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Sensemaking in Practical Design
NoGo Areas
When the phone is picked up and the alarm silenced, the screen should show “ NoGo
Areas” in red overlayered on the camera image ( so called augmented reality, AR).
These NoGo areas are the polygon inside a configurable depth contour. The default
was the 3-m contour, but ideally, any depth should be able to be picked based on
the current draft of the boat, plus a safety margin. Ideally, the depth alarm should
also compensate for the current tidal situation based on tide tables or real-time tide
gauges. The user should be able to see these NoGo areas all around by pointing the
smartphone camera.
Landmark Names
Conspicuous landmarks around the boat should be named by overlaying text on the
camera image. Examples of such conspicuous landmarks could be names of islands,
shoals, buoys, beacons and mountaintops ( the area is very mountainous). Much time
on board a small craft is spent trying to find buoys and beacons. An overlaid pointer
should show their position to aid visual search. To avoid cluttering, the names and
pointers could be toggled on and off by tilting the camera ( slightly up turns text on
and vice versa).
Air Draught
An alarm similar to the grounding alarm could be configured for sailing boats with a
mast height that is higher than the span of oncoming bridges and power lines.
Fairways and Planned Routes
Official fairways should be shown as an AR “ carpet” rolled out on the water in the
camera image. Also, individual routes planned in a chart program and imported into
the phone could be shown in the same manner. This feature must be able to be turned
on and off to avoid cluttering. This requirement was later dropped for the tested prototype due to time constraints.
technical PrototyPe DeveloPment
After the meeting with the user group, discussions started about the technical implementation and what could be achievable within the time and budget available. Of the
five prioritised solutions suggested by the user group, the first four were selected for
development.
The Android Platform
We decided to make the test implementation on the Android platform because
Combitech had earlier experience in this platform, had available equipment and the
relative ease with which test implementations could be distributed without being
passed by the AppStore ( for Apple’s iOS), thus giving us a quicker development
cycle. Recently, the app has also been developed for iOS.
Sensemaking in Practical Design
NoGo Areas
When the phone is picked up and the alarm silenced, the screen should show “ NoGo
Areas” in red overlayered on the camera image ( so called augmented reality, AR).
These NoGo areas are the polygon inside a configurable depth contour. The default
was the 3-m contour, but ideally, any depth should be able to be picked based on
the current draft of the boat, plus a safety margin. Ideally, the depth alarm should
also compensate for the current tidal situation based on tide tables or real-time tide
gauges. The user should be able to see these NoGo areas all around by pointing the
smartphone camera.
Landmark Names
Conspicuous landmarks around the boat should be named by overlaying text on the
camera image. Examples of such conspicuous landmarks could be names of islands,
shoals, buoys, beacons and mountaintops ( the area is very mountainous). Much time
on board a small craft is spent trying to find buoys and beacons. An overlaid pointer
should show their position to aid visual search. To avoid cluttering, the names and
pointers could be toggled on and off by tilting the camera ( slightly up turns text on
and vice versa).
Air Draught
An alarm similar to the grounding alarm could be configured for sailing boats with a
mast height that is higher than the span of oncoming bridges and power lines.
Fairways and Planned Routes
Official fairways should be shown as an AR “ carpet” rolled out on the water in the
camera image. Also, individual routes planned in a chart program and imported into
the phone could be shown in the same manner. This feature must be able to be turned
on and off to avoid cluttering. This requirement was later dropped for the tested prototype due to time constraints.
technical PrototyPe DeveloPment
After the meeting with the user group, discussions started about the technical implementation and what could be achievable within the time and budget available. Of the
five prioritised solutions suggested by the user group, the first four were selected for
development.
The Android Platform
We decided to make the test implementation on the Android platform because
Combitech had earlier experience in this platform, had available equipment and the
relative ease with which test implementations could be distributed without being
passed by the AppStore ( for Apple’s iOS), thus giving us a quicker development
cycle. Recently, the app has also been developed for iOS.