May 3-7, 2005
Thesis Presentations
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| G-Card | ||
|---|---|---|
| Author(s): | Krittiya Leoviriyakit | |
| Instructor: | Wilson, Kathleen | |
| Class: | Final Project Seminar | |
| URL: | http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~kl603/thesis/ | |
| Keywords: | group electronic greeting card | |
| An overall improvement to existing group electronic greeting cards or group e-cards. | ||
| I\'m exploring ways to improve existing group e-cards . Today,they have very limited features and none of them are customizable. My proposed design explore some of the possibilities of enchancing the features of Group e-cards by broadening the scope of interactivity and new media that can be implement, to make them more fun , more personalized and more creative. This will create a greater impression for both senders and recipient. | ||
| Personal Statement: | I, as a person who love group paper greeting cards, find that distance and inconvenience often obstruct the possiblility of passing a paper group greeting card to dear friends who are living in different countries. Even though this situation leads me to look only for Group e-card services, I\'m not at all satisfied with the choices available .None are special , customizable , personalized and fun to use. I always desire a tool that would allow me to create an e-card,customize it, and send to a group of dear friends whom I can\'t meet in person so they can, in turn, personalize ,collaborate and finally impress our special recipient. Now is a good time to create this project because the technology today has made it possible to improve the features of Group e-cards . | |
| Context: | There are an estimated 3,000 greeting card publishers in the US today.Sending Group cards (paper) is also another popular activity that has long been a tradition with the availability of greeting cards, The technology now has made it possible to put the idea of the group card into electronic from with the big advantage being that people can sign the card together eventhought they are not physically in touch with each other. Surprisingly, among the large number of e-card business today, there are only two companies (www.groupcard.com & www.groupcards.com) that offer a group e-card service.Judging by the trend of the e-card, Group e-cards should become more popular as it serves the social lige style of a new global generation. However,Group ecards a re not successful and not as well known even though their applications are functional .The problem is the design of Group e-cards is not as appealing and as trendy as individual e-cards in today\'s markets. Specifically, they are not personalized and this limits the senders from being more expressive. Existing Group e-cards have lots of room for improvement. I want to take the appealing aspects from successful individual ecards( eg, hallmark,bluemountain) and combine them with new technology to make the desing of my group ecards more personalized and preserve the emotional value of the group card. | |
| Audience: | Anyone who enjoy greeting cards.
Children are encouraged, but if they are less than 7 years olf, the assistance of an adult is recommended. | |
| User Scenario: | The users can use my application anytime, anywhere.The basic requirement is computer with internet access.
The recommended accessories are web camera, microphone,speaker, drawing tablet. | |
| Methodology: | My thesis project is an improvement on the existing group e-card environment. I want to design group e-cards to be more customizable and more personalized by combining and incorporating new media into them. The potential features in my new design are, for example, allowing a user to use a web cam to take pictures, record video, record voice messages, upload pictures, customize the graphics, design or draw graphics, or add handwritten messages before sending it to another person in the group. The recipient will receive a group e-card that contains messages with a unique design and style from each sender. I hope this style will invoke more emotional attachment on the part of the recipient.
To prove this concept, I will make a prototype of my newly designed group e-card. Then I will have users test my design and fill out a survey commenting on the features incorporated in my design. The target audience is not specific and is open to anyone interested in group e-cards. Children are encouraged to try my group e-card, but if they are less than 7 years old, the assistance of an adult is recommended. For testing my prototype, I need a person who has at least one friend to co-sign the card and has one end recipient. Also, the user should have access to a web cam and a microphone. From the results of the survey, I will be able to determine whether or not my new design is more inviting to the users and if it has invoked emotional attachment from the recipient. Applications used for building this project -Flash MX2004 Professional along with using communication servers to provide vdo stream, sound, clip -Database: mySQL, phpMyadmin -Programming language: Perl, action scripts, JavaScript. | |
| Sources: | [1] Greeting Card Association (GCA) (n.d./2005) The Greeting Card: History [WWWdocument]. URL http://www.greetingcard.org/thegreetingcard_history.html (visited 2005, Jan 27) [2] Greeting Card Association (GCA) (n.d./2005) The Greeting Card: General Fact [WWWdocument]. URL http://www.greetingcard.org/thegreetingcard_facts.html (visited 2005, Jan 27) [3] Greeting Card Association (GCA) (n.d./2005) The Greeting Card: Trends [WWWdocument]. URL http://www.greetingcard.org/thegreetingcard_trends.html (visited 2005, Jan 27) [4] Emotions Greeting Cards (n.d./2005) The History of Greeting Cards [WWWdocument]. URL http://www.emotionscards.com/museum/history.html (visited 2005, Jan 27)
[5] Knollenberg, G. A. (Feb 1998) Using the Internet to Crack the Greeting Card Market [WWWdocument]. URL http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/feb98/gak4.htm (visited 2005, Jan 28) [6] AG. Interactive (n.d./2005) BlueMountain.com [WWWdocument] URL http://www1.bluemountain.com/display.pd?bfrom=1&prodnum=3027441&path=35373 (visited 2005, Feb 1) [7] Flash Magazine (31 Jul 2002) The Flash History [WWWdocument] URL http://www.flashmagazine.com/html/413.htm (visited 2005, Feb 1) [8] Macromedia Inc. (n.d./2005) The History of Flash: The Dawn of Web Animation [WWWdocument] URL http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/events/john_gay/page04.html (visited 2005, Feb 1) | |
| Conclusions: | My thesis involves 2 goals: 1) technical success and 2) social and emotional success. I will achieve technical success when I make the piece work functionally. After I have the functional piece, I need people to test it. Whether it\'s successful or not depends on the users\' reaction. If people find it useful, entertaining, or helpful in strengthening relationships, invoking more emotional attachment than existing Group cards, then I would consider that as achieving the second goal. | |