mili's blog

revised thesis statement 2

2006-11-14T06:03:00.000-08:00

In addition to the task of goal-oriented purchase, a CD e-commerce site should be able to provide a process that evokes users' emotional perception of being in a visionally musical environment and furthermore gives them an experience of shopping in a real music store.

revise thesis statement

2006-11-12T15:43:00.000-08:00

This project is to create a CD e-commerce site that evokes users' emotional perception of being in a visionally musical environment and furthermore gives them an experience of shopping in a real music store.

Hsin-ju Kuo (Mili) -- 45 Review

2006-10-20T04:31:00.000-07:00

Document

Left: Capp Report
Right: Resume, Projects Narrative, Thesis Proposal

Project Presentation

Project 1
ITGM 719 Scripting for Interactivity
DaVinci Code
Flash, Illustrator, Photoshop
Josephine Leong
Summer 2006

This project is a puzzle game, but design in a story which is related to the book "Da Vinci Code." Users have to put the puzzle pieces together in a minute, and figure out the code that shows on the painting, entering the code and getting into next level.

Link to the site: http://studentpages.scad.edu/~hsikuo20/puzzleweb

Project 2
ITGM 705 Interactive Design and Media Application
I'm in Love
Flash, Illustrator, Photoshop
SuAnne Fu
Fall 2005

This website is basically transmit an emotional experience of being in a relationship between a boy and a girl. Users are able to shoose either boy's or girl's point of view, to see their inner feeling when they face a certain situation. Users can view the shole process of this relationship and switching to the other perspection at any time.

Link to the site: http://studentpages.scad.edu/~hsikuo20/loveweb

Project 3
ITGM 723 Human-centered Interactive Design
CakeLovers.com
Flash, Illustrator
John Sharp
Winter 2006

This is a cake shopping website which offers users to shop cake online in a quick way. There is a special feature in this shopping site, which is providing a section that users can make their own cakes. They can shoose ingredients and style of the cake and place it into shopping cart. This project is basically considering about the usability of the interface to enable the shole purchase process as simple and fast as possible.

Project 4
ITGM 303 Programming for Interactivity
Frida Kahlo's chronology
Director, Illustrator, Photoshop
David E. Meyers
Fall 2005

This project is to design a timeline for Frida Kahlo, a Maxican female artist. A chronological timeline is provided at the first page, and when users click each year, it goes to the section that contains photos and information about that year.

Project 5
ITGM 715 Interactive Web Design
Amaranth Foundation
Flash, Illustrator
Carla Diana
Summer 2005

This website is designed for Amaranth Foundation which is an non-profit organization which help children to improve and cure their vision disability. The website mainly introduces the information about this foundation.

Link to the site: http://studentpages.scad.edu/~hsikuo20/amaweb

Thesis

Thesis Statement
This project is to create a CD e-commerce site that gives people a more interactive, intuitive and interesting online shopping experience by focusing on its design and unique shopping functionality.

Purpose
Creating a CD shopping site which is distinct from other existing CD site, by bringing in the joyful experiences that customers usually get from the real music store. Providing online shopping users a good process of purchasing CD, both in functionality and aesthetic experience.

Research

Approaches
1. Websites compare
2. Asking people in music store
3. Music store owner online interview
4. Articles

http://milikuo.blogspot.com/2006/05/keypoints-in-article-buying-music.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/09/entertainment/main599008.shtml

Reasons for people to shop online
1. More choices
2. Convenient and save time
3. NO geographic limitation

Reasons people don't like to shop CD online
1. fulled with cd cover
2. fulled with information

Reasons for people to shop in stores
1. Enviroment: music and design
2. Touch the item
3. Trip of discovery

Solutions in this CD shopping site
1. aesthetical experience
2. distance items
3. touch it and feel it
4. listen to it
5. buy it or not

Combine the benefit from:
Shopping in music stores
1. Shopping for fun
2. Shopping for mood
3. Shopping actively

Shopping online:
1. Easy to access
2. Convenient
3. Information availability

Final Presentation

2006-08-23T06:20:00.000-07:00

Thesis Statement

This project is to create a CD e-commerce site that gives people a more interactive, intuitive and interesting online shopping experience by focusing on its design and unique shopping functionality.

Real Store Features in This Site

1. Near and far view
2. Turn around CD case
3. Emphsize on design and music
4. Categorize by letters order

Online Shopping Site Features in This Site

1. Interactive interface
2. Recording accounts
3. Allowing to buy individual digital song
4. Leave comments immidiately

Still need to be worked on:
1. Categories
2. Shopping Cart
3. Sign in/ Sign out

3D Box Component

2006-07-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

This is exactly what I need but I have to pay for this...

http://www.flashloaded.com/userguides/3dbox/

Midterm Presentation

2006-07-19T01:31:00.000-07:00

Completed:
Flow chart
CD resources collecting
Color scale decision
Visualized Interface
Part of the functions

Working on:
Categories
3D transition
Thesis outline
Main menu
More ActionScript

Main Menu:
Logo
Company info
(maybe categories)
New released
My account
Contact us

Menu design

Listen to the songs

Shopping cart

2 of 3D interface idea

2006-07-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

CD Resources

2006-07-03T07:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.wwr.idv.tw/

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/eslitemusic

3D environment examples

2006-07-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

http://honeybrown.ca/Pubs/BumpTop.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ODskdEPnQ

different idea of interface

2006-07-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

Flow Chart

2006-07-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

Schedule for Studio II

2006-06-28T00:56:00.000-07:00

Week 2
Decide the music type
Flow Chart complete
Work on ActionScript

Week 3
Collecting resource of CDs
Sketches of screens (more detail)
Color scale choice
Thesis outline
Work on ActionScript

Week 4
Collecting resource of CDs
Work on 3D environment
Work on ActionScript
Thesis outline complete

Week 5
Midterm presentation
Work on 3D environment: Initial interface idea
Put into Flash
Work on Logo page

Week 6
3D environment complete
Building the main interface
ActionScript of Scroll bar

Week 7
Main interface complete
ActionScript of CD clicking and flipping:
"individual cd cover and back" screen complete

Week 8
Songs listening: "dynamic lyrics" screen complete
ActionScript of viewing and writing comment

Week 9
"Shopping cart" mode complete

Week 10
Project complete
Test movie and revise
Final presentation

Final Presentation

2006-05-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

Thesis Statement

This project is to create a CD e-commerce site that gives people a more interactive, intuitive and interesting online shopping experience by focusing on its design and unique shopping functionality.

Research:
1. Websites compare
2. Asking people in music store
3. Music store owner online interview
4. Articles

Custom online shopping behavior: Goal-oriented

Reasons for people to shop online:
1. More choices
2. Convenient and save time
3. NO geographic limitation

Reasons people don't like to shop CD online:
1. fulled with cd cover
2. fulled with information

Reasons for people to shop in stores:
1. Enviroment: music and design
2. Touch the item
3. Trip of discovery

Uniques of this project:
A CD shopping website that is
1. Spacial
2. non-liner

Audience:
Both goal-oriented and non goal-oriented

Music style:
Underground artist

Process:
1. aesthetical experience
2. distance items
3. touch it and feel it
4. listen to it
5. buy it or not

Showing demo

questions:
1. Search engine?
2. Buying process?
3. Relationships between CDs
4. Friendly interface

Expectation:
more and more and more research
programming

White Wabbit Records

2006-05-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.wwr.idv.tw/

Design Doc--Draft 2

2006-05-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

Thesis Overview

Thesis Statement

This project is to create a CD e-commerce site that gives people a more interactive, intuitive and interesting offline shopping experience by focusing on its design and unique shopping functionality.

Thesis Description

This project is going to be a CD shopping site. As an online shopping user, I found that all kinds of online shopping stores have the same standard layout in order to facilitate the process of shopping. In these shopping sites, the interface has to be simple and clear, and the menu is usually like a bar, tags, or a table. For instance, amazon shopping site uses tags to keep the sections in organized way. Hierarchy is going on page by page. Users tend to get used to this formula, and they agree that the outcome is the most important in this action, which means they just want to get items and make sure they will be sent. However, among real life shopping behaviors, people sometimes don’t just want to get something in the store; instead, there are several factors that make them go shopping. For example, they may like to take a look of the store’s interior and display design, try on some clothes they are interested in, or even just want to touch the items. They feel entertained by doing this. They are not really shopping to purchase, but they are more shopping to entertain themselves. Most of the shopping sites emphasize the purchaze and try to make the process faster and faster, so they somehow exclude the group of those people. That is why people still want to go to real store to shop, because it is definitely more interesting than on online store. This reminds me that what the consumers will see and feel during the shopping process is also important.

During the research, I found that there are several common reasons for people to shop online. First is that there are more choices online than a music store. People don’t mind waiting for a CD that they couldn't get in a music store. Secondly, online CD shopping is a convenient time saver. If they don't feel like going out, they can just stay home and shop CDs through the Internet. Third, the Internet breaks the geographic limitation of some areas. If people want CDs that are only published by certain music shop but there is no that shop in the city they live, they can only order it online. Overall, online CD shopping is for the people who are goal-oriented. They order CDs online because they want specific CDs, and they don't want to waste time shopping.

On the other hand, shopping for CDs in a music store offers people lots of fun. The first factor is the shopping environment. When most of the CD sites keep the similar format, music stores have different styles. Good interior design can motivate customers' shopping appetites. The second thing that is fun is to touch the CDs. People like to see it and feel it, so they think it’s real, and feel like buying it. Besides, some of my interviewees agree that finding a CD in a music store is like a trip of discovery. They like to discover a CD that they don't expect, and regard it as a surprise after they see the CD cover or listen to it in the store. This finding fulfills their desire of getting things which are new, unexpected and also good. These are the interesting things that people cannot presently get from buying CD online.

Project Overview

Purpose of Project

The reason I am making this kind of shopping website is all because of “process”. I believe that in digital interface world, the process is always important than the outcome for users, because that’s where they can get the enjoyable experience. It even has no outcome, because there is no end. Users never have idea that where will be their stop. However, shopping sites always end up with the last page that says “thank you, your order has been confirmed”, and close the window without having second look. I’m wondering how to make the process more intriguing, and make consumers feel shopping, not just finishing. I have seen a shopping site that is trying to be different in terms of the screen composition. It doesn’t just list categories and items linearly but tries to play with the interrelationship among the items. In this way, every item becomes meaningful and alive. Also, the action of searching items is more interesting to the users.

So far, I’ve never seen any CD shopping site that is substantially different in design from one to the other. Most of them are filled with CD covers and show all the information and price at the same time. One of my interviewees said he was always overwhelmed by that and got annoyed. He just wanted to get the CD they want, pay it, and get out of the site. However, in my project, I will try to make people stay by letting them watch the CD covers, listen to the music, and then decide whether they are gonna buy it or not, instead of showing all the information at one page.

This project doesn’t intend to imitate a real stroe by creating a real store image, such as a 3D modeling store. Because it is online shopping, it still has limitations; besides, there is no point to create a real store image, because it couldn’t be exactly the same as going to a real stroe. The concept mostly is about the feeling of shopping. Like I said, some consumers like to take a look, or try something new, and that’s what I’m trying to do.

Therefore, this CD shopping site is going to give the users a new experience. Buying music is an emotional experience, and that is joyful, playful, and unexpected surprising. Now this project is going to bring all these emotions to the Internet users, to prove that buying music online can also be fun.

Component overview

This project is going to be a different online shop. It will have an intro screen, which shows the logo of the CD shopping site, and then goes into the main purchase screen. I want to get rid of the frame-like format and page-by-page sequence, and create a space by using near and far perspective technique. Furthermore, the full content of the section will also be shown, and not requiring the user to click a certain button and go to another page. In other words, it will be like a flow chart, which shows all the things at one time. The hierarchy will be built by making them near and far. For example, the section that the users are in is the nearest, and the rest of the sections are further. Besides, expect for the CD covers, all the elements will be types. Since all things are going to happen in a virtual space, they will be moving and floating, and I think dynamic type is more interesting than graphics. Also, in case of the disorder elements floating around the space confuses users, type is the clearest message; it already tells the users “what I am” without doubt or guess.

I finally concluded my research resource to a solid idea of my project. The audience of this project is going to focus on both the goal-oriented group and non goal-oriented group. The first way is to give users the aesthetic experience, which means transmit the sense of beauty and design to users so they would like to stay in the site. The second way is to create distance. Unlike the existing CD sites that list all the CD covers they have in one page that could make user overwhelmed easily, this project is going to organize CDs in different distance. The strategy is set CD cover in near-and-far perspective, to mimic the view when shopping in real life. Users tend to view the item that is nearest to them, and then further and further. Thus, shopping in this website will be like a trip of discovery. The third way is to allow users to view the whole CD case. When they found the CD they might be interested in, they click it to enlarge the image, and flip it over by clicking it again. In this way, they can see the back of CD and read what songs it includes. They can also click songs' names to listen to them. The final step is to decide if they want to buy it or not. Click on the buying icon, and the users will go into buying screen. This site will also offer digital format, for users who don't what to purchase all the songs on one CD. They can pick songs on certain CDs to download, but still they have to pay for them.

This project is designed for smaller independent music companies that only published CDs of underground musical artists. The intended audience will be the people who like to try different kinds of music and also like to shop in music store. Also, these independent music companies might only have one store in certain city. This website can offer a feeling of shopping in real store to those people who live in other cities.

Component Design
Component 1

Logo: Click the logo and it will go to the main interface screen. The logo will move to the left top of the screen.

Component 2

Click the logo and come into this screen.

logo: Showcasing the logo and will keep in each screen. Clicking on it to see the company’s information.
ABCDEF…: These letters represent the various categories of CDs. Clicking on them and go into the category belongs to the letter.
Scroll bar: Scroll up will go further to the later letters.
Intent: Music stores usually put CDs into categories by letters.

Component 3
Click “logo” and come into this screen.

Logo: showcasing the logo.
Information: showing the company’s brief and contact information.
Arrow: back to the purchase screen.

Component 4
Click “A” and come into this screen.

logo: Showcasing the logo and will keep in each screen. Click it can see the company’s information.
A mark: Telling the users which category they are in. Click it will go back to the letter category screen.
CDs: The CD covers are placed in different positions. Every CD cover is in different sizes, too, so they look near-and-far. Clicking on one will enlarge it. All the CD covers will also be enlarged when clicking anyone of them, and the view looks like going forward.
Scroll bar: Scroll up will go further to the later CDs.
Intent: This is like when shopping in music store, every item has different distance to the customers’ eyes.

Component 5

Click any one of CDs and come into this screen.

logo: Showcasing the logo and will keep in each screen. Click it and see the company’s information.
A mark: Telling the users which category they are in. Click it will go back to the letter category screen.
CD: showcasing the CD cover.
Icons at the right bottom (from left to right):
First icon: Flipping the CD.
Second icon: Buy the CD.
Third icon: See the comments and also write down their own comments.
Forth icon: going back to the A category.
Intent: Like when the customer pick one of the CDs and looks at it. In here the customer can choose to flip it to see the back, to buy it right away, to see comments about this CD and also write down their own comments.

Component 6

Click the flip over icon and come into this screen.

logo: Showcasing the logo and will keep in each screen. Click it and see the company’s information.
A mark: Telling the users which category they are in. Click it will go back to the letter category screen.
Songs: Show the name of the songs.
Bar code sticker: showing the price.
Icons next to the songs:
Earphone: Click it and listen to the song.
Shopping cart icon besides the songs: Click it can choose to buy the song.
Icons at the right bottom (from left to right):
First icon: Flipping the CD.
Second icon: Buy the CD.
Third icon: See the comments and also write down their own comments.
Forth icon: going back to the A category.
Intent: Flipping it over and see the back of the CD. In this screen, the users can choose to buy the song in digital format or buy the whole CD.

Component 7

Click the earphone will come into this screen.

logo: Showcasing the logo and will keep in each screen. Click it and see the company’s information.
Artist: Showing the information of the playing song.
Words: Song’s lyrics.
Control interface: This is like a media player control bar. There are “play”, “stop”, “forward”, “backward”, and volume control. Press “play” and it will turn to “pause” key. Press “stop” will go back to the CD back.
Upper shopping cart icon: Buying this CD.
Lower shopping cart icon: Buying this song.
Intent: This screen is giving the users the visual and hearing experience. The lyrics will move following the music. The beauty of moving typeface will be addressed here.

Component 8

Click “buy this CD” will come into this screen.

logo: Showcasing the logo and will keep in each screen. Click it and see the company’s information.
A mark: Telling the users which category they are in. Click it will go back to the letter category screen.
CDs: Click each of them will enlarge the one. All the CD covers will also be enlarged when clicking anyone of them, and the view looks like going forward.
Scroll bar: Scroll up will go further to the later CDs.
CD at the bottom: These CDs are the ones users choose to buy. Click them can enlarge them and see the details. Intent: This is the first general idea about my shopping cart system. I’m still considering about should I use cart or not, but the purpose is to mimic the feeling of grabbing CD in hands.

Design Document -- Draft#1

2006-05-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Thesis Overview

Thesis Statement

This project is to create a CD e-commerce site that gives people an offline shopping experience by focusing on its design and unique shopping functionality. The process of buying music online can be more interactive, intuitive and interesting.

Thesis Description

This project is going to be a CD shopping site. As an online shopping user, I found that all kinds of online shopping stores have a same standard layout, in order to facilitate the process of shopping. In these shopping sites, the interface has to be simple and clear, and the menu is usually like a bar, tags, or a table. Hierarchy is going on page by page. Users tend to get used to this formula, and they agree that the outcome is the most important in this action, which means they just want to get items and make sure they will be sent. However, among real life shopping behaviors, people sometimes don’t just want to get something in the store; instead, there are several factors make them go shopping. For example, they may like to take a look of the store’s interior and display design, try on some clothes they are interested, or even just want to touch the items. They feel like being entertained by doing this. They are not really doing the shopping action, but they are more like feeling the shopping action. This is called “shopping for fun”. Most of the shopping sites emphasize on the conclusion and try to make the process faster and faster, so they somehow exclude the group of those people. That is why people still want to go to real store to shop, because it is definitely more interesting than online store. This reminds me that what the consumers will see and feel during the shopping process is also important.

During the research, I found that there are several common reasons for people to shop online. First is that there are more choices online than a music store. People would rather wait for the shipping days and get the CD that they couldn't get in a music store. Secondly, online CD shopping is convenient and time saved. If they don't feel like going out, they can just stay home and shop CD through the Internet. Third, the Internet breaks the limitation of some areas. If people want CDs that are only published by certain music shop but there is no that shop in the city they live, they can only order it online. Overall, online CD shopping is for the people who are goal-oriented. They order CD online because they want specific CDs and they don't want to waste time for shopping.

On the other hand, shopping CD in a music store offers people lots of fun. First factor is the shopping environment. When most of the CD sites keep in the similar format, music stores have different style. Good furnish design can motivate customers' shopping appetite. Second thing that is fun is to touch the CD. People like to see it and feel it so they think it,s real, and feel like buying it. Besides, some of my interviewers agree that finding CD in a music store is like a trip of discovery. They like to discover the CD that they don't expect but regard it as a surprise after they see the CD cover or listen to it in the store. This finding fulfills their desire of getting things which are new, unexpected and also good. These are the interesting parts that people can never get from buying CD online.

Project Overview

Purpose of ProjectThe reason I make this kind of shopping website is all because of “process”. I believe that in the digital interface world, the process is always important than the outcome for users, because that’s where they can get the enjoyable experience beside trading. It even has no outcome, because there is no end. Users never have idea where they will stop. However, shopping sites always end up with the last page that says “thank you, your order has been confirmed”, and close the window without having second look. I’m wondering how to make the process more intriguing, and make consumers feel like shopping, not just finish shopping. I have seen a shopping site which is trying to be different in terms of the screen composition. It doesn’t just list categories and items linearly but tries to play with the interrelationship among the items. In this way, every item becomes meaningful and alive. Also, the action of searching items is more interesting to the users.

So far, I’ve never seen any CD shopping site that is different from one to the other. Most of them are fulled with CD covers, and show all the information and price at the same time. People could get annoyed by that easily. They just want to get the CD they want, pay it, and get out of the site.

This project doesn’t intend to imitate a real store by creating a real store image. Because it is online shopping, it still has limitations; besides, there is no point to create a real store image, because it couldn’t be exactly the same as going to a real store. The concept mostly is about the feeling of shopping. Like I said, some consumers like to take a look, or try something new, and that’s what I’m trying to do.

Therefore, this CD shopping site is going to give users a new experience. Buying music is an emotional experience, and that is joyful, playful, and unexpected surprising. Now this project is going to bring all these emotions to the Internet users, to prove that buying music online can also be fun.

Component overview

This project is going to be a different online shop. It will have an intro screen, which shows the logo of the CD shopping site, and then goes into the main purchase screen. Get rid of the frame-like format and page-by-page sequence, I want to create a space by using near and far perspective technique. Furthermore, the content of the section will also be shown, instead of clicking certain button and go to another page. In other words, it will be like a flow chart, which shows all the things at one time. The hierarchy will be built by making them near and far. For example, the section that the users are in is the nearest, and the rest of the sections are further. Besides, most of the elements will be types. Since all things are going to happen in a virtual space, they will be moving and floating, and I think dynamic type is more interesting than graphics. For example, when the users click songs to listen to, the lyrics will be shown on the screen. They’ll move and follow the music.

According to the research I did, I finally converged them to the direction of my project. The audience of this project is going to focus on both the goal-oriented group and non goal-oriented group. The first way is to give users the aesthetic experience, which means transmit the sense of beauty and design to users so they would like to stay in the site. The second way is to create distance. Unlike the existing CD sites that list all the CD covers they have in one page that could make user overwhelmed easily, this project is going to organize CDs in different distance. The strategy is set CD cover in near-and-far perspective, to mimic the view when shopping in real life. Users tend to be caught the item that is nearest to them, and then further and further. Thus, shopping in this website will be like a trip of discovery. The third way is to make users be able to view the whole CD case. When they found the CD they might be interested, they click it to enlarge the image, and flip it over by clicking it again. In this way, they can see the back of CD and read what songs it includes. They can also click songs' names to listen to them. Final step is to decide they want to buy it or not. Click on the sign of buying, the users will go into buying screen. In this site, it will also offer digital format, to consider the users who don't what to purchase the whole songs in one CD. They can pick songs in certain CDs to download, but still they have to pay for it.

This project is designed for smaller independent music companies that only published CDs of underground musical artists.

Component Design

Component 1

Logo: Click the logo and the main interface screen will be pop-up
Intent: Using pop-up window for the interface screen and also leave the logo window there. So it keeps reminding the users what company it is.

Component 2
Click the logo and come into this screen.ABCDEF…: These letters represent the categories of CDs. Click them and go into the category belongs to the letter.
Scroll bar: Scroll up will go further to the later letters.
Intent: Music stores usually put CDs into categories by letters.

Component 3
Click “A” and come into this screen.

A mark: Telling the users which category they are in.
CDs: These are CD covers that placed in different positions. Every CD cover is in different sizes, too, so they look like near-and-far. Click each of them will enlarge the one. All the CD covers will also be enlarged when clicking anyone of them, and the view looks like going forward.
Scroll bar: Scroll up will go further to the later CDs.Intent: This is like when shopping in music store, every item has different distance to the customers’ eyes.

Component 4
Click any one of CDs and come into this screen.

A mark: Telling the users which category they are in. Click it can go back to the A category.
CD: Click one CD cover and it will be enlarged. There will be comments about this album somewhere on this cover.
Intent: Like when the customer pick one of the CDs and look at it.

Component 5
Click the CD cover again and come into this screen.

A mark: Telling the users which category they are in. Click it can go back to the A category.
Songs: Show the name of the songs.
Earphone: Click it and listen to the song.
Buy: Click it can choose to buy the song.
Buy this CD: Click it can choose to buy this CD.
Intent: Click the CD cover again means flip it over and see the back of the CD. In this screen, the users can choose to buy the song in digital format or buy the whole CD. There will be a label of price stick on it.

Component 6

Click the earphone will come into this screen.

Words: This is a song’s lyrics.
Control interface: This is like a media player control bar. There are “play”, “stop”, “forward”, “backward”, and volume control. Press “play” and it will turn to “pause” key. Press “stop” will go back to the CD back.
Intent: This screen is giving the users the visual and hearing experience. The lyrics will move following the music. The beauty of moving typeface will be addressed here.

Component 7

Click “buy this CD” will come into this screen.

A mark: Telling the users which category they are in.
CDs: Click each of them will enlarge the one. All the CD covers will also be enlarged when clicking anyone of them, and the view looks like going forward.
Scroll bar: Scroll up will go further to the later CDs.
CD at the bottom: These CDs are the ones users choose to buy. Click them can enlarge them and see the details.
Intent: This is the first general idea about my shopping cart system. I’m still considering about should I use cart or not, but the purpose is to mimic the feeling of grabbing CD in hands.

5 shopping experiences

2006-05-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

1. aesthetical experience
2. distance items
3. touch it and feel it
4. listen to it
5. buy it or not (dragging to shopping cart (or not?))

Keypoints in article "buying music online"

2006-05-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

"The keyword for the utilitarian or goal-oriented shopping thus seems to be “necessity”
Lehtonen and Mäenpää (1997: 144) characterize pleasurable shopping by “dreaminess and self-illusory hedonism”, “layfulness” and “impulsiveness”, which they distinguish from “shopping as a necessary maintenance activity”

"Previous research on e-commerce (e.g. Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2001) has asked what online consumers really want, and why they are shopping online. Results from such studies suggest that goal-oriented shoppers are interested in e-tailing because of four specific attributes: convenience and accessibility, selection, availability of information, and lack of sociality. "

"Experiential behavior, on the other hand, is described as “shopping for fun” "

"The reasons for shopping online are that it is easy accessible, time and effort saving and convenient. "

"Annelie: Oh my. Then you’re much more unfocused. It’s more that you fall into a record store, and then you start at one end of the store, gathering up a load of records that you’ve got to listen to. And then you stand there listening for no matter how long time. And when you do you always come up with some new thing that “Oh, I’ve got to listen to that one too!” /…/ So I might put it this way: nowadays I don’t go to records stores as often as I used to, but when I do, it can take very very long time. "

"Tony: When I’m at Bengans, I just grab a record “this one looks fun”, and then I listen, and then “Wow, this was good” and then I buy it. Even though I hadn’t planned to but I just happened to find it when I was browsing. But on the Internet, it’s not the same spontaneity in it, but just- There, I’ve already decided. I’ve got a list back home, like “I’ll have those and those and those records.” “Do they have them?” “Yes.” “Is the price alright?” ”Yes.” ”Buy.”

"Hanna: Above all, I like to touch things before I buy them. I want to feel what they feel like. Alright, a CD-cover doesn’t feel different in different stores, but I still believe that’s the focal point for me. I want to see and touch. In that way I see that what I buy is guaranteed the right thing before I bring it home. "

"The reason for visiting the offline record store is sometimes described as a question of just browsing around, and letting oneself be directed by impulses and opportunities. Although shopping online has its advantages, it does not allow consumers to be surprised in the same way as they may be when they shop offline. "

"Hannes: Yeah, sure, it is. But it’s also more difficult to get a general view online. And you can’t pass a shelf and get caught by the look of a cover sleeve. And that’s a traditional problem with the Net, that you don’t get surprised in the same way. "

"The adventurous shopper is also often willing to make considerable efforts to make new discoveries. "

"modern urban people developed a need to emphasize their individuality and to distinguish themselves from others. "

"Sociologists sometimes describe shopping as a social activity."

"a mall is not only a place where things are bought and consumed, but also a place that has been arranged to lure people into consuming. Since the sales are stimulated by consumers’ window shopping and strolling around in the stores and in the mall, in an aesthetically appealing environment, one can claim that the landscape per se not only contains goods to be consumed, but that the landscape itself is consumed"

Feedback from a music store's owner.

2006-04-30T14:32:00.000-07:00

When I was in Taiwan I like to go to a music store in Taipei and stayed there for long time. It includes CDs from many different CD publishing companies. So I search for the information of one of those CD publishing companies called "Rabbit and Orange" (I've bought several CDs that published by this company and I like them very much), and found that this company has it's own music store and also started online shopping just few years ago. I think the owner might get lots of experiences in dealing with online shopping and real store shopping, so I email them and ask questions. Fortunately, I got their feedback. Below is my question and their answers.

1. Q: Do you agree that even if the customers can order the CDs they want from online shopping, they will still go to the real store to shop CDs?

A: Yes, I agree. Many of our customers who live in the south have to order our CDs online (because this company's store location is in the north of Taiwan), but they will still go to North and come to our store to shop CDs.

2. Q: What reason do you think they still want to go to music store?

A: One reason is there is people in the store that can serve them. Like if they get a broken CD case, we can change it for them right away. We can also introduce or interprete the music for them. The most important thing is that every music store has it's own style. It's all because of "human" factor. All of these are the interesting and charming parts besides the trading.

3. Q: According to your experience of surfing CD websites, what are their similarities?

A: There are many CDs. (that's all???....)

4. Q: According to your experience, what's the advantage and disadvantage of shopping CD online (compare to music store)?

A: Online shopping can get rid of the limitation of location, but you can't really see and touch the items. The advantage of real store is once the customers see the CDs, they'll get excited, but at the same time they will buy too many and spend lots of money.

When I explained my thesis project to the owner, he said if I can really create a shopping site that makes the customers feel like being in the real music store, he will like me to change their shopping website (but that's only "if I can"). Some of his feedbacks are quite helpful, but some others are not. Still, I guess this is a good experience emailing with this company that I have always appreciated.

Articles.

2006-04-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

I found some articles and thesises online which are helpful to my research.
They are about consumer behavior of online shopping.

http://www.viktoria.se/results/result_files/180.doc
Buy music online
A Qualitative Study of Swedish Record Buyers' Shopping Experience

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=zh-TW&lr=&q=cache:yd_bSkku-_cJ:www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/Research/papers/Shopping%2520Cart%2520Abandonment%2520at%2520Retail%2520Websites%2520-%2520A%2520Multi-Stage%2520Model%2520of%2520Online%2520Shopping%2520Behavior%2520%255BLi,%2520Chatterjee%2520-%2520Feb%25202005%255D.pdf+online+shopping++traditional+habit+article
Shopping Cart Abandonment at Retail Websites – A Multi-Stage Model of Online Shopping Behavior

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/131/report_display.asp
The Internet and Daily Life: Many Americans use the Internet in everyday activities, but traditional offline habits still dominate

http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw99/papers/gregory2/paper.html
Internet entertainment

Feedback from the Questions

2006-04-17T09:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to Fye and Target to ask people their opinions.
Also I asked people I know that they like shopping music, both online and real store.
Here are the answers I found from them.

Prefer Online:
1. Online product is more various. I usually get the CD that I couldn't get from a real strore.
2. If I'm at home, i will just go online. It depends.

Don't Like Online:
1. I have to wait for the delivery.
2. I have to pay the shipping fee.
3. Sometimes the page of CD online site shows too much information. I feel overwhelmed.

Prefer Real Store:
1. I can get it right away.
2. I just wanna get out of the house.
3. I like the feeling of holding a real CD.
4. I think it's the human instinct. It's like hunting something. Whenever I find a CD that I want, I get a sense of accomplishment. Like I achieve my goal.
5. I like to take my time walking around in the store. I like shopping slowly if I get spare time.
6. I can check if the CD is being broken.
7. Online is for the people who has known what they wanna get in their mind. But sometimes I found surprise in a real store.
8. I can touch different kinds of music in a music store.
9. When I walk in a music store I feel like being embraced by the music. I like the atmosphere.

Most of the feedbacks are valuable, but some of them will not be solved in my project design.
Such as
"they have to wait for the delivery,
they have to pay the shipping fee,
they can check if the CD is being broken"
These are inevitable events.

I'm also surprised that when I asked the opinions of people in the real music shop,
Their answers are "I prefer online."
Maybe that's because in Savannah the CD availability is kind of poor.

Cool Sites

2006-04-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.dontclick.it/

http://www.dontclick.it/

https://www.shopcomposition.com/secure.aspx

Thanks to Joe... :)

Example

2006-04-10T10:42:00.000-07:00

These are examples that I would like to do:

http://www.pandora.com/
Create a personal radio station

http://www.etsy.com/time_machine.php#goods
Spatial shopping

http://www.purevolume.com/
Listening to the song immediately, and also see singer's photos and blog

These are examples that I would not like to do:

http://www.cduniverse.com/
This one is like most of the cd shopping sites

http://www.croart.com/
This one is so massive that makes me feel like getting out of there right away

Schedule

2006-04-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

Week 3
Showing a good and bad website examples
Asking Questions:
People in the music store
People I know who go to music store a lot
People I know who like music a lot
People number: 10
Come out with a conclusion I find

Week 4
Find a music store's owner to do interview
Academic Research:
Consumer behavior: differences between online shopping and real store shopping

Week 5
Find a music store's owner to do interview
Design document
Research: Similarities and differences of the existing CD shopping site

Week 6
Search for Technical Need (actionscript)
Design document
Academic Research: Concept about “process” in digital art
Deside the music type and collect resource for the project
Sketch of prototype

Week 7
Search for Technical Need (actionscript)
Academic Research:
The function of music in websites (give examples)
The application of “space” in websites (give examples)
Collecting resource for the project
Sketch of prototype

Week 8
Search for Technical Need (actionscript)
Academic Research:
The function of typeface in websites (give examples)
Come out with the conclusion of academic research
Collecting resource for the project
Prototype design and revise

Week 9
Search for Technical Need (actionscript)
Prototype design and revise

Week 10
Search for Technical Need (actionscript)
Prototype design and revise
Testing

Asking Questions

2006-04-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Ask people in the music stores:

Do they know they can buy CDs from the same store through online?
Why they want to buy CDs in the store rather than online?
Which one do they prefer, music store or online store?
What part do they like to shop in music store?
What part do they dislike to shop in online music site?

What music store I'm going to:
Fye
Best Buy
some other shops in O-mall
and some of my friends which I know they like to go buying CDs in music stores

Target number of people I'm gonna ask:
20

Today's progress.

2006-04-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

I've thought of some stuff I'm gonna do for this project in today's class:

Narrow down the type of music: so far I will like to do a group or a band’s albums, or more general, light music.

Find out what albums I’m gonna include in this site

Decide which songs I’m gonna offer the listening function and look for their lyrics.

Research about consumer behavior-compare with online shopping and real store shopping. Go to library and possibly design a survey questionnaire

Compare and contrast the existing shopping sites: what are their similarities? (Especially CD shopping sites)

What’s the difference between my CD shopping site and other existing shopping sites?

Research about dynamic typography and its relationship with space: what and how many kinds of varieties and transitions I can come up with?

Research about “process” in contemporary art movement: the definition, concept development, application in art works, and its importance

Study action script that I may use in the project:
How to make words floating constantly and are clickable simultaneously?
How to make words interactive with the curser?
To be Continue…

Background is monochromatic

I might use graphics but basically is the type font

Thesis proposal

2006-04-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Thesis Statement

The application of dynamic and 3d spatial typography in the shopping site makes the shopping process more interactive, intuitive and interesting.

Description

This project is going to be a CD shopping site. As an online shopping user, I found that all kinds of online shopping stores have a same standard layout, in order to facilitate the process of shopping. In these shopping sites, the interface has to be simple and clear, and the menu is usually like a bar, tags, or a table. Hierarchy is going on page by page. Users tend to get used to this formula, and they agree that the outcome is the most important in this action, which means they just want to get items and make sure they will be sent. However, among real life shopping behaviors, people sometimes don’t just want to get something in the store; instead, there are several factors make them go shopping. For example, they may like to take a look of the store’s interior and display design, try on some clothes they are interested, or even just want to touch the items. They feel like being entertained by doing this. They are not really doing the shopping action, but they are more like feeling the shopping action. Most of the shopping sites emphasize on the conclusion and try to make the process faster and faster, so they somehow exclude the group of those people. That is why people still want to go to real store to shop, because it is definitely more interesting than online store. This reminds me that what the consumers will see and feel during the shopping process is also important.

This project is going to be a different online shop. Get rid of the frame-like format and page-by-page sequence, I want to create a space by using near and far perspective technique. Furthermore, the content of the section will also be shown, instead of clicking certain button and go to another page. In other words, it will be like a flow chart, which shows all the things at one time. The hierarchy will be built by making them near and far. For example, the section that the users are in is the nearest, and the rest of the sections are further. Besides, expect for the CD covers, all the elements will be types. Since all things are going to happen in a virtual space, they will be moving and floating, and I think dynamic type is more interesting than graphics. Also, in case of the disorder elements floating around the space confuses users, type is the clearest message; it already tells the users “what I am” without doubt or guess.

The reason I make this kind of shopping website is all because of “process”. I believe that in digital interface world, the process is always important than the outcome. It even has no outcome, because there is no end. Users never have idea that where will be their stop. However, shopping sites always end up with the last page that says “thank you, your order has been confirmed”, and close the window without having second look. I’m wondering how to make the process more intriguing, and make consumers feel shopping, not just finish shopping.

There are several solutions of this CD shopping site. First, using “go further” concept to mimic the situation in a real store. Because users can see all things at one time, when the item is far and blurry, the user feel curious and go further. When they go further, items become bigger. Second, using dynamic type to create the transition. In this site, according to the definition of “process”, the transition is the most important thing. Users can see what happen after they chose one element, instead of going on next page directly. Besides, how to use type to move more powerfully than graphic is also a challenge. Third, let the users listen to the music with moving types. This part will give an impact of users’ visual and audio sense. Finally, using the concept of space to enhance the process. Space is freer than a flat frame, so there will be more possibilities happen in this space.

Intended Audience

My audience will focus on the age of 18 to 35. Users have to know how to use the Internet, and they more or less have experiences of online shopping. Since this is a music store, the audience may like music a lot, and they like to try all kinds of music.

Assumption

I will basically use flash and ActionScript to complete this project, and this is probably the most difficult part for me. As for the music, I will choose a group or a band’s entire albums, and the music style is contemporary. I haven’t decided which group or band I will do yet.

Expectation

This project doesn’t intend to imitate a real store by creating a real store image. Because it is online shopping, it still has limitation; besides, there is no point to create a real store image, because it couldn’t be exactly the same as going to a real store. The concept mostly is about the feeling of shopping. Like I said, some consumers like to take a look, or try something new, and that’s what I’m trying to do. The design will be simple, but the beauty of dynamic types will be addressed. How these types interact with users and how it moves and goes with audio is mostly what I will strive for.