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.