Icon design

Have a look at the icon I made earlier for my IOS application. While it may not look exactly like him. This is Frank McCourt with a feint image of the museum in the background.

Ok I agree it's a tiny image but it is the correct resolution for the device I am using.

IT WORKS!!!!! :-)

Ok not the most professional title for a post but I'm delighted to say that my iPad application works. It's so good to see some hard work paying off. Thank God for Adobes free 30 day trial. What I've seen in Adobe Creative Cloud looks fantastic and would be a fine investment for any designer or developer. Staying on track, here is a screenshot of my finished product.

Now to finish off the documentation for the project. I remember doing a research final year project for my undergraduate degree. I must say it is much easier to write about work that you have done yourself so this should be a piece of cake.

Audio recording

While the deadline for this project quickly approaches I feel that I need to enhance my project with some audio. Unfortunately the driver for my soundcard is not available for IOS Mavericks so I recorded with a dictaphone instead. Here is what I am working on in Logic Express. I have recorded some basic acoustic tracks as backing tracks for the 'Then and Now' section and the 'Follow Frank' section. I enhanced these audio tracks with some effects in Logic.

FileZilla to iPage

I haven't used ftp in a while but it does come in quite handy. It saves a lot of time that could be spent creating directories. I was lucky to find FileZilla, it helped me upload my php files to iPage very quickly.

Apple Developer program

Apple make devices that are easy to use but they don't make devices that are easy to develop for. I have recently been added to the University Apple Developers Program. Here I must acknowledge the very quick work pace from the L.I.T. administration who were very helpful in helping me to receive all of the files I needed to deploy my application.

Quick post on play and pause button functionality in Flash

At the moment I'm following this tutorial about creating play / pause functionality for my today's news section. It's time to get stuff rolling with this project. I can't afford to waste any more days watching videos on things that can't be implemented.

Flash Databas problems

My flash project needed more programming in it. I was advised that I should try and create a database and functionality that allows the user to upload an image, save it to database and display on the timeline. After spending three full days of researching different methods of how to do this. I have taken on board the fact that I now have serious time restrictions and that in the space of time that I have left it is not plausible to learn how to do this. As well as the face that every resource that I have found on the matter is writing the code in ActionScript 2, while the code is mine is all ActionScript 3. This would mean that I would have to revise my entire project to suit this one function.
After going through one tutorial in particular on YouTube, and trying to implement the code into my project, it did not work. The disappointing part of all of this is that the research that I had done is not worth anything, as I had to delete the code that I had in order for the other aspects of my project to work. All I can do is mention what I have found from YouTube, Stack Overflow and a few more sites around the net, which is

Often images are uploaded using binary arrays.
When uploading an image the name of that file will be shown in a dynamic text field
AJAX came up in a post I read about the matter recently, I did not read into the functionality behind it.
All other information I have at this time is masked by utter confusion with regards to the matter.

I have decided to give up the whole database idea as it is wasting time and as you can probably tell by the tone of this post, it has annoyed me beyond belief.
It's time to think of more programming opportunities that can be taken. Although I'm a bit lost with it all. PHP, the server side language is out as I just stated, JavaScript functionality can be implemented with ActionSctipt and ActionScript will not suffice for the programming work. The question is what can be done. I can see myself going in on Monday with relatively no work to show for my time wasted on database research. While this post is more of a rant, it has stated what I needed to say.

Ux design

My application's navigation is using a map pointer theme. As most of the sections of the project are categorised by locations, I felt that a pointer system would be quite engaging to the user to get from place to place.
Here is an example of what I mean

Prototype result

After the prototype presentation I feel that I have a lot more work to do. I was advised to implement database functionality so the user can register, login and upload an image. Via Flash I don't really know how I'm going to implement. Time to do some research. I also need some more multimedia work. The design isn't quite fulfilling the application. What I need may be some audio or video tracks.

Approaching our prototype proposal

So our prototype proposal presentation is coming up on Monday. Here is a brief overview of where my project is. I have almost completed the 'Then and Now' section of the project. This section shows old images of Limerick. There is a slider bar along the side of each image and when the user slides the bar down, a modern day version of that image will appear.  Here is a description of what I mean. The opacity bar is halfway down showing Limerick as it was and is now.

Here is the opacity ActionScript code I used to achieve this. 

The next piece I have accomplished is implementing the flash game. My original idea was to have the user follow frank on his adventure from Ireland to Scotland to America. After some research I did not find any information about him being in Scotland, as one of the tour guides had said. I did not want to use false information, so I changed the game around. The idea now is that a map shows up with pointers on sections of the world that Frank had connections to in Angelas Ashes. When you hit the pointer it zooms in on that country and more regional pointers will appear. When you hit these pointers information blocks will appear about Franks connection to the area. The pointer prototype I have at the moment is New York.

The next section, which realistically I have quite a lot of work to do on is 'Today's news'. This section will showcase some news articles from the time of Franks youth. I also hope to implement some entertainment new such as the top songs a the time but ideas are still to be sought for this section. 

Overall I have a large degree of the design work done. I do not have much programming work done and I have yet to think of what programming work can be implemented to increase my grade. 

My backups for my project files include. Google Drive, 2 extra memory sticks, my laptop and a college computer.

So close

This code was so close to what I needed, what this does is it autoplays the song when the page opens and when you click on the pause button it pauses. However I do not want this autoplay functionality. I want the sound to play when you click the play button. Good to know for the future though.


import flash.media.SoundChannel;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import flash.events.Event;

var isPlaying:Boolean = true;
var lastposition:Number = 0;

var mysound:music = new music();

var soundchannel:SoundChannel = new SoundChannel ();

soundchannel = mysound.play(0,0);

soundchannel.addEventListener(Event.SOUND_COMPLETE, onPlaybackComplete);

function onPlaybackComplete(event:Event):void
{
lastposition = 0;
soundchannel.stop();
btn.btn_pause.visible = false;
trace('finished');
isPlaying=false;

}

btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, playsound);
function playsound(event:MouseEvent):void
{

if(! isPlaying)
{
soundchannel = mysound.play(lastposition,0);
btn.btn_pause.visible = true;
isPlaying = true;
}

else
{
lastposition = soundchannel.position;
soundchannel.stop();
btn.btn_pause.visible = false;
trace(lastposition.toFixed(0), mysound.length.toFixed
(0));
isPlaying = false;
}

soundchannel.addEventListener(Event.SOUND_COMPLETE,
onPlaybackComplete);

function onPlaybackComplete(event:Event):void
{
lastposition = 0;
soundchannel.stop();
btn.btn_pause.visible = false;
trace('finished');
isPlaying=false;
}
}

Fun research

So I'm doing research for the Flash section of my final project. A lot of the research involves playing online flash games. It's not a day for complaining anyway.

Google searching

It can be very difficult to find a very specific technical answer but while looking for these answers you do come across some great resources and terminology for future references. It's always good to take note of these as they may be the source of your next answer. Terminology is key to google searches, if you do not know what you are looking for and and how to express what you are looking for it will prove quite difficult to find an answer. Try to locate the terminology for what you need first and it will make your task 100 times easier.

User testing profile

Hey there, meet Niall Keane. He is a potential user for my tablet application. My task for the week was to create a persona for a person who was liable to download the application. The profile shows the what the user does in their spare time, the personal details, and how the applications will benefit them.

Reeling in the years

I got a lot of work done with this today. It's interesting to see how the design of the limerick leader has changed since the 1930s.

Development research

Now this is how u watch lynda.com, none of that hunching over a laptop

Tablet ui design

I just found this beauty. This is a fantastic design and the style of this app instantly comes across as classy and well made.

Ideas are running, and I'm trying to catch them

I've had a number of ideas about this project. Some are possibly over ambitious. While originally I was keen on the idea of using Unity to create a game, I'm gone off the idea of this. This is due to the extensive learning curve in programming, while I would be capable of doing this, I simply wouldn't enjoy it as much as should.

The next idea I had and this still stands as a possibility, is to create a 3D hologram. It would also be a steep learning curve to be able to complete this, but I would be more proud of the result if I was able to accomplish it. The trick would be to create a 3D projection theatre using a wide variety of physical materials including acrylic glass, black foam board, a projector and a few more things. The trick would be to create the model and project it from behind the glass at a 45 degree angle onto the glass. Again it could be over ambitious.

The idea I just came up with, was to create an educational app. The app would be for a tablet, which is embedded in the front desk of the class room. There would be a projector under the desk. that would project onto the blackboard. I wasn't sure if things could be projected onto such a dark surface but according to a number of videos on youtube they can be.

Here is an image of the physical objects of the project.

Now what the app contains is still in question. I do intend on aiming it towards an American audience as this is a large percentage of the museums visitors.
First thoughts to the design approach of the projection is a chalk effect, as if it is actually being shown on a blackboard.

Illustrations

Some artwork that I found on Pinterest taken from the Grand theft auto 5 game. Really inspiring work.

Picture for illustration

If I'm doing a game, which is looking quite likely. I need to do an illustration for the start menu. I would like to go with something like they have in the loading introduction of Grand Theft Auto 5,. These are great illustrations. I must find the names of the artists and follow them on Twitter. Here is one image I could use for this.

Software research

Unity 3D is looking like a winner for my project, perhaps a game of Frank going around the room finding different items from the time. I'd need more information on the Frank McCourt story to make a proper proposal. This video series of Unity seems very useful so far.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wxe1IUu5QA&list=TLN09vbDuXgJUHOuYxWSz8uGYzCXbIISFD

On the subject of winners, Leap motion is looking like quite the opposite. When I first heard about Leap motion, I was under the impression that it re-acted with every application, however it seems that you need to get specific apps for the product. To me it seems like something that will need a lot of extras. When something like this is built into an operating system in the future it will be more useful. There is a big future in ui design in this area, so I must keep that in mind.

FIrst thoughts

So what do I have to incorporate into this project. Here is a list of the skills that I could use for my project.

Javascript
Interface Design
PHP
HTML / CSS
3D Graphics
Digital Video

Here are some production methods that I must research and assess the plausibility of being able to learn their functionality.

Arduino
Leap Motion
Unity