Q: What did the User Interface think about their previous suggestions when discussing the user interface?
Text: Marketing: {vocalsound} That went well , thank you .
Project Manager: That's great .
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound} 'Kay .
Marketing: Perfect .
Project Manager: Alright , let me just PowerPoint this up . {vocalsound} {vocalsound} {vocalsound} Right so um this meeting will be about the conceptual design , don't ask me s precisely what conceptual design is , it's just something important that we need to do . Um , think of it {disfmarker} 's kind of uh turning the abstract into slightly more concrete . In this meeting ideally we'll come to some final decisions on what we're gonna do for the prototype . Um . Right so um , apologies for the last meeting , it was brought to my attention that I did not make the roles clear enough , um , so I will attempt to do so more accurately in this particular meeting . Um , fair enough , thanks for the input , 's always good . Um . So , basically all we're gonna do is have some presentations again much like last time , um , and gonna go through you , uh whoever wants to go first is f fine by me um and we'll collate what we know about um what we discussed in the last meeting , possible directions . {vocalsound} And then we'll make some more decisions on um basic uh firm up our idea on how we want this remote control to look and work . So , perfect . So , without th further ado , whoever wants to go first is free to .
Industrial Designer: I'll go first .
Project Manager: Alright Nathan ,
Marketing: Go ahead .
Project Manager: take it away . It is Nathan right ? I'm not calling you the wrong name over and over again ?
Industrial Designer: No Nathan's fine .
Marketing: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Good .
Industrial Designer: It's either Nathan or participant two .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Marketing: {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound} Mister participant two that is . {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: Uh .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Marketing: Nice .
Industrial Designer: Okay . Um ,
Project Manager: Nice .
Industrial Designer: basically what I'm gonna have to talk to you about today is um component design and it's been brought to my attention that we may be somewhat limited as to what we can do because of what our manufacturer offers ,
Project Manager: Mm .
Industrial Designer: so {disfmarker} Basically what I'm gonna be doing is talking to you about that . Um , components of a remote control , okay . We've already kind of gone over this but we're gonna have to get into more detail and probably have to reach some conclusions some time soon . Energy source , um , our manufacturer offers a variety of energy sources , your standard battery , solar cells . Our manufacturer didn't say anything about lithium so we might have to look {disfmarker} if we do go that route , we might have to look elsewhere . Um , and also there's a kinetic energy possibility . Basically , it's like a um {disfmarker} the idea of moving the remote would create enough energy to keep it running . So that's one possibility but I don't know whether that would be powerful enough to illuminate a touch screen .
Project Manager: Hmm .
Industrial Designer: So we'll have to look into that .
Marketing: Mm .
Industrial Designer: Um , the case , we have a few options , plastic , rubber or wood . Um and then as far as the way it's shaped , we can do standard boring flat , which we probably don't wanna do , curved or very sexy double curved .
Project Manager: What kind of th thickness are we looking at ?
Industrial Designer: Um , I imagine that we could specify . Um , I don't see any reason to go outside of the convention of three or four millimetres . Yeah .
Project Manager: Okay , brilliant .
Industrial Designer: Um , the buttons , there are multiple scroll buttons available from our manufacturer , but to use those we'd have to use more chips , um and that would cost us more . And if we do go with the rubber doubled curved case um we'll have to use rubber push buttons because the other buttons aren't compatible with that .
Project Manager: Hmm .
Industrial Designer: Um and just a little note there ,
Marketing: Right .
Industrial Designer: touch screen equals many chips which equals many Euro .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Marketing: {vocalsound} Right . Nice .
Industrial Designer: Um , one thing that I noticed was that most remotes operate on a infrare on the infrared part of the spectrum . So you notice when you push a button on a remote you can't see anything coming out of it but in fact there is light coming out of the remote and you know the television can detect that . And if you were to record {disfmarker} if you were to make a video recording you could actually see the light . Uh one thing that I thought might be interesting was to use part {disfmarker} use visible light coming out of the remote , just kind of as a fun gimmick .
Project Manager: Hmm .
Industrial Designer: So you could actually see something coming out of the remote when you pushed it .
Marketing: Interesting .
Industrial Designer: Course it'd have to be a part of the spectrum that wouldn't damage the human eye or anything like that .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} M Maybe {disfmarker}
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: Mm . Good call .
Project Manager: is there an option that we can have that off or on so a person can select like {disfmarker}
Industrial Designer: Yeah .
Marketing: Choose it .
Industrial Designer: I am sure that we could do that . Um , of course {disfmarker}
Project Manager: Yeah I like the idea , it's a good idea .
Industrial Designer: Yeah , just as a fun gimmick .
Project Manager: Yeah .
Industrial Designer: Just to set us apart a little bit . Um , and then on to the circuit board that we're gonna use , also known as the chip . Uh , we really don't have any way around the T_A_ one one eight three five .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: Um findings , okay , we're very limited by what our current manufacturers can offer , um and my question to all of you is , should we look to other manufacturies or should we just make do with what we have available ?
User Interface: Interesting question .
Industrial Designer: 'S a bit of a challenge question .
Project Manager: Mm .
User Interface: Yes .
Marketing: Well I'd say shop around but with our time constraints , is that really a feasible option ?
Project Manager: Mm .
Industrial Designer: Right , that's my concern too . Um , if we do go the lithium battery route then we'll have to go outside our current manufacturer . My personal preference is {disfmarker} I'll just throw my cards on the table , uh I think we should probably go the solar battery route , just to kinda keep with the environmentally friendly theme that we have going on . Uh , I like the idea of the visible light signalling , that's something to set us apart and uh I was thinking about {disfmarker} I was thinking of ways that we could produce the remote in a variety of different case materials to suit different tastes . So we're not so confined by one style and say some {disfmarker} you know , say our {disfmarker} the one {disfmarker}
Marketing: Right .
Industrial Designer: if we just go with one and it doesn't go over well then we're in a bad situation .
Project Manager: Mm .
Marketing: Right .
Project Manager: Can we do marketing piloting too ? Try to see what kind {disfmarker} before we launch {disfmarker} can we see how they're received ?
Marketing: Um {disfmarker} It's an option , uh but actually there's {disfmarker} I've got some research already on like what we're looking at and trends in casing right now
Project Manager: Okay . Okay .
Marketing: which actually might even come into play beforehand ,
Project Manager: Okay , perfect .
Marketing: it may help us decide for now . Temporarily anyway .
Project Manager: Great , thank you very much Nathan .
Industrial Designer: Oh yeah , you're welcome .
Project Manager: That's perfect , so I guess that makes sense for you to take it from here .
Marketing: {vocalsound} I guess so , 'cause I found some interesting things . {vocalsound}
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound} Did you ? {vocalsound}
Marketing: You waiting for me ? {vocalsound}
Project Manager: Fascinating , compelling even .
Marketing: I know , what a teaser ain't it . Um . {vocalsound} Right . So
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: current market trends . Screen . Um , basically I was looking at what's going on in the remote control market right now and what's going on in other design fields , to see sort of what's what's trendy , what's new , what's happening . Um , remote control right now {disfmarker} basically everybody says they want newer , fancier , more exciting {disfmarker} they're sick of this boring , normal , functional , um {disfmarker} that we need innovative design options and there needs to be an easy user interface . Um the challenge is that current trends right now , across the board in fashion , in furniture , in technology , is a very organic fruit and vegetable kind of thing .
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Marketing: Now I'm not saying we should have , you know , tomato shaped remote controls or anything , but I think it is possible maybe to use um natural colours , like if wood is an option , that whole organic , sleek , clean ,
Industrial Designer: Mm .
Marketing: v line thing may be something we can look into . Different skin options , or if we can't afford this touch plate thing , or touch face screen interface um , maybe having the b images be specific , like you could choose your menu bullets to be
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Tomatoes . {vocalsound}
Marketing: a different shape
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: or {vocalsound} okay , not the example I would choose , but you know what I mean to t sort of {disfmarker} and th apparently the feel of the next couple of years is spongy ,
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: Mm . {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound} I like it , I like it . {vocalsound}
Marketing: uh not something I I've come up with a {gap} though if we can get around to getting piloting , I thought maybe a casing option like uh not like a skin , but like a holder almost if you could do like um , leather options or wood options or something {disfmarker}
Industrial Designer: Hmm . I should have mentioned this um . As far as the rubber that we can use {disfmarker} we can use a rubber as part of the case ,
Marketing: Mm-hmm .
Industrial Designer: it has a consistency of those stress balls .
User Interface: Yes .
Marketing: Mm . {vocalsound}
Project Manager: Slick , slick .
User Interface: Fabulous .
Marketing: Might be an interesting way to go . Um , yeah so something to sit on for now . So overall I think we should stick with what we're finding , everyone's looking for easy to use , technologically innovative and this fancy new {disfmarker} I think perhaps the double curve thing and maybe this rubber option is our best way to go for right now .
Industrial Designer: Mm .
Marketing: {vocalsound} Um .
Project Manager: Interface , oh the interface graphics for the um {disfmarker}
Marketing: {vocalsound} Yeah . Um . Well I d but then if the touch screen thing isn't gonna work out for us that's really a non-issue .
Project Manager: Yeah .
Industrial Designer: I like the idea of of rubber too because it's {disfmarker} tends to be associated with being durable , something that you can drop and it doesn't matter .
Project Manager: Mm .
Industrial Designer: 'Cause so many {disfmarker}
Marketing: True .
Industrial Designer: you go to so many houses these days and you see broken remote controls .
Marketing: Very true . Very true .
Project Manager: Yeah , it's like , yep {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: Taped with duck tape and what have you ,
Marketing: Very much so {vocalsound} . Um
Industrial Designer: you wouldn't have that problem if you used rubber .
Project Manager: it's ubiquitous isn't it ?
User Interface: We can have a duck tape casing .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Marketing: We could .
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: I think that goes against the whole fancy something , a new line ,
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound} It could go with the granola crowd .
Marketing: but worth a shot .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: Ah , it could be , it could be ,
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Great ,
Marketing: um . Yeah that's what I know .
Project Manager: thanks for that Sarah .
Marketing: No problem .
Project Manager: Ron ?
User Interface: Phew . Computer's adjusting . One moment please . So interme interface concept by your faithful user interface designer .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Marketing: {vocalsound}
User Interface: So yur user interface , guys , is basically aspects of a computer system that we can see or hear , or otherwise uh perceive . Uh , commands and mechanisms , that basically user uses to control the operator operating system . Here's a d series of different remote controls
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
User Interface: that are out on the market today . I think we're definitely trying to get away from this kind of a look .
Project Manager: Yeah
User Interface: Um , so the following are a bunch of different uh interface uh concepts . Uh voice recognition , we we um actually have some new uh information from our research design team but uh I'll get to that in a moment . Um , so current voice recognition starts up to about eighty speech samples , um and basically you record your own verbal labels c and connect them to the remote control . Now our design team , research team , has been able to uh set up a system in which uh you can teach the remote control voice c recognition system to respond to um {disfmarker} with standard responses . Like you could say good morning uh remote control and it'll say in a sexy female voice , Good morning Joe . Um .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Marketing: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound} In fact we already have this for a coffee maker line
Marketing: {vocalsound} Mm .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Lot of single people on the um on the re on the remote control research team
User Interface: {vocalsound} On the remote control
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound} {vocalsound}
Project Manager: at the {gap} {vocalsound}
User Interface: right .
Marketing: Yeah . Very true , very true .
User Interface: Um , another concept is what uh Apple has come up with , the spinning wheel with uh L_C_ display like on the uh iPod
Project Manager: Mm .
User Interface: which I am sure most of you know about .
Marketing: Mm .
User Interface: Um and then we have the scroll button with integrated push-button , kind of like a modern {gap} a bit bulky , a bit crazy ,
Project Manager: Mm .
Industrial Designer: Mm .
User Interface: I don't think that's we're necessarily going for .
Industrial Designer: No .
User Interface: And uh some special components , uh ideas like uh blocking , having the ability to block channels from your {disfmarker} for your children um and uh dedicated buttons for for commonly used uh channels and even uh ideas like secured or hidden programming but uh I {disfmarker} again if we go with touch screen I don't think that's a big issue . Um and uh this is kind of the uh the big daddy of remote controls here .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Marketing: Hmm .
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Marketing: {vocalsound}
User Interface: Uh the jumbo universal remote control is almost impossible to misplace or lose .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} {vocalsound} Yeah , I can see . {vocalsound}
User Interface: Um , again probably not what we're going for
Marketing: {vocalsound}
User Interface: so I {disfmarker} I mean my ideas here and kind of where I think we're heading is something slightly larger than a regular iPod uh with a hard cla c uh plastic casing
Marketing: Okay .
User Interface: although I think some of the suggestions we've come up with are definitely uh very good ideas . Uh changeable casings uh {disfmarker} our design team was possibly talking about including one extra face plate with the package to kind of set the idea that you can change it and you can try changing it
Marketing: Mm , right .
User Interface: and kind of get used to thinking about maybe buying another one which can add value to our uh bottom line . Uh touch screen interface , um possibly having go-to buttons being uh stuck into the system so those don't move away from the screen , uh , the important ones like power , volume and jump between channels . Um , and of course our voice command system which I've talked a little bit about already
Project Manager: Mm .
User Interface: and uh the use of recognisable colours and shapes to aid recognition of the features um that are around so red for power , um arrows for different volume ups and downs and channels ups and downs and what not .
Marketing: Mm .
User Interface: And uh perhaps even adding in some stupid little jokes with the voice recognition idea like perh mm for instance my toastie maker that I got from my bank
Marketing: {vocalsound}
User Interface: has jokes when it's ready .
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Marketing: {vocalsound} Nice .
Project Manager: Great .
User Interface: And uh that is about it .
Project Manager: Great , wonderful Ron , cool . Lot of good ideas , good facts to have .
Marketing: Mm .
Project Manager: That's what they need , it's like a little dongle it just sticks up this further so you don't have to stand up every time , just connect it , my kingdom .
Industrial Designer: Yeah . {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: Mm .
Project Manager: Right so , good to know all that stuff , thanks guys , um . {vocalsound} Now we kind of have to come to some decisions , um , I figure we can just go down the line and all three of us can have a chat about it . Um . Based on what Nathan presented as far as the um {vocalsound} various costs and benefits um I think , I dunno , what do you guys think about the touch screen at this point ?
Marketing: I think it's our most marketable feature just because it's so new and it's something that is showing up in other places .
Project Manager: 'Kay . 'Kay .
Marketing: But can we really afford it 'cause it looks like they would be , that would be a really main cost source then
Project Manager: Mm-hmm .
Marketing: right ?
Industrial Designer: My estimate is that in order to incorporate touch screen technology it's gonna cost us upwards of seventeen fifty Euro per remote ,
Project Manager: To produce each one .
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: Per ?
Industrial Designer: yeah that's just an estimate though .
Marketing: Piece .
User Interface: Oh you guys are always the dampers on these projects .
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Marketing: {vocalsound} I know
Project Manager: Mm .
User Interface: You industrial designers . {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: I know .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Hmm .
Industrial Designer: It's fun . {vocalsound}
Marketing: And our goal was to be under twelve fifty or we have to be under twelve fifty ?
Project Manager: Well .
Marketing: Do we remember ?
Industrial Designer: I thought there was some flexibility with that .
Marketing: Okay .
Project Manager: There is , it's just , it is a question of {disfmarker} and how much ca o does that mean we're gonna have to increase the price to make money .
Marketing: Can we justify it ?
Project Manager: Um , from twelve fifty if we d wanna get our fift uh hundred per cent profit margin {vocalsound} um that would mean selling it from twenty five . If you multiply seventeen fifty by two that's thirty five .
Marketing: Right .
Project Manager: So {disfmarker}
User Interface: Where do you guys come up with these numbers ?
Industrial Designer: That's just off the top of my head ,
Project Manager: {vocalsound} {vocalsound} From the board ,
Industrial Designer: it is pending further emails . {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: {vocalsound} {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound} {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound} Right .
Project Manager: um , well {vocalsound} {disfmarker}
Marketing: Though I think that's what people would pay for ,
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: I mean if you're gonna pay for an expensive high class remote , you're gonna expect it to do something {disfmarker}
Project Manager: That's true , I mean {disfmarker}
Industrial Designer: It is the new {disfmarker} it would be in a class of its own .
Marketing: Yeah .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} And that's {disfmarker} to be fair the um the per cent of the market {disfmarker} we're not going for mass any you know , mass sales anyway , we're gonna make {disfmarker} I mean we we're not talking about selling eight zillion of these things , we just couldn't , not for twenty-five Euros ,
Marketing: Right .
Project Manager: so we could probably maybe shrink the profit margins rather than selling for twenty five , sell 'em for thirty , but that's something that we can have finance deal with . Um , I say that we provisionally go with the touch screen
Marketing: Yeah .
Project Manager: or wh y wh what was your thought on the matter Ron ?
User Interface: I'm thinking that's uh definitely a good idea and I also think that we could probably come up with some sort of a cheaper uh means to to go about this kind of production , my my team in the uh {disfmarker} on the third floor suggested that uh {disfmarker}
Marketing: See if we can cut some corners .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Marketing: Right . Well and we can look into this other manufacturing option , and maybe we can get 'em somewhere else cheaper .
Project Manager: Mm .
Industrial Designer: It's true .
User Interface: Yeah .
Industrial Designer: We could initially go with what we have and if we can find them cheaper later on {disfmarker}
Marketing: Right . It's a starting point anyway , so .
Project Manager: No we could have a s very simple touch screen , you know , there's always the opportunity , if it's gonna be about the size of the iPod or whatever , you know , w we {disfmarker} yeah , I guess we can play around with it a bit . Alright , let's let's say that okay so the touch screen will be our {vocalsound} um {vocalsound} our main selling point here .
Marketing: Mm .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} So {disfmarker}
User Interface: I mean I think that we really have two main selling points , I think that our casing and the voice recognition {disfmarker}
Marketing: Yeah 'cause with voice recognition {disfmarker} I mean really this is pretty bells and whistles kinda remote .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} The voice rec thing ,
Industrial Designer: Yeah .
Project Manager: I mean , {vocalsound} if if we're looking at bottom line , now we're looking at upping the cost to seventeen to get the touch screen on ,
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: I think we might have to drop the voice rec .
Marketing: I think we'd have to decide between 'em definitely .
Project Manager: Yeah .
User Interface: To be honest , we have the capa we have the design in-house ,
Marketing: Price-wise .
User Interface: I mean we've we've come up with this , with this new voice {disfmarker}
Marketing: True .
User Interface: we're using it for our coffee machines already .
Marketing: We've already got it .
User Interface: I can pass you on that email from my uh guy in uh {disfmarker} guy down the hall . Sounds good .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Hmm . What do you think on it Nathan ? About the voice rec ?
Industrial Designer: I think if we {disfmarker} we do both the {disfmarker} obviously production costs are going to go way up um but it does put it into {disfmarker} it'd become the Rolls Royce of remote controls basically . It would be very nice .
Marketing: Pretty much .
User Interface: I mean we we have to r reflect back on what our market research did say .
Marketing: Right and they said they wanted voice recognition . Course , maybe they hadn't thought of this whole touch screen option , but definitely we know the market is there for voice recognition so to say we have the technology and we're not gonna use it even though we know it'll sell is a call I don't think I can give the highs ups .
Project Manager: Mm .
Marketing: Like really I can't go in and say no we're gonna just ignore everything we know . {vocalsound}
Project Manager: Yeah .
User Interface: Does having both really up our costs ?
Project Manager: {vocalsound} I can't see how it wouldn't , I mean , there's you know the old aphorism , you can have it fast , you can have it cheap or you can have it quality , pick two of three . You know , you can't you can't have all three .
Marketing: Yeah .
Industrial Designer: Yeah , 'cause you {disfmarker} you just upping the number of chips that you need to deal with each different function .
Project Manager: It's just impossible .
Marketing: Yeah .
Project Manager: Well if we're gonna pick betwe e alright so we have to pick between one of the two . Um . Otherwise , yeah , we just {disfmarker} it just becomes cost prohibitive . What {disfmarker} which , which do we suspect we should hold o we should hold on to ?
Marketing: Well , we already have research backing voice recognition as you know fiscally solvent . But uh I I I personally would tend to another direction but if that's what's gonna sell I think that's what we need to go with and maybe we can table this touch screen for our next model .
Industrial Designer: I would have to side with that ,
Project Manager: 'Kay .
Industrial Designer: I think the voice recognition is simpler , we already have the {disfmarker} all the technology in-house , it's ready to go , it's packaged , it's {disfmarker}
Project Manager: What does the cost look like Ron ? Is it cheaper to do the V_R_ or to do the uh touch screen ?
User Interface: {vocalsound} Well my p {vocalsound} is {disfmarker}
Project Manager: Nathan ?
Marketing: Mm .
Industrial Designer: Um , this is just off the top of my head keep in mind , but I think the voice recognition would {disfmarker} they're both mm they're both gonna push the costs up , but um , since we already have the technology in-house for the voice recognition
Project Manager: Mm .
Industrial Designer: we're not gonna have to do as much design work
Marketing: {vocalsound} Right .
Industrial Designer: and sometimes the design work is what push the costs up , if you know what I mean .
Project Manager: Right .
Marketing: Right .
Project Manager: {vocalsound}
User Interface: Um , I definitely have to agree with that last comment .
Marketing: And we're still not {disfmarker} then we don't have to deal with this battery issue nearly as much either ,
Project Manager: Mm .
Marketing: we can stick with what we've already got . In a lot other ways too .
Project Manager: Okay . So I'm getting {disfmarker} alright so more or less you guys think that o o of the two of 'em , the voice recognition will be better . Okay .
Marketing: I think it's our lower risk option
Project Manager: Yeah .
Marketing: which for right now {disfmarker} we can have it on the market sooner which is all in all our best option .
Project Manager: Okay . Sorted .
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: We will omit the touch screen in favour of voice recognition .
User Interface: It's you and me outside a little here . {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Marketing: So and when are we gonna have basic prototypes coming up next that's {disfmarker} you guys's next step right ?
Project Manager: Yeah , well we'll we'll sic we'll sort out what it {disfmarker} what {vocalsound} f what else we're gonna talk about for the prototype
Industrial Designer: Yeah .
Marketing: Right .
Project Manager: but yeah that's our next step , it'll be a developing of prototype .
Marketing: Okay .
Industrial Designer: Are we going to talk now about um the materials that we're gonna use for the case and all those things ?
Project Manager: Yes . We'll just run through it yeah , yeah , um .
Marketing: Mm-hmm .
Industrial Designer: Okay .
Project Manager: You discussed either a lithium or a solar power . Would the solar power be enough to fuel a voice recognition ? Or this kinesthetic one , would that be enough to fuel a voice recognition remote control ?
Industrial Designer: Um , the solar power definitely would be but I think just to keep people from getting annoyed , 'cause sometimes solar power fails and there's no way round that , we should install a small backup battery .
Project Manager: Mm .
Marketing: Yeah .
Industrial Designer: Just to cover those moments when for whatever reason , the remote hasn't been exposed to {disfmarker}
Marketing: Well what of people with like the T_V_ in their basement ,
Project Manager: Mm . Yep .
Marketing: like what if {disfmarker} wha we can't guarantee sunlight everywhere so having a secondary source is probably {disfmarker}
Industrial Designer: It's true . Yeah , it works about the same as a solar powered calculator ,
Marketing: {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: and you know how those those don't really require that much light ,
User Interface: Calculator .
Marketing: Yeah . True . True .
Industrial Designer: um , but obviously a little more light than a calculator , but we're not talking about a lot of light . Doesn't have to be out taking a sunbath for a few hours a day or anything .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} {vocalsound} Right .
Marketing: Right .
Project Manager: Okay .
Marketing: Okay .
Project Manager: What do you think Ron ?
User Interface: I'm willing to agree with everything that's been said .
Project Manager: Okay .
User Interface: Uh I have to say though that um another idea's come up in my head . If we're really not uh handling the remote control to a great extent we could possibly get away from the idea of having a hand-held remote control and maybe kind of have a round remote control that kind of looks like a paperweight or something like that , kind of a sleek little uh neat thing that sits on your table or something .
Marketing: Uh {disfmarker}
Project Manager: Hmm .
Industrial Designer: Hmm .
Marketing: Interesting .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Yeah .
Industrial Designer: Why , why moving away from hand-held , why ?
User Interface: Just a thought .
Industrial Designer: What's the uh idea ?
User Interface: Well if you don't need to pick it up it could kind of be a selling point .
Marketing: I if it's got voice recognition it can be technically anywhere in your room and still do its job .
Industrial Designer: Hmm . Do you think people that are {disfmarker} people that buy a remote , are they always gonna wanna use the voice recognition or is it just something that they do sometimes .
Marketing: True , and i probabl I think we're banking on selling it to more than just voice recognition people , like we want it to work fundamentally as a basic manual too ,
Project Manager: Well we have to have buttons on it too as well .
Marketing: right .
Project Manager: But that's done , that's no bother I mean if you look at the catalogue from places like with sharper image or whatever you know they might have {disfmarker} or like um {vocalsound} who is it , Apple makes these really pretentious speakers with the th sub-woofers you know like clear and glass and you know
Marketing: Mm-hmm .
Project Manager: and then they got these little pyramidal type of um speakers .
Industrial Designer: Right .
Marketing: Yep .
Project Manager: I mean , why not have a little rounded kind of thing ,
Marketing: Yeah .
Project Manager: it could still have the basic buttons on it . Um , 'cause we're going for basic functionality primarily as well .
Marketing: With the bu yeah .
Project Manager: And maybe a menu button and so forth , you know um use a channel button to scroll through the menu d if they want to record programmes or whatever you know I mean we can sort that out .
Industrial Designer: I think , I think you're on to something
Marketing: Mm-hmm .
Project Manager: Yeah .
Industrial Designer: because we need to escape the traditional shape of a remote . Maybe something that looks nice on a table is {disfmarker} would be good , even though {disfmarker} and hand-held the same time .
Marketing: True . Way to go .
User Interface: {vocalsound} I think it's all about following Apple's lead on a lot of these things .
Marketing: Yeah I'm thinking of the airport portal ,
User Interface: Mm-hmm .
Project Manager: Mm .
Marketing: you know like that little pod looking thing ?
Industrial Designer: Yeah , those are nice .
User Interface: Exactly .
Project Manager: Yeah , I mean a nice {disfmarker} although we do um wh uh is {disfmarker} I'm recalling that she mentioned that we n need to get away from the surgical white kind of brushed aluminium thing
Marketing: Right .
Project Manager: and get back to it
Industrial Designer: Mm .
Project Manager: but you could have a very tasteful um wood coloured or earth tone kind of um {disfmarker}
Marketing: That would be kinda neat . Terracotta bowl or something . {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Still , I mean , yeah , along those lines .
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: Mm .
Project Manager: Yeah I like that , I like that idea a lot . Um , let's see what we can do as far as that goes . And the uh the material like the plastics and so forth , we were discussing that being uh {disfmarker} using like a rubber kind of softer feel ,
Industrial Designer: Okay .
Project Manager: um you know
Marketing: Mm .
Project Manager: li lik if you feel the the tip on this pen it's a bit {disfmarker} gives just a bit . You know
Marketing: Yeah .
Project Manager: something where it's uh a a more advanced f form of plastic that has some kind of a tactile response to it .
Industrial Designer: Right . Just kind of the squishy feel .
Marketing: Yeah , which is the next big thing , so that's not gonna hurt us either . {vocalsound}
Project Manager: Mm 'kay .
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: Yeah let's see if we can do a squishy non-remote control-looking remote control .
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: But to be fair , yeah , I mean , you just c you could just put it {disfmarker} literally put it on the the ni the coffee table next to the telly and say volume up .
Marketing: Right .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Yeah I like it , I like the idea , that's good .
Marketing: Handy .
Project Manager: Um and we've sorted of discussed costs , {vocalsound} um . I guess we'll a that's gonna be uh a thing , if we run a bit over-budget , that might be okay , um .
Industrial Designer: Sorry about the uh lack of information on cost , I just haven't been provided that information by our manufacturers
Marketing: Okay .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} We'll have more of an idea when the prototype {disfmarker} have more of a {disfmarker}
Industrial Designer: and I'm just having to guess .
Project Manager: we'll have more of an idea later on . Um . And we just yeah go from there . {vocalsound} Um , so
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: we've revisited the touch screen and more or less ruled that out , um , I think so we're more or less con we {disfmarker} wh wh we're more or less in agreement that we want to have a um {vocalsound} a simple kind of function , you know , not too complex .
Marketing: Mm . Right . Well when the majority of people are only using the most primary functions on a daily basis , although I'm not saying we should completely rule out major functions , they should be secondary , at least if not functionally then visually , like those shouldn't be {disfmarker}
Industrial Designer: Right .
Project Manager: Like maybe have menu things .
Marketing: Take precedence ,
Industrial Designer: If , if we're not going the touch-screen route then we can um just incorporate maybe something that folds out
Marketing: yeah .
Industrial Designer: like what you often see on these kinds of remotes is the most basic functions up here
Project Manager: Mm .
Marketing: Right .
Industrial Designer: and something that slides down to reveal the you know more complicated things .
Marketing: And they slide .
Project Manager: Yes .
Marketing: Well and do we wanna consider like an iPod screen which isn't a touch screen but you're still scrolling through menu options , in p
User Interface: {vocalsound} Think then we're hitting our cost issue again .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Yeah
Marketing: True ,
Project Manager: we've also got the the me the thing of ,
Industrial Designer: Yeah .
Marketing: we're still not making it easier then .
Project Manager: if we're gonna have a non-remote-looking remote , how do we {disfmarker} yeah .
Marketing: True .
Project Manager: B But no I mean
Marketing: Fair enough .
Project Manager: we could do a slide or a compartment , you know , like if it {disfmarker} say it's a lit little vaguely ovoidal type of thing , it'd be easy to have a compartment in there .
Marketing: Yeah .
Project Manager: Or you know , a b a b a a series of you know three or four buttons with a menu button and then a side an s up and down type of thing , like on um {disfmarker} like on a D_V_D_ player . You know you see the modern D_V_D_ players'll just have um a menu button on the side and then four buttons around them
Marketing: Mm-hmm . Yeah it's just a scroll .
Project Manager: and you can just kind of manoeuvre through the menu like that .
Industrial Designer: Right .
Marketing: Yeah .
Industrial Designer: So are we gonna {disfmarker} are we talking {disfmarker} we need to figure out what kind of buttons we're going to use , are we going to use scroll buttons ? Rubber buttons ? Um {disfmarker}
Project Manager: Well it seems like {vocalsound} I dunno it seems to me that we could just do the um {disfmarker} stick with the rubber 'cause since we're probably gonna be using some kind of um {vocalsound} rubber for the outside case
Marketing: Yeah . Probably .
Project Manager: we might as well stick with that um .
Industrial Designer: Right .
User Interface: I think to a certain extent we have to stick with uh kind of uh a little bit traditional in terms of the buttons and then and then make our unique feature our casing and what not and our voice command .
Marketing: Right . Mm . Well no it's basic just like four directions that are {disfmarker} that can use as menu or channel and volume or however you wanna do it , are really versatile and everybody's already got them to some extent on the remotes they already own so it's not like we're dealing with everybody relearning things 'cause that's not something anybody's gonna wanna buy a new for .
Industrial Designer: Right .
Project Manager: Mm 'kay , um . {vocalsound} We've already kind of covered this as well . That seems to be selling {vocalsound} um and we we've more or less agreed that we want to kar target this youth market , um .
Marketing: Mm .
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Especially now with eighteen to thirty five year olds being such a large quantity of the population . {vocalsound}
Marketing: {vocalsound} Right , particularly in technological fields ,
Project Manager: Mm-hmm , mm-hmm .
Marketing: so that's exactly where we're headed .
Project Manager: Okay . {vocalsound} Um . Yeah alright , well , more or less covered what we need to cover I think fi an an any final thoughts before we think about doing the protot moving on to the prototype .
User Interface: Well what are we actually doing ?
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Right .
User Interface: What were {disfmarker}
Project Manager: I was just gonna step on to um {vocalsound} {vocalsound}
Marketing: Uh . Oh it wasn't in the way but {disfmarker} yeah , whatever .
Project Manager: I wasn't ? Oh , my bad {vocalsound} um sorry .
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound}
Marketing: No , don't worry about it .
Project Manager: The um , yeah okay I was just gonna assign tasks in the next b anyth any oth
User Interface: Sure .
Project Manager: any other final thoughts before we go ahead and
Marketing: Okay .
Project Manager: {disfmarker} cool ?
Industrial Designer: So
Marketing: {vocalsound} Yeah .
Industrial Designer: have we decided that we are gonna go with different style cases for different people ?
Project Manager: {vocalsound} Um .
Industrial Designer: Or are we just going to go with one ? ..It's very , it's very hard thing to predict because you have different cases
Marketing: Yeah .
Industrial Designer: and that might open up your market a little bit obviously , but if you have just one case and it doesn't go very well {disfmarker} mm .
Project Manager: Yeah .
Industrial Designer: It's a tough situation ,
Marketing: Right .
Industrial Designer: but obviously having more cases also costs more so {disfmarker}
Project Manager: Well then again colours wouldn't be so hard to do , you could have uh a , you know , a um uh kind of a natural wood colour , like a stained wood and um , I don't know , olive green or something .
Industrial Designer: There's an idea .
Marketing: Mm . Yeah .
Project Manager: That wouldn't be so much of a problem to incorporate into the colour of the {gap} thing .
User Interface: And again copying iMac's kind of {disfmarker} for iPod Mac Apple's uh colour scheme .
Marketing: Yeah , get in there . Yeah , totally .
Project Manager: Yeah , I think that's probably a good id okay so let's work on {vocalsound} uh multiple case colours . But yeah , stick with the same kind of kinda {disfmarker} yeah , the same basic non-remote kind of remote design . Cool . Alright , so we'll have the next meeting about half an hour , um . I want the uh {disfmarker} I'd like {disfmarker} Nathan , I'd like you to work on just the basic look and feel , what can we accomplish , um , given these parameters that we're just gonna sort of have this kind of uh non-remote remote . Um , what are our broad constraints before we deve design a prototype . {vocalsound}
Industrial Designer: Right .
Project Manager: And um Ron if you can figure out how probably best to lay out this idea of this simple design with the voice recognition built in and also this kind of drop down or s on the side kind of menu options simple . Somehow work out how we can get this all s in the same place . Um , and if you can check product evaluation with m some pilots and stuff . Um I need you guys to work together on making a prototype , {vocalsound} um {vocalsound} using um {vocalsound} prototype building materials um {vocalsound} .
Industrial Designer: {vocalsound} {vocalsound}
User Interface: {vocalsound}
Marketing: {vocalsound}
Project Manager: And also um specific instructions will be sent to you by your coaches as well .
Industrial Designer: Oh excellent yeah .
Project Manager: So that's what to start with for now , is that alright , you guys feel clear about this ?
Marketing: Cool .
Industrial Designer: That sounds good .
User Interface: Fabulous .
Project Manager: Alright . I guess we'll just hit the bricks . Thanks guys .
Marketing: Cool .
The User Interface affirmed their previous efforts at first, but he thought that was not enough, so he went on to propose that they might consider buying another face plate and include a touch screen. In terms of the buttons on the screen, the User Interface found the existing problem that some of the buttons would be stuck in the screen and not so easy to be found and touched, so he suggested making those essential buttons in conspicuous colours like red.