User Centred Design Techniques help win Boujou an Emmy

Boujou, 2d3's automated movie camera tracking product won a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences last month; Syntagm was responsible for the conceptual and user-interface design, employing a user-centred approach.

Boujou is the motion picture industry's first commercial automatic camera tracker. It calculates the position of a camera from image sequences alone and under most circumstances with no additional user intervention. This allows computer-generated images to be integrated with live motion footage much more quickly and accurately than before. A design goal for boujou was that it should require very little user intervention. However, if problems occur, guidance needs to be readily available, without users having to refer to documentation or a separate help system.

Syntagm was responsible for the conceptual and user interface design of Boujou. The company started by performing a competitive analysis of related products. They also had the chance to observe and interview a prospective user, who had experience of manual camera tracking products.

A "Michelin Guide" metaphor has been used to direct users to tasks that need to be performed. A single diamond means "optional", two diamonds mean "typical" and three, "required". In addition, the tasks that should be considered now (as a consequence of the current state of the process) are highlighted with solid red diamonds, whereas diamonds for other tasks are hollow grey.

Tasks can be performed directly by either double-clicking or right-clicking on each heading. Double-clicking can be thought of as the long and scenic route, with an explanatory dialogue appearing explaining the tasks and any relevant choices. Right-clicking is the direct route, with a simple popup menu of choices displayed.

2d3 is a collaboration between the Oxford Metrics Group and Oxford University's Visual Geometry Group, established specifically to undertake the development of the Boujou product, which started in 1999.

Associated Link: The Emmys

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