In this review, a hotel alarm clock.
About Alfred
Alfred doesn’t travel much and for the last 12 years, Tara, the families black lab has awoken him every morning to go outside at 6 AM, like clockwork. She got the name Tara because as a puppy she would sleep curled-up into what looked like little ball of Tar.
Without Tar, Alfred must rely on a device to wake him up. He is not concerned since the hotel has an alarm clock and if he can set the time on his VCR, he feels confident he can set the alarm on a clock.
PRIMARY GOALS:
POINT OF VIEW ARTIFACT REVIEW
PERSONA - Alfred's persona, goals and scenario on Google Drive
Alfred Metic - “Charlie don't surf!” |
| Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
- 50's - Male
- Widower for 3 years after 25 year marriage
- Two boy's married w/o children
- Successful Volkswagen salesman
- Lives on the west coast
- 12 year old female black lab "Tara" he calls "Tar," short for "Tar Ball"
Technology Familiarity
When quality 4-Head VCR’s were released in the late 80’s Alfred was the first on his neighborhood to invest in the technology. As a matter of fact, he was the only person on his block, whose VCR didn’t blink 12:00! Being a salesman Alfred has to keep up with current trends to better craft his pitches, but the home theater became his bailiwick. He has always been a movie buff, which has been an excellent topic for conversations and successful sales tool. He would learn as much about the person as he could up-front then choose an actor or character in a movie similar to the person or their situation and craft his pitch around the customer and the car. He was given the nickname “The Director” because he was always talking about movies and he performed the same magic on the sales floor that directors perform on the big screen. Volkswagen was so impressed with his style, the Executive Director of Sales flew Alfred to the VW American Headquarters in Virginia for a meeting...
- Multi-line desk phone
- Windows 7 laptop
- iPhone/Android/Blackberry
- Connecting various phones/devices to cars via BlueTooth
- Text Messaging
- Master of the "Home theater"
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| Image courtesy of James Barker at FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Alfred doesn’t travel much and for the last 12 years, Tara, the families black lab has awoken him every morning to go outside at 6 AM, like clockwork. She got the name Tara because as a puppy she would sleep curled-up into what looked like little ball of Tar.
SCENARIO AND GOALS
Alfred and the hotel alarm clockWithout Tar, Alfred must rely on a device to wake him up. He is not concerned since the hotel has an alarm clock and if he can set the time on his VCR, he feels confident he can set the alarm on a clock.
PRIMARY GOALS:
- Wake up at 6 AM by an alarm clock, not Tar
REVIEW CRITERIA
Criteria for alarming success- CLOCK TIME ADJUSTMENTS
- ALERT TIME ADJUSTMENTS
- ALERT TYPE
- TONE
- MUSIC
- DISABLE ALERT (off)
- POSTPONE ALERT (snooze)
RESULTS
1. CLOCK TIME ADJUSTMENTS: Unnatural
The Hour, Minute and Wake buttons felt as if they were positioned for comfort rather than intuition. Most clocks arrange the buttons in the same order as the unit they affect are displayed, so the hour button is on the left and the minute button to the right. On this clock, the minute button is on the left and the hour on the right, making it very easy for right-handers to race through the minutes with rapid repeated taps of the middle finger.
2. ALERT TIME ADJUSTMENTS: Frustrating
The clock hour and minute buttons are the same buttons used for the alarm, the only difference is holding the wake button while pressing the hour and minute buttons sets the time for the alarm. Again, the position caused grief when he decided to change the alarm from 5:55 AM to 5:30 AM. Expecting the to change the minute, by pressing the button on the right, he advanced the hour. Alfred had to run through 24 hours to get back to 5 AM after his mistake.
3. ALERT TYPE: Music - OK
Choosing the alert type for the alarm was straightforward, selecting the off position was a little tricky.
4. POSTPONE ALERT: N/A
Activated unintentionally by pressing the "Snooze" button while attempting to position the alert type switch to the off position gave the impression the alarm was disabled, when in fact the alarm was only postponed.
5. DISABLE ALERT: Fail
Tar sits at the bedroom door once Alfred is awake, so acknowledging Tar is her nose out of his face. Alfred managed to set the alarm properly but hit snooze and changed the alert position to music, giving the illusion, he turned off the alarm. Nine minutes later while in the bathroom, it sounded like someone was watching TV in his room. He opened the bathroom door only to realize it was the clock radio. He wasn’t sure why it was playing music so he just unplugged it.
The Hour, Minute and Wake buttons felt as if they were positioned for comfort rather than intuition. Most clocks arrange the buttons in the same order as the unit they affect are displayed, so the hour button is on the left and the minute button to the right. On this clock, the minute button is on the left and the hour on the right, making it very easy for right-handers to race through the minutes with rapid repeated taps of the middle finger.
2. ALERT TIME ADJUSTMENTS: Frustrating
The clock hour and minute buttons are the same buttons used for the alarm, the only difference is holding the wake button while pressing the hour and minute buttons sets the time for the alarm. Again, the position caused grief when he decided to change the alarm from 5:55 AM to 5:30 AM. Expecting the to change the minute, by pressing the button on the right, he advanced the hour. Alfred had to run through 24 hours to get back to 5 AM after his mistake.
3. ALERT TYPE: Music - OK
Choosing the alert type for the alarm was straightforward, selecting the off position was a little tricky.
4. POSTPONE ALERT: N/A
Activated unintentionally by pressing the "Snooze" button while attempting to position the alert type switch to the off position gave the impression the alarm was disabled, when in fact the alarm was only postponed.
5. DISABLE ALERT: Fail
Tar sits at the bedroom door once Alfred is awake, so acknowledging Tar is her nose out of his face. Alfred managed to set the alarm properly but hit snooze and changed the alert position to music, giving the illusion, he turned off the alarm. Nine minutes later while in the bathroom, it sounded like someone was watching TV in his room. He opened the bathroom door only to realize it was the clock radio. He wasn’t sure why it was playing music so he just unplugged it.
SUMMARY
The position of the hour and minute buttons was awkward at first, but began to feel natural when adjusting the time with the right hand. Since the hour and minute buttons are not positioned by the order the unit displays, it is all too easy to increment the wrong unit. Other than the time unit button position, the alarm clock operated as expected and Alfred was successful in accomplishing his goal.
