PRP - Seventh artefact, Second design attempt

After the first design attempt, the general coding of the game was finished however the overall design did not have any appeal that would attract a child. So before this artefact was tested a redesign was in order. I occurred to me that my previous artefact used characters that children recognised and it was decided that the same theme would be used across this test.

I decided that I would you the famous 'Looney Toons' characters as they are a recognisable group. The main frame of the game was to be kept i.e. the spellings, but as said before in my previous post I wanted to add something extra to the spelling to add to the childs experience. Looking back at my research some games added sentences with the spelling, giving the child an example of where the word could be place. Doing this not only provided the child with spellings but could also potentially help with reading skills. Adding the imagery automatically added character to the game. The previous design was plain and a bit dull but with the characters, there was more sense as to who the game will be aimed at.

The first design had a green background as this was classed as a neutral/creative colour, in spite of this I have changed the colour to a light blue. A few background colours were tested however the blue provides a more light-hearted look, using red was too overpowering and was drawing my attention away from the game, using purples/deep blues I thought might effect the game play when it comes down to a boy or girl playing and so a light blue seemed the best option.

As the main intention of the test was 'learning' a blackboard was also incorporated within the background to signify that this game is for learning, it is very subtle but I feel that using a blackboard does show that this game has bee built for learning.

If I had more time then ideally I would have liked to have created animation or sound to the game, although it might have resulted in being a distraction I think that it would have given the game a little more amusement. However time is up and it is now time to test the game on my participants to see how they act towards the game.