Interactive Kiosk for College of Engineering

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This is the project

Problem Description
Description...

Display Design
Design...

Display Design Concepts




User Interface Design
The UI for this project needs to be a living UI, meaning it needs to move and display useful information while not in use. It also needs to be easy to understand and navigate for the user. Because of this we are planning on using a "live tile" system, where bits of useful information are displayed periodically on their respective tile. We are also thinking about developing this as a three-dimensional tree structure where the user is flown/zoomed into the next layer of whichever menu options they choose.

As design has progressed, we were met with the issue of how to make it as easy as possible for the content and look of the app to be updated after we had left the university. It hadn't really occurred to us, but the people updating the UI and the content of JIMM are very likely not going to be engineers in any capacity. Therefore, we had to forfeit some of our earlier ideas (such as using web scraping to get the necessary information) for the sake of longevity.

This led to us deciding to create an "Edit Mode" within the app itself that can be easily accessed to edit any and all content. So, basically, we're not hard-coding our user interface at all, but coding an app that can itself create the user-interface via intuitive content creation menus. Taking this approach will make life much, much easier for the person tasked with updating content than if we had hard-coded everything.

User Experience UI
On the user end of the UI the following information will be supplied somewhere in the application. Using button presses the user will be able to navigate an intuitive UI to find the following.
 * Map of engineering building/campus
 * Map and information on parking
 * History of programs with timelines and photos
 * History of Deans of the college of engineering with timelines and photos
 * Faculty of the college of engineering
 * Academy of Engineering members
 * Class schedules and rooms
 * Student clubs in the college
 * Information on majors
 * NAE Grand Challenges
 * Events list/calendar

Editing UI - List of Tools
The UI will be modifiable after entering a key combination and correct password. There will be numerous tools available to create and modify the UI to achieve an interface that will supply the information listed above.
 * Tool to add image from URL or directly from hard drive (png, jpg, or SVG)
 * Tool to move, scale, and rotate images once they've been loaded
 * Tool to add bodies of text with editable properties (font style, size, color, etc)
 * Tool to add hyperlinked text and images
 * Tool to add YouTube videos
 * Tool to change the background color of a panel
 * Tool to choose which transition animation to use