atom01:Tools

HyperPublic : Home / Tools

Tools: We design the tools needed in order to reach our goal and making the concept work. These tools are designed based on the demands from the different atoms and teachers: the users of our HyperPublic space.

According to the questionnaires held, we divided the tools in four categories: Activities, Information, Interaction and Rewards.

We will find help from professors and external software sources to design these tools.

Team

You

And us:

Joost Noorden

Koen Kegel

Please use our feedback form and help us improve.

Public progress document

Follow us on Twitter: @HyberPublicNL

Our website (under construction) : www.HyperPublic.nl

The idea behind the activities is that Atom 1 (Joost and Koen) will provide a start to create the community for our platform. We will invest in different kind of activities so that the users will be able to interact with each other. The goal of our platform is to create a community which helps each other in making better designs. According to (Cross, 1971), Participatory design does have a positive influence on the design decision making. Of course this be either through interaction in the digital and physical world. A list of first ideas was extracted from the interviews:

Studytrip

By organizing a study trip to London, we will try to add interesting information in the form of architectural offices, museum visits and other activities. With input of the different atoms, we will create a programme that will be interesting to all who wish to join.

Anyone with ideas about this studytrip to London, can send us some feedback by using our feedback form. Thanks for you contribution!

Lectures

According to some atoms and teachers lectures or workshops are a very good way to explain specific problems. Therefor in Protospace, we will invite speakers who will be able to contribute to different projects. If you are interested to learn more about a certain subject, please let us know, and we will try to arrange a lecture by the speaker of your choice or another person who's equally capable of conveying a similar message.

Social Events

In the questionnaire the atoms let us know they had interest in meeting other atoms in a more informal manner. By using the online calendar we can plan weekly meetings, actors can interact with each other on a more social level. This might lead to a better working atmosphere and more understanding of the people working on different projects. We believe social skills are a very important factor in working towards a common goal; in this case an architectural design.

Editable Calendar

We have created an online calendar to which all actors will get access. Not only to view the information provided, but also to add their information which might be of interest to others.

The information concept is all about making as much information general available for all users of the platform. The idea is not that we (Joost and Koen) will add all the information, but that any user will give his or her input to the community. This way there will be relevant information enriched from multiple sources and our platform will be an addition to anyone's design process. A list of first ideas was extracted from the interviews:

Actor Database

According to some atoms (Atom 11 Interview) there is a demand to clearly map all the atoms, what they are all about and what their strengths and weaknesses are. This way they can more easily connect to them, and help each other, maybe creating combined projects. We strive to make a searchable database with all the information gathered from the wiki plus the interviews. this way some atom or individual can look up information faster then on the wiki is possible right now.

Software information and tutorials

With the high demands on software guidance by students (Atom 06 Interview) and teachers (Teachers Interview), especially for the next (processing) phase, we are going to set up a large database with all the information about all the different programs and relations between them, including scripts and tutorials.

Overview of past projects

Atom 06 mentioned they like to see a place where older project are being explained and maybe even exhibited, in order to learn from them and use the knowledge into their own design.

Literature

A list of all relevant literature used by every atom, open for anyone to contribute to and read.

Reference List

A list of all relevant references used by every atom, open for anyone to see

We strive to create a interactive community which helps each other with the final goal to making better designs. This interaction takes place on different levels, like an online forum, an information data base, and real-life activities which we will organize for u. Through working together different atoms or even persons can use their strengths within this community, helping the other users when needed. A list of first ideas was extracted from the interviews:

Marketplace

Atom 11 noted they are very interested in meeting and talking to other atoms, exchanging ideas and maybe, at some point, connecting to other atoms. We might design a sort of marketplace where all users can offer there services, things they know a lot about or are good at, other people can react on these posts and ask them for help. In return these helping heroes will get help themselves from other users of the platform according to their needs.

Direct teacher feedback

According to Roxana Palfi and Dimitrie Stefanescua direct link to teachers is needed in order to really learn the basics of, in their case, software tools. Roxana even had the idea herself for setting up such a direct portal.

Portal explanation: When u have a question about a certain subject, u post it on the platform and it automatically directs the question to the best suited teacher on the subject. Everyone can see these posted questions and answers from the teachers, with possible added files. This way both the original question poster and the rest of the community are satisfied, even the teacher, reaching a bigger audience.

The rewards concept is all about build up the community which will help each other with different kind of problems. In order to let users really use this platform we have to give them something back, an even exchange of services. These services can either be information or other forms of direct help the atom/person needs. It can also be a discount on certain services like study trips etc. A list of first ideas was extracted from the interviews:

Voting system

Being implemented in many websites, users can vote for certain information on the platform. The information which the community votes for the most, is shown more prominently on the site. The original poster of this information will be rewarded by having a higher total number of received votes, called 'Hyperpoints'. These 'Hyperpoints' will be shown prominently on the main page, so people will have an instant overview of the most active contributors. This hopefully will inspire others to do the same.

Participation rewards

We are thinking of ways people can be rewarded by participating. The voting system is already a form of reward, but we would like to offer more than this. We would only like to use positive stimuli. Students could for example vote for projects they like most every week, so they are looking for the best projects and are also learning from others as they do. Another way would be to find a manageable system of extra credits for the design course based on the Hyperpoints described above.

There are different ways to create incentives to participate. In the questionnaire we sent to all atoms, we told all students we are organizing the study trip to London and all who reply are allowed to come with us. For this little task of filling in the form which will take about 10 minutes (as we tested ourselves), the students can benefit from an organized study trip to London.

-update- it turned out not everyone was happy with this kind of reward system. According to them the incentive for participating in our platform should be purely good will.

Your Idea!

As you've found out by now, we would like to hear from you, since you are part of our MSc1 Hyperbody community by reading this. If you let us know your specific needs and ideas, we can try to work out a solution which may be used by anyone interested.