Interface Design Report - Project - Fall 2005 | CMSC 434, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Computer Science

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Interface Design Report AARPG American Association of Retired Persons Game David Horowitz (dahoro@umd.edu) Tracy Lin (tlin@umd.edu) Jeffrey Markey (jpmarkey@wam.umd.edu) December, 6th 2005 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ................................................................................................................................1 Credits ..................................................................................................................................1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................2 Presentation of Design .........................................................................................................6 Developmental Process......................................................................................................15 Conclusions........................................................................................................................26 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................27 References..........................................................................................................................27 Appendix A: AARPG – Usability Test..............................................................................30 Appendix B: J.C. Herz Talk (November 8, 2005) Notes...................................................34 Appendix C: Trivia questions ............................................................................................37 Appendix D: Database schema ..........................................................................................40 3 grandmothers, grandfathers, moms, dads, and more. This site gave us a good idea: not all adults are interested in the same things and so it would be smart to develop a variety of tasks and questions that target different users. Academic Papers As expected, we found a variety of academic papers relating to persuasive technique. Using Causal Persuasive Arguments to Change Anderson, Craig & Slusher, Morgan (1996). Using Causal Persuasive Arguments to Change Beliefs and Teach New Information: The Mediating Role of Explanation Availability and Evaluation Bias in the Acceptance of Knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88(1), 110-122. The authors of this article challenged the hypothesis that causal arguments have the greatest persuasive power. The researchers performed two experiments in which causal evidence and non-causal (such as statistical) evidence were used to argue that AIDS is not transmissible by casual contact. The results indicated that the original hypothesis was correct; casual arguments are the most persuasive in nature. This source was relevant to our project because one of our original goals for the game was to get seniors to change their behavior to learn to use a computer effectively. In the end, we decided that we would focus on improving the senior’s use of the computer by making them perform different tasks in order to progress through the game. The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts Friestad, Marian & Wright, Peter (1994). The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts. The Journal of Consumer Research, 21(1), 1-31. The authors of this article present The Persuasion Knowledge Model, a model describing how people’s previous knowledge of the marketer’s goals impacts their response to persuasion attempts. They conclude that there is a marked difference between the acceptance of information given in a non-persuasive atmosphere and when the consumer realizes the marketer’s intent. This paper was also relevant because it made us decide that an indirect approach to behavior change was best. The idea is that no one would want to play a “game” that had lessons and tasks that were obviously meant to increase proficiency with the computer. The Persuasive Impact of Message Spacing Malaviya, Preshant & Sternthal, Brian (2001). The Persuasive Impact of Message Spacing. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 6(3), 233-255. The researchers of this paper attempt to scientifically analyze the effectiveness of exposure to various spacing between identical messages (they acknowledge that much research had previously been completed regarding the impact of persuasive messaging). They conclude not only that high repetition can decrease the impact of the messaging, but 4 that lower repetition can actually increase the persuasion effectiveness. This paper was relevant to our project because it convinced us that it is best not to repeat the same kinds of lessons over and over. One of the goals for our game was to improve cognitive health in older adults, by stimulating them with memories from their past. We decided to have our game span 4 decades from the 1950’s to the 1980’s instead of focusing on a single time period. Towards an Ethics of Persuasive Technology Berdichevsky, Daniel & Neunschwander, Erik (1999). Towards an Ethics of Persuasive Technology. Communications of the ACM, 42(5), 51-59. The authors attempt to prove the importance of ethical issues relating to technology and persuasion. They outline a “golden principle” of technological persuasion (that those who create technology should not include persuasive elements that they themselves would not consent to). This paper was important because we did not want to elicit behavior change in an unethical way. We ruled out subliminal messages and other ethically questionable means of behavior change. Everyday Problem Solving in Older Adults Diehl, M., Marsiske, M., Rosenberg, A., Saczynski, J. S., Willis, S. L. (2005). The Revised Observed Tasks of Daily Living: A Performance-Based Assessment of Everyday Problem Solving in Older Adults. The Journal of Applied Gerontology, 24(3), 211-230. This paper provides insight on the cognition of older adults in problem solving. Test subjects were required to complete nine tasks involving medication use, telephone use, and financial management. This paper was very relevant because we could relate the information to come up with game tasks for our users. A Comparison of Cohabiting Relationships Among Older and Younger Adults King, Valarie & Scott, Mindy E. (2005). A Comparison of Cohabiting Relationships Among Older and Younger Adults. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 271-285. This study examines the importance and attitudes of both younger and older adults in terms of companionship. Age affects intentions and assumptions companionship for older and younger adults. Gaming can be a social phenomenon, this paper helped us to see the differences between how younger people interact when compared to older people. Past experiences and older adults’ attitudes: a lifecourse perspective Poortman, Anne-Rigt & Van Tilburg, Theo G. (2005). Past experiences and older adults’ attitudes: a lifecourse perspective. Ageing & Society, 25, 19-39. This study involves adults 55 years and older and their feelings toward gender roles and moral issues. It gives insight on how older adults feel about freedom of choice 5 and morality in their lifestyle. This paper was relevant because we wanted to create a game for both genders. Older adults’ use of information and communications technology in everyday life. Selwyn, N., Gorard, S., Furlong, J., & Madden L. (2003). Older adults’ use of information and communications technology in everyday life. Ageing & Society, 23, 561-582. This paper researches use of information and communications technology in the life of adults 60 years and older. Gender, age, martial status, and educational factors of these adults are important factors in determining extent of computer usage among older adults. The conclusion offers ways that technology can adapt to be more friendly to older adults. After reading this paper, we decided that we would try to create our game in a user-friendly way for older adults. Relevant Web Sites Nutrition for the Elderly “Nutrition for the elderly” 2005. Health Promotion Board 12 October 2005 <http://www.hpb.gov.sg/hpb/default.asp?pg_id=865&aid=100> This particular website focuses on Nutrition for the elderly. Elderly individuals need the same amount of nutrients, but typically less calories than more active younger persons. One of our initial goals was to change the behavior of older adults to eat more healthy foods. Later, we decided that this type of persuasive strategy could be seen as pushy and not a fun experience. Older Persons’ Health “Older Persons’ Health” September 21, 2005 National Center for Health Statistics 1 October 2005 <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/older_americans.htm> This is the website from the National Center for Health Statistics. This particular page shows many statistics about the health of older adults in the United States. Our focus was to help older adults’ mental health; this website gave us an idea of how many older adults suffer from mental problems. Relevant Presentations J.C. Herz Talk J.C. Herz, a renowned game critic that has written for the N.Y. Times, gave a talk at the AARP. Her talk covered game design and a unique look at different innovative computer games. This presentation was very useful in making design decisions for our game. Some notes from the presentation can be found in Appendix B. 8 Figure 3: About page Clicking About The Game from the login screen navigates to the about page (Figure 3). This page gives detailed instructions and information about the game. Clicking on Return to Login Screen from this screen brings the user back to the login screen (Figure 2). 9 Figure 4: New player registration page Clicking Register from the login page navigates to the registration page (Figure 4). The user is required to enter a username, password, and mother’s maiden name to begin playing. Notice the registration page does not require the user to give any personal information such as name, email address, or street address. This change was made based on feedback from the usability tests. Several people were hesitant about giving out contact information over the internet, so to attract more users, the steps to starting the game requires no such information. The user’s mother’s maiden name acts as a security question. This security question and answer is used in the password-reminder page (Figure 5). All entered information is stored in an online database. On a successful registration, clicking Start Your Game brings the user to the first welcome screen (Figure 6). A successful registration is one where a unique username is entered, both passwords match, and some non-empty string is entered for the mother’s maiden name question. The appropriate error message appears on clicking Start Your Game. The user also has an option to return to the login screen by clicking Return to Login Screen. 10 Figure 5: Password reminder page Clicking Forgot Password? from the login page navigates to the password-reminder page (Figure 5). This page is useful for returning users who forget their passwords. However, the user must remember the registered username and mother’s maiden name. Once a correct username and mother’s maiden name combination is entered, a popup message displays the user the registered password from the database. After being reminded of the password, the user is returned to the login screen (Figure 2). 13 Clicking Let’s Play from the welcome screen navigates to a puzzle page (Figure 7). Puzzle pages have a progress bar at the top highlighting the current decade in green. Under the progress bar is the question to be answered. The user must answer the question correctly and press Submit to proceed. A correct answer brings the user to the next question or another welcome screen if all the questions in the decade are complete. An incorrect answer results in a popup dialog that asks the user to try again. If the user needs assistance figuring out the answer to the question, there is a Hint button. Clicking Hint causes a dialog box to appear with the hint in the box (Figure 8). A series of three questions appear before advancing to the next level. A series of three levels or decades appears before the user completes the game. Trivia questions are written about the music, fashion, news, sports, or popular books and toys from the decade. They are aimed to exercise the memory of the users in a nostalgic, enjoyable fashion. See Appendix C for trivia questions. Lastly, the user has the option to logout by pressing Logout. This action saves the users’ progress into the database allowing the user to begin at the last question upon logout. Figure 9: Claim prize screen Once the user completes the required puzzles, the claim-prize screen appears (Figure 9). Hitting the Claim Your Prize button sends the user’s information to AARP. In turn, AARP verifies the user information. A popup dialog also appears informing users that an email notification will be sent to the entered email address with further details on receiving the prize. The email sent suggests the winner to pick up the prize at the nearest AARP office. The closest office is based on the user entered zip code. 14 Figure 10: Thanks page Clicking Claim Your Prize from the claim-prize screen navigates to the thanks page (Figure 10). This page is the official ending page of the game. Users may click Return to Login Screen to return to the main page. 15 DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS Developing the Prototypes When developing software, it is extremely important to design different low-fidelity prototype. In this light, our team designed two vastly dissimilar prototypes as a starting point towards a final design. Here is a walk-through for the mockups. For our usability testing we decided to test and improve upon prototype 1. Registration Page Overview A registration page is necessary for two reasons. First, the AARP finds it useful to track users’ access of their website. One way to implement tracking is to have new users to provide self-identifying information through a registration process, and have returning users login on subsequent visits. Second, having a registration requirement allows users to stop in the middle of the game and return later to continue without restarting. Figure 11: Prototype 1 - Registration screen Prototype 1 The first screen is a sample registration screen. When registering, the users are required to provide a minimal amount of information. Some information includes the user’s name, email address, and password. These fields are required to create a secure, individual login for each person. The user’s birthday is required only for statistical purposes, while the user’s zip code will be used in determining the location of a nearby 18 Figure 14: Prototype 2 - Login screen Prototype 2 The second prototype less graphic, which decreases the time it takes for a browser to load the page and encourages users on slower modems to play the game. All of the functionality described above is included on the screen. For example, there also a link for new players, an email address and password textbox. Developing the Final Login Screen Our usability testing found that many people could not correctly log onto the game with our original prototype. They never clicked on our link for “New Player.” Our solution was to separate the login screen with physical space for the new user and the returning user. We felt as though this approach would make it more intuitive for the users to use the game. Puzzle Screen Overview The game will offer many different types of puzzles. Each type of puzzle will require a slightly different layout. For example, a puzzle asking for the next line in the lyrics of a song may have a link to download the song. Another puzzle may not need an external link and only contain text or a picture directly displayed on the screen. Despite those differences, each puzzle screen will have the same general layout to maintain consistency. Email: Password: Time Capsule: The Game Forgot Login/password? **Create an Account** New Users: Existing Users: Picture with theme of our game. 19 Figure 15: Prototype 1 - Puzzle screen Prototype 1 The word “PUZZLE” appears labels the screen to alert users that a question is at hand. Clicking on the “Instructions” link directly beneath the header launches a popup box with advice on how to complete the puzzle at hand. The contents of the puzzle appear in the darkened area. To complete the puzzle, the user types the answer in the box provided and clicks “SUBMIT.” 20 Figure 16: Prototype 2 - Puzzle screen Prototype 2 This puzzle screen provides some additional functionality. First, it indicates how many puzzles are complete out of the set. Second, it allows the user to return to the previous question, if they wish to do so. Additionally, a “Hint” link appears which launches a popup box revealing a hint about solving the puzzle. On the bottom of the screen, three links allow the user to bookmark the game page, check ranking against other users, and join a team of puzzle users. Developing the final Puzzle Screen Our initial usability test showed that people could solve the puzzles fairly well. We decided to add a hint button and a logout button in our final design. We also decided to include a progress bar showing how far the user was in the game. Prize Claim Screen Overview In order to motivate users to complete the entire game, the AARP plans to award users with a prize. It is unclear whether the user will need to provide additional information at this point. Ideally, local AARP offices around the country will have prizes PUZZLE QUESTION: Do you know the muffin man? SUBMIT Bookmark this page Check your ranking Hint? Join a team Previous Question? 1 of 10 puzzles complete 23 • Register to use the game. On the interface for the game, there was a link for first time users. The users clicked this link and were then redirected to a page on which they gave their information. The subjects entered their email address and a password that they chose for the game. Then they hit a submit button to complete the task. • Login to the game. Following registration, the test subjects were instructed to login to the game. To accomplish this task, the subjects had to use the email address and password they indicated during completion of the first task. Then they clicked a submit button to log in to the game. • Complete a puzzle. The game presented a challenging question for the user to answer. The users then typed in their answer into the text box on the interface and hit the submit button to complete the task. • Register to receive a prize for completing the game. Mike Lee has suggested that prizes could be given out at the end of our game in order to encourage users to complete the entire game. Test subjects were asked to print out their registration information. Then they were given directions to their nearest AARP office to receive their prize. Pre-Test Before the test subjects were allowed to take the usability test, it was useful to collect a few pieces of person data to confirm that they fit certain criteria. The information that we collected includes: • Age? • Computer Experience? (Options would include novice, intermediate, and expert. We would include a description of each to assist.) • Vision or Hearing Impairments? • Member of AARP? (Options would include past member or current member.) • Average number of hours of computer use per week? • Average number of hours spent playing computer games per week? • Average number of hours spent online per week? The questionnaire for these pre-test questions is included in Appendix A. Post-Test After the test subject completed the tasks required, general questions about the overall layout of the screens were be asked. These questions included: • On a scale of 1-9 with 1 being repulsive and 9 being marvelous, rate the visual appeal of the interface in terms of color choice and contrast? • On a scale of 1-9 with 1 being repulsive and 9 being marvelous, rate the visual appeal of the interface in terms of font size and style. 24 • What change(s) would you make to the general layout? This can be color, font, layout, or anything else that comes to mind. For each of the different pages (registration, login, puzzle, prize, logout), some additional questions were asked, including: • On a scale of 1-9 with 1 being very confusing and 9 being extremely clear, rate the ease of understanding the functionality of each page. • On a scale of 1-9 with 1 being repulsive and 9 being marvelous, rate the visual appeal of the layout of components. • List any changes you would make to the name of the page, buttons, and links that would help clarify its purpose and functionality. • List any unnecessary clutter that you would like to see disappear or moved. • List any additional links or information would you like to see on this page. The feedback obtained from these questions helped evaluate the usability and visual appeal of not only the entire game as a whole, but of each page as well. The questions are specific enough to pinpoint possible weaknesses of the design while not going into too much detail making the test subject frustrated with having to answer tedious questions. The questionnaire for these post-test questions is also included in Appendix A. Usability Testing Results The usability tests exposed several problems with our design. Early in the testing, some functional errors were found in our program. One submit button did not work as expected; the only way to complete the task was to press the ‘Enter’ button on the keyboard. Additionally, a second button intended to return the user from an instructions page to the game itself did not function as expected. Since these problems were discovered early on, they were fixed for the final three usability tests. Even after fixing these functional issues, the usability tests exposed some features that were not intuitive to the users. To register for the game, we expected users to click on a “new player” button displayed next to an email address text box. Two of the six players could not complete the registration task at all and no one was able to properly log in on their first attempt. Our second task, logging into the game, worked well without any problems. Our third task, completing a game puzzle, was found to have several problems. Most users had a tough time guessing the answer. Three of the six did not know how to complete the task at hand and did not immediately click on the instructions button. Finally, some users commented that instructions on completing the puzzle should be on the main game screen, and not only accessible via the instructions link. The fourth task, submitting personal information to receive a prize, was also met with skepticism and caution. Many subjects were disinclined to give out their personal information on the internet. Pre-test Questionnaire Results 25 4 of 6 test subjects were between the ages of fifty and sixty (the AARP suggested that we aim our game towards younger members of their organization ranging from around 50-60 years of age), the remaining 2 test subjects were in there 20s. All members felt as though they were intermediate users with computers. These test subjects had no visual/auditory problems with the exception of wearing glasses. None of the test subjects were members of the AARP. Five of the six subjects spent three or more hours on the computer per day and one spent one to two hours. Five of the six subjects spent between zero and thirty minutes playing computer games per day, the remaining test subject spent 2-3 hours playing games. There was an even spread on time spent online per day: one person spent 0-30 minutes, one spent 1-2 hours, two spent 2-3 hours, two subject spent three or more hours. Post-test Questionnaire Results Most users were satisfied with the visual appeal of our interface in terms of color choice, contrast, font size, and style. Users gave these categories a 7 or 8 out of 9, which we feel shows that they were satisfied with the visual appeal of the interface. Most users were satisfied with the visual appeal of our layout and rated it a 7 or 8 on average. Users did not think that the prototype was easy to use. One user rated this category with a 2, one rated it a 3, one rated it a 4, and three gave it an 8. Ease of use was the biggest challenge for our team when designing our new improvements for the interface. The users had problems accomplishing tasks with our prototype. Additional Online Survey Results Thirty-two surveys were collected from older adults. We used an online tool called Zoomerang to collect the surveys. This link will display the online survey questions: Online Survey. An additional text-based version of this survey is included in Appendix A. Survey Results • The age demographic for the survey is as follows: 26% were under 50, 52% were 51-60, 16% were 61-70, and 6% were 71 and older. This means that we correctly reached our target audience of around the ages of 50-60. • 84% didn’t play games on the AARP website, while the other 14% did play games. • Of the users that played games, 3 enjoyed the crossword the most, 2 enjoyed the jigsaw, 1 had the word search as a favorite and another had the Jumble as their favorite. • 45% of the users have a Flash Player installed, 19% do not have a Flash player installed, and the remaining 36% are not sure if they have this installed or not. We felt as though this was still an acceptable ratio for programming the game in flash. Since flash is a free software, we feel as though older users can still get access to the program. • 57% favored a game with a beginning and ending, while the remaining 43% favored a game that is updated daily. All of the games on the AARP website are updated daily. These statistics show that there is a need for a game with a set beginning and end. 28 Anderson, Craig & Slusher, Morgan (1996). Using Causal Persuasive Arguments to Change Beliefs and Teach New Information: The Mediating Role of Explanation Availability and Evaluation Bias in the Acceptance of Knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88(1), 110-122. Berdichevsky, Daniel & Neunschwander, Erik (1999). Towards an Ethics of Persuasive Technology. Communications of the ACM, 42(5), 51-59. “Da Vinci Game” 2005. RandomHouse games. October 2, 2005. <http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/davinci/main.html> Diehl, M., Marsiske, M., Rosenberg, A., Saczynski, J. S., Willis, S. L. (2005). The Revised Observed Tasks of Daily Living: A Performance-Based Assessment of Everyday Problem Solving in Older Adults. The Journal of Applied Gerontology, 24(3), 211-230. Friestad, Marian & Wright, Peter (1994). The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts. The Journal of Consumer Research, 21(1), 1-31. “Games for Seniors” 2005. Senior Store.com October 2, 2005. <http://www.seniorstore.com/hobbies.html> King, Valarie & Scott, Mindy E. (2005). A Comparison of Cohabiting Relationships Among Older and Younger Adults. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 271-285. Malaviya, Preshant & Sternthal, Brian (2001). The Persuasive Impact of Message Spacing. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 6(3), 233-255. National Institute on Aging. (2001). Age Page. [Brochure]. Gaithersburg, MD. “Nutrition for the elderly” 2005. Health Promotion Board 12 October 2005 <http://www.hpb.gov.sg/hpb/default.asp?pg_id=865&aid=100> “Older Persons’ Health” September 21, 2005 National Center for Health Statistics 1 October 2005 <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/older_americans.htm> “Online Puzzle Games” September 9, 1997. Scott Kim. October 2, 2005. <http://www.scottkim.com/thinkinggames/cgdc11sep97.html> Poortman, Anne-Rigt & Van Tilburg, Theo G. (2005). Past experiences and older adults’ attitudes: a lifecourse perspective. Ageing & Society, 25, 19-39. Rau, Patrick & Hsu, Jia-Wen. (2005). Interaction devices and web design for novice older users. Educational Gerontology, 31, 19-40. Selwyn, N., Gorard, S., Furlong, J., & Madden L. (2003). Older adults’ use of information and communications technology in everyday life. Ageing & Society, 23, 561-582. 29 Stitt, B. Grant, Giacopassi, David, Nichols, Mark. “Gambling Among Older Adults: A Comparative Analysis” Experimental Aging Research. P189-203. “Table of Contents for Site” American Federation for Aging Research. October 2, 2005 <http://www.infoaging.org> 30 APPENDIX A: AARPG – Usability Test Pre-test Questionnaire 1. How old are you? ______________________ 2. How much computer experience do you have? (Circle your choice) a. Novice (Description) b. Intermediate (Description) c. Expert (Description) 3. Do you have any Vision or Hearing Impairments, if so describe the problem? Visual Problem ___________________________________ Hearing Problem ___________________________________ 4. Are you a member of the AARP? (Circle your choice) a. Current Member b. Non-Member c. Past Member (membership cancelled) 5. Approximately how much time do you use a computer per day? (Circle your choice) a. 0-30 minutes b. 31 minutes – 1 hour c. 1 – 2 hours d. 2-3 hours e. more than 3 hours 6. Approximately how much time do you spend playing computer games per day? (Circle your choice) a. 0-30 minutes b. 31 minutes – 1 hour c. 1 – 2 hours d. 2-3 hours e. more than 3 hours 7. Approximately how much time do you spend online per day? (Circle your choice) a. 0-30 minutes b. 31 minutes – 1 hour c. 1 – 2 hours d. 2-3 hours e. more than 3 hours 33 Free Response. Question 8: In playing games and using applications, what is your favorite color to have as a background? A. White B. Red C. Blue D. Green E. Other, Please Specify Question 9: Do you follow sports? If so, which sports do you follow? A. I do not follow sports B. Baseball C. Basketball D. Soccer E. Golf F. Tennis G. Other, Please Specify Question 10: How much do you know about Pop culture? A. Not much at all B. A little C. About average D. More than average E. A great deal 34 APPENDIX B: J.C. Herz Talk (November 8, 2005) Notes Gamer Populations we mentioned 1. Many types of people play MUDS a. The four types of people that play: i. Accomplishers – want to get to the top, get acknowledgement ii. Explorers – want to look under every nook and cranny, find out all the secrets of the game iii. Socializes – want to meet people – help the community iv. Killers – want to make life miserable for everyone else b. Different ratios of people will mean different situations i. Killers like to kill Socializes, because they get the most upset ii. If there are many Accomplishers, then they might kill of the Killers c. Stated that these 4 categories of people are age-independent, usually a killer stays a killer d. Stated that these categories apply for other parts of life as well 2. Military older folks a. Love the war games b. It makes them feel as though they could still fly that fighter plane, like they did when they were in the service. c. Many of the same population really watch the History Channel 3. Online Groups a. Task Oriented Groups i. Usually talk about the task ii. Interactions with others are motivated by that goal b. Social Oriented Groups i. The group is it’s own worst enemy ii. Usually talk about each other iii. Doctor Study Mentioned 1. Doctor tried to treat drug addicts as a group 2. Found that when they were almost cured the group would actually thwart his efforts to finish up 3. The Group didn’t want to die. 4. Our Culture = Maker Culture a. Teenage girls stitching b. Google maps now starting maps that tell a story for a trip 5. Focus Group Problem a. People can say things they don’t mean b. All kids at a boom-box focus group said yellow was the coolest color c. When given a free boom-box, all chose black 35 Types of Games we talked about 6. Serious/Skill Games: a. Drumming Games b. Guitar Games c. When you are done with these games, you have actually gained a skill, if you can beat the hard modes, you are a decent musician. 7. Casual Net Games a. Takes less time than other games, 5 or 15 minutes b. Good for breaks c. Many women play these games 8. Action/Puzzle Games a. Brain games can help people be aware b. The Brain Games can be so popular that it can drive people to buy gaming hardware. c. Boomers want to stay fit mentally + physically d. Suggested an AARP Game phone 9. Board Games on Computer a. Not as fun, less of a social aspect b. Most board games are tedious and boring, the fun part is the social aspect c. Chatting could spice up Computer Board Games 10. Games that offer feeling of accomplishments a. Suggested Pedometer Game i. Add to life list of things to do ii. Include pictures to tell a story iii. Give the user some sort of public title at the end Specific Games Mentioned 1. Age of Empires a. Shows people history b. People learn a lot about what ancient civilizations dressed like and ate. c. Microsoft’s Version of History = A series of technological upgrades 2. NintenDogs a. Feeling of accomplishments w/ pet b. An emotional experience 38 Answer: “Angel Eyes" Sentenza OR Lee Van Cleef 3. This female artist played at Wood Stock. She was adamantly against the Vietnam War. Hint: One of her albums is titled David’s Album. Answer: Joan Baez 1970’s Trivia 1. You pull out a video tape of an Oscar winning movie in the 1970s. The cover has a picture of a boxer. The summary says that he is a struggling boxer trying to become a heavyweight champion. What movie is the title of this movie? Hint: Listen to a clip of a song associated with this movie. “Eye of the Tiger” Answer: Rocky 2. You pull out an old baseball player card. His team won the World Series in 1975. What team does is that player on? Hint: The team wore red and white jerseys. Answer: Cincinnati Reds 3. The next item you find is a piece of clothing. It is pink, middle-length skirt. What is the common term that you would use to describe a skirt of this length? Hint: In between mini and maxi. Answer: midi / midi skirts / midi-skirts 1980’s Trivia 1. The first item you find is a diary entry. In the entry you reminisce about a past relationship and write down some lyrics to a song. What is the title of this hit song containing the lyrics below: I wish I could just make you turn around, turn around and see me cry. There’s so much I need to say to you, so many reasons why. You’re the only one who really knew me at all. Hint: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Answer: Against All Odds 39 2. Now you pull out a ripped ticket stub to an event that occurred on October 17, 1989. This game was disrupted by an earthquake. Use Yahoo to find out what event this ticket stub was from. Hint: Visit http://www.yahoo.com and search for information about the earthquake. Answer: The World Series / World Series (any string with world series in it) 3. The next item is an old letter sent between you and your pen pal. In the letter you describe this game that you have become addicted to playing. List an address for us to send you a copy of the letter so you can figure out what game you are describing. Hint: This game was inspired while consuming food. Answer: Pac Man 40 APPENDIX D: Database schema Tables 1. user Field Type username varchar(25), not null password char(32), not null maiden varchar(50), not null onQuestion unsigned int requestedPrize boolean, default(false) firstName varchar(25) middleInitial char(1) lastName varchar(50) birthday date zipcode char(5) email varchar(60) primary_key(username) foreign_key(onQuestion) references questionLookup(id) 2. questionLookup Field Type id unsigned int, not null question text, not null decade enum(‘50’,’60’,’70’,’80’), not null primary_key(id) 3. answerLookup Field Type id unsigned int answer text foreign_key(id) references questionLookup(id) primary_key(id,answer) The first table, users, holds the user information. While registering, a potential game player is asked to create a username and password and to indicate their mother’s maiden name for password retrieval purposes. This information is inserted into this table. The username field is the table’s primary key because no two usernames can be alike. The onQuestion field is a number relating to the id field of the questionLookup table. It indicates which question the user is up to in the game. The requestedPrize field is a boolean value indicating whether the user has completed the game and requested a prize. The remaining fields relate to the prize registration page. The second table, questionLookup, is a static table which holds the questions involved in the game and the decades they relate to. Each question is assigned a unique id. This table is not editable by game players.