing director

People go to bed with their phones nearby and can’t switch them off, even though they want to, because they’re afraid they’ll miss something from their friends, or emergency calls from families.

Therefore, having their cell phones switched on in bed gives them the feeling of security, as in at least they will be notified if something happens.

Thus, people are actually afraid of losing their cell phones because it gives them a sense of security.

Similarly, people often have the feeling that if they were not able to check their emails on time, they would actually have this sense of insecurity of lacking notification from others.

Connection -
Technological devices are like connections to the outside world.

People felt that technological devices have become their connections to the outside world, because it enables them to know what’s happening around them. Such connections are like radio broadcasting stations, or even to the point of twitter, facebook and emails.

Reliance -
Technological devices is equivalent to a NEED instead of a WANT.

More and more people felt that they would NEED to have technological devices due to reliance on technology. From smallest thing such as a music player, PSP, NDS to kill time while on train, to actual useful products such as handphone for communication.

People are actually starting to view such devices as a NEED instead of a WANT.

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/09/05/2009-09-05_boy_we_like_to_blabber_people_would_rather_lose_wallet_than_cellphone.html

http://www.prleap.com/pr/52253/

http://www.youngmoney.com/tech_trends/030417_02_1181/

Sorry for the late update for this research! Took me quite a while to collate my stuffs.

1) What is Interaction Design?

Interaction design is the art of facilitating interactions between humans through products and services. It is also the interaction between services or products that held some intelligence, such as being able to respond on interaction. Interaction design also encompasses usability into how we interact with products and is often free and easy to use for consumers.

2) What are some examples of Interaction Design?

There are two type of interaction available, one is virtual interaction, and another one is real-life interaction.

3) What is technology?

Technology is the concept of using knowledge, applying them and then produce a product which enables progression.  Technology can refer to material objects, such as machines.
E.g. Coffee Maker, Keyboard, Laptop.

However, there are also non-material products such as systems, method of organizations and techniques.
E.g. Internet

Recently i was checking the posts I wrote about SAP IDES installation, and realized it’s been a while since I wrote the last one: http://zieglers.wordpress.com/2007/08/26/sap-r3-ides-47200-sr1-installation-on-windows-2003-r3-and-sql-server-2005/

Well, I think a brand new one is almost necessary: Here I give u, SAP IDES ECC 6.0 Installation on Windows 2003 with SQL Server 2008. I’ll try to explain the process with screenshots and try to keep it really simple. Hope it works!

=========================================================================================================

Step – 1: Download installation DVDs / files from SAP Service Marketplace:

Navigate to installation media

https://websmp101.sap-ag.de/~SAPIDP/002006825000000234912001E

Once you are at SAP Service Marketplace homepage, first click ‘Downloads‘ in first line navigation and then ‘SAP Installations & Upgrades‘.

1-)   2-)   

On the left navigation, select ‘Installations and Upgrades‘, then ‘SAP Application Components‘.

3-)    4-)

Then, select ‘SAP ERP‘, ‘SAP ERP Enhance Package‘ and ‘EHP for SAP ERP 6.0 / NW 7.01‘ respectively, as shown below. 

5-)  6-)  7-)

Since we’ll be installing IDES version, select ‘IDES-Version‘, and then ‘Windows Server – SQL Server‘.

 9-)

Download media for Export, SAP Installer, Java Component, UC Kernel and SAP GUI

Installation media necessary for SAP ERP 6.0 can be categorized in 5 main titles. This means once you start installing SAP ERP 6.0, SAP installer will ask you installation DVDs for 3 parts. Those are 1. Export DVDs, 2. Java Component, 3.Kernel. Additionally, you’ll need SAP Installer media itself and also SAP GUI. Now, let’s take a look which ones to download.

Export DVDs: You need to download 27 export parts named ‘IDES ERP 6.04/NW 7.01 Inst. Export‘. Once you extract those, there will be 4 DVDs, as shown below. Normal SAP ERP 6.0 installer comes with 2 export DVDs. Extra 2 DVDs result from the fact that IDES version includes many sample companies and related data to be installed.

Note from installation experience: Once installer finishes import jobs, you’ll have almost 160 GB sized database files and 10GB log file in total. No kiddin’! (See below)

Java Component: You need to download 4 parts for ‘NW 7.0 EHP1 SR1 Java based SW Components‘ as shown below. This will be only 1 DVD. Depending on your installation choice – ABAP vs. JAVA based – you might not need those during installation.

Also you need 3 parts BS Java components, ‘Java Comp. 7.0 SR1: ERP,CRM,SRM,SCM‘, as shown below.

SAP GUI 7.10: You need to download 2 parts for ‘NW 7.0 Presentation – 7.10 Compilation 4 Present.‘, as shown below.

UC Kernel: You need to download 1 part for ‘BS 7 SR1 UC-Kernel 7.01 Windows Server on x64 64bit‘, as shown below.

SAP Installation Master: You need to download 3 parts for ‘IDES Inst. Mst. 7.01: ERP, CRM, SCM‘, as shown below. This is basically our SAP NetWeaver Software Installer.

=========================================================================================================

This completes 1st part of this article – SAP IDES ERP 6.0 Installation – Gathering Installation Media. We’ll continue with installation environment in 2nd part of the article and start the installation.

If you didn’t recieve your installation media as DVDs, above mentioned approach was an alternate way to get your installation media. Hope this helps and let me know if you have questions.

zieglers (runs SAP)

List of target groups
- Parents
- Housewives
- Bachelors
- Lecturers
- Technicians
- Gamers
- Club Owners
- Children

3 Selections
-Lecturers (uses electrical tools in school and home)
-Children (watch tv for long hours)
-Gamers (uses computer and other game devices)

List of questions that can be asked
-What is your daily routine?
-How long do you watch tv and use the computer at home?
-What do you think about saving energy?
-Do you take any effort in saving energy? How?
-List down 5 appliances that you use the most daily.

Rationale behind your cultural probe items

-Pen, Pencils & Notepad
Record information of daily routine and observations. Note or sketch down any information that cross them about energy saving.

-Camera
Take pictures of electrical appliances that they use. And take picture of anything that interests them.

-Chart of electrical items
To tick the item whenever they use it. If can record the duration of use.

-Stopwatch
To record the duration of use.

Design Challenge

To help reduce the energy consumption

What people need and want?

-Lesser bills to pay

What technologies can help in this challenge?

Computer. To store data on appliances and its energy consumption.

What solutions are being tried in other areas?

-Solar energy
-Wind power
-Nuclear energy
-Thermal energy

- More energy is consumed on landed housing as more space is available for appliances and lights.

-Other motivations on saving energy

E2 Singapore 10% Energy Challenge.
Buying energy efficient home appliances. Energy labelling is mandatory for air-conditioners, refrigerators and clothes dryers, which are the 3 appliance groups that are among the most energy intensive in a household.

Project Carbon Zero 2009
Competition for primary school students. Awards given to schools which consumes less energy from 2008-2009.

- Energy saving in Overseas Countries

Wind Power, Solar Power

Sustainable Energy Europe Awards Competition
Whether you are a public authority, a private company, a European association or an NGO, present one or several of your ongoing projects in the fields of energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, clean transport or bio fuels by completing this user-friendly Application Form.

http://www.sustenergy.org/tpl/page.cfm?pageName=procedure

- More on E2 Singapore Energy Efficiency

Energy Smart Building, The Energy Smart Building Labelling Programme, developed by the Energy Sustainability Unit (ESU) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the National Environment Agency (NEA), aims to promote energy efficiency and conservation in the buildings sector by according recognition to energy efficient buildings.

Some Energy Smart Offices
-Ministry of Foreign Affairs
-Ministry of Education
-National Library Building

- LightsCompact Fluorescent Bulbs – 1 cent for 8hrs
Exterior Flood Lights – 4-17 cents for 8hrs

- Freezer
18-22 feet – $17 per month

Household appliances

-AC, Fridge, Fan, Lights, Microwave Oven, Toaster, Rice Cooker, Water Heater, Television, Computer & Washing Machine.

The air-conditioner uses the bulk of the electricity in a home. A fan uses less than 1/10th the electricity used by an air-conditioner! Use a fan instead of an air-conditioner to keep cool. Save about $40 a month or about $500 a year*.

You can use three fans to keep cool and you would be using only about a quarter of the electricity used by an air-conditioner!

Switch off home appliances at the power socket. Standby power can account for up to 10% of your home electricity use. Do not leave them on standby. Save about $40 a year*.

After switching off your appliances with the remote control, many of them continue to draw power.

Switch off the computer completely when not in use for long periods (e.g. more than 30 minutes). Leaving a desktop (300W) on every day for 8 hours (e.g. overnight) will cost about $15 a month*

Consider buying a laptop for your next computer upgrade as they use significantly less energy than desktop computers.

Boil water only when needed or consider using a thermo-flask to keep hot water. Electric air-pots which keep water hot constantly can cost you about $15 a month* in electricity.

* Based on electricity tariff of $0.1803 per unit (kWh)

http://www.e2singapore.gov.sg/energy-saving-tips.html

In its drive towards an Energy Efficient Singapore, the National Environment Agency (NEA) will be introducing a new industry-focused Energy Efficiency National Partnership (EENP) programme. EENP is a voluntary programme that seeks to help companies improve their energy efficiency by encouraging them to put in place energy efficiency programmes at the organisational level to reduce energy wastage and improve energy efficiency. This in turn will enhance their long-term business competitiveness and reduce their carbon footprint.

Location: AMK Hub NTUC

Time: 3:45pm

Techniques used: Pictures, Videos, Observing

1. Who are the shoppers?

- Teenagers, housewives, senior citizens, married couples.

2. Do they shop alone?

- Yes and no. Some came with their maids, parents, spouses and childrens.

3. With children?

- Some housewives bring their children along.

4. How do they shop? Shopping list?

- To a certain extend yes they did bring along a shoppign list. For example housewives as to prevent from forgetting any of the groceries.

5. Do they bring along their shopping bags/trolleys?

- Yes as after using the NTUC trolleys, they have to return it back. So by bringing their own trolleys, they can placed their groceries in it for their own convinience. From the observation, we conclude that people who brought their own trolleys usually make alot of purchases compare to those who shop less.

6. How do shoppers shop for bulky items?

- The staff will usually assist them into making the payment. Most probably only the barcode (sticker or card form) will be scanned instead of bringing the whole item at the counter. The sticker ’sold’ will then be pasted on the item.

7. How do shoppers make payment?

espress lane ( for shoppers with one basket or less): There is only 2 express lane that is available in the NTUC. Despite of that, the queue is still long and shoppers have to wait in line for their turn. Shoppers have to settle the transactions either by cash or nets. In my opinion, even though it’s called ‘express lane’, it doesn’t seem to work. The queue may be shorter compare to the rest but still, shoppers have to wait for sometime before their turn and on top of that, the transaction takes sometime as well.

normal lane: There is alot of people queuing up for this lanes as they accept all types of payments and any quantity amount of purchase. The queue is longer and time taken for each transaction is slower compare to the express lanes as some shoppers make payments by credit/debit card. The staff havte to ask for varification and have to check if the signature matched with the card. Added to all that, the settlement and receipt will take time to print. Shoppers will compare and queue at lanes which has the shortest queue to avoid from waiting too long.

Stop Rushing, Start Living

(Link)  (Link)  (Link)

People’s Personal Experiences

(Link)  (Link)  (Link)

I research on the following Q:
1. Why is history important?
2. Do you think that there is a need to study history? (education)
Wan Xin research on the following Q:
3. What is old folk’s meaning of history?
4. Why do people like/dislike history?
Suk Khwan research on the following Q:
5. Archaeologist practises? Significants?

Importance of History
~ The past had value to our society
~ It is the narrative of mankind
~ Teaches wide range of materials
~ Presented properly lends itself to critical analysis

Importance of History for education
~ Those who knows the history well, are less likely to allow it to be repeated
~ History does repeat itself even if you do not know it
~ Knowing our past / roots
~ Doctors would not be able to heal patients without medical history
~ Scientist would get no where without past attempts
~ It gives us insights of why we are the way we are

> Basically, history us being taught to make sure the many generations on, do not make the same mistakes as the people in the past did.
> These generations are the onces who will be the ones taking over the leadership
> It is also important for us to know our roots
> Not to take for granted of what we have

More Happy

Less Misunderstanding

The research for recycling. quite interesting and could effect kids.
Will get more inspirations from it =D

Benefits of Physical Fitness :

* Physical Benefits

- improve capacity of cardiocascular and respiratory systems

- strengthens musculoskeletal system, reduces risk of oesteoporosis

- maintains flexibility, reducing risk of injury

- improved blood flow and oxygenation benefits internal organs

* Psychological Benefits

- improved self-confidence and self-image

- antidote to depression, stress and anxiety

- more positive attitude and outlook

* Health Benefits

- reduce risks of illness, obesity, and effects of aging

Components of Physical Fitness

- Cardio-Respiratory : capacity of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems to deliver oxygen to the working muscles for sustained periods of energy production.

- Muscular: the maximum force that can be exerted by muscles and capacity to exert repeatedly over time

- Flexibility: ability of joints to move through its range of motion without discomfort

- Body Composition: the body’s relative percentage of body fat as compared to lean tissue mass [BMI: range of 18.9 - 22.9 (Health Promotion Board)]

Some factorss that affect physical fitness

- lifestyle:  regular exercise, proper diel/nutrition, sufficient rest

- age: rate of decline associated with aging can be diminished with reqular exercise

- body type: ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph

Frequency : 3 – 5 times per week

Intensity: 60-90% of Max Heart Rate

Time: 30 – 60 minutes continuous

What do you desire?

More Giving, Less Taking.