No class meeting, we just uploaded our final project proposal to iLearn.
Here's mine:
Background Information
Background
The Exploratorium is a museum dedicated to the hands-on exploration of science, art, and human perception. Exhibits on the museum floor are frequently rotated in and out of the exhibit archive so that on any given week a museum visitor may see an exhibit finished recently or created several decades ago. Some exhibits fall under the category of art pieces meaning that they were created by an artist-in-residence and have a permanent place on the museum floor. Inkblot Projections is one of these permanent art pieces that needs to be refitted with modern technology so that museum visitors can enjoy it consistently instead of encountering a broken or intermittently unresponsive exhibit. Because it is part of the permanent exhibit collection, it is worthwhile to upgrade and fix the exhibit.
The specific task at hand will be to convert the exhibit from an old version of Macromedia Director to Adobe Flash, upgrade or replace the computer to run OS X 10.5, and program the inputs to the buttons and page turns into an Arduino microcontroller interfaced through a USB connection.
The entire redesign process will be documented with photographs, Flash code, Arduino code, and Flash-Arduino interface code so that the project can be replicated for other instructional uses.
Throughout the rest of this document, I will refer to the functions of both the exhibit and the exhibit redesign separately.
Purpose
The instructional goal of Inkblot Projections is to demonstrate to visitors several different perspectives of abstract shapes. The visitor is asked to observe five inkblot drawings and draw conclusions as to what the abstract shapes represent. Then, the visitor can press five different buttons to hear five separate people explain their perspectives. As each inkblot is being audibly explained, the monitor above the exhibit highlights the different areas of the inkblot projection that the speaker is referring to.
The instructional goal of the exhibit redesign is to document the process of creating a Flash-based kiosk exhibit using inputs from the physical world that are detected and interpreted by an Arduino microcontroller.
Significance
The impact of this exhibit can be measured by how many people interact with the exhibit at the Exploratorium. If the exhibit is functioning properly, several hundred people per day could interact with it.
The impact of the redesign documentation can be measured by how many pageviews the instructional wiki receives per day or month, and how many edits and comments are made on the wiki itself.
Design Rationale
Introduction
Content or Task Analysis
The content in this exhibit redesign documentation will be selected from conversations with professional media developers. The content will be selected based on its relevancy to exhibit redesign at large technically oriented museums so that the documentation and processes are transferable to exhibit design outside of the Exploratorium. This material will be written, and visual in the form of movies and interactive graphics.
Learner Analysis
The intended audience is any intermediate to advanced level exhibit designer. Information necessary to understand this audience would include exhibit designer education and skill information to ensure that the information presented is neither too complex nor too elementary.
Goals and Objectives
The instructional goal of this project is to make learners feel more comfortable designing exhibits in Flash that can take inputs from the physical world. The main objectives of this project are to train the learner to program events for Flash/Arduino interaction and event handling in Flash.
Media Selection
This exhibit will be rewritten entirely in Flash. Flash has been chosen for its strength in non-linear navigation, animation capabilities, video embedding features, Arduino interfacing capability, and compression. Technical documentation will be written on a public wiki and include photos, Arduino code, and Flash-Arduino interface code.
The exhibit redesign documentation will be developed on a public wiki.
Usability Review
Expert Review
The Inkblot exhibit will be reviewed by an SME (Subject Matter Expert) in the New Media department of the Exploratorium to ensure accuracy of technical documentation and functionality of the exhibit.
Design Review
An instructional designer will review the technical documentation to assess ease of use, clear language, and overall production value. The instructional designer will also test out the exhibit at the Exploratorium.
One-on-one Review
Review by an additional ITEC student will be used to assess overall usability of the project and clarity of the learning objectives, and will help enhance future software and hardware revisions of the exhibit.
