My Sampling Survey

I'am going to use sample surveying to prove the demand/need for my concept in the real world. I created the survey using SurveyMonkey which provides survey and questionnaire software for free you can get a gold account for extra functionality. The major fault of using the free account is that I was limited to 10 questions ad I cant access the logic functionality either but I adapted to it to suit my sampling survey. I have created 3 sections in the survey. The first section is to establish the different groups and to identify my target audience. This section will be used to see what groups selected which options farther on in the survey.

Section 2 is to gather information on their opinions on smart phones as half the project uses smart phone as a persuasive technology. This will gather which groups have smart phones and if they use it to improve their lifestyle.

The final section then is to get an understanding of their opinions of online social games and the last question is a scenario that my game could fit into.

I have spent the last two days making up this survey and have got 3 people each from different age groups to get their opinions of the survey this was very useful and this is the third different survey after gathering negative/positive feedback from the testers. i will be hoping to use snowball surveying to gather the maximum amount of people to fill out the survey. I completed the survey on Friday evening but will send it out on Monday afternoon as I taught people would not be bothered filling out a survey on Friday evening a Monday would be more suited. 

B.J. Fogg

During my writing up the first draft of "Trying to combat sedentary lifestyle" (literature review 1) I did a lot of research on persuasive technology and Facebook. During this research I came across allot of studies done by Fogg and he is referenced numerous times in the thesis as his work is very relevant to my thesis. He works in Standford Persuasive Lab which shows all his research. The lab has documented captology (figure 1) and is in the process of creating a book based on the psychology of Facebook which is very interesting highlighting the persuasive methods that are used within in Facebook. You can find all his work at his website http://www.bjfogg.com/. My literature review is based on most of Foggs research. I will try to get a interview with Fogg in the near future for my thesis showing him a presentation of my concept to get his opinion.

My Thesis

This week I have been putting a lot of time into my thesis. I have my first draft of my first chapter "Combating sedentary Lifestyle" (literature review) 2000 words. I also created the headings for chapter 2 "Social web" and the opening few pages. I also have completed the first draft of Methods & Methodology chapter 1000 words. The more i write up my thesis the better idea of my overall project and regret not starting to write up the thesis sooner in the semester. The writing up takes a lot more time that I first presumed it is a tedious progress and needs to be given the appropriate attention since I will more than likely not creating a product now I can give the thesis all the attention it needs.

Options for creating the product for the thesis

a) Use an off the shelf game 

A game already developed on Facebook or the internet using flash. The game would be a city-building simulation game. I would have to be able to add virtual goods to the volunteers games depending on their step count. This would cost me money as I would have to pay for the virtual goods myself. To monitor the step count I would have to use an off the shelf pedometer also which I would have to manually collect the step counts each day off the volunteers. Using these pedometers validity would be comprised as the pedometer would not reliable for accurate results.

b) Create a simple flash game

I would follow a tutorial and create a suitable sort of flash game. It would more than likely not be a city building game as planned. I would have to be able to administrate the game also to add rewards for reaching their step count goal. I would still use an off the shelf pedometer to measure a users step count.

c) Make concept models

These would be prototypes with just a front end working. his would be the most successful way to portraying the concept to people. This could be done using dreamweaver for the facebook app and xcode for the phone app. I could also use Microofts powerpoint to present it.

Change of Plans

Due to time constraints and the vast size of the project I have had to change my plans of creating a completed city-building simulation game and a phone app I'am going to create the concept and test that with volunteers. I have started creating the concept using fireworks and dreamweaver for the facebook app (image below) and I will create a phone app using xcode that will show the concept but wont be fully functional. I will be doing this so I will be able to demonstrate the concept to the volunteers for testing. The volunteers will be able to try out the models to get a feel of what I'am trying to do and gather a good understanding of the project.

Game Builder Studio Beta Version 3.0

Last week I received the latest version of GameBuilder Studio beta version by signing up in their website http://gamebuilderstudio.com/. It is a very friendly and easy to use piece of software and when completed will be a must need flash game development editor. It uses all the concepts of push button saving a user all the coding and more time to the gaming. It incorporates are the essential PBE concepts levels, templates, pbe objects and when you export to Flash Builder it already generates a xml file for you, creating your game for you. By creating  the templates and levels it saves vast amounts of coding for a developer. You can assign a background and foreground images by drop and drag from the assets which can be uploaded from your documents / pictures / images. It has quick objects you can pull to the screen as below I created this tree and 2 boxes from the quick objects at the side. There is a screen shot below.

The main developer is very cooperative and is willing to help you along the process to creating a project with his guidance if needed. Even in early beta version what I could do already would have saved me days of studying PBE but since it is only beta to make a game completely using it isn't possible yet the main reason as collision detection has not been addressed yet but from talking to Lavon it will be in future versions and has already done it just to release it. Also from talking to Lavon he revealed to me by the time the editor will be completed that you will be able to create the user interface also this will make creating a game a lot easier. All I can say as a negative towards GBS is that its not going to be completed in time to help my project which is a pity as it is the ideal software I was looking for since January.