game bucket: game taxonomy project

Design questions –

1. Should Game Station be something that gets populated when i search for a game – all similar games get added there temporarily and get wiped out on exiting the app.
2. Should it be something available only to members when they are logged in and remains there even the next time they log in?
3. What constitutes a similar game? What is the basis/ rule for this kind of classification?
4. Does a system of ranking create this classification?

More thoughts coming…

Design Question – Should documentation be integrated into datasets and quests or should it be a separate section?

Last Screen

Design Question – What if a game belongs to more than one subject – do 2 entries exist for that game or only one?

Search by Standards

Search by Game

http://a.parsons.edu/~udays709/instituteofplay/prototype3/textbox.swf

The way things work
take apart| modify systems | remix | invention | system structure & dynamics| | small machines| models| simulations| scientific reasoning| engineering | design | math | science | exploration | transform | build

Being, Space & Place
Time| space| geography| culture | civilization | values| community| physical systems| living systems| imaginary systems| identity| individual| civics| social studies| history | ELA | humanities

POV & Multiple perspectives
POV | perspective| belief| values | viewpoints| debate| empathy| expression | cooperation | ethics| tolerance| global citizenship| civics | social studies | ELA | history | humanities

Wellness
health | wellness | emotional health | psychological health | physical health| peer groups| family| community| society| reflect| share | well being | body | peer pressure | ecology

CodeWorlds
decode | author| manipulate| unlock meaning| interpret | symbolic systems| foreign languages| programming| ELA | math | code | decipher | translate | write | calculate

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/02/data-visualization-modern-approaches/

I did some research around taxonomy projects today and here are my notes :

1) Music Genome project: A given song is represented by a vector containing approximately 150 genes. Each gene corresponds to a characteristic of the music, for example, gender of lead vocalist, level of distortion on the electric guitar, type of background vocals, etc. The system depends on a sufficient number of genes to render useful results. Each gene is assigned a number between 1 and 5, and fractional values are allowed but are limited to half integers. Given the vector of one or more songs, a list of other similar songs is constructed using a distance function. To create a song’s genome, it is analyzed by a musician in a process that takes 20 to 30 minutes per song. Ten percent of songs are analyzed by more than one technician to ensure conformity with the standards, i.e., reliability.

In addition to the above, Pandora features some cool user interface tools

If you scroll over the song that is playing you can contribute to the rating by choosing if you like the song or if you don’t like it so it doesn’t play again. Under the “Guide Us” option you’ll get these directions:
o Why is this song playing?
o I really like this song-play more like it
o I don’t like this song, it’s not what this section should play.
o I want to add more kinds of music to this station
o I’m tired of this station; let’s create a new one.

2) Musicovery
http://www.musicovery.com/

For each music track stored inside the Musicovery music library there are 30 descriptors with around 10 values each; values are ordered and then projected for each track on a 2D matrix, using the appropriate descriptors and a complete hierarchy for them. This generates a map of dynamic graphics that represents objects related by similarity or proximity attributes. This in turn enables navigation by proximity in a multi-dimension space (not pseudo 3D) and it does not require to externalize or verbalize the attributes on which each object is referenced.

Additionally, despite the crowded color scheme, Musicovery has a nice interface, much alike the taxonomy interface that we are trying to create. Here is a much explanatory post that takes a user through the interface: http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/11/21/custom_streaming_web_radio_plays.html

CoSearch is a tool developed by Saleema Amershi and Meredith Ringel Morris. The tool is designed to enable co-locative, collaborative searching. Multiple users may connect to the application running on a single Windows PC via multiple mice or bluetooth enabled smartphones. Saleema is pursuing her PhD at the University of Washington and Meredith is a researcher working for Microsoft.

More information about the tool as well as papers on CoSearch and two other related tools may be found on the wiki.