Final World

This is an image of my final interface home page. The post it note is an idea I had for the video part of it. The post it notes would pop up giving teachers and parents information about how their kids and students will be using the application.

E.KIDS is an interactive websute for children ages 5-10 targeting energy eduacation during the primary school years. Kids can log on and move through the world comparing energy savings with others from their class, school or all around New Zealand. It also has handy tips on saving as well as information and games to keep them interested.

A video showing a more detailed animated view of my interface will be uploaded soon.

I would like to reference the fact that I did not create the graphic icons used on my interface and would like to credit these as I said earlier to OCAL whose images can be found on http://www.clker.com/

Extra Pages

  

This is one of my extra pages that just helps aid the overall information avaliable on my blog, with handy tips to help kids save on energy.

This is another one that shows renewable energy sources, these information pages will be changing constantly to provide new information for the kids to learn.

Classroom

 

This is the classroom area where students can compare results and view previous results across the  whole country , There are also other features such as the NZ page which awards 3 top schools in NZ.

Home page graphs

 

I wanted to include some sort of graph however I didnt want it to be boring and hard to understand. I thought using the flowers that would grow over the course of the day or week is a fun way and easy for children to understand. The position that the flower head is sitting (the colour) determines how good the ebergy score was for the day. I tried to steer clear of text and numbers so it would be too boring.

Font

The last default font I had on was times new roman which isnt a very nice font especially when concerning children. I instead have opted for arial regular which is sans serif and just a little more appealing to the eye.

I went through and changed all of the black font to a dark grey along with the page boarders just to give it a slightly softer effect.

Trees

These are 2 of my tree examples which shows what happens when your energy usage is good or medium. The tree changes colour and the sheep gets a grumpy look on his face as the flower dies. Hopefully this page will encourage children to want to do well in order to keep there tree and animal healthy and happy.

I decided to try an incorporate the logo I made into my interface, I tried it in a few different positions around the screen but I think it looks better in the top left corner with the login button.

I also changed the rollovers to a transparent box with no stroke as there was much debate about this topic. I think this looks much better and softer than the previous ones with the black stroke.

After our last presentations we were told that we have an extra 2 weeks to continue working on our blogs and make a video showcasing our interface, I am wanting to change a few things around in the design of my interface and will post pictures of them in the next posts

Reference

So far I would like to reference the website http://www.clker.com as I have used there small vector graphics and icons in my interface, these are the work of OCAL.

logo

ive been playing around with a logo but so far its not really working

A ranking system that changes and shows result month by month.

switches between months.

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This shows the top 3 schools in New Zealand , my website concept is all about comparison and competition.

The medals have rollovers.

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I started the clasroom page and figured out how to make a drop down button.

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I have motion tweened the clouds so that they now move across the screen.

The world zooms in to its page resting position.

All the icons have pop ups.

Development

 

I managed to make rollover buttons! They were white but I think they look better transparent.

When the pages are zoomed in I want a box where my information will be, I think I might make these boxes transparent as well, same as the rollovers.

Testing

This is my little cousin sequoia, she's only 4 so a little young for my target audience but I wanted to gauge her reaction to look of my interface. She likes the colours and the little world home page, she also wants more pink and a little horse on the world haha.

Story board

Im finding that I was having trouble doing flash as I didnt have a new storyboard since my new idea so I decided to quickly draw one up so that I can draw on to flash easier once my ideas are in front of me, these are just for my 2 main pages.

Research

This is a great book I found in relation to kids energy knowledge, as the website availiabilty is sparse in relation to children there are quite a few informative books.

Book written by Tanya Ha, sourced from Wellington Libraries.



My little planet

I have been playing around for a bit and I quite like this look of the little planet with the symbols. I want each symbol to represent a page and when they are clicked the world rotates in and the page is pulled up.

I want to add in clouds and button rollovers however im having troubles with my actionscript.

I also need the icons to match a little better.

icons sourced from www.clkr.com from OCON

Planet

I would like a planet in the middle of the screen and for it to rotate and zoom in to display the pages.

I did a practice on flash just to see if I could achieve the rotation I was after.

I managed to get the circle to rotate in and now I need to make it more aesthetically pleasing haha.

sketch

This is a really rough idea of the type of layout I am thinking of.

planet

I loved the look of this cute little earth and im thinking of making an interface that revolves around a little planet.

imaged sourced from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguX8bQOAE4d0MvXhgBFH9cbUXuXE-3EtwX4wQKB2PkZqaa1xku9vnIf92rUeevP5Fi2oLGvoZx_P_DjlTVYN4M5DWpuGvmnloUDXc94nkzfQo-oj0STCM_INmsDKgy1_Cq5JH0fAr9wwcS/s400/smiling-planet-earth-cartoon-2-thum.jpg

idea

I like the 3d effect of this image and the colours, just a new idea direction however I am still not happy with it.

planet image sourced from shutterstock

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I think this is a cute interface for a kids website, i like the colour usage especially.

tree flash fail

This is a horrible fail haha, The tree is far too hard to colour and as it isnt a vector image it just doesnt have the clarity that I want from it. I want to go in a more 3d look.

coloured trees

I tries to scan them in and colour them however it didnt go so well and literally took forever!

trees

These are the trees i sketched up to maybe use in my website, the condition of the tree would depend on how well you were doing with your energy use.

Flash

So we will be making our websites on flash which is proving to be rather difficult. Im going to start with my tree idea and see where it goes. I have not used flash or illustrator before so I am going to attempt to draw it first and scan it in.

Final Description

I've decided that I would like to create an interactive websites that can be accessed by children and parents. Where energy usage is transmitted to the website and can be added to a classroom. It will be available to schools to sign up and register their classrooms. The kids will then be able to compare their results to others in the class along with other classes in the school and other schools in the country. There will also be a ranking system where you can see where you classroom is nationally. I also thought maybe as something to capture interest there could be a changing animation that changes depending on how your energy rating is doing. For example I was thinking perhaps something with a tree that was healthy and growing with a happy face and birds if you are doing well and if not the tree will start to get sick. Perhaps that would work to create a little more motivation for the kids to want to keep their tree healthy and alive. Like the concept of a giga pet where it didnt really do anything interesting but you still wanted to just keep it happy. The website could also have handy tips and hints and perhaps even prizes. I think an appropriate age group would be around 5-10 when kids get most excited about things.

Final Paper Prototype

This is my paper prototype of just a few ideas for my website. The layout , name, colours and drawings are not my final decisions just some ideas I am throwing around to get the general idea of my concept. I also obviously don't want it to have a drawn feel about it , this is just the best way I could portray my concept.

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For the Paper prototype that I have got to submitt I am thinking of keeping it quite cute and young looking not boring and linear. I like the animated sort of a look  but as the protoype is just a small look it a project I am just going to sketch my ideas out.

This is another website I found about kids energy education.

http://www.touchstoneenergykids.com/

Children's energy monitoring device

I was also surprised to find no energy monitoring devices aimed at children. I found this which was the closest thing I could find.

http://www.inhabitots.com/current-chameleon-a-real-time-monitoring-device-for-energy-friendly-kids/

The concept is actually quite cool as it works with a points system that could engage the kids interest and interacts with gaming devices etc. In my opinion however it doesnt look very kid friendly or something that would hold a childs interest, with its plain shape and colour.

I couldn't find anything else that related to what I was looking for under this category.

Childrens energy research

When I first started to research children and energy I was surprised when typing it into google that barely any relevant results were returned. In our lectures and tutorials we have been learning about how energy is everything. Its more important than money and the root of everything even modern day wars. Because of how important energy conservation has become and the raised awareness lately of environmental issues I was surprised that I couldn't find anything about an energy teaching curriculum of even a website dedicated to children and energy use.

When I was thinking back to when I was at primary school I don't remember an overly obvious education on energy. We did have a lady who came around the schools and taught us about water conservation and to be honest the things she did teach us (how to change a washer to not waste water from a leaking tap) along with other things have stuck with me to this day.

I also remember other ways i learnt of these environmental aspects were not in school but through the kiwi conservation club that I was  in with my family where we would go around and learn about the environment and conservation.

Later on once i got into intermediate and college we did a little bit more. Especially in intermediate our class participated in a international program call Future Problem Solving or F.P.S and here we did intense work about environmental situations and finding probable solutions.

I however believe that there should be a more solid educational base in the age group of 5-10 to instill good values young so they do not have to be taught and struggled with later on.

I researched the kiwi conservation club that I was once a part of and it is still running however there focus seems to be more wildlife based.

http://www.kcc.org.nz/

I couldn't find anymore New Zealand based websites which I think is important. Although there are a few international or american websites I believe it is better to have a more close to home feel with examples and information on our country.

I found these to websites. This first one is based for children around electricity information it is probably the best website I have come across so far. It has a section for teachers and information on what energy is, sources, how to save power and games and activities. It doesn't however make things very personal which is something I would want with my application.

http://205.254.135.24/kids/

Device Ideas

These are some of my ideas for potential projects that I could do.

The first two ideas are too similar I think to ideas that already exist and I would like to try and do something more original. There are a few social media sites that already have energy comparison apps 

 I'm thinking my best option is to do something that involves children as when researching children's energy devices and education I can barely find any information. I believe that if knowledge about energy and conservation is instilled into children at a young age they are more likely to make energy conscious decisions when they get older. I think I will try and develop these ideas further into something interactive and exciting for kids.

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming which we watched this for one of our tutorials. It raises public international awareness on the environmental issues of global warming and climate change although there is controversies within the film and non believers of the entire issue of global warming.

Interesting pages.

This was another great website I came across that has a tonne of information on all things energy including this interesting page on passive design which is all about design innovation around energy conservation. This site is based around smart architecture .

http://www.level.org.nz/passive-design/