The project map is an important stage within the development stage, it allows me to consider the main journeys that user should take. These are the main possible user journeys that can be taken;
Tag Archives: Frog Voyage
Virtual Experiences
It is vital that the website offers experiences for differenct countries to encourage the learning experience, but how about using virtual trips to do that?
Trips could allow the user to learn things that my target audience will find interesting about that country while spending as long, or as little time as they want on that place. Using this method also means that the service can be streamlines and as an understandable model for each trip can be created.
On a trip, a user can;
- Set out on a trip, and customise their frog with the relevant items for that country, and it’s weather (while information about it’s climate appears). This can be done as information on a ticket page contains some basics about the contry, then the next thing they see is their store of cutsomisable items they can add if they want.
- Visit some of its’ famous landmarks and choose to learn more about them if they so wish to.
- Attend social sections, a cartoon backdrop with all users frog onscreen where people also on that trip at the same time can communicate.
- Practice languages with a foreign teacher frog; basic language lessons can teach the simple conversation starters.
- Take a ‘selfie’ where the frog can take a picture of themselves for the user scrapbook with their customisations infront of a popluar, these are images that can be sent later in messages to friends, which links them to the trip they can take too.
- Connect with someone their own age from that country that they can instantly send a message to start a conversation.
- Send digital postcards from that location to their friends, these postcards can edited by adding stickers to alter appearance and a message in different fonts, colours and size can be added to the back.
Once the trip is over, additional content can be offered to the user in the way of quiz questions, quick lesson lessons on the language and items collected.
As they have traveled through the experience, they have discovered the country digitally, learnt about the culture, met some people also learning about this culture and started a converdsation with a local, learnt’ a few foreign words, they are already very indulged in this country.
Gamification of my service
Gamification is the process of taking something that already exists – a website, an enterprise application, an online community and integrating game mechanics into it to motivate participation, engagement, and loyalty. This is something that is vital to encourage my users to engage in the community and learning process through Frog Voyage.
What is relevant to Frog Voyage when it comes to gamification?
- Storyline
- No login to get involved
- Constantly offer new content (Never completed)
- Promote social interaction
- Learning must be risk-free
STORYLINE
The story follows a frog who decided to leave his lily pad in Kumari Kandam when he notices all the flies around his home had started to disappear, when he leaves he starts to learn things about the world around him and meet new frogs.
The frogs home of Kumari Kandam relates to mythology of an ancient world where mankind evolved. It is believed to be a land that no longer exists that belonged between Africa and Australia, like shown below;
Not only does this mean we have a defining character for our frog but also means that we can encourage the kids to explore the world with a sense of no belonging as the character and live in a world of imagination. This suits the audiences’ needs much better, as when they don’t feel like the character has a home, they no longer feel the need to return or put importance on it, they can simply move around the map and explore, something they should do be able to do with an open mind. This is important as it allows the user to relate to the character, and feel like everyone is, and should be equal. It also makes it an easier platform for being interested in new cultures.
No Login Required
Allowing access to the content without login is important as it allows the users to view content unrestricted, the user should be given the option to login to view addition, more preferable content, friends, progress etc.
New Content Forever
To keep a game fresh and exciting, there should an continuous flow of new content to ensure the user stays engaged. It also means the user should never be able to ‘complete’ the service.
Promote Social Interaction
Having users connect with each other while playing games online is the best way to all the users feel like they are part of something ‘bigger’ than just the game. Therefore it is vital to allow the users to communicate with each other.
Risk-Free Learning
Risk free learning is essential therefore I found that by removing the points based reward system, and gift the award at the beginning of a learning experience, the user already has the gift and can leave at any time, therefore the learning environment is one of choice where the user is able to make risk-free decisions in the game eliminating any danger of missing out on a reward at the end.
References;
https://www.betaout.com/blog/8-tips-to-create-a-killer-gamification-strategy/
Defining my Project
I have a lot of research at this stage so I think it is relevant to do a sitemap of all the planned content for the site and how it fits together, this allows me to determine what is most important, and the hierachy of the content, seeing the content in this way will allow me to pull sections together in new theories and solutions that weren’t possible previously.
The Sitemap looks like as follows;
FROG VOYAGE; The branding – Part 2
Choosing the name was a little tricky, because I needed something that matched my project and it’s aims, was understandable for children worldwide and had a domain available that matched it. After going through lots of names that worked but had no domain available, I eventually found frog voyage which was free.
I started very simply, with center aligned text, one a different colour to the other. The font, DoubleBubble was used because it included a text border, as in my logo research, this is something I wanted to use
Next I played around with the formatting of the colour. I wanted to use green as it is the most common colour for a frog or the colour of the lily pads it sits on, blue as it represented the water that frogs can live in, and white as pychologically it represented cleanliness and saftey.
I continued working on the colours chosen with a different artrangement
Icreated a appropriate colour gradient for each colour as part of the pallette
It was at this stage that I was happy with the basic layout of the logo, I just needed to work on the sizing, layout and typeface.
Now, kind of happy with the layout, I thought it was time to sizing it in accordance with the fibonacci sequence
It was at this point I realised the typeface just wasn’t going to work, especially with the background colours of the text. Therefore I found a more fun font that didn’t include the text border so that I would be able to add my own. I continued from where I was already at, I started sizing the letters to match exactly in size, and worked to the size of the fibonacci sequence. 
At this stage I was happy with the layout of the logo so I started to add colour.
Then once I was happy with the colours of the logo, I started working on the text border to allow me to come up with the following logo;
Next was to add the crown which gives the effect that the frogs can be customised. Maybe they could work up to getting a crown, if they get a certain amount of points, and if they get a crown they get a free pack sent to them and their school. There could also be different crowns for different crowns
It also relates to the princess who kissed the frog. This is perfect because it also helps the parent relate as they all know this story. Deeper pyschology meaning that they are still young, and that they can transform themselves into someone much better with the knowledge of culture and languages that the site will provide.
Next I asked some designers their opinion of my logo their opinion of my logo, this was the feedback I recieved;
Conner: “Overall, I like it. The main thing that is bothering me is the stroke weight on “Voyage.” Your outline is a good opportunity to ground separate pieces of a logo together. Since “Frog” and “Voyage” are different sizes and colors, using a consistent, even outline can help to show that they are part of the same object”.
I’m not sure if this will work in practice, or match what you were trying to accomplish, but it might be fun to play around with the crown being an object in 3D space. You’ve got some extra lighting on there, but how does it physically sit on the logo? Does it cast a shadow? Things like that may give it some depth, but be careful to not let that unbalance the logo.”.
Joshua: “Overall I like it, but… the black outline follows the letters to close, especially at the bottom, I feel like it would work better if it wasnt so jagged up and down, but smoother. The crown seems tacked on, either flatten the crown by removing the highlights, or add highlights to the words to make them 3D”.
Ian: “The ‘E’ at the end is kinda bothering me, the middle ‘prong’ seems to be bigger in the middle than it is where it joins the vertical line, which looks a bit odd. Maybe make it a bit more rounded?. The crown would be nicer if it was simpler. Apart from that, great job!”.
This was all great feedback that i wanted to implement into my logo to make it as good as possible. The first step was approach to turn the crown from a 3d looking object to a 2d object, I did this by removing the reflections and changing the colour palette. I also added a subtle shadowcast from light to indicate it an object placed on the logo, much like the customisation of the characters;
The next step was to tackle Connor’s point of having an even outline, I tried used shapes;
But felt like this wasn’t in keeping with my initial research and feel of the branding, so I switched to a more aligned outline.
Next was to make the crown feel more at home on the logo. I did this by making it scentral, rather than having it off balance and making it look like it could fall from the top of the logo. I also played with the size of the crown and it’s angle using the fibonacci sequence. You can see this here;
This gave me an almost complete logo;
At this point I had attempted to remedy my commenters feedback and decidedI was happy with the logo in shape and layout, there was just a slight issue that I felt like I needed to remedy. Colour and Lighting. If the crown was casting a shadow then it meant that there should be lighting from the top left that would effect the colour of the logo too. Therefore I felt it was appropriate to update the colour palette and shading on the logo to reflect the effects of the lighting. With updates, I was finally happy with my logo, this is the final version of my logo;
Description of Project
The idea is a website to encourage children aged 6-12 around the world too learn about other languages and culture. The website will be accessible to mobile and desktop browsers worldwide. The main way to gain interaction is through the use of 5 animated frog characters, and to encourage engagement between users, there will be swappable items related to their frogs. This is a very simplified version of the usability of the site, please visit and read the content posted at the below address for all research and developments regarding the venture. I plan to make the service go live and improve the lives of children around the world by breaking barriers and bringing communities closer than ever before.
Challenge Statement
This service should encourage children between the ages of 6-12 to learn about other languages and cultures through engaging online experiences.
