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.

10/11/11

Today I continued making progress in my question and answer pages by creating another scene and a half, these included question 8 and the incorrect answer 8. However talking to my teacher and getting her feedback allowed me to see that the wording of the text may need to be softened in some cases in order to be more suited to my auidence, such as the language on the first incorrect answer- when in actual fact the answer is not fully wrong. I also got feedback from Mrs Ashton that suggested I should look into splitting my pages into seperate colours in order to highlight the question number, animation and answer section so that the students are faced with a consistent layout that allows them to easily locate what section they are looking for. I am going to continue working through my prototype so that I have completed all the scenes, and then I will go back and update the improvements that I agreed to make in the prototype One meeting and also split my scenes into the new colour scheme as discussed below in order to create a consistent template.

The above image shows my current layout on the left and the proposed new layout on the right; however these are just basic colour schemes and will not be the final colour scheme that I chose-which I will test once I have completed my scenes. Although it clearly shows how effectively the screen is split into sections, and how much clearer and consistent it will make my project.

08/11/11

Today I continued working on my prototype, I am now almost finished question seven and have only rough 7 more scenes to go until my second prototype is complete- although I then need to go back and update the changes that I agreed to make with my client after our meeting for prototype one. This includes adding sound to my clips (that I still need to record, for my primary ones) and incorporate a 'back' button on each of the correct answer pages that would lead you back to the question, which shouldn;t take more than one lesson once the second prototype scenes are finished. Next lesson I am going to continue with the work on my car scene and possibly add a green/red man crossing symbol to highlight that cars are moving fast when the man is red.

1/11/11

Today I continued working on my prototype and designed three more animations and two pages. At one point I realised that when testing my movie some of the scenes did not stop; therefore I went back over the problem pages and inserted another layer and inputted a 'stop();' code so that once the action was complete, the scene would stop. I had the same problem on a movie clip I created of a beach scene and followed the same steps to rectify the problem.

20/10/11

Today I initially went over my multimedia planning and added another 14 animation screen shots to my planning; these showed snap shots of different stages of the animation to give an indication as to how the animation may look finally. Once I finished this task I then had ten minutes left to create another page and a bit of my prototype so I am now almost onto question seven out of ten.

18/10/11

Today I reviewed the Beta BBC site and located the usability of it and how easy it was to locate; such as how to access different news headlines and programme guides.However I noticed that search items did not always draw up the results that you wanted.

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

I recently tested your Beta Homepage and found that the ability to reach the news, sport and weather headlines were simple and only took a click of a button. The what's on tab allowed me access to not only TV schedules for the upcoming weeks and times, but also radio schedules and the opportunity to play them live. However when I attempted to use the search bar to query exchange rates, I was faced only with relevant news stories and not an exchange rate function itself. However it did redirect me to a useful website that did it for me.

 

Yours faithfully,

Rosie Leavy.

 I looked at Max's prototype so far, he had a clear layout that made it easy to locate where you wanted to go. Once on the individual pages, the layout was easy to read and clearly seperated the text and directions on how to view the tutorial video, which opened in another window. There will also be a multiple choice quiz at the end of the product that will test the user's knowledge of the sport. Max also reviewed my prototype and completed my tasks of accessing the title page, question one and then selecting both a corrent and incorrect answer. He reviewed the first three tasks as followed;

1.       Get to the title page – Easy and clearly shown.

2.       Get to question one – Clearly located with one button shown in the bottom right of screen.

3.       Select an incorrect answer (teacher) – Pages link well and the correct text is shown when the answer is wrong.

He then verbally gave me feedback from completing further tasks and told me that it was all easy to do, and clearly shown on the screen- which will be suitable for my users of a young age.
I therefore will not make any major changes to my prototype as no problems were outlined, however when Max was testing I noticed a small problem with one of my animations that I will fix next time.

Correct Answer Four- Fox on Crutches

Today I have been working on my second prototype and I have recently designed the page that shows the user as helping the hurt fox; originally my notes showed that I planned to have lines coming off the fox's leg to indicate pain, however I updated my notes to show the fox using crutches to walk across the screen, and used this in my final creation.

13/10

Today I created another four pages for my second prototype, this included several stop codes, coding buttons to move onto the correct pages and a couple of difficult animations that I created including making an injured fox use crutches across the screen.

11/10

Today I created my third question and response pages. This required me to create several buttons and link them to the appropriate pages, I also created five animations in which I inserted keyframes and the 'stop();' code in order for them to play once, in order, and to stop once they had reached the last frame.

Prototype One meeting

On the 5th October 2011 I arranged a meeting with my client, team member and a potential user in order to show them my first prototype and to gather feedback as to what works well, and what I could improve. Each person present had a chance to play the story book so far and let me know exactly what they thought about it; this gave me a good insight into not only how my client views my work, but also how my users will view it.
I had the following topics to discuss:

• Does the product look as you expected
• What do you like about the product
• Usability of the game
• Improvements that I could make

Each person tried playing the game and gave me feedback to indicate that they liked and found that they all enjoyed the large numbers of animations, especially my client which tells me that hopefully the game will be fully enjoyed by all her peers.

The following changes I agreed to make before presenting my prototype two were as followed:

• add a back to question  button on all the correct answer pages
• Find/record sounds
• Add sounds to prototype
• Recheck language used

I will also use my time now to move forward with my work and ensure that by the time that I meet with my client again, I can show her everything she requested, and also have created all the questions and pages for my project so far. 

4/10

Today I updated some of my digital designs to include what animations and sounsd etc they would include. I then went back over my project proposal and def of scope in order to make sure they were completely up to date. I also made changes based on your suggestions.

Correct Answer One

I changed the colour of the text in the final creation of all my answer pages to green; this allow the colour scheme to remain fixed on cream and light green, which are colours often associated with Easter. I also added a star animation to float around the bunny as this indicates to the students that she is right, as in primary school they are often handed stickers or gold stars when they do something right.

Title Page

Again, the general layout of the post is the same, however I have decided to remove the feature of 'what is your name', this is due to me being unable to find a situation in which the name could be used in the future of the project.

This post shows the differences between my planned home page on the right, to my actual prototype home page on the left. The main feature of the page is the same, however the position of the bunny and the text have changed slightly. The colour scheme has been edited to a slightly lighter shade of cream which helped to create a more neutral atmosphere for my audience; also the 'start' button has been altered slightly to say 'next' and features blue text rather than the proposed white.

29/9

Today I just went over my mutlimedia plan and added any known lengths of time for my sound clips I already have. I also updated my digital plans and adpated my initial plan so that it was relevant for 'post protoype one'.

22/9

Testing log, went through 27 pages on my final product and listed all the different tests I would need to compelte on each page to make sure it's working properly.

20/9

Creating testing table.
Continued working on prototype on flash

Functional Specification Meeting

On Friday 16th September I emailed my client with a finished version of my functional specification, but also attaching the desired digital designs of my initial works which included the entire design of my project, including the questions I would be using.  I agreed on the following topics to discuss and expand on:

• If the specification contains everything that's needed
• If there is anything that needs to be clarified
• If the technological specification is correct
• Feedback for digital designs
• Mention the current progress in prototype designs

My client agreed that the functional specification looked agreeable to her needs and confirmed that the computers I had outlined in my specification were correctly used by the children in their ICT suite. She also confirmed that the choice of questions I had made in my designs were extremely acceptable and were a good choice to be used on the children and that the colour scheme was both neutral and appealing to both genders. She also agreed with my concern that the Bible passages included were at a higher complexity level than the children themselves were at, but agreed that they needed to be exposed to them at an early age and that simplifying the language any more than I had already done may erase the true meaning behind them. She also recommended for my functional specification that I go back and include the results of the questionnaires in my analysis in order to back up the audience's needs and to prove that they would enjoy using the computers and using stories in order to learn. We have decided to arrange our next meeting for my prototype once I have completed it, and emailing her in order to arrange time and dates for the meeting. 

16/9

more work on flash vreating another frame

15/9

Finished all desgins.
Began work in flash with bitmap versions of designs.

Initial Designs (Paper) Meeting

Earlier today I conducted a short email correspondence with my team member in order to show her my initial paper designs and my annotations describing what and how I will use them in the future. I chose the following three topics to discuss;

• Show evidence of paper initial designs that I have created and scanned onto the computer
• Ask if the layout is as expected
• Ask if there is any improvements I should make

The main concern of my clients was still how these designs would look on screen, although they were very happy  with how the initial paper designs were looking at the moment. They requested that I create digital versions of my designs that would include not only the proposed colour scheme but also include all of the questions that I had developed in order to ask the children later on in my actual project. I also must ensure that when I create my digital copies in PowerPoint that I use the notes feature in order to describe all the multimedia features that will be on the final product, including sound and animation, in order for my client and team member to get an accurate picture of what the final product may end up looking like.

13/09/11

Work:
Designed on paper the eight animations/images I will use in my storybook.
Annotated the home page layout.

Homework:
Scan in all work and incorporate it into slides
Annotate the title page and the questions page template
Replace all clip art with original images
Update navigation map by ensuring I state how and what buttons lead to which pages.

Initial Plan Meeting

The initial plan meeting I held today via email with my client was rather brief and existed mainly in order to show my client my initial plan and to ensure that it will not interfere with any duties she has over the upcoming year, I decided to expand on two points;

• If the original plan is agreeable to the timetable of my client
• If the handover date is acceptable

She replied to ensure me that the plan is looking acceptable at the moment but to bear in mind that I am not responsible for planning my own lessons and that I should be aware that my initial plan may not happen one item after the next, due to reasons such as absence or teacher planning. I have decided to leave my inital plan as it stands today, and to update it after key points in my project in order to show changes that I will make over the year depending on how well I stick to my plan, and how on track I stay with my initial indications of my progress over the year. Me and my team member later agreed on an email discussion about my initial plans on the 13th of September.

Functional Spec

Today I began to plan and write my functional spec which will outline all my plans for the project and what I hope the final model will achieve.

Project Aims

I am designing an interactive story book and mini game for primary school children aged six to seven. The story book will be introduced to the children at Easter time and therefore will theme around the Christian and commercial story of Easter; the storybook will also focus on the topic of 'Choice'. This is a topic that is covered in the RE sylabus at my chosen primary school and will involve the children actively showing their understanding about their decisions and the consequences they can have by following a book that gives the children certain situations in which they must decide which course of action to take.

Definition of Scope meeting

Earlier today I went to my client's school in order to discuss further the progress I have made on my project and how I have adapted my plans in order to fit to her needs. This meeting was to ensure that I had taken on board the suggestions that were made by client at our last interview and to show evidence of work I had completed in the gap between our meetings. This involved showing both my client and my team member my Definition of scope meeting and worked around five topics I had chosen to discuss;

• Produce evidence of improvements from the previous meeting to my project proposal
• Improvement feedback
• Discuss definition of scope with both attendees
• Introduce Initiral sketches of final product
• Schedule next meeting

The main changes that I made to my project proposal included the change of the theme; instead of a storybook based around the concept of Christmas I changed the theme to Easter which would ensure that the final product would be handed over and checked sufficiently in order to be utilised by my client in this academic year. I also ensured that I had researched the original documents used by my school and noted that they often used the Parable of the Good Samaritan and decided to include this in some part in my work; the new timings were agreed by my client and team member that it fits the RE curriculum easier and fill be used when the topic of 'choice' is usually taught. I was further advised on my definition of scope and initial sketches that I should be considerate of the choices that I make in the future to suit my audience; notably the use of language and colours in order to draw the student's attention in. 

The main action I will take away with me today to complete over summer are:

• To update my defiinition of scope
• Research relevant bible passages over the summer
• Email my initial plan to attendees 
• Update current designs by altering colour schemes
• Use summer to practiec designing graphics for the product

We have decided on a date of September 8th to discuss my initial plan with my client via email; by waiting until school has reopened it will allow my client to find out her available dates over the next term in order for her to accurately ensure it does not clash with her own calendar commitments. 

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Project Proposal Meeting

Yesterday I established a meeting with my client Veronica Mahon in order to get her to see my project proposal and to ensure that everything I have planned so far is to her liking, and to ask for any improvements that could be made in the future in order to create a project that is developed to her needs.
In went in to the meeting with four topics I prepared to discuss:

• Purpose of the upcoming project
• Feedback from the client
• Problems and Restraints
• Organisation of next meeting

The meeting overall was very helpful for the development of my project as it outlined some problems I had not seen during writing my proposal and highlighted areas that needed to be improved for my client's needs. I made the following changes to my project proposal following my client's suggestions:

• Add screenshots (hand drawn) of what I believe the game will end up looking like
• Sent a copy to my client to show her team member
• Incorporate a religious theme into the project

I also took on board suggestions of keeping my language clear and easy for my audience when the time comes to begin starting work on my first prototype. We have scheduled our next meeting for the 20th of July in order to further discuss any progress I have made on my project and allow my client and team member to discuss my definition of scope which is currently in progress.