While researchi…

While researching designs for the interface and illustrations I found this site.

It profiles various forms of illustrations used in webdesign… Press here for more

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By utilising the various techniques displayed here we can improve the interactive experience, thus improving the over all content

 

Little Big planet is known for its interactivity and exploration factors. By excluding real life animations and designs it encourages the user to indulge in the game play.. HERE is a link to LBP

 

 

Moshi Monsters Business Model

After some research into models and narritives I found this interesting blog

http://transmythology.com/2011/02/06/moshi-monsters-as-a-business-model/

 

 

Moshi Monsters as a Business Model

Posted on February 6, 2011

There’s been a significant amount of press over the past couple of weeks surrounding the UK launch of toys based upon the popular Moshi Monsters online community. The Moshi Monsters brand was launched three years ago; since then over 33 million kids have signed up for the website, which offers free games, educational puzzles and social networking.

Moshi Monsters is owned by Mind Candy, which was behind the Perplex City card game-based ARG. Unlike Perplex City, Moshi Monsters has been a financial success – Mind Candy CEO Michael Acton Smith estimates that it will generate $100m from online and physical sales in 2011. While Moshi Monsters is perhaps most useful as an exploration of how “product-based” Transmedia properties can function, there are still some useful principles that can be extrapolated to Transmedia as a whole.

Trust and Safety are Critical

As Acton Smith says in an interview with thisislondon.co.uk:

Our ‘penny-drop’ moment was that kids loved chatting and showing off and communicating online just as much as growns-up do. We realised if we could create a safe community for the under-13s, we could build a site as big as Facebook for children. That’s when we started adding social features.

Now, the issue of safety is obviously particularly important when you’re marketing to kids – it’s an issue that Mattel, Hasbro and all of the games consoles manufacturers are dealing with on a daily basis. A single instance of negligence can be dangerously costly. I’m impressed to see how candidly moshimonsters.com highlights these issues for parents.

Trust is key with any Transmedia experience. As stories across platforms and devices become more integrated, the need for data and username collection increases. You cannot afford for user data to become compromised, or exploited. If fans feel that their information is being abused – in essence that they can no longer interact safely with the property – they will leave in droves. Likewise, if you allow lazy storytelling or releases that compromise the integrity of the story brand.

Audience trust is perhaps the single most important factor in executing a Transmedia project of any size. Betray it at your peril.

Keep it Simple and Maintain a Work-Reward Balance

Mind Candy’s previous project Perplex City was fundamentally flawed: its ARG elements were too complicated, required too much work to maintain (and brought in zero revenue), and catered to too few users. Because a handful of hardcore users invested a lot of time in solving puzzles, the writers had to continually write more-and-more creative material – none of which substantively increased sales of the playing cards, the only revenue source.

Moshi Monsters is very simple. Kids “adopt” monsters, play games and form communities around the site. If they want to further personalize their monsters or buy items in the world’s virtual currency, they have to pay a premium fee. Moreover, it is ideally suited for expansion into consumer products, mobile games and – ultimately – cartoons and comics, because it is based around aesthetically-interesting characters. Perplex City, by contrast, was so vast that it was impossible to hammer down a defining character that could represent the brand.

Clearly, there’s a balance at work here – users are free to browse the site without payment (building a connection, or become “indoctrinated”), but there are also very real revenue streams in place. When beginning a Transmedia project, it is important to consider what exactly you are trying to sell.

Transmedia Properties Can Become Disruptive

Make no mistake – it is exceptionally difficult to launch a new IP in a meaningful way. However, by smartly filling a hole in the market and employing Transmedia methods, it is possible. Acton Smith says:

We have shown that, with very little capital, it is possible to compete with the Disneys and Warner Brothers. I believe in future all successful properties will originate online.

I wouldn’t go so far as to totally agree with him, but Moshi Monsters does provide some food for thought. The established entertainment corporations will certainly be looking to replicate the model (see, e.g. Mattel’s Monster High or Hasbro’s efforts to redefine itself as “a branded play company.” ). This quote from Acton Smith is also interesting:

The internet is enabling anyone with a brilliant idea to execute it.

Herein, I believe, lies the crux of the issue. The internet might provide an outlet for people with good ideas but, as ever, execution is key – and the vast majority of people and businesses are unable to put the requisite time and effort into an idea to ensure that it is done justice.

Understand the Value of Cross-Platform, and Word of Mouth

Like Rovio and Angry Birds, Moshi Monsters understands that a single product or platform is insufficient in today’s market – it is imperative to attempt to become a cross-platform franchise. This entails creating meaning in your users’ lives – but if you succeed, word will spread quickly. Apparently, up to 100,000 players join Moshi Monsters per day, purely by word of mouth.

Where Moshi Monsters becomes more interesting is the nascent cross-pollination between platforms. Many of the physical Moshi Monsters toys include secret codes that can be inputted on the website to unlock new features. This is a notable departure from traditional licensed toys, where there is often no relation between various platforms – it is not uncommon to see the back of the toy box contradict the established canon of a TV show or book. In this respect, Mind Candy’s relatively small, centralized nature may be an asset – as there is less potential for wires to be crossed.

But What is The Long-Term Strategy?

Consciously or unconsciously, Mind Candy recognized two deep-seated emotional needs with Moshi Monsters – the need to nurture (a pet) and the need to communicate (with each other). However, it remains to be seen whether the brand has a sufficiently defined sense of theme to endure across stories and platforms for a number of years (rather than being perceived as a fad).

Thus, Mind Candy has some difficult questions to answer: what is the underlying message of the Moshi Monsters brand? What are the elements of a Moshi Monsters story? What rules govern its world and the behavior of its characters? If Mind Candy wants Moshi Monsters to truly become a Transmedia franchise, it’s essential that it considers these questions.

Designing interactive products for children

Designing interactive products for children – how is it different?

 

Designing for an age-appropriate audience is key while designing children interactive products for 2 main reasons:

1. Children go through many different stages in their cognitive development where they acquire new skill sets in areas such as literacy, mathematics, and their thought processes at different ages
2. Children’s fine motor skills also develop over time

These factors should be given prominence before, during, and after the design of children interactive products for different age groups.

Designing interactive products for children shouldn’t be any different from any user-centred design process, but the methods for carrying out user research, the implementation of different design guidelines and evaluating the products need to cater for the young or little audience group. So how exactly are these methods.

User research: understanding your audience

Interactive products for children are usually fun and educational, but how do we know exactly what children need? Common ways of gathering user requirements (e.g. interviews, conducting diary studies, surveys, and observational studies) don’t necessarily apply to children given their limited language skills and attention span. Also, children might not necessarily know what they need. In this case, the following methods can be helpful:

Consult ‘indirect’ users such as parents and teachers. For example, by talking to parents and teachers, the designer might realise that what the child needs is not a game on solving multiplication problems per se, but also a better way to memorise the multiplication table.

Observing children in their natural environment such as during play or in a learning classroom might provide insight on the types of activities children enjoy and also how children interact with different products to inform the design solution.

Design guidelines for children interactive products

Some important guidelines to follow while designing for children include:

Design age-appropriate content

It’s important to design user activities that match the cognitive development of the target audience group. A good example of age-appropriate content is BBC’s Bitesize¹, an online study resource which categorises educational content based on the National Curriculum’s key stages.

Understand children’s mental models

It’s important to remember that children don’t have the same life experiences as adults hence don’t have the same mental models when it comes to understanding the world around them. A good example is children’s understanding of mathematical concepts. For example, young children might not visualise subtraction in terms of 2 – 1 = 1 but might understand a pictorial representation as showed below:

Use appropriate language

Again, due to children’s developing language skills, it’s important that the language used by interactive products is understandable by the product’s target age group. This includes providing instructions in clear and simple languages and using words which are within children’s vocabulary bank. It’s also important to not rely on web conventions such as using terms like ‘save’ as it might confuse children who aren’t familiar with such concepts.

Identify ergonomic constraints

As interactive products are usually delivered via platforms designed mainly for adult use, it’s important to bear in mind the constraints children might face when interacting with these different devices. For example:

• Don’t use teeny-weeny font sizes: This rule applies to everyone, including children.
• Use good colour contrast: Again, this rule applies to everyone, including children. In addition, as children respond better to colourful products, balancing these two requirements is a delicate task.
• Use bigger keypad sizes for input devices: As young children don’t necessarily have the fine motor skills required for making very precise and accurate target movements, it’s important that input devices such as keyboards and touchscreens have keypads that are bigger than standard ones.
• Point and click vs. drag and drop: Research has also showed that children tend to be able to perform point and click activities quicker and more accurately than drag and drop. With this in mind, designers should try to apply suitable interaction styles according to the target age group.

The guidelines above are by no means exhaustive but are important and mostly applicable to all types of design projects. Interested readers should refer to Hanna et al. (1998)² and Gelderblom & Kotzé (2009)  ³ for more detailed guidelines for the design of technology for children.

Evaluation (usability testing with children)

Just like any other user-centred design process, evaluation is critical for finding out how users interact with a design so that it can be improved. However, it’s important to bear in mind that methods appropriate for evaluating interactive products with adults don’t necessarily work for children. For example, children with limited language skills might not provide much insight during traditional usability evaluation methods such as think-aloud or structured interviews. Also, children are more likely to give superficial responses while answering questions if they don’t understand a question. They are also highly susceptible to suggestions and have a poorer recall for events from their memory.

Some ways to overcome this include:

• Carry out the evaluation in the child’s natural environment. Participatory observation is particularly useful in this context as it allows the evaluator to observe the child’s behaviour without having to rely on recall of events
• Avoid leading questions and specific terminology to prevent superficial responses
• Use free-recall questions rather than specific questions to increase reliability (source: J.C. Read & K. Fine  ⁴)
• Interview other people (e.g. teachers and parents) who might be able to provide different insights on the child’s interaction with an interactive product and other useful information (source: M. Scaife & Y. Rogers  ⁵)
• Make it fun!!

 

Conclusion

Designing for children requires careful planning depending on the nature of the project and the age-group of the children involved. Always determine the age-group of the target audience and use appropriate methods for conducting user research, implementing design guidelines and evaluating the designs. Lastly, a good designer must never forget the ethical considerations involved while designing for children and should exercise their limits accordingly.

<!–This article was written by Yeevon Ooi, a consultant at the user experience consultancy, Webcredible. Yeevon’s passionate about improving the user experience of websites and is responsible for implementing a variety of user experience projects including information architecture and helps run a fantastic Axure training course.

–>This article was written by Yeevon Ooi, a consultant at the user experience consultancy⁶, Webcredible. Yeevon is passionate about improving the user experience of websites and is responsible for implementing a variety of user experience projects including information architecture⁷ and interaction design⁸.