Platypotamus

As part of your homework assignment, you must design a site map for your travel site. Below, I've gathered links to several site maps for you:

• http://pages.ebay.com/sitemap.html
• http://www.apple.com/sitemap/
• http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/tableofcontents/
• http://www.google.com/sitemap.html
• http://www.whitehouse.gov/sitemap.html
• http://www.wired.com/services/sitemap/

This is going to be quite similar to the second step of the children's website, though a bit more specific. For all the nitty gritty details, read on.

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The next project is going to be a tourism site.

Choose any sort of tourist location that fits into one of the following categories: amusement park, outdoor recreational park, ski resort, beach resort, cruise line, museum, historical landmark, zoo, or aquarium.

Once you have chosen your client, assess the needs for the site. Many of these needs will be relatively standard for any sort of tourism based site (price packages, directions, etc). Some tourist locations will have more specific requirements as well though. Make a list of the things users will most likely need to use your site to find, and ensure that these things are easy to reach!

Once you've assessed the needs of your site, do three layout mockups, similar to those you did for the children's website. Make sure that positioning and color choice comes across in your quick sketches. Make sure that the information users are seeking is easily found.

Please be sure to have these files ready digitally at the start of class to present them for critique.

Due at the beginning of class next week, turned in digitally, as a .jpg/.gif/.png

Your mockups should be blueprints for the actual constructed pieces, NOT concept work for a digital interpretation.  Have a plan for going from these mockups to your actual constructed playable board game.

Details below...

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In class, we went over your five plans for a children's website, ultimately deciding on one of them as the winner. Take this plan, and create a fully realized design out of it.

Again, you are working in Photoshop or Illustrator here, not building a functional site.

You are on the hook for a variety of things here:

• The home page
  • Biggest concern of the home page is to make it appealing to new users as well as returning users
  • Remember the title of the text book, even if you haven't read any of it yet.
  • Make sure I know where to go as a new user!
• Navigation
  • Navigation isn't just the most important part of the site... it is the site
  • If your navigation (or any other aspect of the assignment) feature dynamic interactivity (such as roll overs), use layers to show them off.
• One page of actual content
  • Whatever site you've chosen features something interesting
  • Do a design of this "something interesting" as well
  • Show the site laid out for this content
  • Show how the navigation updates with whatever "you are here" method you use.
• General guidelines
  • Yes, I expect you to actually create some of the content for this content page. It is very helpful in visually showing off your site.
  • You should be creating your own images here
  • This IS an interface design class, and as such, the interface/navigation aspects of your design should get the most attention.

As promised, here are the details from what I'm looking for with your presentations over the coming couple of weeks:

1. Prepare!  I'll be timing you.  I will stop you at the five minute mark, as we don't have time for babblers.
2. Do not treat this presentation as strictly a review.  Analyze the game.  Look at it from the perspective of a developer.
3. Tie your game into what we've discussed so far.
   1. Note how any of the history of games  may have had an impact on your game.
   2. Note not only what motivations it will appeal to, but what choices were made by developers to make this so.
   3. Note how well it sold, if you can find this information, across the different game markets.  Discuss why this might be.

This assignment SHOULD be relatively easy for you guys.  More than anything else, it is for you to impress me, and show me what you've got.

First, here is the collection of links that we discussed in class, in case you need to refresh your memory:

http://neopets.com/

http://vmk.disney.go.com/vmk/en_US/index?name=VMKHomePage

http://pbskids.org/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/

http://www.kidzworld.com

http://kids.yahoo.com/

Next, you should read up through chapter 5 in the book by next week.

Finally, the details of the first part of the assignment are behind the cut below.

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As promised in class on Tuesday, here are some links to retailers likely to carry the board games you guys will be looking for.

my del.icio.us has links to three online retailers. I've used each of these before and had good experiences. You may be able to get things cheaper online than in a brick and mortar shop, though naturally you'll have to wait for the shipment. I've had luck with amazon lately as well, their selection has improved a lot.

Of course, here in Seattle you have a number of local options:

Gary's Games and Hobbies is up in Greenwood, conveniently located near Gorditos, so you can grab a burrito while you're out.

Berserk Games is also in Greenwood, though I haven't personally been yet...

Cardhaus, also listed in the online section above, apparently has a retail store up in Lynnwood. I didn't know this.

Please let me know about other stores in the area and I'll add them to the list

In class on Wednesday, we had some technical problems, and couldn't view the videos on potential future interface concepts. Here are links to the videos that we would have watched, given technical cooperation:

• 3D with Head Tracking - Perhaps this doesn't have much application outside of games or 3D visualization tools (modelling, architecture), but is still interesting in that it's direct view control via head movements.
• Multi Touch - Perhaps the most plausible future control scheme, this video shows of multi touch control interfaces. As an interesting side note, I saw a clip from CNN's election coverage, and they were using multi touch interfaces as they moved votes around on screen. Their use of it seemed utterly superfluous, but the technology still looked pretty cool when they did so. This Link has a screen capture of what I'm referring to. Pretty cool that this tech is being used at this point.
• Seadragon - This one shows off the seadragon technology that a student mentioned in class. Definitely a bit more going on here than purely interface related concerns, but worth discussing on that topic as well.

Also, while I've got my interface design students paying attention to the website, just a quick note that if you're looking for some participation points, come to class this week with an example or two of webpage geared towards children, and be ready to share your thoughts on the interface found therein.