COSC 324 Assignments

Research Paper

Your assignment is to do the background research for a serious game designed to teach one of the following topics:

creating and following a good financial budget
living in an environmentally friendly way
doing thorough and reliable research on the Web
planning and cooking healthy, economical food at college
creating and following an enjoyable and sustainable exercise program

Things your research paper should include:

Begin with a clear teaching goal (what you want to persuade players to believe and perhaps do).
Learn about the cognitive, social, and motor characteristics of your target audience so that your game can be designed to match your audience's needs.
Prepare the content of the game--learn about your issue using reputable sources.
Learn about any past approaches to teaching this particular content or reaching this teaching goal (through games and through traditional teaching).
Summarize your findings and discuss the implications of your research for designing your serious game.

Papers (about 6-7 pages not counting the bibliography)

Summary of research findings about your audience (1-2 pages)
briefly discuss any learning theories or teaching methods (and any prior games) designed to teach the same subject (1 page)
define the goals and learning objectives for your game (1/2 to 1 pg)
briefly describe the game concept (1 pg)
provide a brief of the content for the game (the actual information to be taught), with sources (2-3 pgs)
Annotated bibliography of sources (minimum of 8 sources, five sources must be peer-reviewed, which means an article from a scholarly journal or a book from a scholarly press)

An annotated bibliography means you add a short paragraph after each of your sources summarizing what kind of information can be found in that source, and telling the reader why that particular source is likely to be valuable. Your goal is to enable readers to decide whether or not a particular source would be valuable to them.

Assignment two: Heuristic Analysis and Redesign

For this assignment, you will perform a heuristic analysis and evaluation of a web-based or computer-based game (choice of game subject to my approval).

A heuristic analysis is carried out by applying a set of questions and/or known principles to a given system. You should base your evaluation on these heuristics. You should also use the various principles you have encountered in the online readings to determine the questions and/or principles you need to apply to the game you are working with. Use screenshots as necessary to illustrate your analysis.

The heuristic analysis should be about 8-10 pages double-spaced, and should be prepared as if for the creators/owners of the game. Screen shots should not be more than about 2.5" in height (zoomed and cropped as necessary for intelligibility).

Please send me and each other email if you have questions about the assignment and need clarification.

Usability Testing and Test Report

This project will focus on the usability of either a computer-based "serious" game or a software application. Topics will be provided in class. You may suggest a particular project, subject to my approval.

You will turn in

a test plan (a script for the test that includes the tasks to be performed by the users
a participant screener (a list of questions used to identify people who would make appropriate test users--see examples of a web and phone screener)
an informed consent signed by each participant
a test report and presentation (a powerpoint presentation describing the test, your major findings and recommendations, and video clips demonstrating key user behaviors)

Each team will recruit four participants and perform four tests.

presenting your results

It's your job to make sense of the mass of information, to figure out the relationship between what you saw happen in the test sessions and the underlying design strengths or problems. Figure out which problems are the most urgent or will provide the highest payoff if fixed, then present that information to designers and decision-makers effectively and persuasively. You'll want to put the issues you identify into categories, such as issues related to layout, navigation, functionality, labels, interface controls, or visual tone. If you're evaluating a game, you'll also want to consider issues such as those examined in the heuristic evaluation, such as playability, storyline, mechanics, etc.

You should also suggest possible solutions to the problems you find. Deciding what revisions to make involves balancing what the user needs or wants with the cost or difficulty of making the changes.

It's also your job to make the users real to your audience. As you evaluate your results, look for memorable quotes or images (photos or video clips) from the tests that you can use to enhance your presentation. Use these quotes and video clips to make the users vivid and real to designers and executives in the report.

Presentation of usability results

explain how the tests were performed (location, method, brief info about the test participants, test goals)
explain the major findings and recommendations, using text, images, quotes, and video clips
summarize findings and recommendations in a way that is likely to inspire action and make recommendations easy to implement

video clips

Focus on 5-6 global and severe problems
Start each clip with a title slide identifying the problem and the participants involved, provide enough context for viewers to understand what they're seeing
Find clear, dramatic clips (not all from same test participant)

report

Your report should include the following

an executive summary of the major issues (good and bad) identified in the test, with headings
a table of results with observations and recommendations (including screenshots as appropriate)
appendixes (table summarizing info about the participants, test circumstances, screener, script)

Your report should be single-spaced, double-sided, printed in color, and spiral bound.