plan update

I have also changed these dates, as it was very unrealistic as I had originally said I would spend 4 days on each prototype, which would have been very hard to get the work done. I have now changed this, and all of my dates match up to the time that was spent.

Plan update

I have changed the dates on my plan, as I had originally said that my client would be testing the final product on thw 22/12/11, this would be over christmas, when we are not meeting, and would also be unrealistic as my product is not complete and won't be in a weeks time. I have now changed it so that my client will test the final prototype on the 10/1/12, as this will be my first week back at school and is realistic. This has also meant my handover date has changed and this will not be on the 13/02/12, this is a good date to aim for as this is the time I said it would be handed in.

9/12/11

In the lesson today I have been looking at what improvements can be made to my meetings in order to get in the mark 3 band. We have done peer assessment and this has been very helpful as I now have comments to help me improve. The main thing I need to include on all of my meetings is screenshots as these will allow who ever is viewing the meetings to see clearly what I am talking about and be able to relate what I am talking about to an actual image. I also need to outline what will be spoken about in my next meeting at the end of the minutes. I am going to go back through all of my minutes, expanding on certain sections, e.g. where I talk about a particular image I will give a screen shot, making it as informative and detailed as possible, outlining clearly the good & bad points. Today has been very helpful in helping me see what needs to be improved in order to get me the best possible marks for my minutes.

8/12/2011

In the lesson today we have been looking at what makes a good multimedia product. I have looked at what is need to be in mark band 1, 2 and 3. We have worked in pairs and gone round the class looking at eachothers work and marking them according to the mark scheme. The feedback I have recieved is shown below:

I have recieved feedback that my text is too small as one of the main issues

06/12/11

In the lesson today I have made my video in powerpoint which I will then video using Jing next lesson. I am slightly behind on my video and sound as I was off school ill all of last week and so will work very hard this week both at home and school to catch up, as I need to hand in my prototype 3 with video and sound on Monday. I am making a couple of videos in Jing and am also going to make 2 videos over the weekend of a potato being cooked in different ways. The sound for my game will be someone speaking everytime the potato appears with a speech bubble, I will try my hardest to get this done this week, but I will definately have a few videos in my phototype 3.

15/09/11- completed analysis/ questionnaires etc

Questionnaire-
I have completed my questionnaire which my client has given to her students to fill in, asking them questionnaires regarding the game, for example 'Would you like animation to help you learn' & 'Are the current learning resources successful and useful' and reasons etc. This will allow me to see what I need to include in the game to meet the needs of the people who will be using the finished product.

Analysis of existing documentation-
I have looked at the current resources that my client gives to her students to teach these topic, I have then identified the issues and thought about what I could offer that would make the necessary improvements.

Interview-
My client recorded a conversation between herself and her students speaking about the game and the possibilities of what could be include as well as their likes/dislikes. I made a transcript of this recording and then took out the required information of this so that I could again make decisions about what should be in the game.

Carrying out this research was useful as it allowed me to see what the users of the game want, so that I can make the ideal game.

5/7/110 - definition of scope

Definition of scope:

I have finished my definition of scope and will have my meeting with my client this week. In the definition of scope I talk about the purpose of the project, which includes my main aim and what my finished product (the game) has to include in order to complete the proposed task. I also talk about the benefits of my game to the organisation I am creating it for, so I have looked at both the benefits for my client and her students as these are the users of the game. The objectives of the project are clear in my definition of scope and look at the objectives are the actual game itself e.g. - It must provide an interactive learning experience for the students and then the objectives for the users of the game e.g. -They must be able to easily use the game and navigate around it, the instructions on the home page of the game must be clear so that no further guidance is needed. I have spoken about the constraints I may face whilst creating the game, and I believe the main one will be making the game appropriate and hard enough to suit the needs of the user, but this issue will be discussed with my client throughout and she will help me with decisions on questions and scenarios. I also thought about the areas of risk, and looking at the main risk being not meeting the completion date as I intend to hand over to my client in February, but the time can be slightly adjusted and it just means I will have to work extra  hard and use any spare time I have. The other areas included in my definition of scope are the project roadmap which lists the key dates throughout the project, project resources which talks about the equipment & knowledge I need in order to complete my game and the project stakeholders which are the people who will have an interest of some sort in the project. 

I will show my client my definition of scope in our meeting this week and then make any changes she wishes. 

16/07/11- navigational structure

Navigational Structure:

I have completed the navigational structure for my game, this allows me to see how the game will work and how the user will go from one page to another, back & forth etc. I have planned for 19 pages including the homepage, 8 of which are question pages and the other 8 are 'scenario pages' These scenario pages will set the scene for the user and will help teach them topic, giving hints towards the answer for the next page, as this will help the user (student) to learn a long the way. The scenario page leads to the question page and you can go backwards and forwards from these. The question page leads to the 'mark it' part but this is not something the user sees, it is something that will automatically happen, from the buttons and codes I put in place.

I have created a key down the side of the page to show clearly which pages will actually be scenes within my game and which will just be behind the scenes making certain features work. I believe I have clearly labelled and set out my navigational structure. Making this has made it clearer to me on how it is going to work and which pages will be linked as well as to what.

25/11/11

In the lesson today I have completed my prototype 2. There are 15 scenes which I have to show my client in our meeting this weekend. I am pleased with my prototype 2 , but can also see what things need to be done. Now I will begin to work on my video and sound and perfect each scene. I have linked all of my scenes via arrows and these all work. I have to create make the buttons work for my answers also.

24/11/11

In the lesson today I have completed all of my scenes, some to a basic standard as I will go through the 15 scenes, scene by scene to make them perfect. I now need to go through and make the answers to the questions work, this will not take long once I have done the first question. I am also now going to work on the video and sound for my game. I have all of the things I need to do planned out and so hopefully nothing will take too long, and soon my game will be finished! I have included a good amount of animation in my game and am pleased with what this looks like.

22/11/11

In the lesson today I have worked on creating and animating a few more scenes, I have made the scene below where the potato in the cart moves along the path and then the potato in the cupboard appears. I have linked all 13 of my scenes together and have now nearlly finished producing all of my scenes, I will then work on animation and videos. I also need to discuss with my client some of the text that needs to be added in terms of questions. I worked very hard in the lesson today and did not find any problems with my work, I am getting on a lot better in Flash since I created the first few pages, the rest are a lot easier, especially animation.

17/11/11

In the lesson today I have worked on getting three more scenes nearlly finished. I am trying to get all of my scenes completed and then will go back through them making final adjustments and adding the video and sound. Since I created the first few scenes it has been a lot easier to do the rest as the images needed are easily available and so I do not have to spend time editing images or creating new ones. I hope to have all my scenes completed in the next couple of lessons so that I can then work on making each slide perfect and having meetings with my client to show her each stage of my progress and to check with her along the way any changes she thinks are needed.

10/11/11

I had a meeting with my client yesterday to show her my prototype 1. It went very well and she liked the idea so far, my client particuarly liked the potato image as it added a fun side to the game. The issue my client had was that it may become quite repetitve if it is just the same image and page each time, however we looked back over my designs and I showed her that the potato image changes and the environment it is in.

As you can see here the potato is in a frying pan in a new surrounding of the kitchen and at this point there will be an animation of the frying pan.

Here the potato is in a different scene as we see it moving along the path in a cart ready to go into the cupboard to be stored. There will also be animation here as the potato moves from the cart to storage.

I also explained to my client that every page will be different at some will include sound, some video and others animation, so although they will be similar there will be differences.
My client is happy overall and now that I have shown her these previous designs she is reasurred and is very excited to see the next prototype. She is also pleased with the effort I have put in.

15/11/11

In the lesson today I created two new scenes, adding animation to the questions. I am working on getting all of my pages completed and then going back over them to make the final adjustments. I had an issue with copying an image over but I asked my teacher for help and we have now resolved this. I will work very hard on completing most of my pages this week.

10/11/11

In the lesson today I worked on scene 3 and 4, once I have completed these the rest of my pages will be easier as the buttons and images will already be available. I am making a few changes to the text animation as I have spoken to my teacher and she found it difficult to read. I plan to have my potato speaking on every page with a speech bubble, I am going to work on the audio clips over the next week.

8/7/11

This week I had a meeting with my client to discuss the definition of scope. I first suggested my plans to make the game more challenging as my client had mentioned her concerns that it may not suit everyone's capabilities, I have decided that by adding questions with the key information for the topic (examination style) it will make sure the students learn at the highest level, my client was happy with this and thought challenging questions with added information would be ideal. My client was pleased with the objectives of the project and is looking forward to the production of the game to start. The area of my definition of scope that my client had an issue with was the project roadmap as the details are too vague, she wants the dates of completion to be clear even if these won't be met.
This is the section that my client wanted more information on. She is happy that I have dates in mind as this will mean I have targets and deadlines and she will also be aware of the stage we should be at. However it was very brief and she said that 'analysis' is not informative enough, she wants details to know exactly what will be completed in this time, for example what documents will be included in this analysis. I will make these changes and provide more detail in the future.


Debbie agrees to the completion date for handover, which can be altered if necessary. I just need to be more specific and clear throughout our meetings to always give her a clear understanding of which stage of the project we are at.

30/6/11

Today I had my meeting with my client about the purpose of my project, I showed my client both my project proposal and my purpose of project presentation. My client was happy with the idea for the project and is very excited already to see the finished product. The issue she had with the designs I showed her for the game was that they were very simple, I described the sketches to my client and she clearly understood my plan for the game and what it would look like. My client just wishes to see more images and sketches but we agreed these would be shown in  further meetings.In terms of the meeting itself my client advised that in the future I make my agendas clearer as there were parts that weren't necessary and a section which was repeated. I have taken this on board and will ensure I construct a more sensible agenda for our next meeting. We are going to meet on a regular basis to ensure that when I being planning for the detail of the game I thoroughly explore the topic and check with my client on a regular basis.
I am pleased with how this meeting went, my client seems pleased with my plans and very happy to continue, I am now excited about the development of the game and the finished product.

15/10/11

Yesterday I had my functional specification meeting with my client. We discussed the overall document and she praised me on certain sections such as the hardware and software one, but wanted more information and further images of how the information would be presented. I am going to ensure I have many pictures of all aspects of the game to present her with in our next meeting. .

This is the section my client was very pleased with as it provided a lot of detail and information, which reassured her that the game would be compatible with her work place.

My client found this section too brief, it provided her with enough information about the homepage and she was happy with this detail. However it did not give much detail about how the information such as the questions would be presented on the other pages and she had no visual aids to give her an idea of what the game would look like. 

8/11/11

In the lesson today I have linked three scenes together via the use of buttons(arrows) my text on both scenes 1 and 2 is now succesfully animated. I handed in my prototype 1 and will have my meeting with my client this week and then make any suggestions and changes she wishes.

3/11/2011

In the lesson today I realised the issue with my text not working was that every word was set to 'dynamic text' when it should have been 'static' this has now made the text work succesfully. I have added my animated text to both scenes now and they both work. I just need to make some final adjustments to my first prototype before handing it in on Monday.

01/11/2011

In the lesson today I had to delete some of my layers because my game would not work, this included the text layer. I then realised the rest of it did not play because I had the 'stop' command in the wrong place which I have now changed. I linked both of my scenes together via the 'play' button which successfuly works. I also animated my speech bubble on both scenes so that it zooms in, another animation I created was to fade my 'play' button in from transparent to the actual image. Next lesson I will insert the movie clip of the text which should now work.

20/10/11

In the lesson today I created a new scene. On this I animated my potato and inserted two buttons and added the speech bubble. I also made the text on this scence appear line at a time.

18/10/2011

In the lesson today I have looked at the usability of websites. I looked at the BBC Beta website and then tested its usability, I did this going through the site to:

·         Find out the news headlines

·         Find out weather for local area

·         Find out about exchange rates

The first two points were very easy to find and look at on the site, as they were clearly labelled on the first page of the site, so all I had to do was click on the link which then took me to all the information I needed. The last point that I tested I found difficult to find on the site, once typing it into the search bar I got a list of news stories and blogs, but no exact figures were easy to find which was ideally what I was searching for.
I then emailed my findings to the BBC Beta feedback:
'I have looked through your Beta website today and thought I would send you an email with my opinion of the site as I looked at the usability.

I firstly tested whether it was easy to find out the news headlines, I found it very easy to istantly do this once opening the site. I can find out my local news and the world news quickly.  It provided me with the top news story on the first page, which meant I didn't have to waste time searching for the main news.

I then looked at finding my local weather this again can easily be done by clicking on the weather icon at the top of the first page, this takes you to the 5 day forecast for London and then by typing in your postcode on the right hand side you can quickly and easily find out your local 5 day forecast in detail.

Lastly I looked at findomg out about exchange rates I had to use the search bar where I typed ‘exchange rates’ I then got a page which provided me with a choice of all different sections with the topic of exchange rates e.g. news, blogs. I found it difficult to find specific details on exchange rates, as the page contained mainly news stories which I had to search through to find specific figures. '

·        How would you get the game to start?

·        How would you go back to the page before?

·        How would you go forward to the next page?

·        How would you choose your answer?

·        How would you play the multimedia feature?

Which I then gave to my partner Alisha so that she could test the usability of my game, she also did the same and we tested eachothers.

She found it easy to do each of my tasks as she said each process is clear and simple to follow. Alisha's game was easy to use and navigate around, I particuarly liked her video tutorials button and would like to make my button for videos more interesting as I think some of my buttons at the moment are a bit too simple and boring.

 Once doing this I then wrote down these tasks:

13/10/11

In the lesson today I continued to work on my prototype homepage which I have nearlly finished, as today I completed the text in the speech bubble which I started last lesson. I need to make my button interactive which I will do next lesson.

11/10/11

In the lesson today I have finished the text in my speech bubble, I made a movie so that the writing appears one word at a time which I did by inserting 79 key frames and going back and delete the words of each key frame one at a time. I succesfully made it work but when I play the whole thing it doesn't which I will sort next lesson.

06/10/11

In the lesson today I have continued working on my homepage prototype in flash. I have succesfully made my potato bounce around the page when it is first opened. I have started working on making my text on the homepage appear a word at a time, but have not been succesful so far, I used an online tutorial but it didn't work. I will ask my teacher next lesson for help on this as I am unsure how to make it work by just using the tutorial.

04/10/2011

In the lesson today I have started working on my game in flash. I have created the background, text, a moving image of my potato and a speech bubble. I have been watching videos on teach ICT to help me use flash, the tutorials are very useful.

29/9/11

In the lesson today I have finished my test data table. I have also begun working on the storyboard for the multimedia that will be in my game, I have started working on the first video of my game and will finish the storyboard for Monday.

27/09/2011

In the lesson today I have been working on my test plan, which shows each of the different stages which will happen on the screen throughout the game. I have completed the test data and expected results for 7 of my pages and will complete the rest of my test data table for homework.

26/09/2011

In the lesson today I made changes to some of my meeting minutes to make them more specific to give further details of what my clinet has said. I checked my project log and I am slightly ahead with all of my design work by about 15 days.

22/09/2011

In today's lesson I have been working on my last few design pages in photoshop, which I have now completed and am happy with how they look. I have copied them into a word file and will annotate them over the weekend for homework.

20/09/11

In today's lesson I have been carrying on with my designs in photshop. I have created a few more pages and starting to understand photoshop more. I will carry on with my designs for homework and next lesson.

16/09/11

Today I chose to redo my homepage as i did not like my design. I have finished this and am working on my second page. I will continue on plans for my game over the weekend and continue in photshop in my next lesson.

15/09/2011

In this lesson I worked on my initial designs in photoshop. I worked on the first page which is the hompage adding an image and shapes to the page. I then produced two pages and will continue with the rest next lesson which is the 16/09/2011.

Lesson 13/09/2011

In todays lesson I have created my navigational structure, this shows each of the pages I will create in my game and how the user will navigate around each of them.
For homework I will continue to work on my initial designs for my game and will also annotate them.

Functional Specification

Today i have been working on the first sections of my functional specification- i have completed the first two sections of this today.

My Project

My client's request

My mother works for South Essex College and teaches Hospitality to students’ age 16-18 years. She wanted to be able to teach her students the topic of ‘the lifestyle of a stock item’ (In this case the stock item being a potato), in a fun and enjoyable way to encourage their learning and to use the game as a resource the students can use in their own time to practice and develop. My client requested that I design an interactive game which acts as a learning device to help give the students gain a clear understanding of particular business studies topics.

My aim

Overall my aim is to create a professional, enjoyable and functioning learning game that allows students to interact with the computer. It will allow my client to teach in a fun and interesting way due to animation, sound, in-depth questions and interaction facilities. I intend to finish the project by February 2012 which will give me enough time to plan, create and test my game to ensure it meets my client’s requirements and does the job I hoped it would achieve. I have listened to my client and understood the problem my client is facing and have tried to overcome this through my plans for the interactive game. To give an idea of the overall costs of the project (the needed equipments) I have projected the costs of the equipment I will need to set-up the program. I have also started to sketch rough initial designs of the programs key features and layout so that both my client and myself have an idea of the finished outcome.