Co-Design Preporation continued

Design Stage;

So since Christmas Break is coming up I decided to get the final stages of the preperation completed by trying to design a flowchart, so that I can show the children how the story is ment to go scene to scene.  This was mainly to help me when it comes to my actual design stage so that when I get everything from the children I can start working on the final designs and get everything ready to start animating.

The way I think this will be done is by first of digitizing all of the drawings that I feel I can use for the application and then from there work on how the first challenge is going to work or if not the first challenge on of them.  So that if I am able to get at least one challenge working I will know that I am on the right track for my project.

So far I have been looking into creating a colouring game using SVGs in Adobe Edge Animate, the only issue with using this method is that if there are any problems with Edge I won't get much support on it anymore due to the fact that Adobe have stopped working on Edge.

I have been following a video guide from edgedocks on youtube to help me test some ways to create this and I have managed to figure it out, only issue is since Adobe decided to remove jQuerry from Edge you have to go through an external source to get ahold of everything needed to make the project work.  So with this factor it could become a problem in the future but at the current moment it works.

Co-design Preperation

Design Stage;

So since I now have a date for my workshop I decided that I should probably get prepared for what it is I am going to do with the children so that I have everything planned in advance.

So for the first task I think I will do something along the lines of a simple colourblind test to show them what the tests look like and how they work, also this gives me a chance to maybe see if there are any children that are colourblind in the class.  The issue with this task is that I will need the schools permission to do this and they will probably need to get parental consent for this type of task, but if this is allowed then that means it would be good for statisical research.

The second task I think will be allowing the children to create the characters that may make appearances in the story so that they can have their creations in the story.  This will be a good chance to show them the process that designers go through when it comes to creating applications for them and allows them to be apart of the story book more than just playing with it as a game.

For the final task I will be probably trying to get the children to help me create the story by choosing things like the name of the town, how the evil Doctor takes away the colours and why.  By doing this it helps me create a story from a childs point of view and then the application will be something created by children for children.

Designing Continued

Design Stage;

So since last week I have heard from one of the Primary Schools and they have agreed to meet with me before letting me do the workshop all in the case of safety, the issue is due to it coming up to Decemeber the School are becoming very busy with aspects of their Christmas fair and Christmas Play, so I am going to have to wait until the new year.  I have been given a meeting on the 20th of January to go in and meet up with the head teacher and explain my project to them and also tell them what I plan to do in the workshop.

So sadly until I get the chance to do this my design process is going to slow down a bit since I am limited to what I can do since there are aspects of the application I am wanting to design with the children.  Although it hasn't stopped completely.

I have been working on some ideas that could workout well for this since, I am currently trying to design it as a group activity but still have the children interacting with the application themselfs.  So working through some different ideas on how I could go about this, on Idea is have a character that appears and speaks to the children on the screen and letting the teacher decide who gets to do the next part of the story.  The other way is by having a selection randomizer that where the teachers would put the names of the pupils into the application and it randomly selects who gets to do the next part, while making if fair that a child can not be chosen twice.

I also have decided that the application will have two or three challenges that the children can work through, if I have time I will try and create more books within the application so that there is more to do but my current goal is to have one working story book for the children to work through.

Designs start

Design Stage;

So it has been two weeks since Guru's day and the work on my application has been slow at best due to a couple of different factors such as dissertation for one thing, and also waiting to hear back from Primary Schools and Councils that I have emailed about conducting a workshop.

Although even with these issues I have managed to make some progress so that I wasn't going into the workshop empty handed.  What I managed to work on is some mock up flow charts on how the application is going to run as well as deciding what I am going to do with the children during the workshop.

Some of the factors I have decided on is that the layout of the story should be basic, but colourful and with mini animations to keep the children interested.  Also since it is a young age group I will be refraining from using difficult medical terms when speaking about the different colourblindnesses such as Protanopia, Deutanopia, Tritanopia and Mono-Chromacy.  These terms maybe a bit too difficult for children to understand so I will just be simplifing it to a sense protanopia will be called Red Colourblindness, Deutanopia will be Green Colourblindness and Mono-Chromacy will be True Colourblindness.  The reason for Mono-Chromacy being called True Colourblindness in this setting is because with Mono-Chromacy you are unable to see any colours at all making you truely colourblind.

For the case of the design I decided it might be fun to let the children design the characters that will be appearing in the story as well as what their job in the story might be.

Also since I do not know what program I will be using to create everything in yet I will also be learning how to code in Xcode and maybe even take a look at adobe edge animate and animate cc, to learn them for when I am ready to finish everything off.

flow chart and what happens next

Guru's Day

Research Stage;

So today was Guru's day and my boards were all finished the night before explaining the different parts that I wanted;

So for the first board which I showed my reseach so for the case of text it mentioned about the perentage of colourblindness and also how that you can go you entire life without even realising that you are colourblind.  It also displayed 4 different images showing how an image might appear to people with the different types of colourblindness.

The second board was basically talking about my target audience and it talked about how I am basing my application for children in primary school as a way to introduce them to colourblindness but at the same time possibly helping see if they are having any issues with colours themself.

My third and and final board was my technology and it talked about what I am going to be designing for.  At the moment I have alot of different types of technology I am concidering making this work for ranging from a tablet, to a laptop/desktop computer, to even possibly working on a smartboard which are usually seen within schools now adays.

After my pitch to the Guru's they told me that they intially liked my idea and they also gave me some tips and pointers of things I could try for instant doing a workshop with a primary school and introducing a thing known as co-design, by letting the children design some aspects of the story.  Also they mentioned that the sensor for picking up colours maybe too ambitous for the time frame I have set infront of me and mentioned that I should possibly look into a back up plan for instant just using swatches or a colour pallete.

Nomal vision

deutanopia

Protantopia

tritanopia

Colourblindness Research

Research Stage;

So in the past week I have managed to speak to David Flatla, another lecturer who worked with David Flatla named David Lyons.  They have both done some big research into colourblindness and this is interesting because David Flatla has protanopia colourblindness (red deficiency) and yet he was creating different types of ishiars tests for David Lyons for his different projects he featured on his tumblr page which will be linked at the end of this post.

I also managed to speak to someone from the opticians in Dundee and while speaking to them I learnt the true names of the different colourblindness, Protanopia, Deutanopia (green deficiency) tritanopia (Blue/Yello deficiency) and mono-chromacy (unable to see any colours).  I also learnt that ishiara tests are the most common form of testing but it doesn't tell you what type you are it just tells you that you have a deficiency.  I the person who is colourblind wishes to know which type and how severe it is you would need to go to a speciallist and take what is called a the Farnsworth test.  What the farnsworth test is where you are given a range of different shades and you are asked to put them back in order, and this is a most effective way to determind what type of colourblindness you have is.

After speaking to David Flatla, David Lyons and the opticans, I did some research myself just to get some facts on colourblindness.  For instances colourblindness effects one in every one hundred males and one in every one thousand females, in a designers terms this works out that 8% of a designers possible clientele have the chance of being colourblind.  The colourblindnesses you can be born with are Protanopia, Deutanopia or Mono-Chromacy, Tritanopia is normally obtained through illness or trauma.  So these were alot of factors to think about.

David Lyons Tumblr Page;
http://graphicdesignfortheblind.tumblr.com/

Change in Direction

Deciding on a Project;

So after researching into what neil Harbisson has done, I decided to change my direction slightly still working with colours and using a mobile or tablet application but instead of using it as a paint bucket or brush I looked into colouring games and colourblindness.  What I am thinking is something along the lines or a story book when the children follow a series of challenges that show them what the different types of colourblindnesses are and how they effect each person differently.

After speaking to my lecturer about this he thinks it is a good idea and then asked me what my next steps are going to be since gurus day is in a little over a week away and I have basically taken a the off ramp to a different project so to speak.

So by next week in time for guru's day I am planning to speak to a lecturer at Dundee University called David Flatla, as well as try and get in contact with an optician at the local optians to ask about the different effects of colourblindness and how they test for it themselves, outside of the standard Ishiara tests.

Some changes to the Design.

Deciding on a Project;

So while doing my research, it became clear to me that while having the blank canvas for the children to thrown paint at is a fun idea and they would enjoy it, they would most likely prefer something that they can actually colour in.  So I am thinking about changing the project slightly to match this by giving them the option to colour in an image using the application on the phone but still using the sounds to emit a musical tone, kind of paint by sounds thing, so they still have this new way of being introduced to colours.

I also did some research into the wavelengths of colours and interviewed a friend of mine who is studying physics at St Andrews University.  He explained to me the differences in the wavelengths and how it is used to pick up the colours and also saying that even colours that we are unable to see have tonal values.

I also found an artist named Niel Harbisson and  in June 2012 he appeared on TEDTalks and talked about his colourblindness and how he now hears colours through sounds.

This is the link to the TedTalks he did;
https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color?language=en

Also this is the wikipedia page I have been using for the tonal values of colours;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise

Some additions to the Project

Deciding on a Project;

So after a week of looking into the colour sensor and tonal values of different colours it looks like it might be easier for the application side of things if I limit the colours that can be used so that the tonal value can be accurate to a certain degree.

The colours that I am deciding to use are Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Pink, Purple, Green & Brown.

These are the colours that most primary school children are used to and also know, because if you look at a colour wheel of primary, secondary and tertiary colours there are main different types of a child isn't exactly going to call chartreuse green by its name, the will most likely just call it light green.

The other reason for using these colours is to make the tonal values simplar to define.  Even though if you scan in something that looks red but is closer to orange, the device will have a sequence to compare the colour to to make sure it gets the closest tonal value to the colour.

Below you can see an image of an extreme colour wheel labeling all the different colours. This is also the wheel I am using for my references for the colours.

First Project Idea

Deciding on a Project;

So for my final year I decided to base my project on something to do with colours and sound.

My current idea is called Splat: 

Splat is an Interactive screen which is connected to a colour sensor and you can use it to scan in everyday objest, usually found around the house or classroom, to make the colour of the object appear on your tablet or mobile device.

After you have scanned in a colour you would then swipe the screen which would then imitate throwing a bucket of paint onto a canvas using the colour that you have scanned into the device, but instead of a canvas the device would be linked to an application on a computer to which will imitate the canvas.

Though instead of the intial splash or splat sound that paint would normally make it would emit the tonal value for the colour instead introducing muisc to painting.

The target audience of this is for children between ages five to eight and it is designed to be a new way to introduce colour to them.

My plan for the next week is to research the tonal values of colours.