Inspiration and Mobile Layout

 I know we are on spring break and it has been very relaxing but I started working on the setup of Batmon's website using Wix. Wix is a platform to develop websites quickly. I could try to code everything from scratch but for a beginner that would take a lot more time. So, I set up an account and started drawing out my basic concept for the website first on the mobile layout. In my internet/web development course, we are taught to start with a mobile design first and that is what I started doing already in the image below. I am still planning the content but now have a more clear idea of what content will go in each section. I know Wix has analytics but I need to look more into Google analytics since my main focus has been on SEO and some design research. I have the color palette down so far and the layout below. I need to next find out what pages the website will have in the menu. 

Accessibility, SEO and Content Optimization

While finding research for my project I found what I believe will be my main 3 factors for the research behind making a website's design competent. The three factors are accessibility, SEO strategy, and content optimization. A website's design must be aesthetically pleasing, have the proper color palette, and it must have accessibility features for individuals with disabilities. While writing and editing my background paper, I found that individuals with disabilities actually use the internet more than those without disabilities. I also found that internationally, a study found that in most countries more than twenty-five percent of the population do not reach adequate literacy to participate fully in society. Hence, the importance of accessibility on web pages should be equally important to the content and functionality. On my own, I see there are a lot of websites that do not have accessibility features, even large companies who have professional websites sometimes tend to lack accessibility features. Below is an image of the workflow that should be followed for designing an accessible website. 

Image and information from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050912007934 

Rephrasing Research Question and SEO

I was able to rephrase my research question, and Josh helped me narrow down my research topic to where I can still use the research articles I have already gathered so far. Josh also helped me find some research articles because he has a talent for keywords. Once again, search engine optimization is emphasized while researching this project. I seek to answer why a website is so important to have a great SEO ranking? From what I have read about search engine optimization, the answer is to increase website traffic; the website must have the correct SEO methods to have a higher rank on tons of websites. Research shows a large percentage of website traffic comes from search engines. In addition to great SEO rankings, the website must also have these major components: Usability, Accessibility, and social media to promote websites. 

Information and image from: https://ibimapublishing.com/articles/JIEBS/2016/969476/969476.pdf 

In my CIS233DA Internet/Web Development, we have learned that usability and accessibility are CRUCIAL for websites because users will not stay if the site is not intuitive enough. Companies can actually get sued for lack of accessibility. We have also learned that most of the American population has problems with accessibility, such as color contrast, further emphasizing the importance of accessibility. I know I have to find a way to import accessibility features into the website and make it very easy and intuitive to navigate. 

Information from: https://www.teaching-materials.org/accessibility/#/13 

Youth Website Appeal

Aside from researching how to bring traffic to a website, I have been really excited to start playing with design elements but the planning process of a website takes a while. I could not resist the curiosity and started researching potential colors for the website. I first started by searching what colors appeal to middle school kids and I saw a lot of brighter colors but not too bright, they were not super bright neon colors. The super bright neon colors appear a little more to younger kids. The audience for the website is middle schoolers and above, and I saw that most gaming websites have black incorporated along with color. I was already thinking of doing this, so this quick research makes me happy that I was correct. This week I have learned that search engine optimization, a phrase that is thrown a lot in website development is crucial to driving traffic. I researched many articles to get an idea of what it is and how I can practice it to master it and bring numerous organic traffic to the website. I really want to get started with the design already but I know planning is essential before designing. As you can see in the picture below this website capcom.com has an image of Disney's castle of illusion game which is rated for ages 9+, along with the age range of middle schoolers, my target audience. The website image of this game has color but it also has a lot of dark elements like the castle and the forest, further supporting my findings that middle schoolers and above color appeal are colors that are not so bright with black or darker colors.  

Image from: https://www.gamingdebugged.com/2013/10/20/five-coolest-mainstream-video-game-studio-websites/ 

Research Proposal

Why did no one remind me how stressful and time-consuming moving is? It has been quite a challenge trying to get work done while helping my family move and clean. My research proposal is based on what web design elements can make a website more appealing. The importance behind website appeal is the impression on the target audience and getting and keeping their attention. This is essential because one visit to a website can determine if the user will want to know more and become a regular visitor/user or leave and never want to come back again. Surprisingly, the focus on website design for mobile devices has been more popular than desktop computer websites. I wonder if mobile devices will eventually be everyone's only device. The most important piece of research that stuck with me was that a website can do so much for a brand or company. It is equally important for businesses selling a product or service for an information-oriented website. 

 

Image from https://unsplash.com/photos/fyaTq-fIlro 

Visual attention and Eye Tracking Web Design Technique

 Since most users today use mobile devices, web designers have to switch their focus a little bit more to designing a site that will be appropriate and equally appealing on a mobile device. I found an article that intrigued me, a study was done on the visual attention of 48 volunteers, and they were placed 50cm in front of the eye tracker. The eye tracker was an analysis software that collected the eye movement and gazes information of the participants. It was able to detect whether there was a significant difference in attention distribution among regions of interest (Hung & Wang, 2020). The camera was able to focus and adjust on the participant's pupil. The study overall found that no matter where images and text were placed on a website, the users were more drawn to the text to understand the graphical representation (Hung & Wang, 2020). This article helped me figure out how to place text and images; I will be able to keep in mind that users will always end up with more interest in the text. My family is also in the process of trying to sell and move houses, so this week has been hectic. 

Information from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-020-03283-1 

 

The impact of color on website appeal

I have finally found the right websites for my research in my planning stage. I went through the Phoenix College library resources, but all the good articles are locked like always. I found them available on other sites, and now I am glad I have the articles. The most interesting article based on website appeal is about the impact of website appeal and users' cognitive processes. Choosing the right color palette is important to make the website aesthetically pleasing based on the audience. People are more likely to visit more aesthetically pleasing websites. This is crucial because, in the first few seconds of the user visiting the website, the visitors will quickly leave if it is not aesthetically pleasing (Bonnardel et al., 2010). The research article mentions that visitors consist of cognition and emotion and that both of these factors impact each other and tasks completed by the visitors (Bonnardel et al., 2010). I conclude that visitors will either leave or keep reading from the color choices. This is interesting because I do not think of color as a major factor but more so the layout, and it turns out they are both equally important. The research presented users with different colored websites, given tasks to complete on the same computer in the same place, and found that color determines the length of the visit and if the user retained the information (Bonnardel et al., 2010). In our case, we need Batmon users to retain the information behind the importance of bats.

Information retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.displa.2010.12.002. 

Image from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.displa.2010.12.002 

Research Project Planning

 I was assigned to the research behind and development of the "Batmon" website. I am only taking one class right now since the others are late start so I am using this class's lessons to guide me. Currently, I am taking Internet/Web development level II, and have surprisingly learned a lot this first week. The first thing I did was go back to my lesson notes and allow the web development cycle to guide me into ultimately developing the website. I am at stage 1, planning. I have been gathering information on what exactly I need to do in order to plan. I found the main components I will need to start gathering information. I need the target audience, purpose, content, and others to begin. I also will need to research popular game websites and evaluate them. 

Image from my class modules: https://www.signitysolutions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Website-Development-Life-Cycle-1024x512.png 

Final Presentation and End of Semester

This semester has gone by so fast I cannot believe we are already doing presentations again. I am happy with the research I found. Although, I am sad that I was not able to make progress on my game scene design. Mainly because we had technical difficulties merging and exporting. By the time we got it to work there was not much time left. A semester is not enough time to develop a scene when you are a full-time student, I want to work more on that next semester. This semester I researched mainly on the effects video games have on the brain. I found a lot and see that video games are actually one of the best ways to truly engage and teach students. The ultimate goal is to have students play our game and want to take action to save the bats.

 The photo below is from Creative Commons by an unknown author and I included the text and bat image, this is part of my presentation. 

Final Projects and Final Paper

 This week and next week are going by extremely fast and it has been hard trying to keep up with the amount of workload that has been piled up. The final projects at the end of the semester require more time and effort than the rest of the semester and it is hard trying to split it up into 5 classes. Since the workload has been heavy this week I have only included a few more articles and put their details in the final paper. My project this semester has been to find the effects of video games on the brain. Overall, the research articles I have found almost include the same set of skills that are improved in particularly action video gamers. Similar skills are visual attention, selective attention, multitasking and others just to name a few. The most interesting skills that stood out to me were the ability to mentally rotate objects more accurately and the ability to multitask. The ability of multitasking exists in action video game players and their time switching between tasks is significantly cut than an individual who can multitask. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.34615532 

image from: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-typing-on-a-laptop-261662/

Video games: a route to large-scale STEM education?

I have been caught up with changing my major and going back and forth on which degree program at ASU so I have only had time to research articles and read. I am including an article that stood out the most to me this week. 

First, the author claims that video games are useful because it strengthens the student's ability to learn and retain the material. Next, the author claims, which I found shocking that video games help students become more social and engaged with achievement. This achievement is due to the continuous and immediate feedback of the game. A study backs this up called the Atlantis Project.

STEM game tasks usually require the student to be able to form a hypothesis, experimentation and discover the outcomes of chosen actions and can be compared to inquiry-based learning. Also, this will allow students to spend more time on the task to retain the information and learn it better.

Lastly, this eliminates the statistic that many sciences and engineer majors claim that 98% of the faculty they had teaching them taught very poorly, affecting them in a negative way of dropping the major entirely.

Article mentioned and image below are from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23716386_Video_games_A_route_to_large-scale_STEM_education