Gyuri Ordody is one of our software developers at Autodesk Labs. He has worked on technologies like the DWF Toolkit and Project Freewheel. Gyuri took the lead on manning our search booths in the exhibit hall at Autodesk University. Gyuri filed this report.
Earlier in the month I was manned the Content Search and Visual Search/Showroom booths in the exhibit hall at AU. But just like everyone, when others ran to get some lunch or dinner, I jumped in to work the other booths as well. Between the main stage extravaganza and the exhibits, it was a full week for all Autodesk Labs team members.
Since the Autodesk customer base covers a wide array of industries, I tried to express the relationship between the booths and the exhibit hall visitors. So I asked visitors occasionally what they did for a living. Some of the customers I met included an inventory manager for a giant store chain that operates with a vast inventory and an architect trying to find manufactured windows and doors. I even met a woman who worked for the FBI. It is probably a secret what she actually does. :-)
Here are some observations from various booths:
Content Search (http://cs.labs.autodesk.com)
Visitors saw the new user interface in action. They found it to be much nicer and more effective than the old one. The "Update Results" based on filters was a bit hard to find at first for some. The technology preview is called an alpha, but it is at least beta quality. Lots of content is already included in the technology preview. Many demoed the iDrop with Autodesk Revit and found that it was very easy. Finding and adding existing parts to a 3D model gave visitors a sense of reality and instant gratification.
The Contest Search Team manned the booth often which allowed Autodesk Labs staff to "unman" the booth. Customers completed feedback sheets provided by the Content Search Team which served as "mini usability tests." The team also highlighted ease of use and functionality which raised awareness of content search as a technology.
Some customers of course asked about a behind the firewall solution, but not all. It turned out that some architects would prefer having a "Subscribe & Login" model that has nothing to do with their IT departments. Ouch! However, this is in line with the industry trend of software as a service offerings.
I definitely learned much about casement windows which are one of the best cataloged items in the search index of the technology preview. I learned first hand from Content Search Team Lead, Mike Haley, about his secret passion to use the "Browse" feature of Content Search to find interesting objects like pre-made sheds or bridges. Now that was just fun.
Visual Search (http://visualsearch.labs.autodesk.com)
Visitors expressed interest in Visual Search for finding: duplicates in manufacturing catalogs, catalog items based on current Inventor models, or catalog items based on drawings of a common view of an object,
I had the impression that visual search was more of an "alpha" technology: Sessions sometimes timed out, uploading parts was not always successful, and the user interface was not obvious to all first-time visitors. This is exactly the kind of feedback that Autodesk Labs is designed to collect.
We had 2 servers available, one local at AU, and another one on the Labs site. The AU Internet connection was great this year, so both servers could be used. This was needed, since both servers hiccupped occasionally.
The Visual Search index is made up of standard Inventor and AutoCAD libraries which was a bit limited, but sufficient to show off the features available. I learned, that Visual Search operates on multiple 2D snapshots of 3D objects: it orbits around them and creates several 2D renderings of the object. When searching for an object, Visual Search tries to match the input to the data generated from those 2D images.
After 2 days of mild frustration with the inaccuracy of the search, visitors expressed that we could have made it more accurate with a "Sensitivity" setting. This type of feedback is invaluable to the development process. (I have since learned from one of the developers that there was such a thing. At AU we had set it to “low” due to the small number of objects currently available in the technology preview index. In my personal opinion, this could have been set to a higher value, and Visual Search should return “Not Found” results with an additional “…but the closes match is:” also listed on the results page.)
User contributed content was great - especially the users' submitted self portraits: http://visualsearch.labs.autodesk.com/vizspace/vizspace.aspx?id=bruno.remuszka@grapho.com.br.
User contributed content could be also used at Content Search, but there can be problems of "policing" the content. On the other hand, the policing could be solved as a user contributed service: just like on Craig's List, where the users can flag offensive things.
Thanks Gyuri. Processing the feedback collect at AU is alive in the lab.
Subscribe
scottsh115
scott.sheppard
Recent Comments