Final Status Back Up

The final user interface is functional in terms of page navigability.  Users may register, play the puzzles, and finish with the thanks screen.  The game contains a total of twelve trivia questions as listed in Appendix C.  The trivia questions are written to help users stay mentally active.  Mental activity is important, especially for the targeted audience.  The questions are written with some interactivity such as asking users to call a find a book, check email, use a search engine, and make a phone call.  These activities are included in hopes of encouraging players to stay active in the community and up-to-date with internet technology.  For example, the desire to answer a puzzle question may motivate players to make a trip to the library.  This trip improves the physical health of sedentary users.  It also has the potential to improve social and mental health; reading a book improves mental health and any interaction with other library goers or even librarians improves social health.  This one trip to the library may also entice future trips if the player checks out a book and becomes a regular visitor to the library.  Having users check email may initiate email correspondence with family and friends.  Performing an internet search may encourage users to become active internet users.  Making one phone call may remind users to make calls to friends and family.

In addition to the questions and game pages, some error checking has also been implemented.  Error checking includes matching passwords in the registration page and restricting five digit number zip codes in the claim-prize screen.  Error checking for puzzle answers allows users to enter answers with varying capital and lowercase letters.  For example, if the answer to a question is “orange,” the user answer “oRaNGe” is also correct.

Although the front-end interface is functional, the online database storing all user information is unimplemented.  As a result, no information is stored when entered to the game.  To login, the hardcode username “aarp” and password “game” is the only valid login.  However, a mock registration can also be used to arrive at the first welcome screen and to the puzzles.  Another drawback of not having a database is that no user progress is stored, so the user must start the game from the beginning with every login.  At the claim-prize screen, the user may enter information, but AARP is not contacted and the user will not receive email notification about where to pick up the prize.

            Although the interface is not connected to any online database, the database schema has been developed.  The database will store all the fields for a user including username, password, mother’s maiden name…etc.  It will also store all the puzzle questions and answers.  See Appendix D for detail on the database schema.

Future Work and Recommendations Back Up

The aesthetics of the interface has been developed, but there are still many additions that need to be made before the game becomes a fully functional product.  The most important addition is the online database.  To create a fully functioning system, the online database needs to be connected and integrated to the flash user interface.  Once connected, information for users can be stored and they can be added as users of the game.  The addition the online database can be implemented to allow for user statistics to be kept such as the time spent on the game, the time spent on each puzzle, the average age of the user, or the average progress through the game.  This information is useful to AARP and would increase the desirability of the system to the sponsoring company.

Besides the database, additional functionality to the game interface may also be beneficial.  For instance, more puzzles could be developed.  Each player may have randomly selected puzzles such that every player will not be given the same set of questions.  Having more puzzles may attract users to replay the game, seeing different questions the second time around.  Also, the game could allow users to go back and look at the previous completed questions and return back to the current puzzle question.  Being able to see progress made through flipping through the questions may give positive feedback to users, creating a feeling of accomplishment.  Additional error checking for valid email addresses, secure passwords, valid United States’ zip codes, and valid cities should be included.

In conclusion, although the product is not a fully functioning game, the idea behind it and the progress thus far give the product a promising future upon completion.