Unit 23 Task 3 Evaluation

Input and Output

Keyboard – I’ve used it just to type and to develop my game in unity, to move around in the game or to set the options that I need for some objects. An example can be when I was doing the basketball hoop, I had to make each model of different size, and keyboard helped me to set for every object the size that I needed.

Mouse – I’ve used mouse to place the objects in my game where I need, so I will be able to interact with everything. Also I’ve used it for adding the left and right hand manager and the physics for the ball.

Infrared sensor controller / LEAP MOTION – It’s an advanced device that allow people to use it at the work or for fun. They can create games based on it, or to use it instead of mouse or keyboard. It is an useful thing, and it’s good to have it as it can replace your devices that maybe are not such advanced.

Monitor – Monitor is one of the main things, it shows me the process of my work and what I am working on. Without it I couldn’t do anything. I could use the software that I was using to develop the game but it would be the same as I would work with the closed eyes.

Minimise keystrokes and Mouse movements – This allow us to do our work faster, and to economise a lot of time. There are a lot of useful shortcuts like CTRL+D if you want to delete something fast or CTRL+Z if you have deleted something accidentally and you want to return it.

Logical sequencing is all about Consistent arrangement which is the important course of action of words as per the characteristic laws and all around acknowledged ideas, related words are given and numbered, followed by different groupings of the numbers meaning them, as options.

Use of other input devices eg concept keyboard, voice input
We have used leap motion, with it we were able to see our hands on the monitor and to develop the game in unity. It was detecting our hands and sending all the data to the computer, and the computer displays it on the monitor, in unity, so we can interact with the objects in our game.

Voice Input – Voice recognition is usually used in things such a phones to help send text messages and to call people and browse the internet of your contacts. This impact in the economy will mean that in buildings or popular locations they can put voice recognition in elevators or in doors, so someone who is visually impaired can say “Open” and the doors will open up without pressing buttons.

Joystick – This is a lever that can be used for other technologies as well as the mouse for the computer. It can be used in other industries for example in building to control devices that will help with moving heavy and big objects.

Touch Screen – It is a common thing nowadays, it is used for phones, tablets, laptops and PC’s. It allows us to interact with something without pressing any buttons, you need just to touch the screen of your devices to interact with something there.

Designs for other devices eg mobile phone – The design will allow the template to change with different devices. This can be seen like on a laptop the template is much bigger than on a phone, as a phone screen is small whereas the laptops screen is big and allows more pixels to be displayed onto the screen.

Personal Digital Assistant

It is also known as a handheld PC, is a variety mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. Personal Digital Assistants have been mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of highly capable smartphones, in particular those based on iOS and Android.

Digital Audio Broadcasting

It is a digital radio service which is broadcast from a UK-wide network of transmitters. It uses digital technology which enables broadcasters to package together several radio stations; this is called multiplexing.

Controlling a screen based video or animation – Leap Motion sensor allows us to control the game or the animation software with the HCI. This allows us to use HCI more advance and can use it for further technical issues or for more game development using the actual HCI for the game to run.

Layout – This is the basic structure of the thing that we are designing and developing, it can be a website, app or game. The layout allows us to see how the things will look better and from what angle. It helps us to understand better where can we place our text or images.

Use of other devices eg voice output – Voice Output is also known as Text-to-Speech. Such devices are very useful for people with disabilities, it can help them to communicate with others easier or to work at jobs that they couldn’t before.

Interactive Whiteboard – It is a useful device for presentations or for teaching at schools and colleges. This thing is connected to a PC or laptop and also to them is connected a projector that will display the screen to your whiteboard. It is like you have a PC with a very big screen, so everyone could see what are you showing on the screen if the room where you are is too big.

Against original specification – It allows me to make changes to what the users may like. Having many different people test your game is better as you get as you will get more criticization for your game to develop. I had such situation when was an administrator on a Role Play server of GTA 5, as an administrator I had to remove/add or fix some of the rules of the gaming process, the players had the possibility to vote for what they want.

Working within a closed system – Having people you may know, worked with or have a general attraction towards will give you less harsher feedback than with a wider system. You can say my test was unfair as that was a classmate. Working within a closed system is good when there are no connection to the people testing the game so they don’t want to give negative feedback.

Working in Wider System – Working within a wider/open system is good as there is no connection to the people testing the game so they don’t have a bias feedback. Having people you may know, worked with or have a general attraction towards will give you less harsher feedback than with a wider system. It is better to have a wider system as there is more people who give more precise testing procedures.

Recording Tests – It is important because so manufacturer know it was a legit test and the product is working and tested like it should have been. Without these tests the manufacturer may think the company is being fraudulent with their producers.

Explanation step by step

First thing what I’ve started doing is adding a ball into the game and adding to it physics, and adding right and left hand interaction managers. In the video below you can see how the ball is contacting with the hands after adding the physics and interaction for it.

After this I had to create a basketball hoop, so I’ve taken the squares and cylinders and adjusted them in a way so I get a basketball hoop. I’ve put it close and made it big, so it will be easier to throw the ball into it.

Flowcharts – It is a picture of the separate steps of a process in sequential order. It is a generic tool that can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes, and can be used to describe various processes, such as a manufacturing process, an administrative or service process, or a project plan.

Structured Charts – A structure chart is a chart which shows the construction of a system to it’s lowest manageable levels. They are used to help structure programming and allow it to be easier to program modules into a tree shape and also, the tree structure allows it to see the correlation between the modules.

Quantitative measures of effectiveness

This involves collecting data which can be measured and counted, the collected data can be displayed in charts, tables and graphs.

Data collected for quantitative measures of effectiveness are the following:

Speed

The input for the basketball game is with a leapmotion and your hands, so data shall be collected for measuring the speed of throughput which is how fast the interface responds to using a hand to grab the sphere. Also, speed of comprehensive of output, which is how much time it takes for the user to comprehend the result, for instance when all the cylinders have fallen.

 Comparative costs

As  the interface for the basketball game is very simple with a few objects, the running costs to run the system will be low, even though I am using 3D objects they are not lots of them.

 Comparison with original needs

I think the basketball game meets the needs of the user, as the game contains the basic features of basketball simulator/game. The game allows the user to pick the ball up and throw the ball into the hoop.

Comparison with other systems
I’ve searched similar games to the one that I’ve created and compared them. Of course the game that I’ve found looks better and more realistic, it got different textures for all the objects, backgrounds, and getting points for throwing the ball into the hoop. In my game these features are not included.

Qualitative measures of effectiveness

This involves collecting information about people’s opinions, views and preferences of something, to make a quality judgement about the findings based upon fact. After I’ve tested the final result of the game, I wanted to find out what people think about it, so I asked 2 colleagues to test it as well. They tried throw the ball, but it was a little hard to throw it right where u want. It requires precision and luck, because sometimes you think you are gonna throw the ball but it is still in your hand. Actually it is easy to use, nothing hard is there, they said that if you spend more time on this game you will be able to throw the ball right on the target even if the basketball hoop is far.

5 Improvements that they suggested me to do are: Background, textures for objects, a better basketball hoop, more balls, points for throwing the ball into the hoop.

I’ve created a basketball game, the game is pretty simple and raw, everything is white, without any special or unusual textures. You have some balls that you have to throw into the basketball hoop. The basketball hoop is constructed of Unity shapes clasped between each other, such as squares and cylinders, I was adjusting the sizes for each shape so it will look like a basketball hoop. I’ve placed it close because the physics of the game are not really comfortable and for users is gonna be hard to throw the ball even close to the basketball hoop, so I’ve done it big and placed it close. When I’ve added the balls that you have to throw, I’ve added to them the physics that they need, because without them that ball would be impossible to keep in your hand or even to touch it. Also I had to add interaction managers for the right and left hand, without I wouldn’t be able to touch and throw anything in the game.

On the screenshots below you can see what is the final result:

On this screenshot you can see where the balls basically spawn and on the left are all the objects that I’ve used.

Here you can see all the data about the balls, their location and sizes, on the right part of the screenshot.

Here you can see the shapes that I’ve used for creating the basketball hoop.

In conclusion I can say that I have now a good experience in this sphere and I understand more about this subject. The game that I’ve done is pretty simple, I like what I’ve done in it in a couple of days.

I can say that the game need some textures, it is too boring and monotone when everything is white, sometimes is even hard to understand if you have goal into the hoop. As I said the game is still raw and too simple, it would need more time to be developed and I would need more skills to make a really good game, that could be uploaded somewhere or at least sold to someone.

I would add such improvements as Spawning per a ball by pressing a button, it would be much easier and you wouldn’t have to restart the game every time. I would add more colours and textures for the ball, basketball hoop, a background and some extra objects for decoration, so it would look more like a basketball field.

The whole process of the game developing is capturing and you always want to add something to it when you launch Unity. It was a very useful experience and it helped me to understand how is everything working in HCI, also it was helpful for me as it helped me with the decision of what I want to study after this, I decided to try myself in game developing and to learn more about it and to try to develop a really good game that will be popular after its release.