Sunday, 7 March 2010
Saturday, 6 March 2010
PRP - Fourth artefact design
Well the design work is under way and it is going pretty well, even though I'm still struggling with the coding I am slowly making good progress. As you can see in the image below the current state of the game is just a basic matching pairs game with no sound, buttons, levels or animations. As I previously said that I wanted to add an incentive to the game to give the child encouragement to continue to playing I decided to opted for positive sound effects and animation.
I have kept the same 6x6 grid (something to possibly change at a later stage) so they only have to make eight matches.
Having to think about how to give the child positive feedback in a digital form was quite hard. Having already decided that a simple animation would be placed at the end of the game I had to think about how to draw the children to carry on playing. The only solution that I could think about was using sounds. When the child made a match they would receive a positive sound, and if no match then a negative sound.
Finding the sounds was the easy part it was the animation that was the most time-consuming. I had to create a new scene because there were a lot of tweens, also having the animation on a separate scene made the flash layout easier to understand and locate things.
I had to also consider what animation to design as I did not want to make an animation that would be more appealing towards the girls or the boys. Thanks to my housemates advice I chose to go for balloons, like a party. After many hours of creating balloons I managed to complete the animation and place it in the coding.
I've tested it and it all works well, the next phase is put it to the real test...the children.
I have kept the same 6x6 grid (something to possibly change at a later stage) so they only have to make eight matches.
Having to think about how to give the child positive feedback in a digital form was quite hard. Having already decided that a simple animation would be placed at the end of the game I had to think about how to draw the children to carry on playing. The only solution that I could think about was using sounds. When the child made a match they would receive a positive sound, and if no match then a negative sound.
Finding the sounds was the easy part it was the animation that was the most time-consuming. I had to create a new scene because there were a lot of tweens, also having the animation on a separate scene made the flash layout easier to understand and locate things.
I had to also consider what animation to design as I did not want to make an animation that would be more appealing towards the girls or the boys. Thanks to my housemates advice I chose to go for balloons, like a party. After many hours of creating balloons I managed to complete the animation and place it in the coding.
I've tested it and it all works well, the next phase is put it to the real test...the children.
Friday, 5 March 2010
Client Project - Website drop down menu
Well it has taken me nearly 7 hours to create the final version of the drop down menu but it's now done and I am happy with the outcome but below is a short story board on how I got to my final stage.
1) First attempt of creating the drop down menu proved to be harder then anticipated, working with the alignment seemed to be impossible to get right, I found the code via the web (see previous post) however once opened the code there were many CSS elements that I did not understand even when I played around with every CSS rule.
2) As you can see I continued to work on this drop down menu and managed to get it to work to the websites look. The sub menus aligned well in firefox however, when I opened it in Internet Explorer I found that it did not work correctly. The 'hover' statement doesn't work on Internet Explorer and so after an hour or so of trying to tackle the problem I had to admit defeat and try a new piece of code.
3) Finding another code I thought more about the design, whenever I inserted a menu it would appear in a rectangle shape and it did not look right to me next to the logo, so I created a shape that I could put behind the menu giving it a more rounded edge effect. Finding a new code (WebDesignerWall) which I could easily implement meant that I could edit the code of the menu to blend in with the background.
4) As you can see in the image above the initial design had a pinky/red coloured background but it did not look right to me so working with a few colours I tried using it with a black background, and if you look below this is the most recent image of my work.
It may not look much but I'm happy with it and this is the actual site loaded onto Wordpress. I have been testing it across the browsers and apart from the background image on Internet Explorer like I previously mentioned it all seem to be working very well. My plans for the weekend now consists of getting the entire layout completed on Wordpress before tackling the plugins to get the gallery and comments up and running.
1) First attempt of creating the drop down menu proved to be harder then anticipated, working with the alignment seemed to be impossible to get right, I found the code via the web (see previous post) however once opened the code there were many CSS elements that I did not understand even when I played around with every CSS rule.
2) As you can see I continued to work on this drop down menu and managed to get it to work to the websites look. The sub menus aligned well in firefox however, when I opened it in Internet Explorer I found that it did not work correctly. The 'hover' statement doesn't work on Internet Explorer and so after an hour or so of trying to tackle the problem I had to admit defeat and try a new piece of code.
3) Finding another code I thought more about the design, whenever I inserted a menu it would appear in a rectangle shape and it did not look right to me next to the logo, so I created a shape that I could put behind the menu giving it a more rounded edge effect. Finding a new code (WebDesignerWall) which I could easily implement meant that I could edit the code of the menu to blend in with the background.
4) As you can see in the image above the initial design had a pinky/red coloured background but it did not look right to me so working with a few colours I tried using it with a black background, and if you look below this is the most recent image of my work.
It may not look much but I'm happy with it and this is the actual site loaded onto Wordpress. I have been testing it across the browsers and apart from the background image on Internet Explorer like I previously mentioned it all seem to be working very well. My plans for the weekend now consists of getting the entire layout completed on Wordpress before tackling the plugins to get the gallery and comments up and running.
Client Project - Suitable drop down menus
I wanted to make the streetbeatz website look as clean and user friendly as possible and so I decided that a drop down menu would be a good idea...though a little bit harder then your average menu.
When creating a drop down menu you have to take into consideration the different cross browsers, not to mention checking everything else because you need to make sure that the layout is compatible with all the browsers. The drop down menus has the same effect. Certain browsers are only compatible with certain CSS rules.
I tried creating my own drop down menus however none would work across Internet Explorer so I looked over the Internet for some suitable codes that I could perhaps work with.
CSS Play
CSS Play provided a good example of a CSS drop down menu, the article said that it was compatible across all browsers and even pointed out the bugs that occurred in IE6. However on reading further I noticed that the article/coding had not been updated since 2006 which meant that this coding may not be up to date with the current browsers.
Pure CSS menu
Pure CSS menu was an application that allows the user to easily create a drop down menu on the site. It gives you the option to change the colour, font and sizes. I had a go at it and it seemed pretty straight forward however when I tried to edit it I found it quite hard to understand the CSS coding and so thought that it would be wise if I created a drop down menu through a tutorial, that way I would follow the coding and would understand it which will enable me to edit the coding.
WebDesignerWall
As we all go on this site for some handy tips it was this one that I finalised my design for my menu with. The coding was explained in way that made the CSS a lot easier to understand. However I tried to edit the drop down menu I had to mix the coding up a bit because I could not get the code to go horizontal.
It has just shown me that creating a CSS drop down menu really isn't as easy as I thought it would be however I have found a lot of sources that could help me for future references.
When creating a drop down menu you have to take into consideration the different cross browsers, not to mention checking everything else because you need to make sure that the layout is compatible with all the browsers. The drop down menus has the same effect. Certain browsers are only compatible with certain CSS rules.
I tried creating my own drop down menus however none would work across Internet Explorer so I looked over the Internet for some suitable codes that I could perhaps work with.
CSS Play
CSS Play provided a good example of a CSS drop down menu, the article said that it was compatible across all browsers and even pointed out the bugs that occurred in IE6. However on reading further I noticed that the article/coding had not been updated since 2006 which meant that this coding may not be up to date with the current browsers.
Pure CSS menu
Pure CSS menu was an application that allows the user to easily create a drop down menu on the site. It gives you the option to change the colour, font and sizes. I had a go at it and it seemed pretty straight forward however when I tried to edit it I found it quite hard to understand the CSS coding and so thought that it would be wise if I created a drop down menu through a tutorial, that way I would follow the coding and would understand it which will enable me to edit the coding.
WebDesignerWall
As we all go on this site for some handy tips it was this one that I finalised my design for my menu with. The coding was explained in way that made the CSS a lot easier to understand. However I tried to edit the drop down menu I had to mix the coding up a bit because I could not get the code to go horizontal.
It has just shown me that creating a CSS drop down menu really isn't as easy as I thought it would be however I have found a lot of sources that could help me for future references.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Client Project - Wordpress upload
Well the beginning stages of uploading the site to Wordpress has begun so its full steam ahead and a lot of work in the next couple of weeks. Today Ashley showed me how to upload the site onto Wordpress and it's not as bad as I thought, obviously I received help (again thank you Ashley) but once you get the basics it quite straight forward and I think it will be a lot more user friendly for Jess.
As you can see in the left image the dashboard does look quite complicated however I intend to provide Jess with a user guide and will walk through the site with her to explain the different elements. The Dashboard is the first thing that Jess will see when she opens the page, I must clearly specify that the only pages that she will need to edit will be under the 'Pages' tab.
Each of the the pages will be provided with a simple text box where Jess could easily change the text.
I am still unsure as to how to edit the images yet but that will be next weeks job my aim for this weekend is to set the whole website out including the menu. I also need to test it across browsers but like I said the display of the site is the main aim.
I found it quite difficult to figure out the plugins but I think that this will be something that I will have to research further into. I need these plugins for the gallery, contact form and the comments page so this is definitely something that I will focus on next week.
I am pleased that its now on Wordpress as this was a big part that was worrying me however it is now up and technically running so fingers crossed I will make progress over the weekend but I will keep you all informed.
As you can see in the left image the dashboard does look quite complicated however I intend to provide Jess with a user guide and will walk through the site with her to explain the different elements. The Dashboard is the first thing that Jess will see when she opens the page, I must clearly specify that the only pages that she will need to edit will be under the 'Pages' tab.
Each of the the pages will be provided with a simple text box where Jess could easily change the text.
I am still unsure as to how to edit the images yet but that will be next weeks job my aim for this weekend is to set the whole website out including the menu. I also need to test it across browsers but like I said the display of the site is the main aim.
I found it quite difficult to figure out the plugins but I think that this will be something that I will have to research further into. I need these plugins for the gallery, contact form and the comments page so this is definitely something that I will focus on next week.
I am pleased that its now on Wordpress as this was a big part that was worrying me however it is now up and technically running so fingers crossed I will make progress over the weekend but I will keep you all informed.
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
PRP - Fourth artefact, positive feedback
The results from the last artefact showed that the only reason the child continued to play the game was because he received positive feedback from me so it made me think maybe the game needs a reward at the end or positive feedback throughout. So I thought I would work around the idea of positive sounds.
I found an articles that discussed the issues between positive and negative feedback when playing a game. The article made a clear point that there has to be a balance between positive and negative feedback.
"While positive feedback has the effect of protecting a lead, negative feedback does the opposite. Negative feedback either constrains the player in the lead, or gives an advantage to the player or players trailing."
Positive and negative feedback differs in a multi player game (see example here). You have to make sure that you balance out the feedback. For example the players in the lead will have a more positive reaction because they have a chance at winning whereas the players who are not winning automatically lose interest because they are not gaining anything whilst playing.
When it comes to a single player game (what I will be testing) you still have to think strategically about balancing positive and negative feedback. If the game is too hard it could work in two ways; the player could get frustrated because of the difficulty of the game giving out a negative reaction or this could give the player more drive to want to complete the game.
On the other hand if the game was provided in an easier format where the player can complete the level/game then the player will perhaps be more positive towards the game and will want to persist in the game play.
Overall this is a tough subject to decide on and hopefully once I create and test my artefact I will get a clearer idea in the subject.
Monday, 1 March 2010
PRP - Fourth artefact ideas
When tested the the third artefact the results showed that the children enjoyed the interaction with the game but lost attention quite quickly in order to get out of this positive feedback was to given to the child, this made the child more enthusiastic and more enthusiastic to continue the game. In previous blogs you can see that in my previous artefact I created not only a matching game but I also created a digital version of the matching pairs game.
As the coding is quite technical I could only create a matching pairs game where the child had to match the pictures together as opposed to my hand made game where the child had to match the picture to the word. Giving that the results showed that children need positive feedback to keep playing I thought that I can test sounds/rewards. If I added sounds to when the children match the cards (make a pair - positive sound, make no pairs - negative sound) my aim is to see if the children show more of a response to the game if a reward was at the end, this could be animation for this artefact.
From doing this artefact I hope to see what the childs next response will be, whether adding positive sounds/feedback will change the childs reactions at all to the game, I am not too sure on what the outcome will be as I thought the child would enjoy the game in the previous artefact. The results could also show me that this game isn't even the right game for the age group (even though research suggest this game)
I have started updating the game now so shall blog my next designs shortly.
