Journal 5: Pitch critiques

    My group's pitch 
   In this week content, my group presented our concept of API project called "WW1 photography gallery". We allocated the pitch into three parts, including concept introduction, targeted purpose/audience and interactional functionality. Firstly, my partner introduced the main concept. This project is designed to illustrate the photos taken in Queensland within WW1. Users can explore the website base on a timeline and map. By selecting events on the map, users can read more details about the related photos.  In addition,  users can play a simple puzzle game on this website. Secondly, targeted purpose/audience is discussed by other team member. He talk about how to use this website to acquire knowledge or information of WW1 history and why it is useful for students and education. Then, I displayed the poster and tell the audience how to use  and interact with this web. Finally, the text flow was be shown and explained by my partner. 

     

    This presentation was a little bit time out. In the preparation, we plan to allocate each part in one minute, but I did not manage my time as good as I expected due to the tense atmosphere. 

    According to the response of audience, some of them asked good questions. Especially, tutors asked us why we decide to put a game in such formal website. It is a really critical question. It let me rethink about our web design because every function should have its own purpose. I can not just add different functions in the page without meaning. After thinking, we answered that this puzzle game provides a interaction for education. For example, users can game this game to help to understand the history deeper. Also, it can make the web more interesting in order to  grab their attention. 

    Compared with other concepts l witnessed, most of they are petty good. There are some similar ideas with my group concept, like using timeline and map to show the information. However, our concept also has some particular advantages. In our page, we try to make a search function based on longitude and latitude, which is convenient for users to local an event. Moreover, our website contains a puzzle game. It is a good way for interaction. The reason is that our targeted users is young students who interest in history. If we only offer a great idea of dataset, the students might be boring. Therefore, this game can make them feel fun. On the other hand, we also has some drawback. For instance, our game interface is not so clear for users. My team should improve that and tell user how to play this game in a simple method.
     Peers' pitch
     (1)
    The most impressive concept I remembered is "Music Library". It build an interactive and informative website, which linked to music dataset. The benefit of this web is it can increase historical value in music culture. Also it offer a good platform to interact with music. This web has three sections, namely music appreciation, Music Score, and Music game.

    As for Music Appreciation, it is well-originized by the navigation system, such as type, author, year. It is convenient for user to find the information they wanted because its structure  is clear. That is a good point.

    For Music scores, it seems has a similar structure, but it provides a Tutorial section which might for educational function. It can give a music classes to the audience but it looks not very interesting for young students. My suggestion is to improve that with some interaction methods for education.

     Another one is Music game. It will ask users to guess the name of the song by listening to the short cut. It is a simple game, which is good. However, it needs to log in to play this game and record the score. I think it is unnecessary because it may be a little be complicate for users who does not want to sign on the page. I suggest this interface process can be simplified.
    
     (2)
   There are another concept l interested in is "Historical Music Score". Compared with above concept, it more focus on information delivering. This website have scores, stories and history of music. The targeted users are teachers and students who study history. It is an useful learning resource. However, it might provide less opportunity for interaction. I suggest that they can design some question about music for getting feedback and help users to check whether they acquire these knowledge well.