Gloria tries the prototype

Gloria was given the pen to try out. Her initial response was somewhat indifferent. She didn't seem to react to the pens design and look as the other children did. However, when she realized it was no ordinary pen she was excited to give it a try and find out just what it can do. She was told how to use it but she didn't seem to pay attention to her parents, she was too eager to play with it. Hopefully she would figure it out herself once she got to work with it for a while.
She was trying to turn it on but couldn't figure out that the on/off button needed to be held pressed so her father told her how to do it. Once turned on the pen prompted her to speak a word to spell out. She spoke the word "house" and the pen repeated "house". After a slight delay the pen said "h" and displayed the letter "h" on the screen. Gloria then attempted to "draw" the letter "h". After lifting the pen it sounded the letter "o" which Gloria successfully wrote again. Upon reaching the letter "s" however, Gloria could not draw it correctly so the pen kept informing her that she drew it incorrectly. After 3 consecutive unsuccessful tries, Gloria got frustrated and threw the pen across the table and left eventually breaking the pen.

Gloria's experience with the pen was not a success. It showed us that, although built to be as simple as possible, the pen may seem complicated to certain individuals of the target age. Additionally, this experience showed us that, to someone who doesn't really want to learn and sees the product as a toy, the pen can be annoying and frustrating to use. However since the pen is marketed as a learning tool and not as a toy, this drawback cannot be considered serious.

Emma's experience with the prototype

Emma has just had her first experience with a prototype of the pen.

She really liked the design of the pen and the pink colour with white clouds, that was this pens design, really appealed to her. At first she thought that it was just a fancy pen and asked why would we want to test a pen. When we explained to her what the pen was about she wanted to try it immediately so that she could write a letter to her father.

By her motions one could clearly see that she found the pen a bit heavy at first but with time she got used to the little extra weight.

She instinctively pressed the button on the top of the pen to start writing. She was surprised that the pen spoke to her and told her to say the word she would like to write. She said the word 'daddy'. Following the instructions spoken by the pen she wrote a few letters. When she reached the letter 'y' she paused because she did not know how to write the letter 'y'. The pen, after some time of not detecting letters, prompted Emma to look at the LCD screen for the shape of the letter. Emma looked at the pen and saw the shape of the letter on the screen.

Emma was glad that the pen was able to help her to complete the word. She felt like she accomplished something and the celebration tunes and animation encouraged her to celebrate.

Emma was left with the pen for hours to complete a letter for her father. She was very proud that she accomplished to write a whole letter by herself and even more happy when she saw her fathers expression when he read the letter.

Final protoype

After a meeting we had, the final prototype was discussed and its features were decided. The following diagram is the outer design of the pen and the hardware configuration of its components.

As you can see from the diagram, the final prototype blends the features found in the previous prototypes. Its main features are:

1. A total height of 15cm. This size was decided to be the perfect size for children's hands to hold. It's not too small and not too large.
   
2. Near the end of the tip, the thickness of the pen is 1cm and covered with non-slippery surface. This makes it ideal to children's hands. It's also not too thick for children to hold and makes transition to ordinary pens and pencils easier.
3. A ballpoint sensor was decided to be used as the tracking mechanism. It was preferred over gyroscopes, because of its accuracy.
   
4. The thickness of the pen increases after the "grip" area ends. This is essential since room must be made for the hardware.
5. The top part of the pen will resemble the one found in the last prototype. It will accommodate an LCD screen and it will slightly bend inwards. This will help the user see what's actually going on on the screen without much effort. The back of the LCD will also be reinforced so that it can withstand brutal misuse.
   
6. The speaker and microphone will be just below the screen itself.
7. The button is placed just above the LCD. This makes unwanted presses limited.
8. Just above the non-slippery surface, some metal strips will provide connectivity with the included sync station. They will allow the pen to recharge from the sync station and also also communicate with the PC via USB connectivity.
9. The syncstation will be simple in design(cone) and will feature a hole so that the pen can be placed into the syncstation.No external power will be needed. All the power needed will be taken from the USB port.
10. Two LEDs on the syncstation will indicate charging and sync signals.
11. The weight of the pen must be no more than 85 g.
12. The tip of the pen can be unscrewed just above the base of the cone to refill the pen's ink container.
    

As you can see from the hardware design, the battery is placed just above the ink cartridge. This is necessary since the battery itself is the heaviest part of the pen and must be placed as low as possible so that the centre of gravity is low. This will help in stability when holding the pen.

The WiFi/Bluetooth functionality was decided not to be included. It wouldn't justify the extra cost as the synchronization with the PC is not the main feature of the pen. This can easily be compensated with USB connectivity and the extra battery life that would be saved if they are not included. The WiFi and Bluetooth modules would also add to the hardware complexity and add extra weight to the final product.

The screen will work in the same way as described in the last prototype. The way it interacts with the user is clear, precise and well illustrated for a child to follow. So we didn't have to redesign the interface for that. The screen however was slightly reduced so that it didn't seem out of place.

The sync station was chosen so as to free some space on the pen from having to include a USBplug. The pen will interact with the sync station via some metal contact points placed on the pen. When the pen is placed on the sync station, the metal points of the pen will come in conduct with the corresponding points found on the sync station. The sync station will be connected with the PC via a USB cable. When connected, the pen's software can be updated by running special software written for this purpose on the PC. The software can update the pen's dictionary as well as add new features to the pen's software. The pen can also switch to advanced mode from the PC software.

Christos C : More thoughts on prototypes

After thinking about Christos I. prototype I find that it lacks some detail. I believe that we have to make a complete protype taking into consideration everything than has been said so far. Both prototypes are good but are not perfect as they both lack some vital details.

We should firstly agree on the hardware components of the pen so we know what to have to incorporate in the design. Moreover we should also take into consideration that the pen is also a pen. Therefore the design should contemplate this by including a refillable ink cartige and a way to take it out of the pen and refill it.

In addition we should also take into consideration the ergonomics of the pen. We should specify the size of the pen and the design should make sure that the pen is easy to hold and write.

I agree with Alexis about the button usage. The pen should be as easy to use as possible so it is best to include a sleep mode on the pen when not used for a period of time. However we should think of a way to make the pen enter connectivity mode. By having the pen not trying to connect ot a network or a pc all the time and having the wifi/bluetooth adaptor switched off we save power and prolong the battery life.

Alexis P : Thoughts and Beliefs on the Prototypes

In my opinion, I believe that the last revised prototype design is more or less the ideal one. Making the design as simple as possible would attract a larger number of children. A simpler design would be to create a mechanism to automatically switch off the pen if is not used over a small period of time. For example, if the pen has not detected any ballpoint movement for 10 minutes, then switch off. With this mechanism we can change the button principle. The button will not have to be pressed for a few seconds for switching on/off. Instead if the button is pressed the pen will switch on (if it was off) or else will trigger the handwriting task. Such alteration would not only reduce the complexity of the pen, but could also save battery energy because sometimes children will forget to switch off the pen manually. So I think its best that the switching off is always done automatically.

As Christos suggested on Achilleas' idea, changing the difficulty level should be done on a computer used only by adults, as chilren would probably overestimate their skills after completing a few easy handwriting challenges. In addition, the bluetooth and/or wi-fi chip should be used for downloading/updating not only dictionaries, but as well animations and tunes used for rewarding the child after achieving the correct hardwriting. The reason is that after several uses of the product, the kid may not feel rewarded by seeing the same animation or hearing the same tune over and over again. So to conclude, such alteration could expand our product's life.