Michael Lodick
Jeopardy!

Awesome project! I can see so many potential training or teaching uses for this. Can I have a copy?!?

Strengths

• Wow! This looks almost exactly like Jeopardy. You did a great job designing the layout and creating graphics.
• Adding knowledge reinforcing feedback to the game is a great idea. I like that whether I got the correct answer or not, I found out what the correct answer was and why.
• Once I figured out how to use the admin tool, it was simple to add categories and add questions. Great job on usability!

Weaknesses

• At first I wasn't quite sure how to use the admin tool. I think it would help to add some more directions on the initial page.
• It would be nice if I could group certain categories together so the game would only pick from the group I wanted. For example: if I was teaching both geometry and algebra, I would like a geometry group with geometry categories and an algebra group with algebra categories.
• I am a terrible speller! It is too bad that I got the question wrong because I misspelled the answer.

Thomas Macaulay
IT Portfolio

I'm so jealous! Your portfolio is so much further along than mine and it looks great! Here are a few thoughts:

Strengths

• Nice touch adding the family pictures from your first 6190 project. It ties in very nicely.
• I like the animation and rollover, it's just the right amount and not at all distracting.
• Great color scheme. It's so bright and vibrant.

Weaknesses

• The start button is a little hard to find amongst the pictures. Maybe try to change the color of the word.
• It would be neat to have the words along the bottom change when rolled-over just as the top left changes. Maybe you can add the hit spots to the words as well.
• On the program of study page, the EDIT 6170 link is the only one that causes the center box to move down a few pixels.
• In your gallery of projects, it would be a nice addition to have them link to the actual projects.

Danny Popov
Flash Galaga

Wow! I could play this game for hours, especially when I'm stressed. It's really cool. By the way, the legos on your site rock! Here are some thoughts:

Strengths

• Good intro screen, especially with the directions listed there. So often people do not read the directions first. But with it being on the intro screen, it's hard to miss! The animated spaceship is also a nice touch.
• The sounds make you feel like you really are playing an older video game - very cool!
• The game over screen is really cool, too! I like how I have to relive how I died.

Weaknesses

• Is there a pause button? I couldn't find one and I wanted to pause the game.
• It seems that the fewer bad ships the fewer attacks there would be. I keep getting down to the last ship and I get killed!
• It would be cool to go forwards and backwards too.
• What does the lag part at the top mean? It might have to have an additional help menu to explain the parts along the top.

Jon Scoresby
St. Brendan's College Tutorial

Your project looks great and very educational. Here are a few thoughts:

Strengths

• It's great that the entire tutorial has the St. Brendan's site as the backdrop. This was you know you are in the right place.
• The ability to go backwards in the tutorial is an excellent option. And the linear progression really helps first time users.
• During the second part of the tutorial, it was a great idea to have the navigation mimic what a student will have to do in the actual program.
• The FAQ is a nice addition. Where will it go in to the tutorial?

Weaknesses

• At first I thought the text on the screen was the content on the actual site, not the content for tutorial. Maybe you could change it a bit so it stands out more that this is where the learning occurs.
• It was great that during the second part of the tutorial that you could go back to any section already visited, except that I only found it by accident. Maybe there should be some sort of text that says you can go back to any section (unless this was a mistake).
• The tutorial seems to be at an odd size. Maybe having it be 800x600 in a pop up window would help.
• I know that less confusing and more controlled not to have all of the links available all the time, but sometimes I just really want to go and explore where everything else goes.