9- Emily Gries

This is an interesting question. After reading chapter 6, everything that was said makes sense. When I don't understand something online, I usually do not look at the help options because if I couldn't figure it out, the language used in the help options most likely would not help me out and it would probably frustrate me. This part made sense. However, experts would probably feel uncomfortable that they couldn't figure it out, so they would try to fix it to relieve that tension. They would also most likely understand the language and have minor problems with the application. Like the seven themes of good design says, no design can be perfect. Designers have to make sacrifices for designs, a little give and take. Therefore they sometimes cater to either experts or other users. The help options, even though aren't used by all types of users, I think are an essential tool because with that give and take, the help options can be useful for the group that the design is not catered to.


For project 5, I think the personas could be either kids/teenagers that read the comics or older fans who are invested in the comics. These people are the most likely to buy merchandise or a product.

9-Trevor Corradin

I believe that help systems are a great addition to any design. We all know the unlikelihood of a "perfect design", so a help system is a great way to assist users having trouble. While users should be able to figure out most aspects of a design, there will always be things that are not perfect. It is for this reason that a help system is a complement to good design, not a substitute. By offering additional support, a user can spend much less time trying to fix his/her problem and more using the design efficiently.

I believe that the different fan-groups of the superhero should be considered when developing personas. They are the ones who have an investment in the character and story, making them a significant aspect of the design process. For example, we would need to make sure to account for fans with an extensive and specific knowledge of the superhero and his story, as well as people more interested in the plot than the details.

9 - Hayden Mills

I do not believe HELP systems work. Personally, I never have the patience to walk through a tutorial or help box that pops up. I usually learn how to use an application through trial and error. I find it annoying when a box pops up and comes between me and the design of the application. HELP systems are definitely not substitutes for good design they just help cover up below average design. I cant see any situations where tutorials or help boxes would be necessary if the designers would focus on a better overall design for the application.

Persona categories to focus on for project 5:
- Avid comic book readers
- Fan that run fan websites
- Social media accounts for avid users and distribtuors
- Comic books themselves

- Comic Con attendees

9 - Kristi Starling

I am intrigued by this question.  I've never really thought about help features as a substitute for good design, but I guess in some cases they are.  From my own personal experience, help features are often as frustrating as whatever issue drives me to the help feature in the first place.  Video tutorials or step-by-step instructions are often helpful, but are often time consuming, so I don't bother with them until absolutely necessary.  In a way, I think sometimes they are an attempt to substitute for good design, and in such cases I think they're rarely all that helpful.  However, because of the breadth of the user base for most software and the variety of backgrounds, I think even the most obvious of designs should have some sort of help feature for the less tech savvy.  The goal is of course to make the design obvious enough that the help features are not needed by anyone, but often such goals are unobtainable.  It seems to me that the best option is to design in such a way that help features should not be needed by the average user, but still provide them for the security and peace of mind for the user with below-average comfort with technology.

For project 5, we are designing not for the superheros themselves but for the actual people who have some sort of investment in the story of the superhero.  Personas should then be drawn from groups such as the fan base, television producers, and comic book authors.

9-Adam Johnson

In my opinion, HELP systems are essential and useful for the majority of situations.  However, I also feel the majority of people don't bother to check these systems out, even when they are legitimately confused and need help.  I for the longest time did not use things like tutorials, until I just recently found spending time at the beginning learning the basics of a program/tool saves time in the long run.  In my opinion, HELP systems, as in the tutorials and "Help" sections created by the actual software/design are becoming slowly and slowly less used, and may one day become obsolete. This is because of third party search sites like Google or Bing, which have absolutely massive amounts of resources available.  Online help is extremely important, and will be even more in the future.  However, this does not mean in any way Google can be a substitute for a good design.  If for the most part a design can't be figured out just by a quick glance and seemingly use it effortlessly, it is destined to fail no matter what.  I feel most software will always have technical aspects that the not so technically savvy person will not understand, and look online for help so it is essential they be there, and at the same time does not make it a substitute.  No matter how simple the design, I feel there will be a need of some sort of online help or tutorial explaining how it works on all levels so everyone can understand it (this means everyone should understand the main concept of the design, but i don't think a design will ever be so good that there wont be a tutorial or online help threads for some feature of the design).

As far as the persona is concerned for project 5, I believe it is very important.  We will have two personas (obviously).  We hope to have one appeal to the younger crowd, kids that are avid fans of their favorite superhero.  Our other persona is that of a die-hard fan, who knows all aspects of the superhero.  Hopefully our design will appeal to both, as it is very important to satisfy the (although made up) needs and likes of our personas.

9- Nicholas Barker

In looking at chapter 6 dealing with the help system, it doesn't take long to determine that they are essential for our design.  Although we hope to provide users with the best possible design, as we have discussed in class, our design is never done and can always be improved.  With that being said I think HELP systems are effective. In saying that I also believe that HELP is not a substitute for good design.

For our persona for project 5, I believe we are going to focus on someone who would be a fan of our hero.  He would like technology and more futuristic things.

9 - Baiyan Zhang

I think the HELP system is an essential part of a design. Although users may not use them very often, it can help users when they met the problems. I think this is not the substitute of the good design because whatever good or bad design, part of users does not know how to solve the problems they met. So the HELP systems can give users some hints for solving or an explaination for why this problem happen. A good design would be attractive but the HELP system would be the tool to help users.

When we thinking the persona for Project 5, we think that person would be a movie fan of our hero. He might be the people who like the high-tech things.

9 - Nicholas Fields

I do not think that a good tutorial is equivalent or as helpful as just using 'obvious design' to begin with.  First, I think it ends up wasting more time trying to make a good tutorial than it would have in the first place if people put a little extra time into making the design better in itself.  Also, I think that tutorials are often still put into the 'programmer's lingo' too often and do not end up helping the people that actually need the help.  Finally, I do not think that people view or look at the tutorial that often even when they do need help. 

As for the persona for project #5, I think that a good target group would be an avid fan.  This could be classified as someone who has read some or most of the comics pertaining to a specific super hero.

9 - Jake Van Schouwen

I love HELP systems.  I have looked to help-tabs or tutorials for as long as I can remember when dealing with a design or game I am unfamiliar with.  I do not believe HELP systems are an excuse for poor design because I like to think most people are quick learners.  If the help tab nudges the user into the proper way of thinking then I think it is for the best.

The we are focusing on the people who are not die-hard fans of our hero but know enough about him to appreciate what we are trying to achieve with our design and who support our goals.

9 - Yousef

The HELP systems work depending on context. Even the HELP systems must have good design to work. They are definitely not substitutes to good design but they are supplementary. They help the user get what s/he wants. I think HELP systems are usually not as useful because it takes too much time to find what you want on them. It would take less time to struggle and learn from trial and error than it is to find the feature on a HELP system. Which leads back to the main point that good design should be user friendly. On another note I found it interesting that mostly expert users use the HELP systems. It is probably because it is much harder to find what you want when you are an expert thus making it faster to look for it than it is to use trial and error.

For our persona, I was thinking of video gamers in general most probably from ages ranging from 9 to 25? 

Week 09 Blog Assignment

Skim Chapter 6. (That is, read the chapter quickly but read slowly any section that grabs your interest.)

What do you think about HELP systems--online help, tutorials, etc.? Do they work? Are they substitutes for good design? That is, if the design were better and more "obvious," would you really need these help or tutorial systems?

Also, when you think about developing personas for Project #5, what are categories of people on whom to focus? (There is no single correct answer!)

Finally, comment on someone else's post to this blog assignment.

Yousef - Spring Break

Went to NYC for a couple of days with family. It was great! 

Spring break! #sbi300

The only highlight of my highly uneventful spring break (not complaining).. Turning 20 dollars into 700! #sbi300 #roulette

8 - Donald MacLeod

In learning the process of playing the whole game of HCI, two concepts sticks out at me more than anything else, and that is iterate and fail faster.  Iteration is necessary to narrow down a design, and fail faster is necessary to not waste time on sub optimal designs.  I have always kind of done this in some way or form when working on projects, but I always have fell into the trap of being worried about removing or changing things that I have already dedicated resources to.  By iterating more and failing faster,I am less likely to fall for this trap.  Also, I am more aware of not being afraid to throw stuff away.  The class is being an enriching process to things that I might have subconsciously known.  Finally, I liked the story/thoughts on how school is designed to make us feel stupid.

8 - Kate L'Heureux

What I've learned about playing the whole game of HCI is that there are lot of factors that go into a good design that I hadn't realized before. Simply the whole notion of design being an iterative process, and the different methods of considering the user when designing. I really enjoyed the part in our reading that had to do with stripping down your deign and taking out the "nice to have" features and keeping what's important for the user's needs only. The concept that a good design relies on making mistakes and trying again is a huge part of the game that is important to think about when the design process is tough for projects.

8 - Jon Burris

I have felt I have gained a lot from this class and learned even more about the game of design. The biggest thing I have come to realize is that every design should undergo iteration of all of the steps. Not just revising the design, but going through new concepts, the design team, team protocols, etc. over and over again is a must. I did not realize how important it was for the development of better design. Lastly, the characters we choose in developing our personas has greatly helped my team in project 3 and project 4. Personas help us see our audience, our users, and without them it would be hard to design. The significance of personas are high and that was something I thought were useless, but after completing prior projects I see how we utilize them.

8- Grant Pendrey

The main thing that I have learned through playing the whole game that every design is an iterative process. This mindset can be taken forward to many other experiences in life to understand that not all things are going to work well the first time but being able to learn from these "failures" is the most important aspect of iteration. "Failures" should be turned into learnings, basically becoming research and improvement towards a better end product. When you view each attempt as progress instead of an individual process, the goal is better understood that it doesn't matter how you get there, it matters what the end product is. For example, writing out multiple designs and realizing that what you created makes no sense to a users is great! You can better understand their mindset and better design for their needs.

6- Grant Pendrey

When working to redesign the playlist interface for youtube, there was a definite difference between the mental model and actual workings of the interface.

The users saw the list of videos as the actual videos, wanting to edit and remove the list to personalize the list of videos for themselves. For the users, the playlists were simply recommendations from the playlist author but they wanted to further change the playlist to fit their wants and needs. This however was in much contrast to how the actual playlist list was actually implemented into the website. The playlist is simply a list created from a database storing the order of videos and the location of the videos to stream in order. There was no "loading" of the videos so there was no ability to change the order take videos out of the list.

3 - Nicholas Barker

Here is what I chose from blog 2.  It is from ESPN.com the main page of the website.  I believe the motivation for the design from the team comes from the need of the consumer, especially the sports consumer.  Why do they want all of this? Because it shows them the most important news of the night and then continues this by highlighting the 'Biggest' current story by adding a photo in the middle with a link to the article.  Add to that the ascetically pleasing color arrangement and I think that hit a homerun with the design here.

8 - Hayden Mills

Reflecting on what I have learned thus far in INFO-I300 I can honestly say I have learned a lot. I have learned more about what it means to "play the whole game" in HCI. I did not realize the importance of thoughtfully planning out and researching your user base before starting to design. I assumed one just made a design that looked beautiful to them and it worked out. I never realized that when designing something you need to have the users who will be actually using the product at the forefront of your mind. I have learned the importance of teamwork and being brutally honest with your teammates. Other important ideas I have learned are concept sketching, iteration, usability reports, prototyping, and persona development.

 

5 - Nicholas Barker

From reading the pages from our book, I applied the aim low method, and using this you can make a case to remove features from the main page of youtube, since it is very cluttered in my opinion.  A feature that I would look to remove would be the recommended videos they add to your page that they believe would interest you. Although this can be helpful to find videos, (but not too often), you usually go to youtube to find a video that you know how to find via search.  Because of this I believe this is a feature that is not needed.

8 - Nicholas Barker

The most important thing I am learning in this class is that nothing is ever finished or final.  In learning the flow process of design and how it all comes back around is something I just never really thought of. When I thought of designers, I would think of people that are very precise and look for perfection, while this still may be true, their work is never truly done as we are always looking to improve our work. Which I believe this is something that can be applied to many aspects of life.

8- Adam Johnson

I think I have learned a great deal so far regarding the "whole game" of HCI design, especially as of late.  A point that stuck out to me was the whole idea of over-thinking versus getting it done, especially meeting deadlines.  To do this, one does not invest in sticking to a certain "personality" of a design too much.  Basically, I think I did fairly way accomplishing this by sticking to the seven 'lenses' to see things differently (e.g. creating computer imaginative interactions is something I never would have known what it was several weeks ago).  I think the main thing to note is that there is never a "right"way to do any HCI design, but there are more intuitive and "better" designs.  Lastly, I found it particularly interesting and useful to understanding the "whole game" suggested by Hoekman in Chapter 6 is the idea of help documents being primarily for experts.  I am guilty for this, for some unknown reason I too never check the "Help" section of any design or software and attempt to do it myself.  I now know that it is very useful, especially for intermediately-skilled users of any design. To understand the "whole game" one must note help documentation of any HCI design to understand what is going on.  All of this in its totality is what I regard as most useful to actually understanding the "whole game" of HCI design.

4- Grant Pendrey

Hoekman never steps away from the opinion that you are always designing for the users of the product/project/item. No matter what the decision, you must always make sure that in the end, your design is something that works for the user and improves their use in some way. However, he says in chapter three that the user is not always correct. For example, sometimes the is so close the product that their have "blinders" on and cant see what is truly wrong or a better solution. Other times a single design to better fit one user does is not always the best for all users as a whole. What is important when designing is to use different methods to understand the users needs and problems. Sometimes the users have possible solutions but that is not always the case. Once you can understand these issues, designing to better the interaction with a design can be focused on fixing these issues and evaluate your progress for better design.

As for project two, when looking at a "situation-centric approach"... Hoekman describes using specific tasks or situations to observe and understand how the users interacts with a design. One method that could have been better used by my team would be to actually interact with the design ourselves, identify some possible problems and add these tasks to our Use Case tasks. This would help to identify possible design flaws before starting our use case creating more focused design initiatives to research.

8- Emily Gries

Although I learned a lot throughout these first eight weeks, the thing I learned the most came to a conclusion today. We watched the YouTube video, “Fail Faster.” I have always been a perfectionist in my school work. Throughout all my projects for both this class and others, I have always spent too much time trying to find the perfect idea. I would come up with what I thought were subpar ideas and just throw them away because they were not what I thought was perfect. I have gotten to the point several times in which I would keep procrastinating doing my projects because of this, the first simple problem: coming up with an idea. Today the part of the whole game that became clear to me was that coming with a few ideas that maybe aren’t great and choosing one right there and then is the way to go. Since no idea is perfect, ideas are ever changing. There will always be flaws and usability problems with all designs; and this can be found through research and usability testing. All this in mind, I realized that  spending too much time coming up with an initial fabulous idea is not worth it. It is much better to fail faster, and then there is more time and money to improve on that initial idea and make it as perfected as possible rather than spending the majority of the time coming up with another idea and having minimal time to test and improve it.

1- Grant Pendrey

Grant Pendrey

I am a Junior Informatics Major with a Cognate in Business. I am from Columbus, Ohio.

Something that I really enjoy is Motorsports. I am not particulalry interested in oval racing which is vary popular in the United States with Nascar and Indy Car but road racing and endurance racing. Formula One is a series that I follow closely and the drivers go through intense physical fatigue over the course of the race and the drivers must be extremely fit. While the sport or racing may seem very easy and not very physical, I encourage you to look up how ridiculous these races are on the drivers and how intense the drivers must train to compete at the top tier of racing. Due to my interest in racing I have picked up a hobby of Karting. Karting is how 95% of all race car drivers get into the sport. It is "the purest form of motorsport" and is a great learning tool for drivers to develop their talent. These karts are not your average family center go karts either, these are race built machines that teams work to tune for each race in difference conditions and travel as speeds over 80-90 mph! I love the thrill of racing with 40+ karts on a kart track and this is a hobby that I hope to keep pursuing in my life. (I will provide a picture of me karting below!)

I am most worried about sketching/drawing for this course.

I think that a new idea i can take from this class in the process of analyzing a problem and iterating possible solutions. While being an HCI designer and going to grad school for HCI does sound interesting to me, I am interested in multiple other areas for careers as well. No matter what I end up doing, I believe the design process taught in class can be used as a basis for analyzing and designing so many other things other than just inside the HCI industry. This I believe will be the most valuable skill/tool learned through the class.

8 - Jake Van Schouwen

I think the part of the class that I got the most out of was when we discussed how to effectively work on a team.  Having played soccer for 15 years as well many other team-based activities, I thought I had already learned everything there was to know about communicating and dealing with teammates.  I found the lecture we talked about team protocols particularly interesting.  A lot of what the protocols had mentioned I had already gotten into the habit of doing, but it was interesting to hear what I took to be common knowledge about teamwork being talked about in a college class.  This being said,  I did not really think about the importance of a decision being unanimous.  I had always believed that majority ruled and had been under that state of mind for most of my life.  I have been in the majority and in the minority plenty of times, but it makes sense how if the vote is unanimous, everyone has "skin in the game" and wants the design to be successful.

8 - Baiyan Zhang

After I learn about "playing the whole game" of HCI design, I think what I have learned is some thinking modes of design. 2 - 3 weeks ago, I think design is a thing that people made what they want, it is easy and designers are acted just as the artists. However, now I changed my mind, I think design is not a easy work. Such as the design is not design for the designers, it is design for the users. Before learning this course, I think I can think as a user, but now I know these need the research from the people or potential users. Also, how to corporate with a others is an important part in whole game. It is not possible that one person design the whole game. The team protocols help me to find a way to solve problems and improve the efficiency of the work.

In addition, although the life lessons are not very related to the textbook, I think those help me in my life and the future work.

3 - Kristi Starling

The title of chapter 3 was a bit jarring the first time I read it.  "Ignore the User, Know the Situation."  Ignore the user?  This seems to directly contradict what we've been learning in class.  But after reading the chapter, Hoekman's point made a lot of sense to me.  You're not ignoring the user, really.  You're just ignoring the things about the user that you don't really need to know and instead focusing on what you do know:  the context in which the user will be using the design.  Hoekman calls this "activity-centered design" (ACD).

His reasoning for this approach is simple:  sometimes the user base is broad, and focusing on a specific persona or personas actually limits the designer's ability to meet the needs of all of the users.  However, more often than not, the situation in which the product will be used is something that they all will have in common.  People adapt to technology.  Although we absolutely should not discard all of the things we have learned about fitting the user's mental models and such, this means that it is in fact possible to effectively design things for the user without knowing all of the personal details that comprise a persona.  This is the larger user-centered focus that Hoekman advocates.

Following this logic, and the idea that the user can adapt, I believe Hoekman would argue that the user isn't always right, and that features that users request aren't always the best.  I certainly think they should be considered, but the idea behind situation-centered design is that you are designing for a large number of people with diverse backgrounds that are seeking to accomplish the same task.  Because of this, making changes for a specific user group would put you in the same place that designing using a persona would.  Before such changes should be made, it must be determined whether or not the changes would be helpful for all user groups to accomplish the task.

My partner and I got an early start for project 2, and actually had it completed before we discussed personas in any depth in class.  Because of this, we actually did take a rather situation-centered approach.  Our focus was on the needs of the user before starting a workout, while working out, and after completing a work out.  The main distinction we drew was what makes a task easier to accomplish when the user is standing still on the treadmill, and what makes a task easier to accomplish when a user is running on the treadmill.  We found those to be different, and it affected the way we did our design.  In this way, I believe our approach was situation-centered.  

6 - Kristi Starling

The feature we chose to focus on for project 3 was how YouTube handles saving videos to view at a later time.  The user's mental model is that they click a button and then the video is stored in a place where it can be easily viewed later.  They are "saving" or "bookmarking" the video, similar to how you would save a Word document or bookmark or highlight a passage in a book.  They have a video to be viewed at a later time, and they are setting it apart to be able to do so.

This mental model is likely not far from what the implementation model would actually be.  The key differences from the programmers' perspective is that the videos are stored to a user profile, not a location on the site, and that the videos themselves are not stored, but rather a link to the place where the video is stored.

8 - Kristi Starling

The single most important thing I've learned about the "whole game" of HCI design is that it isn't a linear process, but rather iterative.  The cycle of research, design, evaluation, and revision happens again and again until the product is finally ready for publication.  This doesn't mean it's perfect though; no design ever is, and often the cycle just starts all over again with a new version of the product.  I'm also a math major (and I was a math major first), so this isn't how I'm used to thinking.  I'm used to black and white, right or wrong.  There may be different ways of arriving at the same place in math, but one way usually is "best".  When a problem or proof is finish and your work adequately explained, you're done.  But as we've been learning, design isn't like that.  You can't just spend enough time analyzing a problem, figure out the solution, and have the correct answer.  The "Fail Faster" video we watched in class today just demonstrated that even more for me.  I'm one of the people who like to wait and figure things out, to make sure I have a plan before I begin a project.  Again, I'm having to adjust my idea of what a problem solving process should look like in order to most effectively complete the design projects in this class, and that is by far the most significant thing I have learned about the "whole game" of HCI design.

8 - Nicholas Fields

So far I feel like I have learned more in this class about playing the 'whole game' of HCI design and more valuable information in general than I have learned in any other class so far in my academic career.  Although the assignments have each been extremely challenging in their own ways, I think learning to play the whole game versus breaking everything down into parts is the most valuable part of this class.  It allows us to see the big picture and the entire aspect of design work together which makes each individual part make more sense.  I have learned how to do research, identify problems, pick a focal area, sketch some design concepts, test designs, and redesign.  Reading the book on 'Obvious Design' has helped aid me throughout the whole process.  It has really helped explain principles on designing the obvious and has been a great compliment to design principles taught throughout the semester so far.  One of the biggest things that I have taken out of this course so far is that when you are designing you have to remove yourself from the design because the design should be for the users and not yourself.  I think this is also the hardest thing to do when designing because naturally you want your application to be everything that you think it should be when in reality you are not designing it for yourself but for every other user.  I have learned to really design for the users and make sure the design matches the user's mental model of what each feature should do.  I have learned to design intuitively in a way that makes the design user friendly no matter how much technological experience a target user may have.  I have also learned to eliminate the 'extra' features in a design and really make sure that everything a design provides is what is truly needed in order for someone to accomplish what the design set out to provide.  The principles of simplicity, intuitive design, ease of use, navigability, logical flow, and etc. have transformed my thinking when I brainstorm ideas for how to solve various problems and design concept sketches.  I love this class and I really feel like it is taught in a way that helps people understand the actual process that will take place in a real work setting when solving problems and producing products.

8 - Yousef

I really like this class and I want to do well but I don't seem be understanding what is right and what is wrong. Everything seems to be subjective; especially grading. One assistant would review my work and say that it isn't as good as it should be and another assistant would say that he/she likes it. Im just a little confused at this point. I never thought of design as something that can be taught; it can be fostered from good artists. I understand that in the real world people are being assessed in a subjective way also but there are specific guidelines on what they should and shouldn't do and that is something we don't have.

Nevertheless, I am learning a lot from the team work assignments especially since we are expected to find different teams each time. What I have most learned from in this class is "Marty's life lessons". I think what he is trying to convey is golden information that we will all remember when in the business world. Really great advise!

Weeks 07 and 08 Blog Assignments

This is a double assignment since we missed last week's blog assignment. 

For Week 07:

Take a look at blog assignments 1-6. Did you answer all of them? Each is worth 15 points. That's 90 points; and with this one, it's 130 points; that's more points than Exam #1. If you didn't answer them all, do so now and earn partial credit (10 points). After this week you will forfeit all points for these six blogs assignments. 

Similarly, if you didn't do one of the projects, please set up an appointment with Marty. This is your last opportunity to correct this problem.

That's it for Week 07 -- just catch up; you automatically will earn 15 points for this part. HOWEVER, read on for your Week 08 Assignment, due next Monday at 11:59 PM...

For Week 08: 

So you're just wrapping up Project #4 and you took your first exam.

For this blog assignment, I want you to do two things:

1) Reflect on what you're learning about "playing the whole game" of HCI Design. What do you know now that you didn't know even 2-3 weeks ago? Be specific; give examples. Share what you are learning (write a paragraph or so).

2) Find what someone else said in this blog (as a response to the week 08 assignment) and write a reply to that person, commenting on their reflection. Don't just write something like "Good job," but really comment on what the person is learning in this class. Try to comment on someone who doesn't have any comments. Of course, feel free to comment on more than one person! And return to the blog in a couple of days to see if anyone replied to your post. Feel free to reply to their comment as well!

Let's have some fun with this one... but let's be reflective about our learning too.

6 - Donald MacLeod

The user model is that the time shown remaining should be representative of what is playing on YouTube. There are many different timers that YouTube could employ, but as a user I would think that the timer that is shown to the user would correspond to the segment that is being played.

The implementation model is that the time bottom corresponds to the main video, regardless if it is being player or not.  Also there is an ad timer during the ads that tells how much time is remaining in the ad.  Finally there is a timer that tells when the ad can be skipped if it can be skipped.  This user has to figure out what each timer corresponds to during advertisements which is in contrast to the metal model.