New and improved Screen Shots of App!!

 These are my finished screen shots of the app. With all improvements made and as polished looking as they can get I feel without over doing it.

These screen shots are in order this time

Loading screen - fades in at the beginning of the application to show that it's loading.

Menu - icons have been fixed so they have the same stroke width and make more sense. Login now has a key lock icon and the 'create profile' icon looks more human like to match the character idea of my app.

The app now goes straight to this screen when searching for a location rather than the background fading to dark and then having to press 'search' button.

This screen has been fixed up with the new render of the new interior. It matches the rest of the app better now. The coins are also the same darker colour as they are in the other screens where it shows how many points you've been awarded. 

Same with this screen. Also the button now says "continue" in stead of "destination reached." That is now said on top and is clearly not a button. It is on a layer above the new rendered image.

This screen is the same as before as it needed no improvements. 

The screen where the background darkens has been taken out and now goes straight to this screen instead to be more efficient. 

Once you've logged in you're taken to this screen. The button icons have also been fixed up here a little with new and improved icons with fixed stroke weight, size and pictures. 

This screen is the same as before as it needed no more improvements. 

Locations>

Locations>All

Locations>All>Honey Cafe.

Character creation. The completed button has now been moved to the left on all three screen shots of the character creation menu to be more pleasant and easier for the user.

This 'completed' button is the only change made to these three screen shots of the character creation menu.

Once the user presses "completed" they're taken back to the logged in menu screen.

Reflection

I'm very pleased with how the aesthetics of my app have turned out as there has been a huge improvement from my first designs in this project where the colours were very bright and childish and the layout may have been more difficult to understand. I feel this design is a lot more mature as the colours are simple but complemented by an easy to understand layout, symbols and the character on the left hand side. The name 'NavaVic' is appropriate as it stand for 'Navigation Victoria.' The name is short, simple and easy to remember. It also will appear to students as most of them are in there 20's and feel this name is modern. I'm really pleased that I took a more minimalist approach to my app design as once I'd developed the character she really complemented every frame although faded into the background. The minimalism aesthetic makes this app more professional and modern looking so therefore represents Victoria University well. 

I'm really pleased that I fixed up all the little improvements mentioned in my last post with screen shots of the app. I feel this has just really polished my work and has gotten it to the best standard possible. All the time and effort I've put into this project really shows and I'm glad that I took the time to be a perfectionist for this. 

I've stuck with my main idea from the beginning with a character rewards system and I feel this design does the idea justice. 

Re-design of app + Tutor feedback

So I have decided to re-design my app as I really wasn't pleased with the previous aesthetics of the app. It was too colourful, messy and not very easy to follow. There was just too much going on aesthetic wise. When designing it, I thought it was okay as colour would attract a teenage audience. However, I have now decided that a more clean, sophisticated app would be more appropriate as it needs to be easy to follow, young adults are the target audience and the symbols, coins, maps and characters are enough to attract the younger audience without the app having to lose it's flow.

With a now more cleaner and stylistic interface the app is much more professional and looks more presentable for a business to buy it.

I have not yet finished all the different screens for the app but I showed my tutor what I had so far today. She was really pleased with it and thinks that it has taken a much better direction now. In her words, "a huge improvement."

I will show all the screens I have so far for the app and what the tutor has said I need to do to improve them.

Loading screen - I have renamed the application to 'NavaVic' as this stands for Navigation Victoria. It is a aweet, cute little name that is catching and easy to remember. As you can tell by the loading, the interface is a lot more minimalist and has much more simplicity now. A clean interface is often more smoother and easier for the user to understand. 

Menu - The option bars will slide out from the left side now onto the loading screen which then becomes the menu screen.

Search option - The background will fade to dark as the search screen appears.

When pressing the search box a custom keyboard appears. Once the user has finished typing the location they then press search.

(the tutor said turn the background to dark, transparent overlay as I originally just had it transparent and light which was too distracting.) 

It looks much better now, this way.

The map. The tutor really likes this but her feedback was to take the toilets out, make the coins more obvious and to show the other rooms on the left and right. I will go onto Archicad and do this.

Shows the destination you should be in (3D render from Archicad.) Your character will also appear on the left hand side.

Once choosing "destination reached" the points screen of how many points you've earned will appear. You can either share on facebook or twitter and brag to your friends or go back to the home page.

From the home page, if you choose the "login" option you will be taken to the login screen (again the background fades to dark. overlay.)

Keyboard then pops up when pressing the square.

Main menu loads and new options are available.

When choosing the "points" option it takes you to the Points page which shows the total amount of points that you have earned. You then have the options of sharing this on a social network of your choice (facebook or twitter.) 

So this is where I have gotten so far. I still have more screens to create and things to improve on such as the map. However I think this is a huge improvement from what I previously had and the app is looking more professional.

Preparing code for interim

Interim is this Friday and I must show my progress made so far. To prepare for then I really need to develop and finalise the character of my tadpole. I will have more than one tadpole with unique behaviours. To get this right I will work on each tadpole separately. Once I have it as desired I will put it into my final code using classes. I will do this with the other unique and finished tadpoles as well. From there I can work out the aesthetics of my code rather than just the behaviours of the tadpoles.

Unique behaviours may include -

• size
• width
• height
• colour
• fast
• slow
• gradient
• translucent
• goes outside the page
• stays within the page

For more ideas on colours I will go to colorlovers.com to be inspired and get a good colour palette. I also want to relate my colour palette back to tadpoles and their original environment. 

112 Interim Reflection

Last lesson (Friday morning) we had interim in our tutor groups for 12 paper models. I printed all 12 of mine out and cut them. I also handed in my wire frame diagram of different stages of the application.

Feed back I got from the tutor:
- Develop own characters in either 2D or 3D (such as 3ds max or Maya)
- Have a time limit when getting to class. If user takes too long they can longer collect points for the rest of the journey.
- Work on the plan view of the map. It should stay in plan view but work on aesthetics and colour palette.

I will continue to work on these things as I agree with all the advice given. I will also continue to develop the layout and aesthetics of the app. The first week I will work on all the photoshop stages of my app and on the second week I will work on all the flash animations and coding for my app. The app is due in two weeks from now.

Lecture Reflection

Lecture Reflection -
A useful website for ideas in code - yugop.com

Three questions to remember:
- What is the person learning from this interaction?
- How long would it take a user to completely learn this system?
- Will it still be interesting once they've completly learnt it?


I found this lecture really helpful as well as the examples of code given from last term.

Class Reflection

I presented my concept designs in class this morning and got some very positive feed back about my ideas for the app. The tutor has suggested to me that I begin to plan out what the map interface is going to look like. I think I'll need to have more of an idea of the structure of Kelburn first. I may need to go up there and draw a quick sketch. Possibly do some measurements.

I want a plan view map of Kelburn and to show my character which will represent the user walking along the hall as the user does. There will be gol coins all along the trail the user must follow. As the user walks along the trail the coins on the screen will be getting picked up by the character.

Class Reflection + Second Idea

So today was the second class for the second project. We discussed the research we'd done over the holidays and I talked my idea over with the tutor. She said it was a really good idea especially the part about getting rewards and things as people like that (in apps and in real life). This really got me thinking about who my auidience is (students) and I really want to do some more research into that.

I also had a second idea to research as well as developing my first idea. My second idea was to design a watch which has a very simple navigation system on it (G.P.S). Maybe it just shows the trail. The watch would be black and look very normal (no Victoria logo on it.) This way students can look at their watch for direction but it just appears as though they're checking the time and they avoid embarrassment. I think being caught using a really obvious G.P.S system such as something that projects onto objects as it show you don't know your way around campus. This may make new students stick out like a sore thumb or old students look like 'dorks'. I think that the watch would also function like a real watch (have real time on it.)

I found this really informative website for concept technology.
http://www.sizlopedia.com/2008/03/02/10-most-creative-and-amazing-concept-gadget-designs/

This watch is made for MP3 music, video and photo sharing.

"Well, phones are already meant to help you socialize and interact with humans but what if if your phone was flexible enough to be a part of your daily routine and activities? Nokia 888 does the same for you. This bracelet-like concept phone will take any form depending upon your mood and flavor. It will notify you about your dates and important events and will be there for you whenever you want it."

Well I just thought seeing as it's bracelet like it may fit my concept. A flexible, navigation system if you will.

The iRing. Maybe I could design an interactive, talking design that you listen to through something as subtle as a ring. 

 

Class Reflection.

Realized I haven't done a post about Lesson One for Project Two.

We got into groups and made maps for each other. We either had to write or draw the instructions and then hide the piece of paper some where in the building. My group was told to draw our map. We did a very simple and easy to follow one, the opposing group found our teams piece of paper fast. It was hidden in the library. I drew our map very simple with a plan view of the first floor of the building. However we couldn't use words so I used a 'x' to mark the spot and a red line following the route of how to get there.

I think the map was definitely too easy but I wanted to draw an easy one as I want the navigation system I develop to also be easy and simple to follow for the user. So this was a good experiment.

The groups map we got was written, which in a way is easier to do. We never found their destination as they lead us to a door with a piece of paper stuck to the outside saying to go down there. We didn't know how to get to that side of the building so gave up. I think this shows that if the instructions aren't clear and have gaps such as that, the user will just give up and try to find their own route to the destination. This may result in the user becoming lost, never actually finding the location and or being quite late and makes the app useless.

So in conclusion. I think a simple plan view map is the easiest way to go. If written or spoken instructions are included they must be very clear and precise without any gaps or assuming the user may know where something is.

Binoculars

I have bought the equipment to start making binoculars.
- 4 small magnifying glasses (kids ones.) Although they have bumps around the edges which I have to cut out in the work shop in order for the cardboard to stick (I tired without, it didn't work.)
- 3d glasses to experiment and use the correct coloured cellophane from.
- Plastic sheet with black paper over top. Although the paper doesn't stick very well to it, even when mounted on with spray glue adhesive. Also, I find it doesn't seem to work as well as the corrugated cardboard. The corrugated cardboard seemed to be the right consistency in both weight and flexibility.
- Glue

I'm thinking that making these is going to be a lot more difficult than I originally anticipated. I'm hoping to pretty much have them finished tomorrow so I can go and show my tutor Craig and start improving them for the last session on Friday. They're due on Monday!

In class today I had a good play with the 3d glasses and what images work best on them. I'm really worried that they may not work with my binoculars or something will go wrong. So tomorrow morning I will go and get a few pictures printed out and hope they work. Making my own may also be difficult but I will try my best at that.

If this experiment fails then I will have to quickly move onto something else (developing the upside down telescope more and not head in the direction of 3D or binoculars.) I have an idea for it, but am still worried about the time constraint. So I will get on to making these tomorrow in hope that time won't become to much of an issue for me.

Dsdn112 - Interactive Technology. Blog Post One.

Class Reflection

Today in class we had to bring 5 objects for each of the senses. These are the items I brought along:
- Hearing: Two 50 cent coins. Rubbing them together creates a very distinctive sound because of the material and engraved texture on them. Also dropping them creates a very distinct sound that most people will associate with money. The sound is part of the luxury of owning currency.

- Taste: Dairy free chocolate. As I can't eat chocolate, yesterday I was sent some dairy free chocolate that I could eat. It was the first real tasting chocolate I'd tasted in years. To people who normally eat chocolate it may have tasted average but to me it tasted insanely good. It has a very sweet taste and a very smooth texture. Smell is also an important factor in chocolate as it contributes to the indulgence experience.
- Sight: Batman Arkham City PC game. The cover is so original to any other of a pc game. It has a metal case with an ink stained picture on it. Combining only two colours with the black, green for Joker and Red for Batman. The silver of the metal is used as the 'white' or 'skin tones' which is also very stylistic and original. It's just surprisingly detailed and classic for a pc case which I like.

 - Smell: Our Mate, the British version of Marmite. It's a yeast extract so has a very strong smell. As of the taste, you either love it or hate it. I would describe it as possibly being a very salty sort of smell. Despite it being strong, if you love the taste, the smell will probably have you craving it. 

 - Touch: Playstation 2 controller. It's designed very specifically to be held in your hands. Everyone loves the feel and texture of the analog sticks and the feeling of how knobbly and smooth they move. Touch a ps2 controller, overall, is just a very enjoyable and user friendly experience, which is what I like. 

Some other things that people brought along which I found interesting:

For touch someone had brought a type of Plasticine. Before touching it, you expected it to feel like putty. However, the feel was very light and had a type of wet texture. I found this really interesting.
For sight, I find the kaleidoscope really fascinating and distorting.
For sound, people brought high pitched noises and alarms. I find this digital sound to be very irritating, especially at such a high frequency. I prefer acoustic sound to digital sound. 

Mind Maps

We got into groups and made a mind map for one of the senses. The group I was put into was Hearing. We brainstormed many different aspects of hearing. Such as materials, how size and weight effects the pitch of the sound. How people perceive music differently. Different sounds create different atmospheres. Acoustic sound versus electronic sound. Rhythm versus endless drone. Rattling, sloshing and tensions create different sound - movement. Vocals. Instruments. Layering. Distance.

No one chose to go into the smell group. People must see it as a hard one to do. Not many people seemed keen to do taste either. That would be hard as you'd have to think of a hygienic way of doing it and it may require more resources to be refilling things or replacing things for people to put their mouth onto. I'm unsure of which sense I will do yet. I may stay away from smell ans especially taste unless I got an amazing idea for it. I'll look more into sound, touch and sight for now. 

Next week we have been asked to bring along two more objects. One that is functional and one that is fun. I will have to have a good search to bring something interesting. We can't bring the same thing as we brought today. I also might so some research into the senses and some research into materials, just to get some inspiration for this project and begin to think of some ideas. I need to commit to one of the senses and that way I can move on with the project more quickly as not committing to an idea has held me back in the past.

Creative Coding. Blog Post One.

Class Reflection

We write out instructions to describe an object and then got people in our group to try and follow these instructions alone, without knowing what the object is and draw it. I chose the chap stick in my pocket. The first person who tried to draw this took the instructions too literally such as "each side of the tube has a flat circle." However the other two who drew it did it well but maybe they realised what the object was which helped them. Some of the people in my group wrote instructions for a grid and an x/y axis. I found these instructions a little confusing as they were written very quickly and weren't explained very well. Also as I was only drawing lines and unsure of that the object was, I didn't know if I was connecting them properly or not. I realise now that the instructions need to be more precise and go through step by step.

http://openprocessing.org/sketch/65279

This code is effective because of the build up of colours and shapes. The thin lined shapes slowly build up with more emphasis in different corners, creating a good composition. The idea is simple but because of the many complex shapes building up, it becomes to look like a very complicated technical drawing.

http://openprocessing.org/sketch/65382

I love this one for many reasons. Firstly, the colours black and white are very simple but extremely effective in this idea. The negative space helps to make the black stand out. The black looks like ink, it comes in at a fast pace but then slowly eases off and becomes faded as the opacity is lowered at the tips. The lines move very smoothly and jagged farthing this illusion of ink and also creating a creepy atmosphere. The black creates very interesting, branch looking shapes. The black is more deep in the centre as it gradually branches off and fades out.

http://openprocessing.org/sketch/65438

Again, the colours are simple and help the user to understand that the splashes are ink. I like how this design is interactive. As you click the ink splashes and drips down. I feel like the ink splashes are too sharp though and the ink that drips down is all identical. This would be more effective if the ink splashes looked more natural and the drips were different shapes, sizes and ran down at different paces. Another thing I like about this design though is when you click the right mouse button the screen clears itself again, ready to be clicked on again. Also how the older ink splashes fade out into the background, allowing a layering effect to be built up.

http://openprocessing.org/sketch/65448

Here is a picture I made on this code, this is a screen shot.

The circle follows the mouse in this code. What I liked about this idea was how the slower you moved the mouse, the more closer together the circles are. The faster - the further spaced. This created some really intense patters as shown above. I think this code could be made a lot more interesting with more colours and a different shape. Or possibly a variety of different shapes.