Mouse movement and keyboard skills Essay

This again applied to visual basic; having used it in my standard grade course I could see the potential. Better than UniComal, I could see I could do more with it, it was more user friendly, but just not what I was looking for. 3. Using macromedia Authorware was my ideal choice. Having browsed through the software I was surprised how user friendly it was. Although I could see it was going to take a lot of time to familiarise myself with it. If time had allowed me I would certainly have tried authorware. It had seemed perfect for my application; I could include sound, a scoreboard, links were automatic and its potential was amazing 4. For time allowance and teaching I have decided to go along with this idea. My suggestion is to carry out how I would like my software to go on a Power Point presentation. This will not only allow me to have a prototype of what I initially would have liked my final piece to look like but will also show links and documentation. In Power Point I will be able to use colour, sound and graphics, out of reach in the likes of UniComal and Visual Basic. This makes it more appealing to young users. As I already have an extensive knowledge of Power Point I will only have to refresh this. However, in reference to 1. , Users will have to have access to a multimedia computer. My suggestions to go along with the fourth option are feasible as there is sufficient technology available; it is economically feasible as everything that I need as already assessable. Software Design Opening Page The opening page to my project will be a general introduction. Basically its purpose is to give the links to the activities and also to the parental page. The main characters for the whole project will first appear here. In an ideal word I would have liked for him to speak as well as the words be on the screen as children may not be able to read them. Opening Page Design 1. Show Opening Screen (Time Hold 10 Seconds) 2. Enter choice 2. 1 IF choice = Mouse Movement Open Mouse Movement IF choice = Keyboard Skills Open Keyboard Skills IF choice = Parental Information Open Parental Information END IF END IF END IF Mouse Movement The mouse movement screen will be very colourful. As it is the first activity a good impression must be made to encourage the user to continue using the software. The first screen will be Daffy Duck describing the game and telling the user what to do. This will be on a time hold for ten seconds to allow the user to read the information before automatically progressing forward. This is also beneficial as the whole point in the exercise is to learn how to use the mouse, therefore I don’t wont the user to have to click to enter the page. The following exercise would therefore be pointless if the user already knew how to do this. The screen will only move on if the correct colour is selected. If the wrong colour is selected, a try again screen will appear and a time hold will apply before moving back to the previous screen. If the correct colour is selected then a well-done screen will appear, a time hold and then a progression on to the next colour. Once all the colours have been completed a closing screen will appear. This will have a small picture of the main character and then will automatically go back to the opening page. Mouse Movement Design 1. Show Mouse Movement Screen (Time Hold 10 Seconds) 2. Show Blue screen 3. Enter choice 3. 1 IF choice = Blue Show Well Done ELSE Show Try Again (Previous page) END IF 4. Show Yellow screen 5. Enter choice 5. 1 IF choice = Yellow Show Well Done ELSE Show Try Again (Previous page) END IF 6. Show Red screen 7. Enter choice 7. 1 IF choice = Red Show Well Done ELSE Show Try Again (Previous page) END IF 8. Show Green screen 9. Enter choice 9. 1 IF choice = Green Show Well Done ELSE Show Try Again (Previous page) END IF 10. Show Pink screen 11. Enter choice 11. 1 IF choice = Pink Show Well Done ELSE Show Try Again (Previous page) END IF 12. Show Closing screen (Time Hold 10 Seconds) 13. Show Opening Page Keyboard Skills Keyboard skills will take the same form as Mouse Movements only obviously it will describe the keyboard skills activity. The same process will take place; the screen will only move on if the correct word is typed. If the wrong word is typed, a try again screen will appear and a time hold will apply before moving back to the previous screen. If the correct word is typed then a well-done screen will appear, a time hold and then a progression on to the next word. Once all the words have been completed a closing screen will appear. This will have a small picture of the main character and then will automatically go back to the opening page. Keyboard Skills Design 1. Show Keyboard Skills Page (Time Hold 10 Seconds) 2. Show Cake Page 3. Enter word 3. 1 IF word = Cake Show Well Done ELSE Show Try Again (Previous page) END IF 4. Show Ball page 5. Enter word 5. 1 IF word = Ball Show Well Done ELSE Show Try Again (Previous page) END IF 6. Show Apple page 7. Enter word 7. 1 IF word = Apple Show Well Done ELSE Show Try Again (Previous page) END IF 8. Show Telephone page 9. Enter word 9. 1 IF word = Telephone Show Well Done ELSE Show Try Again (Previous page) END IF 10. Show Umbrella page 11. Enter word 11. 1 IF word = Umbrella Show Well Done ELSE Show Try Again (Previous page) END IF 12. Show Closing Screen (Time hold 10 seconds) 13. Show Opening Page Parental Page The parental page is a word document, basically the user guide. 1. Show Parental Page (time hold 10 seconds) 2. Open Word document â€Å"Parental Page† 3. IF closed show Opening Page END IF Project Plan The basic data flow diagram represents a logical plan for the project. Screen Demonstrations Mouse Movement opening page Mouse Movement (Yellow) Implementing and Testing Some time was spent at the beginning of the new school year looking into the project, since then, up until now this is it just being started. With only two teaching periods a week at was difficult to get the project off the ground. Initially I had plans to use Macromedia Authorware to carry out my project, but since I have been left with a mere two weeks to complete all the project and write up I have decided that a prototype presentation on Microsoft Power Point would basically â€Å"have to do†. Implementing Implementation of the solution started in mid April. Due to the time deflect shortcuts were taken to enable me to complete the project. Implementation was fairly straight forward as it merely consisted of creating the designed pages on the screen. I had big plans, and am gutted at having to reduce these for my final piece. I have a great imagination and love experimenting to see what looks and works best. I had already drawn out all my page layouts. I then basically had to enter this into the computer. I changed my design slightly and decided to have an opening page for every separate activity. I went through each activity systematically inserting slide after slide. After one activity’s slides were all designed on the computer I had to put all the links into the slides. These take the form of â€Å"Action Settings† and are available through right clicking on the object that you wish the link to go from. Sound was then recorded too using a computer microphone. This again was inserted using the action settings. The characters and pictures that appear on the screen were all uplifted from the Internet, and copy and pasted on to my presentation. All images were found from www. google. com in the image section. Link from the home page to each separate activity is going to be done through separate presentations that will be linked together. This will save confusion over one large single presentation. Once all the pages were entered and suitable images entered, sound recorded and links on; it was time to check if everything was running smoothly. Having checked the run of the presentation a few times I could see that this was indeed going to be the most difficult part of the project. As with everything nothing ever does run perfectly. My links were dysfunctional. When Well Done was displayed, instead of continuing to the next screen my presentation was jumping to Try Again then indeed stopping running at all. Due to the nature of the software, no test data as such was employed. However a dry run-through is needed from different circumstances and answers. EG correct answer chosen, wrong answer chosen, to ensure that I had fixed the presentation from wandering through unnecessary slides. Problems Encountered I have been lucky that I have not hit many major problems and although the presentation is far from finished I can see that it is a matter of following the routine I have been doing, testing as I go along so as not to have progressive mistakes. My main problem as you can tell has been time. Everything has been rather rushed. I had great plans at the beginning and was not prepared to concentrate on one area only but to try hard to do everything. This has been a disaster. For the time it has taken to write the report has left me nearly no time to neither concentrate on the actual presentation nor study for the exam. As I worked with Power Point it is fairly idiot proof any mistakes I made were easy to fix. My links will work with a little time and effort. Testing Once all link testing is complete I will a variety of users to try the software. These will include experienced computer users, older beginner users and also two five year olds (relatives). This will allow me to see how different people react to the software. Paying more attention to the five year olds I shall ask them to undertake the tasks above (1-3), to validate the criteria. There are three main questions I would ask to see if the solution is valid.