Comments from Storyboards

March 17, 2003

  1. As you know, you need to figure out a source for, or way to create, images you have a right to use in this program. Before you search/create too much, however, you might try to figure out all the uses to which you'll put the images, as this may help in figuring out the sorts of images you need. For example, you may want/need images that are clear/compelling at different magnifications (esp. if you decide to use them in games like puzzles or Concentration as the user waits for an Alert), and share backgrounds, contexts, etc. You may want to settle on the historical images first, and then create the 2000 images in ways that recall or are just consistent with the older images.
  2. I never really understood why a user would choose to "study more" while using this program. But that aside, one formidable challenge you face is how to motivate the user to know/ learn as much as possible, and/or to reward the user for knowing/ learning as much as possible. If the stakes involved in firefighting weren't life & death, such an incentive system would be obvious (e.g. points, etc.) but as you can't very well have users who don't do well be faced with lost lives/buildings/etc. as a result of their not-knowing, you'll need to be very creative in dealing with motivation/evaluation.
  3. Similarly, and a concern you share with the Club DNA group, is how to encourage students to use and/or search out all the different components of your program. This is especially challenging if you decide to make each "session" short (e.g. asking the user to identify only the equipment for a given fire, rather than the equipment & clothing & firehouse, etc.). I admit that I favor short session structure that would allow the user to spend more time with the program by playing multiple times rather than have all the elements a part of every session; but, of course, this is a decision you'll make in consultation with Ms. Weinberg and her students.
  4. Based on your presentation, the project description and what I know of the Fortes School, your program is really meant to be a kind of hybrid between educational software and an interactive museum exhibit. This is very cool, and unique in the history of CS92 projects. The reason you might keep both these aspects in mind is that the edusoft literature rarely talks about the concerns and challenges facing museum exhibitions. For example, an very interesting paper about the latter, that might stimulate your thinking in this project, is an account of some of the issues that confronted the creation of the "African Voices" exhibition at the Smithsonian. The paper comes from a journal called AFRICAN ARTS (Summer 2001, Vol. 34 Issue 2) and the e-version: http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=5331532&db=aph Yes, yes, it will also make you envious of all the great materials they had to work with; but I think everyone might be interested in the way the authors lay out the challenges and goals of the exhibit, and the way they tried to solve certain problems with feedback (they used what they called "challenge kiosks" which I think a very cool idea).
  5. Obviously, the title "Men in Red" leaves out the reality and history of women in fire departments today, and this raises interesting questions about how to use elements of cultural history in the program. For example, besides choosing which images "match" certain time periods, how would you like your users to be able to explain their choices? You mentioned something about explaining the sorts of materials that were used/available in each time period, and I wonder if/how those explanations will have value in the way the user's performance is evaluated. I.e. I know what you want your users to be able to *do*, but not what you want them to *know*.