Sunday 1 June 2008
Summer Project
With summer heading closer I thought I should really do something in my spare time so why not design a new website, or try.
Above is an example of the type of website that I am going to attempt to design. It is called 'eatstudent.com' and is currently only available to Nottingham University's students but it made me think, what if there was just a simple website that users could gain access to many of the different take aways? It would be accessible to any student in Nottingham but as I no people at different university's I could expand this to different towns like my home town Southampton. I think its a simple design and idea that I may be able to make a little profit (from the advertising) but I am starting my research so hopefully over the summer holiday I would have made a start on the site.
Fingers crossed.
Above is an example of the type of website that I am going to attempt to design. It is called 'eatstudent.com' and is currently only available to Nottingham University's students but it made me think, what if there was just a simple website that users could gain access to many of the different take aways? It would be accessible to any student in Nottingham but as I no people at different university's I could expand this to different towns like my home town Southampton. I think its a simple design and idea that I may be able to make a little profit (from the advertising) but I am starting my research so hopefully over the summer holiday I would have made a start on the site.
Fingers crossed.
User Testing
Now that I have finished my interactive showcase I thought that I should test it by getting a few people to use the showcase and give me their honest opinions on what could be improved, whats good, whats not etc and having done the testing I was quite surprised.
In my opinion the results were not what I expected. I thought that the users would find the puzzle or photo album more interesting but when the results came back it turned out that the avatar movie was more interesting, when I asked them why it was because of the animation. The part that they found least interesting was the logo which was what I was expecting because it is only a short film.
For improvements the users said to insert buttons to show where to cook the pizza so I had to change a few buttons around to do this but I managed to do this. If I had more time I think that I would have put music into my showcase, this was something that I intended to do and I did try but, tweeks were still needed to be made and I guess that this took more time then I intended but I am not going to see this as a negative but as something that I will work on in the summer so I am prepared for the next year.
In my opinion the results were not what I expected. I thought that the users would find the puzzle or photo album more interesting but when the results came back it turned out that the avatar movie was more interesting, when I asked them why it was because of the animation. The part that they found least interesting was the logo which was what I was expecting because it is only a short film.
For improvements the users said to insert buttons to show where to cook the pizza so I had to change a few buttons around to do this but I managed to do this. If I had more time I think that I would have put music into my showcase, this was something that I intended to do and I did try but, tweeks were still needed to be made and I guess that this took more time then I intended but I am not going to see this as a negative but as something that I will work on in the summer so I am prepared for the next year.
The pizza game
Well as many people know I have worked in pizza hut for quite a few years 4 to be exact and so I felt this had to be in the work so like our first project (interactive narratives) I did a photo game, the user could any topping and that topping would go on in the order you wanted. It took me a long time because I kept having to put the topping on the off then on again, it got quite confusing but eventually I got it done.
As you can see from the image in the left it is a simple image and I have taken images that show each topping in the order that they are put on, this was not my first idea.
My main idea was to actually use video footage whenever the user selected a topping so, I had all my footage done got back to uni and went to upload the footage only to find out that the camera that I had used was not compatible with the computers and it was to late for me to go back home (which is a 3 hour drive may I add)and that also meant I had to get permission from the managers of my work again.
But I managed to get around my problem but I will probably try and do this again in the summer because level two is getting closer and I want to be ready for that.
As you can see from the image in the left it is a simple image and I have taken images that show each topping in the order that they are put on, this was not my first idea.
My main idea was to actually use video footage whenever the user selected a topping so, I had all my footage done got back to uni and went to upload the footage only to find out that the camera that I had used was not compatible with the computers and it was to late for me to go back home (which is a 3 hour drive may I add)and that also meant I had to get permission from the managers of my work again.
But I managed to get around my problem but I will probably try and do this again in the summer because level two is getting closer and I want to be ready for that.
The Puzzle
Now I was very determined to do this puzzle because this was the first piece that I thought of and wanted to do however this was probably the most difficult piece that I had to complete mainly because of learning the code (which I'm still slowly starting to understand)and creating the pieces.
As you can see the image above the puzzle is a bit basic but I managed to get what I wanted to do when the user clicks on the puzzle piece it is picked up however, it can only be switched with another piece or has to be put in the right place to be released but, as its my first piece I am very happy with my outcome.
To get the puzzles to fit into place I had create a template for each bit (hence for the blue template) this enable the puzzle piece to be locked into a certain co-ordinate, this is why I found the coding quite difficult because I was unsure to how you got the puzzle piece to stay in one place.
This I felt was showing my eagerness to conquer new obstacles that I have yet not done.
As you can see the image above the puzzle is a bit basic but I managed to get what I wanted to do when the user clicks on the puzzle piece it is picked up however, it can only be switched with another piece or has to be put in the right place to be released but, as its my first piece I am very happy with my outcome.
To get the puzzles to fit into place I had create a template for each bit (hence for the blue template) this enable the puzzle piece to be locked into a certain co-ordinate, this is why I found the coding quite difficult because I was unsure to how you got the puzzle piece to stay in one place.
This I felt was showing my eagerness to conquer new obstacles that I have yet not done.
My logo!!
Ah I like my new identity it does not relate to any of my old work which is what I want.
One of the objectives was to create a piece of pixilation, audiovisual or sound track and I thought why not kill two birds with one stone and do a pixilation of my logo. My reason for doing this was because my logo has the impression of calligraphy and so I wanted to give out that impression that the logo was being written whilst you watched it.
I had two attempts of this the first when I edited it, it looked horrible, it was jerky the lighting continuously changed and it looked as though the logo was moving all over the place so that was a no no. My second attempt was more successful I used a camera tripod, and included a spotlight to add lighting. When it came to my editing I was very pleased with it and with the added music I had my second interactive piece done!!
I was happy with this but on uploading the logo a small glitch that I noticed happened when on flash. The movie had slowed down and this meant that the music did not go in time with the logo and so but the end of the movie the music had already finished. Something small but there's nothing I could do about it now its only a small piece and I now know what to do if this problem happens again...get a longer song haha
One of the objectives was to create a piece of pixilation, audiovisual or sound track and I thought why not kill two birds with one stone and do a pixilation of my logo. My reason for doing this was because my logo has the impression of calligraphy and so I wanted to give out that impression that the logo was being written whilst you watched it.
I had two attempts of this the first when I edited it, it looked horrible, it was jerky the lighting continuously changed and it looked as though the logo was moving all over the place so that was a no no. My second attempt was more successful I used a camera tripod, and included a spotlight to add lighting. When it came to my editing I was very pleased with it and with the added music I had my second interactive piece done!!
I was happy with this but on uploading the logo a small glitch that I noticed happened when on flash. The movie had slowed down and this meant that the music did not go in time with the logo and so but the end of the movie the music had already finished. Something small but there's nothing I could do about it now its only a small piece and I now know what to do if this problem happens again...get a longer song haha
Photo Album
Ah yes the photo album a very challenging yet at the end pleasing result. The aim of my photo album was to show people my family and friends because these are the people who have played a huge part in my life and without them...I couldn't even imagine my life without them.
I have a total of about 16 photos all from different points of my life.I used 3D Max to animate and add maps to each piece which was time consuming but eventually came together.
This interactive did have its problem which I was determined to beat, the images were all out of focus and no one could make sense of what they were. So my first idea was to make buttons for each image and when the user hovered over one the image would enlarge with an explanation, no luck there because what I found out was that if the image that I inputted on the buttons 'over' keyframe was bigger then the button then it would not work. After getting very stressed with this I came to the conclusion to make a new keyframes and put the enlarged images on them. This worked but was alot more time consuming but I got my results.
After completing the album (or so I thought) a friend not naming names (Ashley) suggested that I should give the user the choice of going back the previous page, which to be fair does give the user more options and so helped me complete this interactive part.
I have a total of about 16 photos all from different points of my life.I used 3D Max to animate and add maps to each piece which was time consuming but eventually came together.
This interactive did have its problem which I was determined to beat, the images were all out of focus and no one could make sense of what they were. So my first idea was to make buttons for each image and when the user hovered over one the image would enlarge with an explanation, no luck there because what I found out was that if the image that I inputted on the buttons 'over' keyframe was bigger then the button then it would not work. After getting very stressed with this I came to the conclusion to make a new keyframes and put the enlarged images on them. This worked but was alot more time consuming but I got my results.
After completing the album (or so I thought) a friend not naming names (Ashley) suggested that I should give the user the choice of going back the previous page, which to be fair does give the user more options and so helped me complete this interactive part.
what to show
Well its been well over a month and I cannot lie I have been lazy so I thought it would be a good idea to post what I have done lately...and what happened to my project.
I did actually complete the task though, it was one of the hardest projects that I have had to do in a long time but at the end of the day its helped me make the decision of which pathway to continue on with.
In my last post I showed my main intro screen but you never saw what happened beyond that, well my five chosen interactive objects were my logo, a pizza game, a puzzle, a photoalbum and my avatar. Each pieces looked quite simple yet the time and effort that I put into the coding and this work really made a difference to me and also helped my skills in flash.
In the next few posts I will show and explain what each of my interactive pieces are and what they mean to me.
I did actually complete the task though, it was one of the hardest projects that I have had to do in a long time but at the end of the day its helped me make the decision of which pathway to continue on with.
In my last post I showed my main intro screen but you never saw what happened beyond that, well my five chosen interactive objects were my logo, a pizza game, a puzzle, a photoalbum and my avatar. Each pieces looked quite simple yet the time and effort that I put into the coding and this work really made a difference to me and also helped my skills in flash.
In the next few posts I will show and explain what each of my interactive pieces are and what they mean to me.
