The research stage of the project is now over which means that it is time top reflect on my research, and the steps I have taken from the inital concept.
It evident that the research has allowed me to explore possibilities that were clearly innapropriate for the purpose of the project, but was only after extensive was it obvious that this was the case.
A List of things that have changed is made below.
The educational sector side was completely removed. The more I researched the more it became apparent that the purpose of the site was that it should encourge exploration at the will of the user. By trying to add educational features would only prevent the exploration element of the site.
The profitabilty of the service became defined more. Instead of charging users for availability of features, I found the best way would be to offer unlimited use of the features, and allow them to use it to meet people globally online. The profitablity comes from user becoming engaged in the ecosystem of the service and then buying the accessories that are available through the store. While this is optional it, it allows the user to be fully present in the engagement with the content and other users without any distractions.
The characters developed over time, and went from being one character, to five characters with different characteristics. This made the option for the customisation of the service much greater! This was influenced by a large ammount of research, including the trip to the M&M’s store (https://akbrodie.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/kids-store-research/), the Angry birds characters (https://akbrodie.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/analysing-the-angry-birds-platform/) & the kids movie research (https://akbrodie.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/notes-from-childrens-movies/).
The content of the site changed in a large way too when I realised I would not be able to mix real imagery with cartoon imagery. Then I choose to move into a cartoon based site. That was realised through three main pieces of research, the virtual experiences, other kids games (https://akbrodie.wordpress.com/2016/10/24/lessons-learnt-from-kids-games/) and the design for kids (https://akbrodie.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/knowing-my-target-audience/).
Developing a storyline was something that followed my research of the kids movies (https://akbrodie.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/notes-from-childrens-movies/) and storytelling techniques (https://akbrodie.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/storytelling-emotions-characterists/). It meant that the kids could be more engaged in the content. I realised they could expore the world in a dfifferent way fi they were doing so with a character.
The site became much less bloated from jusing the virtual trips idea, as it meant the content could be simplified and categorised to maked the overall experience esasier to understamd for my target audience.
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