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.