NanZ_Thesis Book

Nan Zhu | Thesis Book | FengShui Guide

MFA Thesis Bookof Nan Zhu

University

Degree

Contact

All Right ReservedCopyright 2013 Nan Zhu

academy of art university180 new montgomery street.fifth floorsan francisco, california,94108,usa

master of fine artnew media & web design

[email protected]

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Contents

introduction / 03

research / 09

branding / 17

development / 35

user testing process / 53

technical process / 69

problem solved / 73

reference / 77

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introduction 01

- abstract- elevator pitch- statement of interest- strategic process

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abstract

FengShui Guide is a real - time FengShui analysis appication for iPhone. It helps user to find right directions for their FengShui aspects at home and it also provides live FengShui suggestions.

You can use the iPhone’s built-in compass and viewfinder to look at your sur-roundings, while the app shows which part influences your job, your relation-ships, your personal health, and every other aspect of your living environment. You’re able to recurring difficulties in your financial, professional, emotional or creative life. Also, by following these FengShui principles and suggestions Feng-Shui Guide provides, you can easily fix those trouble areas and compensate for any issue. Now you will have a home enviornment that helps you achieve success, happiness and prosperity.

elevator pitch

With the help from FengShui Guide.

You can:Get specific FengShui suggestions based on your personal information.Find right directions for FengShui aspect by using your app’s camera.Get live FengShui suggestions while move around holding the iPhone.

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statement of interest

I came from a very traditional Chinese family, my mother is a devout disciple of buddhism. Ever since I was a child, we spent couple of months living in the tem-ple every year. Therefore, most of my childhood memories were about the daysliving at the temple. I wake up with the sunrise and rest when sunset, while my mother was addicted to the spiritual studies, I learned the calligraphy, painting, and tea ceremony with the Buddhist master Hai Zheng. During that periodof time, I saw many people came to asked the master about their financial issues, family troubles, health problems, also the Feng Shui suggestions. By seeing many people changed their fortune after they followed the Feng Shui principles, Iwas so captivated by the study of Feng Shui. I want to know more about this an-cient Chinese secrets. In later years, even though I couldn’t go to the temple that often, I still keep the habit of reading Feng Shui books. And the more I know it,the more I was amazed by its beautiful and mystical.

When I started working my thesis project, I thought this is a good chance to introduce this Chinese invention to everyone. The purpose of the this service is to fix those trouble areas and compensate for any issue, and people who use thisapplication can have a home environment that helps them achieve success, happiness, and prosperity.

strategic process

unique positioning statementFengShui Guide is a real-time FengShui analysis application that allows you to see your surroundings in a new light. You’re able to make new connections between obstacles in your physical space and recurring difficulties in yourfinancial, professional, emotional or creative life. And it uses a new technology for getting live FengShui suggestions through the app’s inside camera.

topic categoryFengShui Guide is a real-time FengShui analysis application for users to explore and experience the interaction with your surroundings, and to some degree education, through live FengShui.

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Nan Zhu | Thesis Book | FengShui Guide+++

research 02

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- inspirations- competitors- competitor’s matrix chart- competitive analysis conclusion

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sfpark

inspirations

SFMTA established SFpark to user new technologies and policies to improve parking in San Francisco. Reducing traffic by helping drivers find parking benefits everyone.

Features:SFpark works by collecting and distributing real-time information about where parking is available so drivers can quickly find open spaces.To help achieve the right level of parking availability. SFpark periodically adjusts meter and garage pricing up and down to match demand.

snapshop showroomSnapshop Showroom visualize furniture in your own home using augmented reality. The app gives you confidence that a sofa or chair looks great in your living room before you buy.

Features:Browse products from your favorite brands, like CB2, Pier1 and Crate&Barrel. The catalog includes product descriptions, dimensions, and pricing. Preview different products and color variations and use familiar gestures to position furniture in your live camera or on an image loaded from your camera roll.

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8mansions feng shui

competitors

The goal of 8Mansion FengShui is to make authentic Chinese FengShui simple and practical for everyday life. This application is trying to ensure you always receive auspicious Qi energy by facing your good directions and avoid getting bad Qi energy from your unfavorable direction whenever you have any task.

Features:8Mansion FengShui for the iPhone first computes your personal Gua Number using your date of birth and your gender. The app uses the iPhone’s built-in compass to determine whether the current direction will bring good auspi-cious Qi energy or negative unfavorable Qi energy.

Pros:This application is simple and straight-forward, every step is based on the Gua Number.Graphs and labels are easy to read and give clear information.Provides plenty of FengShui knowledges.

Cons:Few functions; user are easy to get bored with too many texts.No interaction with users.Unable to share with friends.

real-time fengshui compassReal-time FengShui Compass uses user’s personal information to get Gua Number for them. It also shows which part in the room influences your Health, Wealth, Relationships and Growth.

Features:Users get explanations for their FengShui Gua Number. They will get a basic understanding for the Five Elements and read articles for the arrangement of these five elements at home.

Pros:The explanation for the Gua Number is specific and accurate foreach user. User knows exactly where are the directions for FengShui aspect.

Cons:The app is in Chinese, the English version is lunching now.The app only shows the direction at home, it doesn’t give more explanations or suggestions for the direction.

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easy fengshui with augmented realityBy using the live FengShui or “augmented reality” in this Easy FengShui app, you can use your iPhone’s viewfinder to literally look around a room, while the app shows you exactly which part of the room relates to places such as the Career area, Wealth area, or the love and Marriage area.

Features:Augmented RealityThe Bagua on the screen showing the definition for each direction.

Pros:User can get a direct idea by using the live FengShui while they look around a room with the iPhone. It’s convenient and simple. User can pick a specific shape for their rooms before they really see the room. Interact with friends on facebook or via e-mail.

Cons:Bad user experience.Not related enough for the app and individual user.It’s not a very well design app since the user interface looks a little unfinished and tousy.

competitive analysis conclusionIn order to get accurate definition for each user’s FengShui Gua Number, the app has to use user’s personal information.

Despite to use the traditional compass to search for directions. It is more conve-nient and interactive for user to look up the directions by using viewfinder.

Users want not only the value of directions, but also want to get interactions with the application. In order to help the user to improve the FengShui, the app should show the steps after finding the direction. They expects to see suggestions or warn-ings to get a better FengShui .

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competitor’s matrix chart

FengShui Guide 8Mansion FengShui EasyFengShui Real-time FengShui Compass

Live Camera

Select Aspect

Interaction

Visualized Suggestions

UserProfile

FengShuiPrinciples

branding & visual design03

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- inspiration for visual design- moodboard- logo design process- preliminary sketches- guideline- visual design process

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inspiration for visual design

logo design process

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moodboard

ITC Legacy Sans Std:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU-

VWXYZ

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU-

VWXYZ

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

trajan pro:abcdefghijklm-nopqrstuvwxyz

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moodboard

20 21

moodboard

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premininary sketches

design specs

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visual design process

first version

01 - sign up02 - find direction03 - choose item

01 02 03

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04 - choose furniture05 - choose item06 - adjust item on screen

04 05 06

second version

01 - sign up02 - choose aspect03 - choose roomtype

01 02 03

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04 - find direction05 - get to the right direction06 - find item

04 05 06

third version

01 - sign up02 - choose aspect03 - find direction

01 02 03

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fourth version

01 - live fengshui02 - start using camera03 - choose aspect

01 02 03

04 - choose roomtype05 - get to the right direction06 - see suggestion

04 05 06

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final version

01 - homepage02 - aspect & roomtype03 - scan room

01 02 03

04 - see recommendations05 - recommendation page06 - sign up

04 05 06

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development process 04

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- target audience- personas- information architecture- wireframe- scenarios

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target audience

People In Trouble:People who are in this level are my main target audience, they want to use this appli-cation to solve the problems they are facing, they want the app to be simple and efficient.They are asking for helps from FengShui;They are interesting in Chinese Culture;They like to rearrange the decorations at home.

Tradition Supporter:People in this level are my secondary target audience, they are traditional people, they already have a knowledge of what FengShui is and they understand the basic FengShui principles. They expect the app to be profes-sional and accurate.

Chinese Culture Fan:People belong to this part are familiar or interested in Chinese Culture, they may not-know about FengShui, but they expect to see something very asian and traditional.For most people in this group, they focus a lot on the Visual Design of the application.

Exclusionary:This group of people are fans of new tech-nology, they like new and cool stuff. They spend few times learn about the new app, so the app must be really efficient and easy to use, also, it has to be both functional and good looking.

personas

Aimee Long

Gender: FemaleAge: 26Location: Santa Fe, NMOccupation: Owner of a groceryHobby: Searching for good food, CookingAppliances: iPhone4sFavorite App: Yelp

User Goals :- Wants to get her life back on

track.- Wants to experience the FengShui

app.- Gets specific suggestions from

app.- get some help with re-decorating

the house.

Wilson

Gender: MaleAge: 28Location: Tokyo, JapanOccupation: marketing managerHobby: lstening to music, watching movies, reading comics. travellingAppliances: iPhone4sFavorite App: twitter, whatsapp, talk box

User Goals :- Like something well designed.- View previous examination results. - Wants to get specific suggestions

from app.

Cecilia

Gender: FemaleAge: 28Location: Paris,FranceOccupation: Art DirectorHobby: Wine appreciation, Paint-ing, helping friends to decorate their homesAppliances: iPhone4Favorite App: SketchBook; Face-book

User Goals :- Hoping to get a deeper under-

standing about Feng Shui.- Expecting something modern but

still connect to the tradition.

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ia

wireframes

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scenario1

scenariors

Carol just got home from a long day frustrating meeting. She feels even more stressful when seeing the messy bedroom. She wants to get helps from Fengshui Guide to reorganize her room and get her life back on track.

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Homepage.She clicks “LiveFengShui“ to analyze her room.

She needs to decide which FengShui Aspect and Room that she wants FengShui Guide to analyze.

This is camera page. The wheel show her the campass of her room. The blue dots indicates that these are the directions in the room where she can add some decorations to improve her spiritual growth.

The blue stripe on screen indi-cate the same as the blue dots.

The red sector means that these areas (directions) were scanned.

When the red sector becomes a full circle. That means she has finished scan the whole room.

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When the sector becomes a circle, it means the scaning ac-tion is done and Carol can see the recommendations now.

She can move fingers around the directions on the picture (the top picture), and down the page it will show her therecommended decorations and colors for this direction.

This is another direction and recommendated decorations.

scenario2

Wilson doesn’t quite understand what “Water Element” means. So he tries to find informa-tion about this Fengshui term.He is on Homepage. He clicks on principle button.The app shows him a lot of articles. He wants to search the articles which are related to “wood element.” So he clicks on search area and types “wood element”.The app shows him some articles about “Wood Element” and he clicks on one of them. And he can read through the whole article and get the idea about the five element of FengShui.

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Homepage.From here he can click “Principle” button.

He can see articles here.He can also clcik the top left button to check all the articles or search articles.

In this case he wants to search articles.

He types “wood element” on the search box.

The app will show him all the articles related to “wood element.” And he clicks one of these articles.

After reading the articles, he can also bookmark the page.

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After he bookmarked the page, he can go back to the list page to see morearticles or check out other bookmarked pages.

He can see the bookmarked articles.

scenario3

In order to reorganize her room, Cecilia decid-ed to came to Ikea and purchase some deco-rations recommended by FengShui Guide. She goes on the app again and check out what the app suggested.On homepage, she clicks “MyFengShui.” Here she can check out her profile, recommenda-tions, and bookmarks.In this case she wants to see the recommenda-tions so she clicks the recommendation button. Now the app shows her the analysis history. She only has one entry so far. She clicks the button. And then the app shows her the rec-ommendations for her bedroom to improve the spiritual growth.Now she can go ahead and purchase the new decorations according to this result.

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Homepage.From here she can click “MyFengShui” button.

She clicks MyRecommenda-tion button.

There would be a list of his-tories, she can filter out by choosing the Aspects.

She filters out the histories. She can move fingers round to see all the directions affecting her spiritual growth. And under each direction there will be the recommendation list telling her what colors or what decorations are good at this direction.

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user testing process 05

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- user testing guildline- user testing plan- user testing 1- user testing 2- user testing 3- summary of test results

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user testing guideline

Thank you for testing FengShui Guide, the real time FengShui Analysis application tool. The purpose of this test is for users like you to help me identify the problems that you would encountered based on the current design. During this testing, I hope you can feel free to interact with this site and I will be recording the problems you’d encountered and if you can solve them without external helps.

Pre Test Questions:1. Do you ever tried to use a FengShui App?2. What do you expect to get from a FengShui app?3. How likely is it for you to rearrange the furnitures in your home based on the FengShui suggestions?4. Do you wish to get a print out version for the suggestions/tips you’ve got after using FengShui app?

Directions:Now you are seeing a mockup of FengShui Guide. There are four tasks you need to accomplish. Please be free to share the confusions or hesitations you may feel while completing the tasks.

Task 1Log in to this app

Task 2Find which section might help you to solve the health problem

Task 3Get recommendations for your living room

Task 4Share the recommendations

Post Test Questions:1. Was the navigation easy to follow?2. Did you enjoy the interactions while scanning the room?3. Do you think the Share function is necessary?4. Do you have any other comments of suggestions?

Conclusion:Thank you for your participation. Your comments and suggestions are helpful for the further developing. Appreciated for your help.

test objectives

user testing plan

FengShui Guide is a mobile application to exam fengshui in your home. According to the previous user testing results, I added some typical chi-nese elements in this app, and I also followed a traditional chinese style design pattern to let users to experience this chinese culture. Though I tried to added the instruction and tutorials in the app, user still get confused to some steps.

1. Confirm that the main navigation (the compass with the spoon) is familiar and necessary2. See if users understand the idea of the main navigation3. Test if users are comfortable with flow of the task4. Test if users like the idea of the Scroll5. Get feedback on the overall design and usability

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target usersMother with 2 kidsHas basic knowledge of Feng-Shui and interest-ed in Chinese Culture. Wants to explore theapp and exam the Feng-Shui at home.

Student moves to a new city. Had heard of FengShui before. Also wants to experience this app and get some sug-gestions from it.

Freelance designer wants to enhance the relation-ship with his girlfriend.Spend few times learn about the new app, so the app must be really efficient and easy to use.Also, the app has to be both functional and good looking.

storyboard sequence plan

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task templates

Task 1 : Sign Up and BrowseGoals / Outcomes: User sign up for the first time and browse the app.

Input: iPhone with internet connection.

Assumptions: User’s first time using FengShui Guide.

Steps: 1. Goes to the app

2. Sign up with filling in personal infomations ( user name,birthdate, gender)

3. Gets to the main page

Times for expert to complete: 2 minutes

Instructions for participant: You are a Chinese culture fan and have some acknowde-

ges about FengShui already. This is

the first time you are using this app, you want to see what contains inside this app.

You need to sign up by filling in some

personal informations.

Notes: After users sign up the form, they will get a specific explainations for their

FengShui, which means for different users, they may get different FengShui sugges-

tions based on their personal informations. There will be a note shows that user can

always find this explaination in their profile page.

task templates

Task 2 : Live FengShui Section & Choose AspectGoals / Outcomes: User Finds the LiveFengShui section and Choose the Health As-

pect she/he wants to improve on.


Assumptions: User needs to change/improve on one FengShui Aspect.

Steps: 1. Goes to the LiveFengShui

2. Read the instruction

3. Choose one Health Aspect

Times for expert to complete: 1minutes

Instructions for participant: You have been feeling illness for a while, now you want

to look for helps from this app.

Notes: Without reading through the tutorials, user needs to figure out he/she could

get suggestions from LiveFengShui Section.

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task templates

Task 3 : Examine the FengShui for Health AspectGoals / Outcomes: User exams the room and find directions


Assumptions: User is in a room and already chose the Health aspect

Steps: 1. Goes to the camera mode

2. Choose the room type

3. Read the instruction and press “Start”

4. Moves and follow the sign on the screen. ( A small map will appear on the

right up corner showing there are two places in this room can affect user’s

health aspect)


Instructions for participant: You are standing in the living room and start to use this

app. You want to improve the health and you want to see if the decoration in your

home is appropriate for your health from FengShui aspect.

Notes: Compare with the dots, see if user are more comfortable with the map

task templates

Task 4 : Get Suggestions and share the resultGoals / Outcomes: User gets the suggestions for improve the health aspect. User

Input: iPhone with internet connection, connect to printer

Assumptions: User finds the direction in the room and he/she always likes to share with

friends.

Steps: 1. Gets to the direction that affects his/her health.

2. The system automatically takes a picture once user get there ( a small “+1”sign will

show on the navigation in the bottom, user will know the picture is added in their pro-

file section.)

3. Drops down the suggestion for this direction, user reads it.

4. User presses “Done”, suggestion page flips

5. User chooses share on Facebook.

Times for expert to complete: 2 - 3minutes

Instructions for participant: Now you already found the directions that affect your health

aspect, you gonna get the suggestions for these directions and see what kinds of furnitures/

decorations you can use in this room.

Notes: If users like the design style of the suggestions and comfortable with the taking picture.

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task templates

Task 5 : Check the previous exams’ resultsGoals / Outcomes: User goes to the Profile section and find out the previous results.

Input: iPhone with internet connection

Assumptions: User had use this app before and already got suggestions for certain

FengShui aspect in some rooms at home.

Steps: 1. Goes to the Profile section

2. Chooses the View History

3. Choose to view by FengShui Aspect and taps on Health

4. Choose the suggestions by the photo thumbnails.


Instructions for participant: You used this app last week to get suggestions on im-

proving your health, but you haven’t

got time to do the decoration until now. You’re about to buy some small decorations

for home and you want to review

the suggestions.

Notes:

task templates

Task 6 : Experience the Principle SectionGoals / Outcomes: User wants to look up the meaning for Water Element in Principle Sec-

tion

Input: iPhone with internet connection

Assumptions: User is curious about a FengShui Phrase and he/she wants to know the mean-

ing for it.

Steps: 1. Goes to the Principle Section

2. Taps on the search bar and taps Water Element

3. The word Water Element is highlighted, find the one relates to your expectation

4. Taps on that chapter and read

5. Adds bookmark on this page

Times for expert to complete: 4 minutes without reading

Instructions for participant: You read about this Water Element in “My FengShui” Section,

you want to look up the meaning for this word. In the article you found, it wrote that there

are several colors and items that are related to this Water Element, you want to remember it

and read it next time.

Notes: 63


user testing 1

user testing 2

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user testing 3(pilot test)

summary of test results (pilot test)

Observations:1. User had no questions with sign up page. Should use less text in this page. ---Low

2. User confused with the picker for four aspects in FengShui Choice page. They thought there were more op-

tions for them to choose. Still need to explain the word “Aspect”. ---Low

The four buttons are more straight forward for user to choose.

3. The legibility for the drop down menu was a huge problem. Also user didn’t realize that those are buttons.

---Medium

Changed the opacity of the background. Still need to clarify the buttons.

4. According to the feedbacks I got from class, I should consider that if the navigation bar in camera is neces-

sary. ---High

I deleted the navigation bar in camera and clarified the “back” buttons. Here user will know they’d be bring

back to Aspect page from camera.

5. Need to change the legibility for the notification. Feedbacks from class for the “Scan”

button.---Medium

Changed the opacity and button. I also made it a pop-out window since the drop down menu for Room Type

is hanging on the top.

6. User tried to tap the Sign which with number on it. They also questioned what would happen if they move

backward. ---High

I changed the “ballon” into transparent bubble. The bubbles that already been scanned will turn into blue.

There also will be a darken layer covers the parts of the room that been scanned already.

7. One user questioned when the pop-out window for “Done” appears.---Medium

I will make a video for this camera part next week to explain the interactions user will see in this section. I will

also add sound effect as well.

8. Feedbacks from the class. Which page the user will be back to when tap “Back” button. Navigation prob-

lem. ---Medium

Changed the “Back” into “Health” , need to add a notification page to tell user this room has been scanned

already.

9. User surprised to see the camera again when they tapped “Done”. ---Medium

I tried to changed the opacity of the background, so user will know there are still in the Health section. Also,

I’m considering if there need another button for user to continue scan other rooms.

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technical process 06

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- technical specification- technology used

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technical specification

Interaction Model: iPhone App (native app)App Category: Lifestyle / EducationSystem Requirements:Platform: iPhoneScreen Resolution: 960*640Support Version: iPhone 4, iPhone 4s

technology used

Interaction Model: iPhone App (native app)App Category: Lifestyle / EducationSystem Requirements:Platform: iPhoneScreen Resolution: 960*640Support Version: iPhone 4, iPhone 4s

I used photoshop for all my visual designs. I was trying to give users a better use experi-ence, so I spend a lot of time on polish the works. After that, because of the complexity and difficulties of the coding for this project, I worked on AfterEffect to finish the video simulations. I also tried to provide a Html prototypes and a partially functional proto-type coded with jQuery Mobile.

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problem solved07

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- problem and solution- challenges and skills gained

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problem and solution

People always misunderstand the meaning for Chinese Feng-Shui. They confused it with the horoscope. I saw people asked the master for FengShui help and they don’t believe FengShui is actually a science that we all can study and apply to life.At that time, I search on app store to see if there is any Feng-Shui app that can give clear introduction on this study. How-ever the result disappointed me. That is the motive for me to design this app.

I hope with the help from FengShui guide, people who don’ t know FengShui can also get benefit from this old chinese sci-ence. They don’t need to write down their information and look up for the formula to get a Gua number. They don’t need to remember all the value of the direction, and move around the room holding a big compass. With FengShui guide, user only need to sign up once, and all the information will be calculate for them by this app. Compare with other apps on market. FengShui guide helps user to find direction and it gives clear suggestions for each direction that affect user’s FengShui. Also all the suggestions are visualized for users.

challenges and skills gained

My biggest challenges was how to demonstrate the idea of this app. Since most people are not familiar with FengShui,especially for american people. To introduce this idea to them and let them understand every step of this app is every important.

I spent a lot of time working on the naming for each button and header. I need to find the word that make sense for american people.Also, giving too many instructions before every step will bored users. So I have to try to visualized or combine some ofmy function to make user understand the app.

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reference and links08

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- reference- links for this project

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reference

FengShui Knowledge:FengShui for Dummies by David Daniel KennedyClear Your Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen KingstonFeng-Shui by Eva Wong

links for this project

html prototype:http://zhunan-web.com/fengshuiguide-prototypes/feng-shuiguide/FengShuiGuide-landing.html

Concept Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRByhQTUZGw

User Walk Through Video 1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkqBQq-6doo

User Walk Through Video 2:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7ZVjP64xTk

User Walk Through Video 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFspFaA_DiE

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thank you

NanZ_Thesis Book

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