Week 11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy smokes the quarter is over. This quarter has gone by faster than any quarter thus far. Crazy! Here is my documentation/explanation/user testing!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Tutorial

Description:

This tutorial was made to teach younger kids how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The goal was to provide a fun and engaging interface, catch the user’s attention, teach a skill, and promote further learning. The lesson is set up in a where it tests the user’s knowledge through a series of quiz questions. The user must answer the question correctly to be able to move on. The questions help teach new vocabulary as well as help promote step by step execution of a task. The user is also required to interact with interface in order to promote the action. This way the user learns the steps by acting them out instead of just being told what to do. Also, sounds are present to reinforce answers and behavior. The user is kept engaged and encouraged to finish the entire lesson by offering a surprise at the completion of the lesson.

Reason:

After searching a bit online, it was discovered that there really weren’t many computer based tutorials available for children. There are plenty of game sites but none of those were geared towards engaging kids in learning.

User Testing:

This application was tested by a variety of people ranging from the very young to the not so young! All users responded positively towards the experience. The older crowd found it entertaining and ‘fun to click through even though I already know how to make a PBJ sandwich.’ They enjoyed the interactivity and figuring out how to make it to the end. The younger audience found the interface enjoyable and amusing. It was reported that some younger users liked the wrong answer sound so much that they purposefully chose wrong answers just to hear the sound.

In the initial release of the application users were observed while interacting with the tutorial. It was noted where users tried to interact with the tutorial and adjustments were made to accommodate this. There were several areas where the user felt there should be something to interact with. For example, users were trying to click the knife to spread the pb and j. As a result, now the user is required to click the knife in order for the pb and j to be spread.

There was only one area where I received mixed feedback. Half of the people that tested the application thought the text went too slow and should be sped up. The other half thought the text went too fast and didn’t give them enough time to read it. These responses varied depending on the age of the user. The younger the user was the more they thought the text moved too fast. The only solution I’ve thought of for this would be to have a setting at the beginning of the game to pick how fast you wanted it to move. That kind of functionality has not been implemented at this point.

Further Education:

The future plans for this product are to provide several other modules to help teach children other ‘Do-It-Yourself’ skills. This way the child would feel more empowered and encouraged to learn.

Other improvements made:
-Fixed the issue of overlapping of result star badges so they no longer block each other.
-When you hit the 'play again' button the sound stops so there's no more overlapping.

Week 9 or 10?

So I'm still a bit confused on the blog weekly line up but oh well. I got a job! Yay! Doing ActionScript 3/Flex development! Double YAY!!! It's a bit overwhelming b/c I got thrown straight in to the mess and I'm the only web programming developer so it's not like I have a super knowledgable team to ask about the problems I'm having. But it is fun and I'm excited about how much I'm going to learn.

I also like the fact that the one project piece that they really liked was my Peanut Butter and Jelly tutorial. Go Computer Based Training!!!! They gave me good feedback on it that will be good for my user testing.

Yesterday was my first day and I worked 9am-5pm and then went to class from 6-10. I'm working all day today, tomorrow before class and Thursday before class. Whew. At some point I'm supposed to be finishing all of my final projects for my 6 classes. Oye. Oh well it's still super exciting. I'm bona fide! =)

Week 8? Or 9?

So it's about that time for my quarterly 'I can't believe it's already week *insert week # here*!!!!!!' I don't think I've ever been so glad to have created such a solid idea and project so early on in the quarter because I don't know what I would do if I had to pull another project idea out of my ass. I may roll over and cry. Or at least pitch a fit.

I need to start designing my packaging for PBJ and writing the supplemental material. I'd really like to have a previous example to look off of. That way I know how to format it and what should go where.

I have a job interview on Wednesday! Yay! Hopefully it won't cause me to be late to class. But if it's a good interview and is promising then it will be worth it. I'm beginning to feel slightly stressed out but the fact that I don't feel completely stressed out leads me to believe that my body has gone into self preservation mode and is not allowing me to feel that stressed in order to remain productive. Way to go body! I approve!

Week 8 - Follow up to Academy

So I spent the last week thinking about what kind of exhibit the Naturalist center could use. I realized one of cool parts of this place was all the different bugs and creatures they had in jars. Unfortunately they didn't have much information on them. I think it would be neat if with each set of shelves there was a display screen and a series of buttons in front of each jar. That way you could be looking at a lizard in a jar, push the button and the display screen would show more information. That way the user could feel more involved in the display.

It would also be neat if they had a quiz or something running where they'd talk about a something and then say 'find the jar with x creature in it, push the button when you've found it.' It could even be a timed quiz b/c that would definitely be exciting for a few kids trying to locate the bug they see on the jar.

I think this would be a good solution b/c it would still retain the tactility of the creatures in the jar, they are still there for you to see, not just an image on a screen. But if you were to combine each section with a screen to add some interactivity and provide more information that otherwise wouldn't be possible it would become a great exhibit!

Week 7 Academy of Sciences

So I tried to send out this blog, or at least part of it last Wednesday while waiting in line freezing my butt off at the Academy. But for whatever reason they keyboard wouldn't pop up on my iPhone in the main blog box. Probably better b/c I could barely move my fingers they were so frozen. I was so scared I was going to end up going by myself! A couple of friends were supposed to meet me there at 9am so I got there super early at 8:30am b/c I took the train and it was either get there at 8:30 or get there at 9:45am and I don't like to be late. So my friends canceled on me at 9:05am. I was tired, freezing, and NOT happy! At about 9:20 or so I saw Neil, Cy, and Jeremy. So in order to appease the extremely long line of mean people I called out 'Hey guys I've been saving your spot!' When people were like 'where did they come from????' I explained that we were here for a class trip. That didn't seem to make them less angry but it shut them up! 5 minutes later we ran into Nick so we officially had a group. The guys were so glad to see me b/c the end of the line wasn't even visible around the front end of the yard. I still dont' know how far back it went.

When we got in we went to get passes for the Planatarium and when we did that this other girl gave us passes to the 3-D bug show! Very cool.
Although I found that my eyes were having some issues some times focusing properly. The glasses were super nice but I wish they could do 3-D movies without the glasses. We had like half an hour to kill before it was time to line up for the Planetarium show. This place was soooo packed!

They had so many neat exhibits. Really simple things too like 4 TVs talking about some recent environmental issues. It was really interesting b/c they talked about how they used human hair to make these mats for cleaning up oil out of the ocean. The first time they were really used was last year when that Cosco oil spill happened.

Right around that they had a display that had a Google Maps quiz about the ocean. Neil became obsessed with it! But I dont think he ever did better than 25% which was pretty funny. We joked that the kids who tried it out after us probably got 100%. I found the quizes pretty interesting b/c it made me want to find an exhibit that was teaching the information so I could go back and answer the questions right! There was also this neat bug exhibit where the ground was lit up like the floor of the rainforrest and they would tell you what bugs are around and how to draw them out from under the leaves. It was so funny b/c these kids were just running all over the place trying to stomp on the bugs when they'd run out from under the leaves. It made me want to play but I figured I'd probably not be able to get away with it like they did.














So it was time for us to head to the Planetarium and that place was AMAZING! It was so big and glowed quite orange! It's the world's largest all digital planetarium and I want one for my house. I don't think it's very feasible but it was so cool. You felt like you were in the movie. The camera would pan up and out over a landscape and you felt you were flying over it all by yourself. SO COOL!!!!!!!! They did a tour of the glaxy and talked about other planets in other solar systems and out all over the universe. I all of a sudden found it very frustrating that we don't know more about the universe and made me wonder if we would ever know enough to satisfy my curiousity in my life time.

After the show we went up to the living roof which was so neat. I absolutely loved this place and could've spent a week here. Even though we had been in the museum for a few hours and it was well into the afternoon the line was still wrapped around god knows were to get into this place. They had everyone stopped at the front door and were letting people in as people left. Our next stop was the Naturalist? center. The one Sharon said we had to stop by and try to come up with an idea of how computer based training could be beneficial for it. After going there and seeing all the books and all the tactile displays it almost seemed like computer displays would defeat the purpose of it being all natural. It was kind of funny b/c the guys went straight to the few computers they had along the wall and I immediately found a puzzle. Of course!


We checked out the aquarium, the rainforrest, and the carbon footprint of our food section and I was beginning to reach the point of complete despair. You spend enough time in a place that's promoting how horrible the environment has become and how we're all going to die and your brain just starts to have mini aneurisms. That's when it's time to leave! So we left! And guessed that the rest of our class probably showed up, took one look at the line and left. Slackers! =)

Week 6

Awwww Sharon is hating on me! Ouch! On-line Interaction Design for Education it is! ;-)

I received some really great feedback from Sharon this past week. She had her 2 year old grandson test the interface and it was a pretty big hit! I can't wait to see the video of it. She pointed out a few quirks that I was aware of like overlapping answer messages. That can be fixed by adding lines of AS3 in the beginning ends of the movie clips to add and remove event listeners for the other buttons so they can't be triggered.

She said the 9 year said the text went a bit fast which i knew it probably would but that's hard to gauge when you're staring at it over and over.

It was also recommended that I use some voice overs since the target audience will be fairly young.

I liked the idea of making modules for 'Life Skills' that a 9 year girl would enjoy. That could be fun. Although I don't know if I could make it in the style of Hannah Montana. Barf. I think the 9 year olds would just have to learn to not be offended as if I were talking down to them. I'm just trying to make it universally entertaining. They can understand that right?

Week 5 - Serious Idea

So I just came up with a way to draw a user in and make this a real application. If I can come up with several life skills to teach then when the user completes each section they're awarded with a badge or trophy of some sort. At the main level where the user can pick a skill there's also a link to a trophy case or awards gallery where the trophy would be housed for all the skills they've completed. That way the user would be driven to complete all of the skills so they'd have a full trophy case.

With that said I'd definitely want to have this as a desktop application or an online user sign up system so multiple people can play under their own name.

I used to play this one game as a kid called Magic Mountain or something. It was on our first PC and you go to this game through the first load window where it gave you the option to load Windows or go to other directories. You were this guy who was trying to collect coins to use to move up the mountain. In order to get coins you had to use your net to trap elves that had a scroll in their hand. They'd ask you a question and if you got it right you got 2 or 3 coins. If you caught an elf without a scroll you got 1 coin. But you only got so many nets before there's a hole in your net. So once you get to the top of the mountain you win and you get a treasure. Your treasures were stored in treasure room. And you could store up to 3 of each treasure. I had 3 of everything except for one. There were easily 100 different treasures. I played this game a LOT!

Week 4

So my peanut butter and jelly tutorial is more flushed out!

http://lrm371.aisites.com/cbt/pbjtraining.html

I even added a pre-loader! I think, every time I test it pops up and does away so fast.

I just checked my individual score and I didn't get points for multimedia research which I included in a previous blog.

I'm excited about turning this into a final project. I need to come up with some more 'Life Skills' to really take this somewhere. I still need to add a few things like navigation through the sections, an info section at the beginning, and probably something else.

I added more interactivity to the project. I had quite a few people try out my interface and from observing them I figured out areas that needed more interactivity or needed buttons disabled til a certain point to prevent frustration. I like user testing by observing. I don't think this is a project where user testing by having a user fill out a form would be helpful.

Computer Based Training Week 2

I did a Captivate tutorial on setting up your website through Dreamweaver. It won't teach anyone in this class anything new but could prove to be helpful to new students.
http://lrm371.aisites.com/cbt/New%20Site%20in%20Dreamweaver_demo.htm

Multimedia and Learning Research

http://webusability.com/article_multimedia_and_learning_11_2001.htm

These links are to a company that's been very successful in the on-line learning field. It's the company I'd like to try to get an internship with.
http://www.alleninteractions.com/about-us
http://www.alleninteractions.com/Custom-e-learning
http://www.alleninteractions.com/case-studies

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/thinktank/valuemedia/

Adobe breaks it down how to use multimedia to the max. An excerpt:
"Contemporary learning theorists such as Spiro, Bereiter, and Brown believe that a key goal of instruction is to provide opportunities for learners to develop mastery in the areas of life they are each involved in. One important step that learners take in developing that mastery is building effective mental models. A mental model is an internal representation of reality. So instruction on how a copier works must help learners internalize how the parts work together so they can operate or fix it, not just match pictures of parts to part names."

4 Multimedia Learning Principles
http://blog.slideshare.net/2009/02/03/4-multimedia-learning-principles-that-will-improve-your-slides/

Things I've learned:
-Allow people to move at their own pace.
-Know your audience and the best way to reach them.
-Plan plan plan plan plan plan plan

Project Documentation

Project Documentation

Week 11

My project is finished!!!!! It came out like I expected. While working on it it was as hard as I thought it would be. Now that I'm done it was easier than I thought it would be. Go figure. As with any very technical back-end there's a sense of disappointment when you realize that no one will know how hard you worked on it by looking at the interface and interacting with it.

I finished up my user testing. The only thing I wasn't able to accomplish as far as recommendations was the sound element. I tried searching for sounds and either found sounds that just wouldn't work, would cost money, or the sites started to get super sketchy and caused the browser to crash. This is definitely an on-going project so maybe sounds will come at another time.

My documentation is typed up. I hope I included enough information and did it in the correct format. I've made all of my blogs this quarter project focused so it's been my project journal.

Week 10

The final project is chugging along! Last week I finished the transition animation and laid out the interface in Flash. I'm currently laying in the back end functionality. I created an XML sheet to pipe in demo data. Since the structure in Flash is heavy in Actionscript classes and having dynamic content I decided it would be better to get functionality down before trying to populate it using new and very foreign technology.

I'm pretty excited about how much progress I've made. It's a bit more complicated that I had originally thought it would be. But I'm working on it!

I also started compiling the final project document.

Week 9 - Shoot Me In the Face

Holy smokes it's WEEK 9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No es bueno. It's officially crunch time. At this point I'm almost completely done populating my database. Although it's been recommended to me to create a dummy XML file to demonstrate the core functionality of the site. Which removes a bit of stress but oh holy smokes, so much work to do. Today I'm going to finish up the persona, and work on creating the animation for my transitions. I'm definitely at the point where I'm scared to start. It's the fear of the blank canvas.

I've been so excited about this project all quarter and if this weren't a project due for a grade it would end up on that shelf in my head of other great projects I want to do but am afraid to start b/c I have this vision in my head of what they're supposed to be and they need to come out perfect. My sister is coming to visit this week and she's always good to use for user testing and giving me a new way to look at things b/c she's not technical at all. She checks her e-mail and is newly addicted to JigZone and that's about it.

It's time for me to stop thinking about things I want to do and start executing. Stop being so lazy out of fear and suck it up and do it!!!!!

Week 8!

Sharon! I'm so sorry that you aren't feeling well! But I must thank you for doing your best to contain your germs. I greatly appreciate this. =)

So my project is coming along. I've been spending quite a bit of time populating my database with information on all 257 movies. I've finished movie titles, directors and the linking table b/n the titles and the directors. Today during class I plan on building my actors table. It should take me quite a bit of time.

I'll probably start building the interface itself early next week. I'm going to be making this significantly more complicated than necessary in order to have this count as my final project for my Intermediate Authoring class. This will be beneficial though b/c it will probably be my most thought out, structurally sound project to date.

I've been doing some hand drawn sketches to more thoroughly develop layout ideas. I have my core structure designed but have quite a bit of work to do with the data layout.

I feel like this project will be one I will be extremely proud of when completed. I'm taking quite a bit of initiative in learning some technologies that are a still a couple of quarters away in terms of class teaching.

Fingers cross that this all works out!!!

Exploratorium!!!

So last week was our field trip to the Exploratorium! Isabel and I met up in Daly City at 9:45am to head across town together. Weather wasn't too bad in Millbrae but 3 miles away in Daly City all hell was letting loose.

Not very pleasant. The bus took us down 19th to the Pacific Heights/Presidio/Marina area. We were starving so we walked down Chesnutt to grab some breakfast at the Squack and Gobble.

I found it slightly amusing that the Exploratorium charged us $11 for admission and still had a big donations tank when you enter. Overall the Exploratorium was pretty neat. I like all the physics experiments and what not. I loved the water tornados.

I would definitely say the exhibit that inspired me the most was the History of the Palace of Fine Arts area. I loved the way they displayed the information in the huge columns with the rotating views. That's definitely an element I'd like to use one day in a site. I don't know if I'll use it for my project this time but I will definitely keep it in mind for a future project.

Isabel and I definitely had fun checking out the different exhibits. I think the funniest part was when Isabel played with the huge bubble exhibit where if you put your hand in the soap you'd be able to stick your hand through the bubble wall. Why so funny? There were not towels to wipe your hand off with when you were done.

The exhibit I think we spent the most time in were the optical illusion doors. Totally trippy. What freaked me out even more was when I downloaded my pictures and viewed them on the computer and they still worked, but even more so. I can't look at them for very long because it freaks me out!!!

Over all very fun trip. I'm definitely taking all of the movement and will bring that to my project. I'd like to add a great curtain opening and closing transition. It'll be quite the challenget to animate that...

Week 6 Exploratorium!

So Isabel and I went to the Exploratorium today! I'll post more about it, pictures included later. I'm so tired. But I enjoyed the Exploratorium very much and will be posting an expanded blog tomorrow!

Week 5

So the project proposal is due today! I'm definitely going to be pushing myself as far getting out of my comfort zone. I will be using technologies that I've never used before in my life. I was pretty disappointed in my Database Concepts class. It's over in a week and I know nothing about actually making the database useful. So I'm trying to approach this in a strategic way.

In Intermediate Authoring we're building ActionScript projects that are completely dynamic as far as nothing is on the stage in the fla. Everything is either drawn dynamically or stored in the library. So I came up with the idea of incorporating one big final project b/n this class and authoring.

So it will be a mashup of using a database to dynamically pipe in information the user searches for through a dynamically created interface that's endlessly entertaining.

I'm slightly intimidated about the database side since it's all new to me so it will be an experience. At the same time I've come to realize my most valuable resource at this school is the other students so I plan to use their knowledge to build on my own to create one seriously bad ass portfolio piece. Fingers crossed.

I re-did my Interaction site which Sharon says I should use for the final project. Not sure how to expand that to make an entertaining site. Any suggestions, let me know.

OH! I'm official! www.laurenmerka.com
I bought the domain last week. Uploaded the logo and that's it. I'm not sure when I'll have that site fully developed....But I'm still official!

Week 4

So my classes are starting to grind on me a bit. It hasn't been as bad as I expected thus far but then again what I fear the most hasn't arrived yet. I have significant final projects in all of my classes which is slightly over whelming. I'm learning so many new technologies on the coding front but I haven't learned enough yet to begin using it. That would definitely make this class a bit easier. The only technologies I'm even somewhat comfortable with are HTML and Flash. In JavaScript I can prompt a user and store that variable and that's about it. I'm also kind of thrown as to why I would want to mix JavaScript and Flash. What's the point? It almost seems like you open yourself up to greater error potential by having your sources scattered.

I'm kinda getting an idea for a final project. I'm creating a database for Database Concepts of my DVD collection. It would be cool to develop a full interface with the database so when you select a movie a little picture comes in, but not in a still way but with some sort of movement. Something to give it more interactivity even if it's something only I use. Or my friends could start using it to try to borrow my DVDs! I'd then have to add a field in the database denoting if someone is borrowing it.....

Week 3

I think I accidentally fried my brain yesterday. Part of my Int Authoring class was to dynamically add movie clips to a stage in a mac os X style doc. The professor didn't realize the file was AS 2.0 instead of 3.0. So I really wanted to use this type of file for my interesting navigation so I decided to try to convert the file to AS 3.0. 10 hours later.....

I made a lot of head way but I think something snapped in my brain. 111 I didn't sleep well at all last night b/c code kept running through my head. Mainly regards to variable scope and depending on where you declare a variable will determine what methods can access it or change it. Not good. Me = fried.

So I've uploaded a mock-up of what it could potentially look like. I'll continue to work on it.

Interaction Design for Entertainment

So here I am back in a Sharon class blogging for whatever points I can get my hands on!
For reader entertainment:


So I've compiled my list of sites that are entertaining and I'm about to begin designing my homework site. I'm going to do it in Flash b/c I've found I'm pretty good at using Flash to add extras that take a normal project and give it that something special. Hopefully it will translate like I see it in my head.

Adding these sorts of things is usually my way of entertaining people. I think this counts as a method designers can use to entertain besides content and images. For example in my MP3 player I added an extra button to turn on snow in the snow globe. Or when you hit pause it triggers an amusing animation of a snowman launching the skier into the glass. This is not part of the content b/c in this context I think of content as being the songs and buttons themselves. It's kind of image entertainment but the project would be a successful MP3 player without them.

I think the key in providing entertainment is in the details. Not necessarily in the vital functionality but as the extras. I always think of Pixar in this context b/c they like to throw in extras that the movies could live and be just as successful without but help push their movies past those of other companies. For example in Toy Story when Buzz and Woody are stuck in Sid's room a tool box falls off of a desk and lands on Woody. The tool box is labeled 'Binford Tools' which was the fake tool brand from Tim Allen's show Home Improvement. It was a nice cultural reference to Tim Allen who was the voice of Buzz.

So I hope I'm on the right track when it comes to entertaining beyond the core context and images!