ProSkin WebRadio
In order to try to identify different types of user we have created a skinnable WebRadio. This WebRadio has a number of important features, the most important two being the ability to change the user interface skin and the ability to log your interaction with the webradio (using log file recording). By analysing the log files of your interactive behaviour towards a user interface skin we can start to determine how different types of people tend to interact.
Each of the features is described in greater detail below:
- Radio : it plays Internet Radio stations - it would be a pretty poor WebRadio if it didn't :)
- Questionnaires : it will provide you questionnaires to answer and then give you your results on completion. There are four main questionnaires are:
- General Information Questionnaire
- Personality Inventory
- Music Preference Inventory
- Skin Preference Questionnaire
All responses are totally anonymous and double blind (this means that neither we nor you know who you are in the database). Ever wondered if you're an extrovert or an introvert? Well now's your chance - free psychometric tests with immediate results ! We are collecting this data along with the log files (see below) to see if there are correlations between personality and interaction in such a case. For example, do extroverts prefer purple interfaces? or perhaps if you are introvert and agreeable then perhaps a more compact design is more appropriate. We have absolutely no idea at the moment (and neither does anyone else!) so by collecting this data we can try to see if there are relationships between personality and interaction.
- MessageCentre : the message centre allows us to send you messages and new questionnaires. Whenever there is a new questionnaire available for you to complete you will be sent a new message to your MessageCentre.
- Skinnable : the WebRadio is totally reskinnable and we will provide a number of different skins to choose from. Depending upon when you join the experiment will depend upon which selection of user interface skins you receive. There are four main phases to the experiment and depending upon which condition you have been randomly assigned to will determine the order that you receive new skinpacks. There are four skinpacks in total and you will receive one new skin pack each week. At the end of the four week experimental period, the webradio will unlock entirely and you will have full access to all the skinpacks.
- Log Files : Whenever you interact with the WebRadio application, your mouse clicks are captured and recorded by the application and sent to the central ProSkin server. This is so that we can see how you have interacted with the WebRadio (which functions you used, how you used them, how you accessed them etc). This recording ONLY applies to the WebRadio application itself - we cannot and do not record anything else. Furthermore, you are free to look at the log files stored locally to see what is sent - if you don't believe me, check for yourself. The source code is also available for inspection should you wish.