Traducción

I came across an article today talking about Facebook adding a feature with translations. Similar to Google Chrome feature, which allows the user to translate the page to your language. Before I found this I was working on a new design for the app so I happen to think about that and how I can apply some feature like that.

I've been thinking about translation because I know this will be something that a lot of teacher will need to communicate with parents. When I first starting thinking about this feature I thought that the parent will have a default language set and in what ever language the teacher sends it, the parent will receive it in the language the parent set it as. So all the translation will be done in the background leaving the teacher with nothing to do, just click send and it will automatically be done. Now translating something will not always come out meaning the same thing when it's translated. Perfecting this is something that will take time and will need user input and learn over time what the teacher/parent is meaning when they send their message.

What Google Chrome and now Facebook will just allow for the user to translate the page, but this will unfortunately will not work on a phone when the user wants to translate the language to their language. This is a great feature for online use and something that we can use. Now this can go somewhere though. It will lead to do better things that will allow people to communicate with others from different parts of the world.

I think for this kind of application the best thing and most efficient way to communicate in different languages is...

• Have parents set a default language in which they want to notified
• Translation will be done in the background 
• When a parent replies the teacher will receive the message in English
• Again all translation will be done in the background

Now I bet you have some questions or concerns about how this can actually work. Well I haven't tried it out yet, but with the technology that we have I think it's possible to make. Now some questions might be...

• Will the user be able to see what they send?
• What if the user sends a smiley face?
• Can the user send it in the same language as the end user?
• What if there is a spelling/grammer mistake?
• How fast will the translation be?
• What languages will be offered?

These are just some of the questions that might be thought of plus much more. This is just the beginning phase, which will mainly be focused on testing. 

Any questions or concerns that you have please feel free to let me know and comment or email  me. 

Enjoy Fall and Happy Halloween! 

New Homepage!

From some inspiration from features and looks from other sites that I like I combined it and made it into something that I think will look sleek and simple to use. Here is an example of what I started with. Of course there are more, but this is just one example that I am showing.

I'll like to get some feed back on this and what you think and what does/doesn't look right. Anything that I can change will be really helpful so your input will be helpful. Hope you like it and more will be coming soon. Have a nice weekend and great start to the next season.

Some things to notice while looking at the homepage:
Left column:

• Class list: Classes that the user inputs to keep track of all the classes they the user has to teach. Also color coded if the user chooses to do so, makes it easy to distinguish one from another.
• Tags: Tags are also known as labels. When the user sends a new message they will have the option to choose which tag to send. Example: Homework, Test, Detention. This is to keep track of all the messages being sent and for analytical purposes. Also very easy to find all the homework messages or detention messages.

Middle column:

• Subject line, Parents name (mobile or email), Date and Time. This is all self explanatory. 

Right column:

• Settings: There are two options in this section. Languages is super important to me. The user that sends the message needs to be able to communicate with the end user in a easy way. Each user will have there default language so when a message is sent to them they will see in the language that they have assigned it to receive it. The user can also change it if they prefer too. Schedule is another important feature to have. The user can have a specific time to send it so the end users are not interrupted in their work or other personal reasons. 

Hope this all makes sense. Thank you for your time!

AlertU/Remind101

I started school already and I am still getting use to it, like the schedule, homework, people, campus etc. Although I haven't been doing as much as I have been doing over summer on the project I've still been thinking about during the day and while I'm sleeping. The reason that I wanted to post something up today is because while I was heading to my first class on Monday I saw a flyer on the wall and it was a notification system for students to send in a text message and receive alerts from the school in case of an emergency. This is great because almost every college student has a phone, which they use in or outside the classroom. After class I went on my computer and went to the website AlertU. I explored through their website to see what they were doing and I was impressed of the product. So this got me thinking about what I want to create and then I also remembered that Remind101 just launched so having these two products is really useful to compare. In a way from the video demo of Remind101, their product is similar to AlertU. Same process in users texting a code to subscribe and other features that are similar, but there is one key feature no one has mastered yet. I'm still planning on doing this and make it available for schools/parents.

There's more to add but I have a class to attend.

By the way the new Blogger interface is nice. I love the simplicity and colors. 

Pause

Summer is almost at it's end for me and that means that I'll soon start college. I've enjoyed this summer for many reasons, like going to Google once or twice a week, meeting amazing people and maybe most importantly eating delicious food. I'll miss walking down Shoreline Blvd in the mornings to meet with Suz. The crazy things that happen at Google like flash mobs etc. (If you've visited Google you know what I mean)

When I was not at Google I was home, in my room on the computer. Well not all the time I would go out and do thing a normal teen age boy would do. Like, record video and take photos when Leticia and Maureen would invite me to their Design Thinking workshops, which are always fun to be at. Road trips with the family and exploring places that we have never visited before.

I enjoyed my summer project, but this is not the end of it. Once I'm settled I'll continue with this application. This is something that I feel educators should have and be available as soon as possible. The title of the Blog is called Summer App Project, but that will soon change.

I want to Thank You!, if you have been following me through this journey and don't forget about this because I will soon be back. Enjoy the rest of your summer and talk to you soon!

Recipe

Google Voice, Google Translate, Gmail and Google+ Circles. Putting all these into one pot will make this mockup/application that I am creating. The layout is simple just like Google Voice it has a thread of all the messages from the same person, which keeps it all located in one place to look when reading from one parent to teacher. On the left column there's a circles sections that shows all the groups/circles that the teacher has and if it clicked on it will display all the parents/students that are in the circles. Each circle is for each class the teacher has. This will allow the teacher to send one notification to the entire circle which will send a text message to all the parents within that circle. While sending it will be translated in to the default language that the parent set as.

Version 0.0.1 NOW AVAILABLE !

Version 0.0.1 is out now. I've been waiting and wanting this to be out. I finally decide to make a demo of what I've been working on. Of course this does not have all the elements that I want, but it's just to give you an idea.

Some features that you will see when Composing a new SMS are being able to set a specific time and date that the teacher will want to notify the parents. The reason I choose this to include this feature is so that the parents aren't being notified when there working.

Another feature that you might see is when the name of the parent to whom it will be sent to in inputted the default language will appear on the bottom of the "To:" box. Of course it has  a drop down option if the teacher wants to notify a specific group(class).

For the Contacts some features that will be there are basic information such as the parents name along with the students name (in grey). Also labeling it the first person as the Primary parent to contact or having the option as a secondary for having both parents being notified at the same time if both parents choose too.

Again this is just a special release, but more will be coming soon. Let me know what you think. What I can change, what you suggest any feedback will be awesome. Thanks!

If you want to original PDF shoot me an email and I will be happy to send you a copy so you can try it out.

Keep enjoying your summer!

TGIF

TGIF (Thank God Its Friday). My question to this is - who is God? Anyway I think it's funny that people will say this sort of stuff. When I first heard of this I thought it was a file saving format.

Anyway it's Friday great and hope your doing well. I am thanks for asking. I just had a long and productive week. To start off I did approximately 58 wireframes in two days. I went to my first Mexican League Soccer game. These where two great and exciting things, but something not to exciting was I was running up and down the Bay Area to re-new my Health Insurance - which is a pain in the butt.

My Friday went well. I spend almost all day working at Google and finishing up more of the wireframes. I started the Composing SMS feature and todays fouces was on the Contacts feature. For the 6 hours that I was working I managed to get the Contacts design and have some clickable wireframes. Those wireframes where able to select on the different parent that the teacher wanted to see the contact info and wanted to edit.

In editing the contact info - there are several key things that are not common. One is setting a default language that the parent wants to receive his/her messages. Another feature is being able to add a secondary user and having both parents being notified at the same time if they prefer or if they do not.

There are many challenges when working with lots and lots of wireframes. Once you do up to 15 it starts getting confusing. Connecting each one to a specific window is not as easy. You need to be concentrated on what you're doing. There was one point of the process where I was amazed at what I did. I was able to get the text that was being sent translated into different languages. I want to make it easier for the end user to understand the message to I added a feature which will allow the teacher to select what languages to send the message. The teacher was able to select it and once it was selected and translated it will show what the message will look like. I saved it and tested and it worked and I was able to selected 6 different languages and it will translate into that langage. I felt great about doing this. For some weird reason I laughed and it made me happy to see this. I hope this serves as a great feature to users.

I think thats what Balsamiq wants you to do. Feel frustrated for sometime, but once it is exported you will feel great went it does what you want, if you connect it correctly. Like I've mentioned in the past it's a great tool and useful tool to use when designing for a new application or any idea that you have in mind.

Enjoy your weekend and also enjoy the rest of Friday and then enjoy the next and the next Fridays to come.

Translate

This is a feature that might not sound to important, but it will come useful in many scenarios.  It doesn't only have to be a translation from English to Spanish, other foreign languages as well. Why did I choose to have this as part of this application, well to make it easier for both of the end users. It won't be set as default, but will be an option that is available for the users to use. The user receiving the message will be able to read it in his/her language, which will also make it easier for them.

Not to mention - everything that is translated will not be transcribed exactly the same in the other language. For example try translating this blog into another language. When you read it, it does not make sense most of the time - depending on your word  choice. It's a feature that helps and at the same time does well and not so well in many cases, but overall a tool that is useful.

Now I'm off to watch my first soccer game. Pumas vs. Morelia

Happy 4th of July!

I was on vacation, which is why I haven't been posting anything up. This week I will bring more updates on what I am doing.

I can say that I've been working or rather thinking what platform it would be most beneficial to the teachers to use and also I've been learning more about APIs.

Again, Happy 4th of July and I hope you had a great weekend.

Whats next?

These past couple of days have been interesting. I got a different perspective of how to look on creating an application and also different points of views on teachers who could use the application. I had to ask myself so many questions and look at the big picture here. Who were the main users and what do they want? How can I make this a place that they will use in their daily platforms that they already use? These are just some of the questions that I've been thinking about after speaking to teachers and an expert.

My first approach when creating this app was to have a platform for only teachers and parents to use. Having a specific login and password. You know all that user information that you need to input and having them use something new. This might not lead that why for now, but instead something more simple and integrated with platforms that they are already using today.

Also who are the ones that will be using it more. Of course the teachers. The parents are the ones that will be receiving notifications from annoying teachers (no offense to you all great beautiful teachers). With a simple SMS they will be notified with anything that the teacher sends them.

How can I make this a place that they will use in their daily platforms that they already use?
I come to this question because what is the best place to have this integrated and I also ask, what's the place where teachers spend most of the ime inputting information about the students. Not only should this be an easy feature to use, but also a feature that they will use frequently.

The best way to find out about all this is by Designing and Prototyping. For the past two days I've been filming teachers go through this process. For most of the teachers it was there first time doing the process of Design Thinking. It's a process that gets you thinking of course, but more than that it gets you to innovate a tool for users. I was speaking to an expert of design thinking and she gave me a great idea. Thanks Leticia!

Naming an Application

This has been bothering me for awhile now and I need to come up with a name. It's like when your having a baby. You and your suppose have to choose a name for the baby. Something its easy if it's a boy and simply name it after the dad, which makes him a Jounior. Or name it after your grad parents, the month it was born on or after a beautiful flower. I'm not saying that I'm having a baby soon, but there is a application that will be born soon and it needs a name.

I want something that people will like and remember when they read it the first time. Something fun, short and easy to remember. So I ask you if you can give me any names. Your idea can spark other ideas and the more ideas in names we have the better, so just leave one or a few application names in the comments section.

Enjoy your weekend!

(Oh, one more thing. SFSU gave me this Gator. It's a patch!)

remind101

I passed by this website (remind101) and it almost has something simliar to what I am working on. It has texting and reminding. This is great when students have so many tasks to get done and there isn't enough time or just forget to do it on time.

I say it's similar because my application will have texting involved and some other things that I will not be sharing out yet.  One thing is does not have is having parents and teachers involved. What about for the students that hate doing their homework and studying. Well my app will notify the parent so they can tell there student to do there homework and also study for finals exams. Then again there are students that are responsible for themselves, which I respect. ultimately, if you want to be reminded about your homework assignments you might want to check out remind101.

(I love Balsamiq Mockups. I've been exploring the application which is why my blog posts are late.)

Balsamiq Mockups

I spent the day at Google yesterday. This was my first time on Campus and I really enjoyed it, so many things to see and games to go and play with. Well thats not the reason I went. I meet some awesome people today and I got different perspectives on my project, which is great for me. After today I thought, well I think I might need to throw all the ideas that I have out the window, which happens but maybe not delete them just for future reference.

I was also introduced to an awesome application called Balsamiq Mockups. (Click on the link for more information) It's a great tool to have and I will definitely use it a lot. Thanks Suz!

So after a day of talking and telling what my plans on my app, I need to make some changes. I was thinking to hard about this app, when in reality technology makes it so easy. Why I hate when that happens. There are still features that I need to think of and clarifications. This weeks goal is to target the teachers user interface.

Create Account

Most online social or non-social sites allow you to create an account for free or with a subscription. This will have neither. In order to have an account you will need to be apart of a school and the administrator will create it for you.

The reason that this was chosen was because this is a place where teachers and parents can connect. What if a parent wants to connect with a parent but he/she does not have an account, well then it makes it challenging for the teacher or vis versa. So having this open to everyone with a simple setup will get people to use it more.

Teachers and parents will receive a URL to log-in if it's their first time. They will also be given a temporary user-name and password. Once they entered that they will need to setup there own user-name and password. Along with their new user-name and password they will need to input their phone number and email.

The administrators will be in charge of organizing each student from grade to classes he/she are in. This way the parent knows which subject and the teachers name.

Login UI

Hope everyone is having a great time. 

Meanwhile I am working on this application, which I've been thinking and working on really hard. This weekend I spent some time to sit down and think about the login page. In order for me to start off the brainstorm I cleared a whole wall to dedicate a wall for ideas and brainstorming. I thought that instead of writing or typing everything I do, I can just post it up in a larger scale for me to see. Here is an image of my brainstorming wall, as I call it for now.  

For the most part I have a first draft, but of-course it will be changing . I still need some features to work on, but there miner details so I will come up with it later or during the process.

I think this is awesome. I am using a smart pen to record and write all my information. After I have it written on a special kind of notebook I connect the pen to the computer and then it will have all the things that I wrote in a document. I can then save it in almost any format that I want. Below is an example of my layout page and some ideas that I have in mind. I might be sharing more of these. By the way this is a Livescribe smart pen. I find this to very useful when it comes to writing down ideas or just recording a class. 

My goal for this week it to have one prototype to test and test it on a teacher and then from the feedback redefine it. I will do this by the end of this week, so next week I can move on to the next task. 

Appreciation

Busy busy busy...

This is what I have been thinking in and out of my head. The end of the school year is approaching and I still need to accomplish many tasks. On top of all these things I’ve had non-school projects. Some I’ve started and some I will not have time to get to. Editing video is not as easy as it looks or sounds, but most people think it’s an easy thing to do. Especially when it’s a solo project. 

When I get home all I do is work on the projects. The next morning I go to school and then home again and the same routine continues. Same goes for the weekend. This weekend I went out into the community, because it was school related, but if it wasn’t then I will be home working. I love what I do, but when people do not appreciate it then I won’t either. 

I’ve done to much and for the appreciation that I have received it has not satisfied me. From now on I will only work for the things that I will gain something in the end or get appreciated from it. Having a “talent” does not mean we can all approach him/her and make them do it all. 

I like being busy, but not to much or when it comes to the point where I can’t see the light. I’ve learned so much from all of this and I will take it as a learning experience. 

It’s been a stressful month and I got to say I am more excited in graduating then sad. I am ready for this summer and this application will be awesome!

Please excuse my grammar. My writing skills aren't so great. 

POV

Point Of View

__________ is a __________ who wants __________ and needs__________ because__________.


Using this method will get us to know exactly what the Teacher/Parent wants and why it will be useful. 

Teacher

Mr. Barajas is a teacher who wants to communicate with the parents of students and needs it to be easy and fast because he wants parents to be involved.

Parent

Gloria is a parent who wants to be updated with her students grades and needs to have easy access to the teacher because she cares about her child grades.

These are just some examples of what a teacher or parent might say. This is useful so I can know what the user wants and how this can benefit there needs.

If your a teacher or parent please leave your POV below.

Features

Listed below are the features that I work on so improve and make better. I will design a prototype and then test it and from there I will redefine it with the feedback given. 

Week 1: Login UI

Week 2: Send/Receive message

Week 3: Instant search

Week 4: Translation 

Week 5: Parents or Students name

App Project Background

Creators
This project was started by a group of 4 students (Francisco Ramirez, Jose Rosales, Karen Sandoval, Tiyla Vauss) at East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy. ECC (Extra Curricular Course) was a after school program that was focused on Design for Current Technologies.

Project
We spent some time brainstorming what we were going to do and in the end we came up with make an application that will allow Teachers and Parents to communicate in a fast and efficient way. This application will allow teachers to communicate with the students parents via text or email within the application to notify them about their students. We wanted to create this because we realized that most parents do not communicate with their student teachers as much, so using technology will allow this to happen.

Mission
This summer I will continue working on this project to having it accessible in the near future. During that time I will want to have several features to accomplish.

• Help support 
• Send/Receive messages 
• Instant search
• Translations
• Groups of grades 
• Unsent messages - Draft
• Subject line
• Student name or Parents name in "To" line
• Templates for messages
• Who to notify - Both or single parent 

Subscribe to my blog to keep up with my progress while I work on it this Summer (2011).