project manager:  minutes from the last meeting which were essentially that we  had decided on roles for each of you , however ,  there are some changes that I've got from on high user interface: Okay . project manager: that  are a bit  well w what I didn't actually realise it was that the  this is for a specific television . project manager: actually I'll get to that at the end point number four ,  we'll get what you've got and then we can see what we can adapt from it . marketing: user interface: marketing: Sh do you want me to hold it ? project manager:  there we go , just screw 'em on in . Gonna have to swap them round so marketing: So , after that ? project manager: now , it was function F_ eight .  , as we have decided in the last meeting that I have to find out , sorry , yeah sure . project manager: marketing: yes , I have to look at the  market potential for this product , like consumer likings and everything , what is the potential for this product and are we able to achieve our a net profit or our aims or not ? Then project manager: P press F_ five to start it first . A a detailed market survey on consumers was done to find out their likings and dislikings , what they prefer what they not prefer , w what problems they do encounter in all this type of things . And what we got was , we found that if you  , what they th what problems they are having with different  remote controls available in the market . So , we have to put stress on this ,  we have to take care of this fact also like our design ,  should be appropriate , should be good looking for the consumers .  and even  the good thing about this is that eighty percent of users they are willing to pay high  pay more for this  good looking remote controls also . So even if the available market goes for the available  even if the market goes for the available remote control is less even then we can sell it at twenty five Euros , which maybe which may seem quite high but if our looks are are if the re remote control we design have a good better  better look  designs , then we can hope that consumers will prefer these g remote controls . marketing: Then And the second thing , some some companies they think that they should have more and more functions of the users  or in their remote controls , but rather than those having more functions in the remote controls we should emphasise what actually consumer want , what they operate , rather than making it too complicated . Because mostly it has been found that fifty percent of the users they use only ten percent of the buttons , so there is no point of having ninety percent buttons making the remote controls too bulky , too complicated too expensive a because I think I believe that technology is useful only if  the consumers they want to use it . user interface: So , sorry I was just gonna say , what was the question for this ? Or is are you coming on to that ? marketing: Ah t look all the market potential , what  how we should design consu our remote controls , what they should be there so as to en enhance our profit , enhance our sales . So these percentages are are what ? marketing: Yeah , these are different age group persons like  sorry , I can open it in another way . If we look at the costs whether the consumers they are willing to  pay more for speech recognition in a remote control or not , we can find that they up to a thirty five years age group we have a very good disliking for this  this  point , like for speech recognition in a remote control . industrial designer: marketing: So we can emphasise on this point also like , because it will definitely enhance our sales in this ag in this particular age group from  fifteen to thirty five , user interface:  . marketing: and I  and I think that most of the users of the rem  T_V_ are belong to this age group . marketing: So , and project manager: marketing: And then project manager: Fifteen to twe marketing: Yes .  if we look at this data how how  h how what are the problems the consumers are facing with the existing remote controls in the market . project manager: marketing: They find that thirt  thirty five percent  thirty four percent of the consumers they find too difficult to operate a remote control . So it should be in such a way that it should be easy to learn how to operate these remote controls and we should provide pl  spe  proper manuals for its use also so as that people consumers could easily learn . They need not to have any , much technical knowledge to see  to know how to operate these remote controls . marketing: So this is also a very goo  major factor to loo  take into consideration to enhance our profits and sales . user interface: Yep , sure , that's cool ,  marketing: Yeah we have to take that out . user interface: Okay , and then what do I press , F_ eight ? marketing:  F_ eight . user interface: Okay and then how do I press the the big one , to get it on to the big project manager:  F_ five . user interface: F_ five and I press that again to get it off as well do I ? marketing: Escape . project manager: F_ five and escape'll bring it back and just  the left button for advancing . user interface: Okay , so  I'm the interface design designer , User Interface Designer sorry ,  I'm concerned with  w what effect the apparatus should have on the user and  I'm I'm also I want to point out that our motto , put the fashion in electronics , project manager: user interface: so obviously we as a company we want to make our products trendy and fashionable , it's a big concern of ours . Okay , and how do I press n just the next button ? project manager:  just a left  user interface: The arrow ? Okay . user interface: So  I looked at existing designs and also  the information that Raj gave us was very useful about what people like , what people dislike .  and what people fashionable , because we said people between twenty five and thirty five were the main  buyers of of our T_V_ I think . user interface: And ergonomics , we said  , I don't know I haven't actually been able to do any of this myself , project manager: industrial designer: user interface: but  maybe that comes up , I don't know . user interface: And the findings , well the basic that was the basic function to send messages to the television set .  , so they need to be included , but I've got some pictures here of some leading ones . I don't know how to get to them , project manager:  if you if you escape then you can see your bar . user interface: You know they're grey , they've  this one's got loads of buttons , it's hard to tell from here what they actually do , project manager: user interface: and they don't look very exciting at all .  , personally I prefer this one just because it's looks easier use , it's a bit more sleek with more of this silver stuff , project manager: user interface: but there you go , that's what we're up against , project manager: user interface: and I think we can do much better than that .  , well I think we need to l I think the ergonomics is quite  important ,  project manager: Yeah , particularly if we've  there was a bit in Raj's about R_S_I_ and things as well . And  I thought not too edgy and like a box , more kind of hand-held more  not as  computery and project manager: Organic .  simple designs , like the last one we just saw , not too many buttons and as Raj pointed out , only ten percent fifty percent of people only use ten percent of the buttons , marketing: project manager: user interface: so I think what we can miss out on the buttons we can make up for in design and and how nice it looks . user interface: hand-held and portable I think is portamint is important because T_F_T_ have just  released  I think is it a a remote control for presentations or  and a big seven inch big screen , anyway , so  project manager: Yeah it's like a , yeah . user interface: Yeah , no seven inches isn't that big but  anyway  so hand-held and portable and  m I thought about other functions for T_V_ but as you pointed out people don't actually want that , project manager: Right . project manager: And also the company want to keep it stuck to the T_V_ for  to keep down the production time . And so the last thing I thought w which I quickly mentioned in the other one was maybe a bit of a gimmick to set us apart from other people , like glow-in-the-dark project manager: user interface:  which does already e exist but it's not very widely used I don't think . user interface: or rechargeable station because it's a pain when you run out of batteries . industrial designer: So  , I noticed your talk about speech recognition and whistling , user interface: Okay ? industrial designer: and  I was just curious to know , have we done any research into how many people can whistle ?  , or if project manager: user interface: industrial designer: is that a function we want in the remote ? project manager: do you have trouble whistling ? user interface: I haven't been able to industrial designer: I don't , but I I know a lot of people do right . industrial designer:  it has to be a certain kind of whistle too , right ? project manager: Yeah , I suppose that's true . user interface: - , yeah project manager: Well I suppo  you could y you could have the user interface: or some sort of voice project manager: you could have the basically  instead of a whistle if it's got the voice recognition you could have it just , you know , where are you ? . industrial designer:  a much easier thing is just any loud noise like clapping  , shouting , you know , project manager:  . industrial designer:  and then , what would the response be ? It beeps back at you or something ? project manager: Sounds good . So I plug it in , press F_ five ? Function F_ five ? project manager: Function F_ eight for the  the  industrial designer: Or function F_ eight ? Okay . So as the Industrial Designer my job is to take an input from you guys , user interface: industrial designer:  so it's good you went first , project manager: Alright . industrial designer: and I jotted down some notes as to what are the b needs and  what kind of novel features we can add to differentiate our product from the others . industrial designer:  so Raj told us that  consumers are willing to spend more for fancy products , and  he also mentioned that  the current products don't always match users' operating behaviour .  , a lot of the buttons aren't used , and  he mentioned that they're not fun to use . And  a novel feature which  we just brought up was this this automatic speech recognition feature or noise detection feature for when you lose the remote , project manager: industrial designer: there could be a little microphone on it , and any noise over a certain threshold  it'll pick up as a a distress signal  from you and it'll beep back and say you know oh here I am or something of this sort . But sure surely that would have to be  sort of specific rather than above a threshold 'cause if you had a loud movie on you're likely to get it beeping back at you . industrial designer: Well maybe you could have a   tha that would be a consideration to take into account yes . industrial designer: Yeah well tha that's  for later down the road  , and then as for the user interface it should be trendy ,  and not computery , user interface: industrial designer: right , so more low tech and not too many buttons . project manager: industrial designer: And so I did a little research and unfortunately all I had to work on was our  our corporate archives of the great products we've made before , user interface: industrial designer: which include , you know ,  space craft , coffee makers , and bullet trains Or  or a high speed train . project manager: Ah is that what that is ? user interface: industrial designer: Right and having personally worked with all these products  I have a great deal of experience with  with industrial design of these . If you if you can build space craft you'll have no problem with a remote control , yeah . project manager: industrial designer: You got a a caffeine powered space shuttle train transport to your T_V_ , and  user interface: project manager: marketing:  . Give it one button user interface: industrial designer: and and it's a you know , for the the cowboy in all of us marketing: project manager: industrial designer: I I'm not quite sure what the the function is there but project manager: Right okay . industrial designer: Yeah it's a g  you could have a you know a project manager: Is that just switches on the speech recognition and it's entirely speech operated , is it ? industrial designer: Right . marketing: Fifty million was  prof project manager: Ah now it's fif fifty million Euros we've gotta  we've g marketing: As a profit . project manager: gotta make profit , so we're making that at twelve and a half Euros a time . Well I guess more realistically then , we need a product that's got some kinda nifty outer casing , cheap plastic  , you know ,  that should be just like  a tenth of the price maybe or less . industrial designer: we don't wanna have it project manager: Would it be possible to have the rechargeable idea ? Is that is that gonna mark up a lot ? industrial designer:  . user interface: That might cost more though , 'cause obviously with batteries we don't need to provide , well we provide the first batteries , but it's more , it's that's cheaper to just provide batteries . project manager:  if you think about these base stations now it's essentially just a a lead with a sort of self connecting brake in it , user interface: A battery in it , kinda . industrial designer:  the canonical user interface for these would be just a bunch of buttons , but since we're a cutting edge company , we  of course will have alternatives like  speech recognition , whistling recognition and rocket power project manager: Okay . user interface: industrial designer:  and lastly the transmission interface is  , just some engineering thing you don't have to worry about . industrial designer:  so here's you know , a great schematic that my  apprentice designer gave me . project manager: user interface: industrial designer:  as you can see the the remote control have parts and those parts look like that and  you know it's got a little operating procedure that looks something like that . And I suppose you all know how it works because we've all used it and we wouldn't be in a company designing remote controls if we didn't know what they were so  personal preferences , I think  programmable options which  just require a small amount of memory ,  non volatile memory , just  so the user can put in their favourite channels and maybe their preferred volume settings so that when they turn it on it's not blasting . And the  , the bells and whistles that we mentioned you know , they take more budgeting ,  more technical  expenditure of effort project manager: user interface: industrial designer: and it's also much more likely to not work if if we add these bells and whistles . project manager: Right , also so  a notice I got not very long before the meeting , so didn't manage to forward it on to you , it is let's see , I'll find it myself ,  Ta industrial designer: Okay , I don't think we need to screw it in . project manager: We had that  to dis-include teletext  because it's become outdated , and everybody uses the internet anyway . project manager:  it's only for the television , which I'm presuming means it's for a specific television , user interface: Okay . project manager: and  instead of colours and sorta colour options , they want corporate colour and slogan somehow implemented in the new design . project manager: And the logo  the sort of slogan we put the fa fashion in electronics  I don't know exactly how sort of incorpor  , I guess if you're going for a sort of globular shape you could kind of have it working its way round it or something . project manager: Okay , so , we have to decide on which functions we're going to actually have . project manager: now , we had as listed options we had industrial designer: project manager: speech recognition potentially , flat screen interface , L_C_D_ interface  we also want to limit the number of buttons so we'll pretty much take that one as read . project manager: So sorta strike a balance between a a few and a user interface: Well project manager: or it looks like we're just cutting on the  user interface:  . project manager: I do however have this from over my head , that they don't want teletext on it . project manager:  maybe Raj you could find out what people would think about that , or maybe they'll send marketing: About cost . project manager: some information about that , about  what people , whether people would require  teletext in a remote teletext option in a remote control . So  I take it your position Arlo is that the bells and whistles we've gotta come up with the a gimmick but not too complicated a gimmick . project manager:  so  a a the sort of inkling I'm getting from little bits of  web chatter that I'm getting sent is that they're quite interested in a T_F_T_ display , interactive display . However that does sound a bit like the more complicated design that rav  sorry Raj  said people didn't like . project manager: If you think about standard interfaces that people use already , sort of Windows-style drop down menus or whatever , user interface: project manager: I think maybe that's a bit , going a bit far user interface: Yeah . project manager: but you know like in a basic sense that you could have your basic selection of buttons , and if you hit a sort of menu at the top you have  it goes to a different selection of buttons , so it sorta keeps it simple . project manager:  glow in the dark , is that sort of with a light inside it or is it sort of glow in the dark material ? user interface:  marketing:  . So marketing: I user interface: so I I guess that would be cheaper than a light I think . marketing:  actually I think it's really really very important point  as if we look at the market because people mor fifty percent people they find that the remote controls are often lost somewhere in the remote , in the room . But user interface: Often lost s was that , marketing: yeah are lost project manager: Lost , yeah . But if we add speech recognition as well as glow in the dark then both these factors will help their locating the remote control , user interface: marketing: like if they come and speak something at the remote control  replies to something something and it glows in the dark . Both these factors  both these points will help them to locate the where they have kept this remote control , project manager: That's cool . user interface: - , marketing: and this will definitely enhance our  market sales , project manager: That's cool . project manager:  speech recognition I take it user interface: industrial designer: Oh it's project manager: I don't , I've I know of no products  that use speech recognition well . industrial designer: They're act there there was a remote control that came out two years ago that had a some basic speech recognition on it . You could programme it with your channels and then you say you know like  B_B_C_ one and it goes to that channel . project manager: Really ? industrial designer: Yeah , it didn't work very well though because of this noise interference problem . project manager: Yeah , or a yeah an advert an advert for B_B_C_ two on B_B_C_ one'll switch the channel for you kinda thing . user interface: industrial designer: Right , right , and so there was a lot of this , you'd be watching the T_V_ and then all of a sudden it'd it'd pick up a noise and turn it off or you know or turn the volume off or something , project manager:  . user interface: Well what about industrial designer: user interface: this might get a bit too expensive actually , but what about  something that's built into the T_V_  that you can press and it'll send out a little signal you know like the ones that we can't hear or something project manager: Ah , that's a good idea . user interface: If you find if y industrial designer: Right and then it would do just you know ,  subtractive kind of cancellation of the noise . industrial designer: What you could do then would be you have  a remote controlled by the T_V_ speaker , or not a remo I'm sorry , a microphone by the T_V_ speaker and a transmitter there that sends back to your remote , 'cause you can't  expect  the the television manufacturers to to put that feature into their T_V_s . industrial designer: But yeah , then you have like the little se separate module by the T_V_ speaker project manager: That we should just stick on , yeah . industrial designer: Right , and then the remote control would know  what's being produced by the television . project manager: And that's a sort of basic R_F_ kind of frequency so it'll be cheap . Yeah that's certainly possible then an another thing was about this losing the remote and trying to find it again . If you do have this sorta speech interface to it , you don't even need to find it . You just say you know ,  whatever you whatever you want the remote for , you know to change the channel or to  turn the T_V_ on and off , you just shout your command to it and it would do it for you if it's within you know , within hearing range . And  you know it could be somewhere in the room y that you've no idea where it is and it would still do its job . user interface: That could also be built into the T_V_ though , which might make our remote control a bit obsolete .  so I think rather than and that also kind of takes out the speech recognition in terms of the interference of it not working very well and things like that , user interface:  . project manager: So I think if we're going to go well  like the thing about the there's the problem with the T_F_T_ or the L_C_D_ kind of thing is if you're also wanting the the kind of  organic globby sort of feeling to it then you might have trouble incorporating the screen . project manager: but I guess not I thin we'll just we'll just pretend that's not a problem . user interface: Maybe not even all of it 'cause we said  colours and fashion w were important so maybe  just like a little l line that's kind of around the outside and then you can make the rest a different colour . industrial designer: Yeah , no th the material's cheap but it's just  the the glow in the dark material needs some light to charge it you know , and then  if you're , if you're sitting in the dark for too long it  it won't glow any more . project manager:  Okay , well we can use we can still use the glow in the dark as a gimmick essentially , user interface: Yeah , project manager:  if we're gonna have to user interface: 'cause what I thought , main project manager: if we're gonna have the logo on as well , bright yellow logo in our our  slogan . project manager:  then you know they're gonna be fairly brightly coloured anyway , and we can have sort of a a a trimming as well , of the glow in the dark material , just as gimmickyness . 'Cause yeah , that w more than finding it , that was more like you know if you're watching a film in the dark , you can  still see the remote control . project manager: Alright , so n sorta if if if we're gon if we're gonna go with the idea of   of feedback , sort of remote finder , then that kinda stuffs that one out then .  so we've got do we want to go with the T_F_T_ idea or the is that far too expensive ? industrial designer:  yeah we're getting a lot of features now , I I think project manager: Well  I think I think the sort of find the finder things  it's  I could probably write the circuit diagram for that myself . project manager:  industrial designer: Well , I think a consideration too is that these  remotes get abused a lot , you know they get thrown around , user interface:  . industrial designer: there's a good chance the the T_F_T_ screen would break or  get damaged . user interface: So is that one of our definite requirements that they wa that it needs a T_F_T_ screen ? project manager:  no ,  that was going on ravs  Raj's sort of  marketing research I guess . So that's sort of included in your sub-module kind of stuff ,  industrial designer: Yeah  . project manager: If you could find out that  marketing: Totally , it takes cheap speech recognition , she they wi project manager:  I think we're gonna scratch the speech recognition as a bit of a industrial designer: Oh . project manager:  expensive , user interface: Yeah you think so ? industrial designer: Oh no it's it's much cheaper than the T_F_T_ , it's just a microphone and some some integrated circuits . industrial designer: And it'd it'd be a small vocabulary speech recognition system , project manager: Is it not the circuits that cost industrial designer: like a project manager: Oh right , okay . industrial designer: project manager:  well that kind of takes back the R_F_ the R_F_ remote sort of idea as well . marketing: project manager: Excellent , so we'll go with speech recognition , yeah ? industrial designer: Okay . And what else was I thinking of that I haven't written down and therefore fallen out my head , user interface:  project manager: programmability . project manager:  user interface: if it's not too expensive s I think it's a good gimmick .  can you put all these reports in the project documents folder if they're not already in there as well . industrial designer: project manager: And  I'll put any I'm I'm putting anything I do in there anyway , so  user interface: And where is it sorry ? project manager:  pro  project documents . industrial designer: So it should be when you save project manager: On A_M_I_ scenario controller . marketing:  it is in shared documents ? industrial designer: And then  hit that little folder up thing again . project manager: And I will tr getting strings of  information , I'll try and forward any specific to anybody in particular , as soon as I get them now , rather than industrial designer: project manager: I was about to sort of tell you about the changes before the meeting , and then the meeting turned up , so user interface: Okay . project manager: So user interface: What I thought as well about the material is  maybe not this kind of material , but maybe more like  this kind of rubbery material , it's a bit more bouncy , like you said they get chucked around a lot . user interface: The rubber rather than project manager: More sort of  flesh-like than plasticky sort of . marketing:  but we have to take care like project manager: industrial designer: user interface: marketing: But we have to take care of our children also if they means if children catch hold of your or if they chew it it shouldn't be too harmful . user interface: marketing: So we have to safety point of view also , we have to take care . industrial designer: user interface: Oh I think wi with the more organic shape of it it won't be as it won't as have many sharp corners as that , so that's something good ,  project manager: Yeah . user interface: industrial designer: We could go completely out of the box and make the thing a big red ball foam ball . marketing: project manager: industrial designer: And there's no buttons at all , it's always on , and just yell at it , and it works . project manager: yeah it's gonna have to be it's gonna be have a big yellow foam ball , yeah , sorry . user interface: Yeah , d with the colour ,  does it have to be all yellow , do you know ? project manager: Please God no . project manager: my reaction to an all-yellow remote control wouldn't be anything other than horror , so I think just having it user interface: Yeah . project manager: And I'll see if I can argue with boss about putting the user interface: Cool . project manager: what was it ? We put we put fashion into Whoops , it's not working . project manager: Okay , that felt a bit more like a something with order and and reason to it than the last one