19/01/12

With my final product finished I have moved on to the task of testing every individual piece of multimedia that is apparent in my work; this includes animations, buttons, video clips and sound. I systematically worked through my testing log that I had previously designed that included every item I needed to test, as well as adding addition tests for features that I added along the way. I managed to ensure that almost every piece of multimedia was working correctly, and in some places I was required to go back over my work and alter or edit some of my features as they were either no working correctly or did not look suitable for my final piece.

I opened both my testing log and my final product in order to check everything that I needed to review and write my observed results in to the correct column- I often was not required to insert comments about what happened, however if something was needed to be changed I mentioned this.

17/01/12

Today I managed to complete my final prototype with complete working mini game. My teacher helped me to find the correct area into which to place my score codes for my variables that allowed a score to be determined based on how many eggs are in the right basket- and we found that we were required to put my coding on the same frame in which my frame duration was set, making the final code as followed:
var duration:Number = 64000;
var yourInterval:Number = setInterval(doSomething, duration);
function doSomething():Void
{
    if (red1.hitTest(redbasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
  if (red2.hitTest(redbasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
  if (red3.hitTest(redbasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
  if (red4.hitTest(redbasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
  if (blue1.hitTest(bluebasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (blue2.hitTest(bluebasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (blue3.hitTest(bluebasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (blue4.hitTest(bluebasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (orange1.hitTest(orangebasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (orange2.hitTest(orangebasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (orange3.hitTest(orangebasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (orange4.hitTest(orangebasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (green1.hitTest(greenbasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (green2.hitTest(greenbasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (green3.hitTest(greenbasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 if (green4.hitTest(greenbasket)) {
  score+=1;
 }
 gotoAndPlay("Score Page", 1);
    clearInterval(yourInterval);
    
}

13/01/12

Today I spent time catching up on the work I missed in yesterday's lesson due to absence- this involved attempting to fix the coding problems I had faced in my previous lesson last Thursday. The codes on my 'finish' button could not determine when all the right variables where touching the correct baskets and moved forward onto the next page regardless of how many right eggs where placed correctly. Therefore my teacher suggested that I changed the count up function to a count down, giving the children a set time to complete the task and scoring them based on how many eggs they placed correctly in a set amount of time; in this case 60 seconds. I therefore changed the counter code to the following;
timer = 60;
countdown = function(){
timer--;
if(timer==0){
clearInterval(countdownInterval);
}
}
countdownInterval = setInterval(countdown,1000);


This code meant that the function of the dynamic text variable would be to count down from 60 at a rate of 1 second per interval, giving students a one minute period in which they could complete the task. My next challenge was to place a code onto the timer that allowed the page to move forward on to another scene once the timer hit '0', however attempts I made using the If function would not work, and the page remained on 0 despite codes telling it to move on.

I finally managed to find a code that worked; it counted down from 60 seconds and on 0 it cleared the Interval and moved on to the scoring page swiftly. This was achieved through placing the following code:

var duration:Number = 60000;
var yourInterval:Number = setInterval(doSomething, duration);

function doSomething():Void
{
    gotoAndPlay("Score Page", 1);
    clearInterval(yourInterval);
    
}

on to another layer in my scene- this told my project to move on to my score page once 60 seconds had elapsed; although it was not connected to the timer, which would not allow me to place an If(timer==0) go to and stop function, it still works as intended.

I then moved on to the last problem until my project was complete- this was the scoring system. I was now not using the timer to create a score but created a variable which increased every time an egg was placed on to the right basket, and after one minute this total score was displayed on the score page. I created a variable known as 'blue' and placed the code:

if (blue1.hitTest(bluebasket)) {
  blue+=1;

regarding all possible instances, which enabled the computer to score the users based on how many eggs they had placed in the right position, and display this amount on the score page. I have run out of time to fully fix this problem and will use Tuesday's lesson to fully create a solution that will accurately count up a score based on the position of eggs on the page.

05/01/11

Today my teacher was not present during my lesson, and so the coding issues I had regarding my mini game could not be followed through with advice on her behalf. I therefore used my lesson time today to create an option for the score page allowing the user to 'finish' the programme and bring the child onto a final scene which shows bunny waving, saying goodbye and thanking the user for getting her home and hopes they had fun doing so. This will be the final page of the storybook and will have no links to another page, it will be at this point that the child will have to close the programme in order to stop the storybook. My final page features a brief animation of the word 'congratulations' changing colour from one letter to another as the 'bunny waving' animation from the very first scene of the home page, is again used here to indicate bunny waving goodbye. The coding issues I have are as followed:
In the mini game I am unable to issue a code onto the 'finish' button that allows it to recognise when all variables are true, not just one. At present the game will proceed forward if just one blue egg is touching the blue basket, I will need my teacher's help to help me understand how to make my code not proceed onto the next scene unless all variables are true.
Secondly, I wish to score the users based on the time they took to complete the game. I will need to research if I can find a way to transfer the final time on the mini game to the score game and display it on the screen, using this I will then categorise the scores. I will use testers to play my game to work out an average scoring time in order to create realistic boundaries and ensure that my users can reach the top score bracket relatively easily.
I have now finished my entire storybook, and the minigame is progressing well with only some coding issues to fix before my entire project has reached completion. I hope that using time next week when my teacher is back at school on our Tuesday and Thursday lessons will provide me with enough help to finally complete my Flash project and begin work on the documentation that will accompany it at the handover.

03/01/11

Today I had a productive lesson in which I created the final page of my prototype, with buttons giving the user options to either start the mini game again or return to the very beginning of the storybook; if the student wishes to end the game, it will be on this screen that they will simply close the programme. I then edited the basket graphics used in my mini game by giving them thick black outlines around the shape of the item; this gave greater differentiation from the eggs and the basket. As before the two shapes were merging into one and making it hard to determine where the basket ended and the eggs began; this new design will allow the users to see easier what items they have placed into the baskets.

In order for my scoring system to work I needed a counter in place in order to time how long it took for the student to finish the game; I used the following code:

timer = 0;

countup = function(){
timer++;
}

countupInterval = setInterval(countup,1000);

This code was placed on a layer seperate to the layer on which I created dynamic text with the variable of 'timer'. This allowed the code to refer back to the dynamic text in order for a base on which the text could be displayed- this created a timer that automatically begins as soon as the mini game opens- it will count up until 1000 at which point it will stop- a huge time frame for the student to complete the task.

I then realised that on my mini game in order for a hit test to work, the eggs would have to be movie clips and not buttons as I had originally created. I therefore created new movie clips for each egg and had to replace the code in order for each item to be dragged and dropped, and then gave each appropriate instance names again so that the coding worked. Next lesson I need to figure out how to allow the game to progress only if each egg is touching the correct basket. Once I have completed this I can then move on to my scoring and find a way to transfer the final number when the 'finish' button is pressed and display it as the child's score- then hopefully relate this number to a title such as 'egg-cellent' and so forth.

Christmas Work

In my third prototype meeting, and in my plans for the holidays, I aimed to complete the rest of my product using a demo version of Flash downloaded onto my computer. However I was unable to download the file which would not work on my laptop, nor any member of my family's. This has resulted in me being unable to fully complete the product as I has wished to do; however it gave me time to go back over my meetings and improve the layout that they possessed, mainly by including relevant screenshots of points that were being discussed.
I hope to be able to use lesson time diligently over the next couple of weeks in order to complete my Flash in due course, and hope that the lessons around me will allow me to progress through the documents required to be created alongside my Interactive product in order to finish my coursework in good time. The time restraints that have been removed by my client reassure me that this glitch in schedule will not impact the timings as we have a large amount of time between now and Easter before the product will be used, and the latest possible handover for my coursework will be in the middle of February, so I am more than confident that my work will be improved to a higher standard by this point. I hope to only take another week to complete my Flash work, then move onto the documents that will be needed in order to create a completed project.

Prototype Three Improvements- Changing the video

My client had pointed out that the quality of my video was not as high as it could be and suggested that I possibly used my time over the Christmas holidays to use a better piece of equipment to film another clip. Taking this on board I used my camera to record a short clip of a zebra crossing in London, to which I went on a trip during my spare time. Although the quality of the clip appeared high on my camera, once uploaded to my computer it possessed even lower quality than the original video that I had- as portrayed in the below screenshot:

The image was blurry and hard to make out images compared to my original video, which although was perhaps not exceptional in quality of picture however appeared more relevant to the question that the children are trying to answer. It also features a local area that some of the children may be familiar with rather than central London which may possess vehicles and places that are not related to the children or experiences they have faced in their lives.

Considering this I have decided to keep in place the original video that I have recorded as it is more relevant to the needs of my users and displays a situation that is easier for the children to relate to.

Prototype Three Improvements- Use of language on mini game instructions

In response to my client's suggestions following our meeting in regards to the completion of my third prototype, I was advised to revise the language that I used when instructing users as to how to utilise my game. In order to do this I drew up two alternative instructions to test with two children of the age that my clients will be; family members that agreed to test my game and language usage. The original instructions that appeared confusing to my client was:
"Drag and drop the coloured eggs into the coloured baskets as quick as possible, make sure the colours are the same!
Once all the eggs are in the right baskets you can press 'finish'!
GOOD LUCK!"
I therefore designed two alternative sets of instructions that I tested for usability:

1. Drag the eggs into the basket that is the same colour. Do this as fast as you can. Once all the eggs are in the right coloured basket press the 'finish' button. Good Luck!

2. Drag the eggs into the same coloured baskets as fast as you possibly can! Once you have put all the eggs in the right place, press the 'finish' button. Good Luck!

My feedback from my family members came back as positive and both testers were able to understand what to do in the mini game and provided evidence that this use of language was accessible to my users. When deciding upon which option I should use in my final product, I eventually decided on the second option which sounded less formal and would appeal more to the children that use my product.
I took this change forward and went back over my fourth prototype to change the text to the second option above- this change has moved the usability of my product in a positive direction.

13/12/2011

I have finished my third prototype and it is ready for my meeting with my client tomorrow for feedback and discussions. Therefore in my lesson today I began working on my fourth and final version of the prototype that will eventually be the final product, this involves creating the mini game and scoring system that will end my storybook. Today I began work on creating the eggs and basket graphics that will be used in my mini game as drag and drop features; they are basic shapes that are created in flash. These will be key items in my mini game that I will later add codes on to, to enable scores to be generated based on correct combination of eggs and baskets and a timing system in place, if possible. Today I only had time to develop my dozen eggs in a combination of four different colours in order to allow me to create a game where different colours are dragged to different coloured baskets. The below screenshots shows my twelve eggs that I created in today's lesson in a variety of designs.

Use of audience suited language

Going back through my work shed light on a few grammatical errors and misuse of syntax that I had not noticed when doing brief checks of ensuring the project ran smoothly. This included spelling mistakes and minor misuse of apostrophes- I am not going to go back and change these until they are grammatically sound. My test buddy Susie joined me in testing out my game and suggested that the use of 'you are wrong' in my incorrect answer scenes was perhaps a little too harsh for the audience of young children that my game is aimed at and perhaps I should alter my language to make it seem less intense than before. I have decided to use my remaining time today to go back over my work and change all of the 'You Are Wrong' to 'That's not right' which, in hindsight, feels a more suitable way of addressing the audience to which I am catering for.

12/12/11

In my free period today I decided to go over my completed Prototype Three- apart from the video that I am going to upload tomorrow. I found that all my buttons ran smoothly, and the sound and animation I had added worked as I expected them to. However I noticed a minor consistency error in the use of text, both in colour, size and boldess- it seems as though I have varied between each scene and the text does not look the same.

The picture shows a screenshot of four alternative text uses I managed to incorporate in the first few scenes of my project; as you can see that alter in colour and boldness as well as the size of the font. I am therefore going to select a standard font and go back over my project in order to make everything appear the same- this will give my storybook a more professional feel and keep the design at a higher standard than it currently is at. I standardised my font at size 24 Calibri using the colour #00CC00- I then went over every scene in my project and ensured that all pieces of writen complied to this new criteria, and where necessary, rearranged the larger text into a more suitable position. The suggestion of using larger font for the user's came from a peer assessment activity we completed last week- this inforces the importance of getting other members of the class to look at your work and notice improvements and mistakes that you may have omitted yourself.

09/12/11- Exemplar Coursework and Peer Assessment

Today we went through exemplar coursework found on the following link:

https://eiewebvip.edexcel.org.uk/reports/OSCADocuments/WorkSkills/2011Applied%20GCERM/4b81996e76/e_portfolio/portfolio.htm

We found the evidence for the prototype 2 meeting and looked over their work and how they managed to achieve the top mark bound for this section of work. We added sticky notes and comments to highlight was what good about what the student had done. We then emailed our own prototype two to another member of the class who assessed what we had created so far and what we needed to do in order to access the highest mark boundary- this will result it over Christmas, me going back over all of my minutes and improving them to a much higher standard and including screenshots to back up my points and make what I am talking about much clearer to the examiner. This will also show progress over the course of all of my meetings and highlight how I am making positive changes based on the feedback of my stakeholders. My assessed work pointed out to me that I need to make sure that I include more of the client's concerns with what I had created, this will involve shaping my prototype around what I belive they want me to do in order to create the best product that I possibly can. I also need to access Blogger and incorporate my meeting summaries into Word Documents of their own which clearly outline what was dicussed in the meeting and what I learnt and planned to do for the future.

Peer Assessment

Today we assessed the mark scheme that will be used to judge the work we produce in our product lessons; this was split into three mark bands and we developed what we would need to achieve in order to reach the highest band. We split into pairs and used the computers to test the work of other members in the class, we listed the good and bad points of what they had created so far, how they could approve and finally sort them into a mark band we thought was appropriate for their content so far. Below shows the post it notes that other members of my class used to comment on my work, they all placed me into mark band three and I have understood feedback that they have given me. This includes increasing the size of the text, making sure everything fits onto the screen and also looking into the possibility of incorporating a home page button.

06/12/11

Today I imported the primary photos that I had taken using a camera at home onto my flash file, I imported them to the stage then saved them as graphics. I then placed these graphics onto my Question Six scene and rearranged the layout; this enabled me to place the two pictures above the answer buttons and use them as visual aids for my users to answer the question. The following pictures are the two that now represent my 'forest' and 'beach';

I then tested through my entire prototype so far to conduct checks to make sure that everything was working as I expected it to and that I had included all my sound and pictures that I needed; I am making note that tonight I intend to record my video and upload this to my computer, and then my flash file, in order to complete all aspects of my multimedia requirements. I went on to develop the next scene in my project, which explains the rules of the game that is to follow on the next scene, I now plan to review the game I developed so far and research into how I will go about actually creating what I intent to develop. I created a movie clip for my first mini game scene, this showed a aeroplane holding a banner displaying the words 'thank you' across the screen. I decided to not put a stop code on the final frame of the movie clip in order for it to continue to play itself until the user moves on to the next page, my aeroplane movie clip has been displayed below;

I spent a lot of time ensuring that the frames correlated in order for a fluid motion to be gained via a motion path; on the scene I positioned the aeroplane's nose so that once the final end of the banner was out of sight the animation started again, giving the appearance of a fluid rotation of movement. Next lesson I plan to import my video into my prototype, and begin to design the eggs and baskets that will be used in my mini game. This will be my completed version of prototype three, and the mini game and scoring system will be included in the final product that I present to my client in the upcoming months.

24/11/11

Today I recorded three primary sounds for my prototype which included whimpering, howling and an incorrect answer sound for use by the fox and incorrect answer scenes throughout my storybook. I recorded them using a mobile phone and used an online programme to convert them to MP3 files; I then loaded them in audactity and edited the length of the clips and removed sounds that were heard in the backgroud at the end. I then was able to export these as MP3 files and they were ready to be converted into my library for use in a variety of my scenes. I then went back over my Multimedia Planning and updated the sound section, created screenshots of all my animations so far and then decided to change the planned picture of a road sign and instead use scenic captures of a beach and a forest to represent answer choices on question six instead. I then went through my entire prototype so far and opened my inital plan and ensured that everything was included that I had hoped for and to check that all the animations and newly added sounds were working correctly. I found that I had missed two sound clips on incorrect answer pages that I needed to go back to and adjust and also updated my plan to show changes that I had decided to make along the way. Next lesson I hope to try and change the variables on question nine and ensure that only one snack can be placed on the plate for the game to progress, I will also start my designs on the well done page which will almost be the end of the scenes I have to create before I move on to the mini game. For my third prototype I hope to include all the multimedia and the pages up to the start of the mini game for her to see; when I present my final product I will have incorporated my mini game into the project. I also need to type up my second prototype meeting into a Blogger post, outlining what was achieved and what I hope to complete in order to meet the needs of my client.

22/11/11

Today I finished my second prototype and moved on to my third one; the first task I began to work on was importing my secondary sourced sounds into the relevant scenes in my project. I imported a total of five sounds by creating a new layer called 'audio' and adding a blank keyframe on the second frame. I also dragged the frame from the layer that contained all my original images, buttons and animations and added a keyframe on a later frame so that when the scene played it would not remove my images. I then imported my audio files to the libaray and dragged them onto my scene, with the audio layer selected. I was then able to drag the first and last frames of the audio layer to indicate when I wanted my sound to start and stop and was able to correlate the audio clip with the animations on screen. I then went back over my multimedia planning file and updated all of the animations that I had created up to date and next lesson I need to finish this before I import my primary sounds that I plan to record over the week before my next lesson.

22/11/11- Problem

In my free period today I was testing my prototype so far and found that on the transition between question nine and ten the button 'next' was placed above one of the options on the following page. This meant that pressing the next button automatically selected one of the answers on the next page, this means that I had to test rearranging the next button on question nine and the door answer option on question four in an attempt to stop the hit areas from overlapping. I successfully found a sequence that removed the problem and allowed the game to continue without problems.

17/11

Firstly I got the help of my teacher to ensure that my variable hit test was working; she discovered that by not inserting a key frame on the 'hit' and 'down' frames on my button the action could not work completely and as soon as I fixed this the prototype worked. This enabled me to complete this scene and the two corresponding response scences in order for me to complete every single scene in my second prototype. Today I essentially finished any new additions to my prototype two; it now consists of ten seperate questions each with two possible outcomes on each scene. However before I can initiate a meeting with my client and confirm that my second prototype is completely finished I need to go back and make any improvements that she suggested in our first meeting. This includes insertin a back to question button on all the correct answer pages, and updating my multimedia aspects to include all sound, picture and videos in time for my third prototype. I recently contacted my client who agreed that not all mutlitmedia needs to be included in the second prototype and agrees that this may be a better achievement outlined for my third prototype which would display all of the story book in the completed and final way. My fourth and final prototype will continue on from my completed storybook and include a small mini game to finish the entire project, once this is completed I will have finished my final product.

15/11

Today I continued working on my second prototype which involved creating animations such as the above one of bunny being stuck in a window. In total I have very nearly finished my second prototype; I need to fix question nine as the variables are still not working however once I have figured this out and created the correct and incorrect pages I will need to go back and make the changes that my client asked for after our prototype one meeting. This involves adding a back to question button on all the correct answer pages and sound that I have available for as many pages as possible; however I may not be able to add the video until my final prototype. I will aim to record my primary sounds and videos over the next week or so, in order to meet all possible needs of my client.