I used the following websites to aid me with my project’s creation:
gotoAndPlay () [Available at: http://www.gotoandplay.it/] [Viewed on: 10/01/08]
Kirupa [Avialable at: http://www.kirupa.com/] [Viewed on: 10/01/08]
Web Thang [Available at: http://www.webthang.co.uk/tuts/tuts_fmx/scott4/scott4b.asp] [Viewed on: 10/01/08]
Now that my litter game is complete I can reflect on what I think would improve my project further.
As mentioned in a previous blog I think my game would benefit from having more levels or extended levels. This would probably be more entertaining and challenging for students and would encourage them to play the game more than once to see how far they can get and to beat their previous score.
Although I added a countdown feature to my game I noticed that the seconds count down very quickly. I would have liked to have figured out how to slow this counter down so that the time is more realistic.
I could have also included more interactive features to engage users further such as an ‘enter your name’ option before the game starts. If I had had more time I would have also liked to have included the score board which I set out to do in my proposal. This would have also contributed to the overall game’s interactivity. It would also be beneficial for me to further my skills by learning a program such as PHP as this would also be appealing to future potential employers.
Overall I was pleased with the design of my game. I aimed for it to be more professional looking than my last project. I think I achieved this, however the overall appearance and style is very simple. This is because I drew everything myself in Flash. Perhaps if I had used copyright free images or photographs from else where the overall finish would have been better. To make my game even more user friendly and accessible I could have used sound for when each button is clicked on.
Overall the project has helped me to develop my technical skills in Flash. I initially aimed to incorporate:
I have successfully achieved all of the above. Furthermore, I have added a timer, even though I intended not to I believe this makes the game more challenging. I also had to learn additional action script including how to make the main character play an attack sequence every time space is pressed. I then had to combine this with a hit test and a variable that deducts a bit of strength away from the baddie each time it is attacked. This was accomplished through my own Flash knowledge and research skills. I think this game will provide potential employers with evidence of my advanced Flash skills as well as my capability to learn quickly and independently.
In all, I approached my work in an organised manner, for example I have used layers and labeled them accordingly, I have saved my work regularly and I have ensured that I have a working product by week 13.
Time efficiency was also a key aspect of the production process. I tried to stick to my original time plan (http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc17/michelle_field/ganttchartcopy.jpg).However, I did encounter some technical difficulties along the way. And therefore had to decipher which were the most important features to include in my project and focus on getting them finished first. Therefore, decision making was essential. I decided not to include the score board as this would have required learning PHP which would have been impossible to do within the time limit. From this experience I have learnt the importance of planning and I believe in the future I will be able to decipher what is achievable within the given time period.
Overall I have learnt the importance of research, planning, time and organisation. I have also advanced my Flash skills which will be appealing to future employers. In addition, I have recognise how it is important to set yourself aims throughout the entire process. It is also vital to acknowledge who your target audience is and consider their wants and needs throughout as at the end of the day in a professional environment it is the users that will determine a product’s success. For example my creative design and layout was done with my target audience in mind.
When creating my game I have considered accessibility issues throughout. For example I have:
I have now reached the final stages of the production process. After the projects completion I tested my product on the target audience, which is students, this could refer to a number of ages, however I have decided to focus on teenagers. I selected 5 members of this user category and asked them to perform the following tasks:
1) Locate the litter fact’s page.
2) Locate the game’s instructions page.
3) Play the game.
4) Find out how well you did in terms of your overall score.
5) After playing the game return to the main menu.
In addition to the above tasks they were also asked to comment on their experience in terms of how easy it was to locate things and navigate through the product as well as their thoughts about the overall design and layout. It was also important for me to recognise if the participants came across any mistakes in terms of the way in which the product has been technically constructed. In addition I wanted to know whether my product was suitable for their age range, if they enjoyed the experience, if it would make them think about littering issues and whether they would recommend a friend to use my product.
Usability testing is beneficial as it allows me to make any final improvements. The following are some of the alterations I made as a result of my testing:
Overall people thought the colour scheme and design worked well and was suitable for their age group. But after a couple of goes they believe they would get bored. As I will later discuss, if I had more time I would have added more levels, which would have become harder as you progress through them.
Introduction
My initial idea for this project was to produce a website for the band “Monday Street”; this idea developed through looking at new and innovative ideas that were becoming top hits in the new media sector of the Industry; it was the idea of the “Mobile Content” that caught my eye.
The idea was to use produce an application that could be used on the phone for Sony Ericsson W810i, it would be a website for the band, and would be able to be viewed through the Internet browser on this phone.
After researching and pitching my idea I got going with the designs and was making some good progress until I decided to test my idea using my using my Dads mobile which was the Sony Ericsson W810i. I was also getting my friend Sarah to test on her phone, giving an un biased upon of the idea, the design and so forth. It wasn’t until I was about to set up my prototype for testing that I realised there were two major things I had forgotten about; one being the ability of the user to scan through to other pages by clicking on the links, and then also the ability for each user of this phone to be able to connect to the Internet; both these problems made my prototype incompatible with Sony Ericsson W810i.
It was from this that I radically decided to change my prototype, scrapping all my previous work and producing the prototype for a Pocket PC user. I researched into the Pocket PC, the screen sizes, what version of Flash I needed to use and so fourth, I then quickly designed and continued to attempt to put together my prototype in time for the deadline.
Major Errors with my prototype
The Loading Page
As I wanted to add some advanced script into my work, I wanted to add some random movement and decided that the best place for this would be the loading page of my prototype. As you will see the code works, the loading moves randomly but you can’t get any further than that page unless you press the Enter button on your keyboard, this means the users can’t get any further than the loading page, which obviously is ridiculous. With extra time, I would have been able to work out the way in which the random movement only occurs for a number of seconds/frames and then jumps on to the home page automatically. I have tried to play around with the looping but this makes the rest of the project either speed up or it continues to loop.
The Video
As you will see, I have attempt to upload a video onto my prototype, as you will see the video is not of very good quality and has no sound attached to it. Although this makes the prototype look horrible, I thought that it was best for there to be some kind of video present, than there to be a blank space with noting on it. It shows that I can use Flash to upload videos even if this one isn’t entirely finished off. I am still waiting on approval to use the bands recording of their live gigs.
Play List
This is one area I’m really disappointed that I didn’t get working properly. I have previously embedded sound in flash, but thought for this project I would take it one step further and work out how to create a play list; however even after looking at numerous tutorials about uploading a number of different sounds to one frame, loading different buttons with rollovers and key presses indicating the start the song, I just cant figure out to get each song to stop and the next one to start and so its just one song playing a million times. This is one area I am going to continue to work on as I need play lists on my website for my final year project.
Time Management
Once again I have left my self down and have run out of time, this is an area in which I need to get hold of before I complete my final year project, I don’t want to be running out of time on this and leave myself short; I have had to rush my final pages, and so the finishing off in Flash is not of the standard that I wanted. I haven’t been able to add a play list; I would have like to have made more transitions and all the links and action script work properly. I now know I should have taken Scott’s advice to make a timeline to make sure that each week I had completed and ticked it off what I had completed on my timeline; therefore I will be making one of these and using it as a guideline to make sure I finish my next project with more than enough time to test, make improvements, test again and then publish.
Although I left my self short of time to test the prototype through the Pocket PC itself I am as near on completion to the final product as I will be without the rest of the information needed so I decided to get the band themselves to test the prototype. I asked them to look at the design style, layout, content and general usability. I needed them to tell me of any errors, any mistakes and any thing they didn’t like about the prototype. This then gave me some kind of idea of what the rest of the target audience thought. The feedback was as follows:
Design:
§ The band liked the way that I incorporated their “fat man” poster into the prototype as this is recognised by many of the fans as their main advertising image.
§ The colour and use of brushes was deemed to be creative, but in some places a little over the top.
§ The mixture of colours was good, by taking a hint of green and yellow out of the “fat man” poster and incorporating this into a new and different style.
Layout
:§ Easy to use and follow.
§ All links worked properly apart from the loading page and error at the beginning
.§ They liked that it didn’t have the same layout as every other website and that I referred to and had a link to their popular MySpace page.
Content:
§ The news and tour dates’ section needs to be updated with up to date information and needs to be bulked out.
§ Like the idea of the video section – now need to gain permission from manager to use their video not the one that is in place at the moment.
§ Didn’t like the idea of the image place holder page; thought it looked too cramped and so told me to take this off (appendix one).
§ The idea of the play list would work well as it would offer an other area where people can listen to their music, but once again permission is needed from management team.Although I didn’t test the prototype through the medium it will be broadcast from, this form of testing has enabled me to change a few bits of the design, layout and content, which will inevitably make the prototype better:
If I would have left myself enough time to test my prototype on the Pocket PC I would have been able to:
As you will see, this idea is merely at the prototype stage and is in need of some serious testing and improvement to make it look good, by making the videos work and most importantly making the play list work this prototype actually stand out as a platform the band could actually use.
This project has enabled me to once again work in Flash and see what kind of skills I need to become a new media professional. This project has enabled me to research and talk to media professionals about the skills I will need to progress and how I should go about this progression.
From making this prototype, I have once again attempted to improve my Flash skills, and have become more confident with the program and other design programs. I know now that I will be able to, with a bit more practice combine all of the skills I have learnt during this module and previous modules to create a professional, industry style online radio station for my final year project.
I have made my prototype accessible by:
§ Making sure I have used the accessibility control panel in Flash.
§ I have attempted to make buttons clear and easy to use.
§ I haven’t been able to make the buttons have a different key press as all users will most probably be using their interactive pen to click.
§ I know that flash cannot be read my screen readers and so have made sure that I have labeled every buttons and frame.
During my research and development process I identified a number of skills I believe would be most relevant to have to work in the new media sector of the industry, I wanted to use this module to try and improve upon these.Whilst talking to media professionals it became apparent that it was being able to use Flash was a skill that they looked highly upon.
Flash
This module has enabled once again to use Flash, but also I have learnt about how to move around Flash, how to export and import into flash. In previous module I had been designing every thing on the flash player, by using Photoshop in my television studio module; I have become more equipped on this program and thus have designed all the background and images in photoshop and have then exported them.
Creativity
This is one area I lack, in previous projects and assignment I have been most disappointed with, I lack the ability to create and then use any design ideas I come up with. This time I was determined to make sure that I use not only flash but incorporated the other design programs I could use into making this prototype; making my prototype look more professional and exciting to look at.
