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AssignmentOne  
Project Vision & Scope
Updated Feb 4, 2010 by akf.flo...@gmail.com

Meeting Minutes Assignment One Assignment Two Assignment Three Assignment Four Assignment Five

Problem Description

Project Background

Brainiac, is a collection of short educational quizzes and games targeted towards young children who are in 1st grade. The application aims to improve foundational skills such as vocabulary and mathematics. These skills are improved through exercises such as addition, subtraction, spelling, and word definitions. The activities are to be fun and educational at the same time.

Stakeholders

  • Developers
  • Toby Donaldson
  • Chen Dai
  • End-users

Users

  • Elementary School Teachers
  • Elementary Students
  • Home School Students
Assumptions:
  • How to turn a computer on/off
  • Basic understanding of how to use Windows OS
  • Basic typing skill
  • Basic mouse control
  • Speaks and understands English

Risks

Risk Likelihood Severity
Team member leaving Low Catastrophic
Team member falling ill Medium High
Falling off schedule Low Low - High
Unsatisfied client / user Low Catastrophic
Loss of project work / data Low Low - Catastrophic
Poor team synergy and cooperation Low Medium

Assumptions

  • Project stays on schedule and is released on time
  • Equal workloads given to each developer
  • Project stays true to the scope and vision
  • Each team member has the resources to develop the product
  • Users’ expect the software to be functional and accurate, with a minimum number of bugs
  • The user will continue to use the software until they find the questions too elementary

.

Vision of Solution

Vision Statement

Brainiacs is designed to enhance the learning experience of young minds while covering the fundamental subjects which are covered first grade. Furthermore, this application will create an experience that is fun, creative, and at the same time, educational. It will also be a learning tool that will be provided at a very affordable price to parents and teachers—nothing.

Architectural Diagram

List of Features

Individual user accounts

Upon launching the application, users will be prompted to log-in to their account. Maintaining individual users accounts allows for the integration of numerous other features. For instance, for each user, the system may maintain the user's profile, statistical information, awards, and position in the leader board.

Scoring / Progress System

For each quiz or mini-game that a user plays, a score will be given based on the user's success (i.e. the number of questions that he or she gets correct). For each study buddy, the system will keep track of the highest and lowest scores that the user achieves. This scoring system will be used to generate the rankings for the leader board.

Expandable / Additional Plug-ins

The system will be flexible enough such that if any new Study Buddies were developed, they could very easily be plugged into the existing system. Like pre-existing ones, these new Study Buddies will be available to users and will also implement the same functionalities (i.e. the scoring system). There is no limit on the number of additional study buddies that could be added.

Adaptive Questioning System

While a game or quiz is in progress, the system will be able to detect the user's success so far, and adjusts the difficulty level accordingly. For instance, if the user is doing very well in a particular quiz, then harder questions are generated. On the other hand, easier questions are given if the user seems to find the quiz too difficult.

Sound

Sound will be the main method of communication with the user. It will be used to give the user instructions for how to complete a particular activity. Furthermore, it will also be used to interact with the user. For instance, different sound clips will be played to let the user know whether he or she answered a question correctly.

Import / Export of User Accounts

To increase the portability of the software, users will be able to save their accounts and load it from another computer that has the Braniac software installed. With this feature, users will not be restricted to playing on a single machine, but will have the liberty to play on others, such as their home computer. Loading an account from a different computer will still reflect the same information about the user (i.e. statistics and rankings) as is stored in the original machine.

Random Buddy Generator

This feature randomly selects one of the available Study Buddies for the user to play. This is particularly useful for when the user cannot decide which Buddy to play first.

Administrator Account

Administrator accounts are for teachers and parents, and give privileged access to the system. They allow an administrator to view the profiles and statistics of all users of the system. In addition, teachers and parents may retrieve passwords in the event that students forget theirs.

Points and Unlockable Features

Initially, there are some features of the software, such as additional Study Buddies, that are not available, or are otherwise "locked". Therefore, to encourage and motivate users to continue playing, points will be awarded according to each user's success in a particular game or quiz. They will then be able to unlock additional features only upon reaching a certain number of points.

Rewards System

To promote a positive learning experience, trophies will be awarded to users who demonstrate excellent progress in the games and quizzes. Awards may be given for numerous events, such as reaching the top ranking in the leader board, or achieving a perfect score on a quiz.

Print Account Statistics

Users will be given the ability to print a hard copy containing their account statistics. This document will include information such as the different scores that a user achieved for the different quizzes, as well as his or her current ranking in the leader board.

Leader Board System

The leader board contains the rankings of all users, which will be based on users' statistics. This allows users to compare their progress or success to others. Furthermore, there will be different rankings for each game or quiz, such that the top scores for each activity is displayed.

Scope of Phased Release

Phase Features
Version One Individual User Accounts, Scoring / Progress System, Expandable (Plug-ins), Adaptive Questioning System, Create one study buddy plug-in
Version Two Sound, Import / Export of User Accounts, Virtual Guide / Tool Tips, Create three study buddy plug-ins
Version Three Un-lockable Features, Rewards System, Print Account Statistics, Leader Board System

Features Not to be Implemented

Online Multi-player

Considering how the application’s intended users consists of young children, this is a feature that will likely be too complicated and unnecessary for its users.

Two-player mode

Originally, this feature had planned to be implemented, but it was later on removed. There were issues with how the second player would be implemented. Would the second player need to login to play? And how would both players’ score be recorded for each account? Because of this, the two-player feature was deemed too complicated to be implemented within the application’s development schedule.

Video

This video feature would have been used for tutorials or a storyline. It was decided that this feature would be too time-consuming to create, and would not likely enhance the user’s experience in a revolutionary way.

Animation

This feature would have been implemented to enhance the visual design of the user interface. It was decided that it will not be implemented as creating images for every frame would take up too much time to create, and would take away time from more import aspects of the application.

Storyline

It was a possible to create a storyline that would go along with the application, but this would take up a considerable amount of time to do. Furthermore, it is also not necessary to implement, and may cause deviation from the application's main focus of educational values.

Gamepad / joystick interaction

We are limiting our program’s input devices to only mouse and keyboard. We cannot guarantee that all our users will have a gamepad or joystick, therefore we want to eliminate the possibility of deterring potential users.

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