A "Frozen bubble" type game that is fun
and teaches you sign language at the same time.
Available in Google Play.
and teaches you sign language at the same time.
Available in Google Play.
OVERVIEW
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In this project the continued development of a mobile game called POPSign, designed to teach American Sign Language mainly to parents of Deaf children, is introduced.
The game could be downloaded in Google Play now. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.georgiatech.popsign |
DATE : Feb. 2016 - Apr. 2016 / Jan. 2016 - Present
ROLE : UI/UX designer, Graphic designer, Video editor TEAM : Josian Palusky, Shujun Bian, Youssif Hasssanein, Xiaoxuan Wang, Xue Zhao |
Problems
BACKGROUND
Between 90 and 95% of deaf children are born to hearing parents in the United States. Most of these parents have no previous experience with American Sign Language and must learn it in order to communicate with their children. Deaf children born to hearing parents can experience delays in language learning, which can lead to reductions in verbal ability. A mobile app is an ideal way for busy parents to practice ASL. An Android game called POPSign was developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology by researchers in the Human-Computer Interaction department to help parents of deaf children learn ASL.
Previous work
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Celeste Mason, advised by Dr. Thad Starner, helped create an application called POPSign. POPSign was built using the open-source code from a popular Android “bubble bursting” game called Frozen Bubble. Mason found that users reported their POPSign experience as enjoyable overall, and were enthusiastic about using the game. Evaluations of POPSign still couldn’t provide evidence that sign recognition in the app would result in greater sign reproduction in the real world.
In Mason’s POPSign prototype, users are shown a set of multi-colored bubbles at the top of the game screen. Players must shoot a ball at a set of similarly colored balls to make them disappear. Each bubble has a text string inside of it, representing a sign language vocabulary word for that level. At the bottom of the screen, there is a looping ASL video. To know which color bubble will be shot, users must learn the definition of the sign language word being shown in the video. This hybrid game dynamic allows users to learn sign language while playing an addictive mobile game. |
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Based on the original version of POPSign, we found several problems as follows:
- Poor UI design
- No tutorial before playing
- Poor quality of videos
- Less vocabulary words set
- Cryptic Android code base
REDESIGN SOLUTION
TEMPLATE REPLACEMENT
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The team's decision to use Unity 3D to develop the application came in part after negative experiences developing the application with the original Android code base. For the first few weeks of the project, the team explored the original Android POPSign code. After struggling with cryptic logic, deprecated tools, bugs, and difficulty transitioning the project into modern Android development environments, the team decided to start fresh, using Unity 3D. In Unity 3D, development takes place in both a scripting environment where code is written, and a visual environment where the elements and objects in the project can be manipulated through the Unity 3D GUI interface.
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A bubble shooter game named Easter Bunny was purchased from the Unity 3D asset store. Since the style of the new game template is pretty dated and could not match the quality of popular mobile games, my main responsibility is to redesign each UI element to replace the original graphic pieces of the new game template.
experience redesign
After several brainstromings and discussion, updated version was going to be modified to include the features of the original POPSign game, along with some new features to increase the usefulness of the game as a method for learning ASL.
According to weaknesses mentioned above, our direct goal is to add either a preview screen or tutorial before user entering level play. And we were trying to add the review screen after playing each level to enhance player's memories of ASL and also discussed about enriching the game by evolving variety of modes such as quiz mode. The rough hand-drawn wireframe is as follows:
According to weaknesses mentioned above, our direct goal is to add either a preview screen or tutorial before user entering level play. And we were trying to add the review screen after playing each level to enhance player's memories of ASL and also discussed about enriching the game by evolving variety of modes such as quiz mode. The rough hand-drawn wireframe is as follows:
Due to the limited time, we finally decided to implements a preview screen that appears before each level. This screen allows users to practice words before entering a level, which also helps users understand how to play the game, and encourages them to physically practice the sign language vocabulary before each level.
INTERFACE REDESIGN
FIRST DESIGN
Splash page
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Level selection
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Preview page
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THEME DESIGN
Since the first mockup set up the primary design element, I started to move on designing three different UI themes based on the BUBBLE element. Those are "Dream", "Ocean" and "Bubble Hill".
Ocean
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Dream
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Bubble hill
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After discussion, we decided to use the "Bubble Hill" theme because it has more possibilities on the color choice and those little star icon also could be made use of for further development.
USER INTERFACE
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NEW modifications
The game template was modified to include the features of the original POPSign game, along with new features to increase the usefulness of the game as a method for learning ASL. The new features were:
- The preview screen. The new version of the application implements a preview screen that appears before each level. This screen allows users to practice words before entering a level. In the original POPSign game, users had to learn words during gameplay, which required initial experimentation to determine definitions. The preview screen also helps users understand how to play the game. and encourages them to physically practice the sign language vocabulary before each level.
- Dynamic json word sests. Each level has a json file that assigns a word set to it. The original POPSign prototype created by Mason had all of the words hard-coded into if for evaluation purposes, and due to the use of only a few vocabulary wording was not ready for daily use or app store deployment. Dynamic words sets allow POPSign to support the addition new vocabulary in the future. without the need for major code modifications.
- Cross-platform development. Development in Unity 3D makes it feasible to distribute POPSign on many platforms, including Android, IOS, Mac, Windows, and web browsers.
- Optimized video. The Jpegs optimized with ImageMagick have a smaller file size than the images used in the original POPSign prototype.
demo
Evaluation
After implementing all the changes, user evaluations were completed using a think-aloud procedure and a follow-up survey. 19 participants between the ages of 18 and 34 were selected in the student center at Georgia Institute of Technology, based on willingness to participate. Users in the think-aloud were instructed to play the first level of the game. Participants were also asked to explain the purpose of the new preview screen to evaluate the usefulness of this new addition to the POPSign gameplay.
Changes suggested by users
- Modifications to the preview screen. Although this screen was helpful for users, many users simply pressed "play" upon reaching this screen, and didn't use it for its intended purpose of learning and practicing words before entering a level. The preview screen should be modified so that the play button is made less prominent, or invisible until users have cycled through each of the words that will be in the upcoming level.
- A tutorial. The team wanted to assess if the inclusion of a preview screen would make a tutorial unnecessary. Users have indicated that a tutorial is still necessary for learning how to use the game. Although the preview screen helps users discover the connection between the videos and the ball colors, some things cannot be explained on the preview screen. Things like the switching mechanic, how many levels should be explained separately. This could easily be completed with a "slideshow" tutorial, with annotated images explaining each of these areas of confusion.
- Words visibility improvement. Since the bubble only present first three letters of each vocabulary due to the bubble size, players sometimes founds it kind of difficult and need to spend some time to figure out what the word is while playing. The bubble filled with word should be modified to improve the visibility and intuition.
Further Development
Words vs ICONS
Based on the user feedback, we started to work on improving the visibility of the word in bubble. Initially we tried two methods. One of them is to put a complete word in one bubble by using a more delicate and clear font and the other is to use the icon to indicate the word.
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The results of WORDs vs ICONs seems pretty obvious. In terms of using icons, users need to spend double time on recognizing the sign language and the icons as well while playing. And some of icons could be very tricky and confusing. Also some simple words like "today" are almost impossible to be presented by icon. Thus, using a complete simple word or an abbreviations of a long word would be a more proper way so far.
TUTORIAL & HELP
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The tutorial was designed to make players have a better understanding of the game. The tutorial would be show up when users enter the first level immediately during their first play. Users could simply follow the instructions and click the highlighted buttons to continue the game. Also a help button was added in the game in case users forget the meaning of certain ASL while playing.
Conclusion
Learning ASL is unlike learning any other language. Parents of deaf children are faced with the daunting task of learning a language that cannot be effectively studied using traditional language-learning tools. The initial POPSign prototype demonstrated the potential of utilizing mobile platforms to teach sign language to people with no ASL exposure in an engaging, visual manner. The new version of POPSign has begun the process of turning the application into a store-ready game that can help parents learn sign language faster.
Users have indicated that the new version of POPSign is a valid way to learn ASL. Upon reaching the preview screen at the start of a level, one participant immediately understood the purpose of the game and explained it to the evaluators. He looked down at the text on the preview screen that instructs users to practice the words before playing the level, held his phone out with one hand, and signed each of the words with the other hand. Upon entering the game, he completed the level in a matter of seconds. He seemed excited, and said that he was currently studying sign language using a different mobile application, and would be thrilled to use POPSign if it could be downloaded in the app store. Feedback like this has led the developers to conclude that POPSign has great potential, and further development should take place to help parents bridge the divide between the hearing world, and the silent world.
Users have indicated that the new version of POPSign is a valid way to learn ASL. Upon reaching the preview screen at the start of a level, one participant immediately understood the purpose of the game and explained it to the evaluators. He looked down at the text on the preview screen that instructs users to practice the words before playing the level, held his phone out with one hand, and signed each of the words with the other hand. Upon entering the game, he completed the level in a matter of seconds. He seemed excited, and said that he was currently studying sign language using a different mobile application, and would be thrilled to use POPSign if it could be downloaded in the app store. Feedback like this has led the developers to conclude that POPSign has great potential, and further development should take place to help parents bridge the divide between the hearing world, and the silent world.
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