Music

While I was not able to add music to my Figma prototype I did however want to outline music that I felt would be appropriate for my outcome. While music can be added to Figma prototypes this is not a straightforward process therefore, with time constraints I have not been able to include music in my prototype. I have however selected royalty-free music that I thought with fit the theme of my app. For my spaceship home screen, I think the final track included in the above video “Galaxy Star” would be a really nice addition to my app as it has a nice and relaxing feel while still remaining in line with the spacetravel theme. For the tasks, I like the quicker tempo of “To the Cosmo’s”, track 2. If I were to include time constraints I believe “Space Odyssey” track 3, would be a great addition in helping to build tension.

Based on user research music is generally listened to by children when playing apps it is, therefore, an important consideration.

Sound Effects

Another important consideration is sound effects. I would be particularly interested to include sound effects such as the whooshing sound effects during animations, the build-up sound effects when something goes wrong or if the player is running out of time. Sound effects for the interaction are perhaps the most important as they provide positive feedback that the user is doing something when they interact with the app. These would include something similar to the beep beep effect included in the video above when the user hits a button and an accompanying lift, drag and drop sound effect for drag and drop interactions. Other important considerations would be victory music for when tasks are completed. I was able to find drum rolls and fanfare that were very effective however not quite appropriate for my app.

The closest outcome I found was the above however I think the first couple of seconds would be enough and would ideally be in the same key and using instruments similar to the music being played throughout the task.

Multiplayer

As my research indicated that learning groups with a preferred type of learning and that my target user group generally play multiplayer games I wanted to incorporate multiplayer as a feature on my app. This was not something I was able to include in my prototype however I have created mock-ups of screens that could be included in the app to allow for this feature

Above are the screens that allow the user to create a username and select an Avatar. As I am aiming the product at children I used the term nickname instead of Username to encourage children not to use their actual names for anonymity purposes. I also felt that the term nickname would be more familiar to them and encourage them to be creative in their choice. An additional feature I also considered including in the screen was to provide pre generating names for the user to select from in case they are unable to think of a nickname or don’t want to type a nickname in, e.g. they struggle with playing. An additional note here is that certain words would have to be censored to prevent inappropriate language from appearing on the app.

On the Avatar screen, I have provided 6 Avatars with a mix of genders and races. Ideally, I would like to provide a base Avatar where users can select different features, face shapes and hair styles. As the user progresses through the app more clothing, hair and facial feature options could become available to them as rewards.

To incorporate a multiplayer option I have created the screen outcomes that would appear after the user has selected to play multiplayer games. The screen shown to the left displays a selection menu that allows the player to select another user to play against. I have also included a search function on this page to allow the user to find who they are looking for more quickly. Players that appear at the top of the list would be players that are currently online, with those the user plays against most frequently appearing at the top. Once a player has been selected (a notification would appear on their screen to accept the multiplayer game) the two players enter a preselected level and compete against each other to finish first. The screen will display both players UI’s and interactions however the other players game would appear slightly dulled out and would not be selectable by the user (shown above right).

When the level has been completed a leader board would appear keeping track of who is in the lead and how many games have been won by each player. This screen would also include top players so that users can see how well they are achieving against everyone on the app.

I think the inclusion of multiplayer to the games would really improve engagement among the target user group and believe that tasks could become more tailored to match this function and more learning elements could be added to increase the apps educational aspects such as a video clip explaining the science behind the tasks in each level in a fun and engaging way.