Presentation
Prototype
Showing posts with label Natasha Lewandrowski. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Natasha Lewandrowski. Show all posts
5/15/14
4/21/14
4/16/14
Three games for iPad
I recently played three games for iPad. Each of them was unique in its own way and worth sharing.
Out There - This is a space exploration/resource management game. It's fun but really hard. The art is done in the style of a comic book. This game is made by Mi Clos Studio.
Year Walk - This game, by Simogo, is based on Swedish folklore. The art is beautiful and the interface is well designed for the iPad. It makes great use of parallax. I haven't gotten all the way through this one yet. It's very atmospheric, but so far the game play is a little slow and confusing.
Device6 - This is another game by Simogo. It is a contemporary take on a text based game. The graphic design and sound design are very well done. Like Year Walk, makes great use of the iPad's technical capabilities.
Even if you aren't that into games, I recommend checking these out for their interaction design qualities. The two by Simogo in particular are really experimenting with what is possible as far as using the iPad as a gaming and story-telling device.
Out There - This is a space exploration/resource management game. It's fun but really hard. The art is done in the style of a comic book. This game is made by Mi Clos Studio.
Year Walk - This game, by Simogo, is based on Swedish folklore. The art is beautiful and the interface is well designed for the iPad. It makes great use of parallax. I haven't gotten all the way through this one yet. It's very atmospheric, but so far the game play is a little slow and confusing.
Device6 - This is another game by Simogo. It is a contemporary take on a text based game. The graphic design and sound design are very well done. Like Year Walk, makes great use of the iPad's technical capabilities.
Even if you aren't that into games, I recommend checking these out for their interaction design qualities. The two by Simogo in particular are really experimenting with what is possible as far as using the iPad as a gaming and story-telling device.
4/10/14
4/3/14
3/26/14
Thursday Apps
The Room 2
This is a great puzzle/mystery game. The graphics are gorgeous and it makes excellent use of the swipe features on iPad. This is the sequel to The Room, of which I was also a fan. However, the story is much more fleshed out in The Room 2. I played through the entire game in 2 evenings, and unfortunately, it won't have much replay value. Still, it was a lot less expensive than a movie for the number of hours of entertainment. It was well worth the cost.
http://www.fireproofgames.com/the-room-two
EasilyDo
This is the one I mentioned in class last week. I am still deciding if I like this app. It is trying to be a personal assistant app. It connects to other accounts and consolidates your appointments and related tasks in one place. It even suggests things you might need to do based on your calendar. It is trying to do the contextual app thing. I'm not sure it quite works for me, but I can't tell yet if that is because the app isn't quite there, or if I'm just not the right audience.
https://www.easilydo.com/
ACLU app
This is an interesting one use app I recently came across. I have not used it yet, but that's not necessarily a failing for the app. The ACLU app allows the user to discretely record audio and video of police encounters. This content is then uploaded to the ACLU website so that the video is protected even if the phone is confiscated or destroyed.
www.cnet.com/news/aclu-app-lets-android-users-secretly-tape-the-police/
This is a great puzzle/mystery game. The graphics are gorgeous and it makes excellent use of the swipe features on iPad. This is the sequel to The Room, of which I was also a fan. However, the story is much more fleshed out in The Room 2. I played through the entire game in 2 evenings, and unfortunately, it won't have much replay value. Still, it was a lot less expensive than a movie for the number of hours of entertainment. It was well worth the cost.
http://www.fireproofgames.com/the-room-two
EasilyDo
This is the one I mentioned in class last week. I am still deciding if I like this app. It is trying to be a personal assistant app. It connects to other accounts and consolidates your appointments and related tasks in one place. It even suggests things you might need to do based on your calendar. It is trying to do the contextual app thing. I'm not sure it quite works for me, but I can't tell yet if that is because the app isn't quite there, or if I'm just not the right audience.
https://www.easilydo.com/
ACLU app
This is an interesting one use app I recently came across. I have not used it yet, but that's not necessarily a failing for the app. The ACLU app allows the user to discretely record audio and video of police encounters. This content is then uploaded to the ACLU website so that the video is protected even if the phone is confiscated or destroyed.
www.cnet.com/news/aclu-app-lets-android-users-secretly-tape-the-police/
3/20/14
3/13/14
3/6/14
VivaQuest Final
Prototyping: If I were actually making this app I would want to go through this process many more times with many more people, particularly teens, since they are my target audience. I found that many of the critiques I got from testers were consistent from person to person. Some of these were:
I have not made a final version of every screen yet. I focused on the main views. Most of the ones that are not shown are mostly confirmation dialogs which will be temporary views. An example of a temporary view is shown below.
One bit of feedback which I have not been able to incorporate yet is that the star points should be used for something.
- The progress bar looks like it should be interactive
- The number on the star bar is confusing
- Not quite so many confirmations in the confirmation dialogs.
- The stars should be more prominent on the quests
I have not made a final version of every screen yet. I focused on the main views. Most of the ones that are not shown are mostly confirmation dialogs which will be temporary views. An example of a temporary view is shown below.
One bit of feedback which I have not been able to incorporate yet is that the star points should be used for something.
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| Home view. This is the version of the home view that the user sees after they have accepted their quests for the day. A green check indicates that a quest is complete. |
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| Temporary View. I added a temporary view that pops up when the user taps the progress bar in response to tester feedback that it seemed like it should be interactive. |
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| Quest Detail View (before the quest has been accepted). Each quest has a detail view that provides an image or map as well as any specific instructions for completing the quest. I added the star value of each quest to the detail page in response to tester feedback. |
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| Quest Detail View (after quest has been accepted). |
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| Quest Complete Dialog. This is an example of a temporary view. |
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| Quest Log View. The user can view any completed quests here. One suggestion I got that I have not yet worked in is to have the quests viewable by type as well as date. |
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| Settings View. I made interactive items blue. |
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| Stats View. I reworded and reorganized the text based on tester feedback. |
2/27/14
VivaQuest POP prototype
Here is a link to my POP prototype for VivaQuest.
https://popapp.in/w#!/projects/530e4309c39c29670a4ccb46/preview
NOTE: Some of the links which work in the app on my phone do not seem to work on the website version.
https://popapp.in/w#!/projects/530e4309c39c29670a4ccb46/preview
NOTE: Some of the links which work in the app on my phone do not seem to work on the website version.
2/19/14
2/13/14
NYC App Wireframes and App map
VivaQuest
NYC Teen Wellness App
Name: VivaQuest (working title)
Categories: Health/Fitness, Games, Lifestyle
Target Audience: Teenagers in NYC
Platform: iOS
About
Description
VivaQuest is a wellness app for urban teens. Teens
are offered three daily quests. The quests can be general things like,
"eat a vegetable" or "don't drink any soda today." They can
also be location based, such as "Visit the Union Sq farmer's market"
or "walk the route shown on the map." The teen can accept one, two,
or all three quests. They receive one star for each quest they complete by the
end of the day. After completing a certain number of stars, the teen levels up
and the quests get a bit harder.
Goals
Teens are at a critical point in their
lives when it comes to developing healthy habits. For the first time in their
lives they are no longer entirely dependent on their parents when it comes to
meal choices and daily activities. They are also developing consciousness about
their bodies. VivaQuest seeks to provide a supportive framework to help teens learn
about and develop healthy habits.
The three core goals of this app are to:
- Educate teens about the benefits of healthy eating and exercise
- Encourage teens to develop healthy habits through daily repetition and encouragement
- Introducing teens to resources in their immediate area
How is this app different from existing apps?
- This app is targeted specifically toward teens - Existing apps are targeted mainly toward adults with a few targeted at children.
- This app will be free to use - Many existing health/fitness apps cost money or require external hardware (such as a heart rate monitor.
- This app will focus on developing healthy habits – Existing apps focus specifically on weight loss, calorie counting, body monitoring, and goal setting.
Quests
Daily Quests and Challenges
Daily quests are the bread and butter of VivaQuest. As the player, you get three per day, one of each category, nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle. You can swap out each quest for a different one up to two times. This is so that if a particular activity is just impossible for you one day (such as cooking a meal or going somewhere) you can select a different quest. You cannot swap out indefinitely, because then you might just pick the same quest over and over if you find one you like.Challenges appear every few days. They are harder than normal quests but also have a bigger reward. Examples:
- Do 1000 crunches
- Run/walk 5 miles
- Cook a meal that uses 10 ingredients
Quest Categories
There are three quest categories:
- Nutrition
- Ex. Eat a vegetable
- Exercise
- Ex. Walk the route shown on the map
- Lifestyle
- Ex. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator
Scoring
Quest completion is based on the honor system. When
you mark a quest complete you are invited to share your progress via social networks.
Stars
Questers receive one star for each daily quest they
complete. Group Quests and Challenges are worth three stars.
Level 1 = 3 stars (basically, if you complete all your
quests the first day)
Level 2 = 6 stars
Level 3 = 12 stars (If you complete all your quests for week
1, you will reach level 3)
Level 4 and beyond = 25 stars (one week’s worth of daily
quests plus a challenge)
Expansion Idea
Eventually, I think it would be cool to add a social function to this app, so that participants could do group quests with their friends. That would require a lot of additional functionality, such as profiles, messaging, address books, the ability to locate friends from existing networks etc.
2/12/14
iOS 7 icon resource
I came across this site that has free iOS icons and wireframing templates in a variety of formats.
http://speckyboy.com/2013/09/20/free-ios-7-gui-kits-templates/
http://speckyboy.com/2013/09/20/free-ios-7-gui-kits-templates/
The Room
I recently played "The Room" on my iPad. I liked it for several reasons. First, it has great atmosphere. It is genuinely creepy and totally brakes the color-saturated, cutesy mold to which most game apps conform. Second, it is an activity in itself, not just a time filler. I was engrossed and I played the whole game through start to finish in a few hours. Again, this breaks conformity with most app games that are meant to be played for a few minutes here or there while we are commuting or standing in line. Finally, it made great use of touch screen in a way that genuinely worked with the mechanics of the game. This game would not be the same on a device without a multi-touch screen. This game was totally worth the dollar I spent to play it.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-room/id552039496?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-room/id552039496?mt=8
2/8/14
NYC App Idea
My idea is to create a wellness gamification app for NYC teens. Every day, the teen would be offered three quests. The quests could be general things like, "eat a vegetable" or "don't drink any soda today." They could also be location based, such as "Visit the Union Sq farmer's market" or "walk the route shown on the map." The teen can accept one, two, or all three quests. They receive one star for each quest they complete by the end of the day. After completing a certain number of stars, the teen levels up and the quests get a bit harder
2/6/14
Spaceship - Assignment 1
Group Members: Natasha Lewandrowski
Meet Spaceship! Spaceship is an educational app for performing artists. It lets you record and practice your performances and gives you feedback so you can improve your technique.
Choreographer mode uses iPhone's internal gyroscope to record your dance moves. Once you have a version you like, set it as your new target. Next time you dance, Spaceship will compare your new performance to your target so you can see how you are doing!
Musician mode records your songs and tracks your rhythm and key. You can also turn on the optional metronome to help you keep time. Once you have a recording your like, set it as the new target. Each time you play your can track your stats in relation to your target.
Singer mode records and tracks your pitch and range as you sing. You can view the waveform of your voice on screen and compare it to your target in real time.
The Library stores all of your recordings and stats and lets you share them online.
Meet Spaceship! Spaceship is an educational app for performing artists. It lets you record and practice your performances and gives you feedback so you can improve your technique.
Choreographer mode uses iPhone's internal gyroscope to record your dance moves. Once you have a version you like, set it as your new target. Next time you dance, Spaceship will compare your new performance to your target so you can see how you are doing!
Musician mode records your songs and tracks your rhythm and key. You can also turn on the optional metronome to help you keep time. Once you have a recording your like, set it as the new target. Each time you play your can track your stats in relation to your target.
Singer mode records and tracks your pitch and range as you sing. You can view the waveform of your voice on screen and compare it to your target in real time.
The Library stores all of your recordings and stats and lets you share them online.
IOS reading and favorite app
Hi, my name is Natasha. My background is in fine art and exhibition design for museums.
My current favorite apps are:
- Mint - This app enables me to track my finances. Something I was never good at before!
- National Geographic for iPad - I'm not sure if this counts as an app or a digital publication, but I love how the embedded video, sound, and other dynamic content and the way it is seamlessly integrated with content on their website.
- Plants vs Zombies -This is possibly my favorite game ever.
- Don't make people enter information if possible (draw from data the device has already collected) p. 26
- That there are only three main navigation types: hierarchical, flat, and content driven p.36
- How many design choices they essentially make for you. I'm thinking specifically of fonts, text sizes, icons, and icon sizes.
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