I’m officially spent for the night…I can’t physically do anything more project related (and I can’t even really write coherently right now, so I hope the following entry will be readable). After today’s group meeting with the professors and other students, I’ve done nothing but work and eat. Tonight’s main project was very subtle, but took much more work than anticipated: I tackled the user interface system for the options. As of yesterday, everyone could see the vehicle signs I had built. Tonight, I redesigned those images in reverse text (white writing on a black background), and made it so that when the user clicks the vehicle (or sign), the sign will highlight itself. I also decided that these should work like radio buttons (i.e. if you pick one, it deactivates the old one before highlighting itself). Also, I designed the options for type of visualization and put those on the wall. Little did I know the hell those would cause…it took me more than an hour to figure out the reason they wouldn’t work is that they were more than 20m away (and thus out of “speaking” distance with each other).
In case anyone here can’t figure out the way they work, it’s very simple. Stand on the platform, and click on the vehicle/sign of choice, and that sign will now highlight itself. Click on it again, and the highlight will go away, making everything go back to normal. Next, highlight that same vehicle and click a new one. You should now notice that the old one has returned to normal while the new one is now highlighted (thus radio buttons). Now with that one still highlighted, pick one of the visualization options and it will act in the same manner as the vehicles. These two sets work in separately, that is, they don’t affect each other (i.e. clicking “Car Pool” will not change the fact that “See Each Region” is highlighted, and clicking “Compare the Regions” won’t change “Car Pool”).
Though it might’ve taken the entire day to design and code those buttons, I’m really happy with the way they worked out. Also, while I was writing their communication scripts, I couldn’t help but to lay the groundwork for the map display system also. My goal for tomorrow will to be build at least one set of bars and see if I can get them to display on top of the map. However, before I close, I have to mention one problem I’ve come across that I’m not sure how to solve: Because the display map is flat and parallel to the floor, the text for all the top regions is very unreadable. Though Dr. Polack suggested I make the text bigger in a graphics program, I have a feeling that won’t work. What seems to be the problem is the perspective, meaning that no matter how hard we try, the ones at the top will always be blurry (I recreated the map with a higher quality/sharper image, and it didn’t really help). My best solution would be to enlarge the text on the top area for the map on the wall, and enlarge the text on the bottom entires of the flat map. This would mean that all regions could be easily discerned, just on two different maps (though if you walk on the floor map, the text clears up again, so it could also be read from there). Anyway, if anyone can think of anything different to do, I’m more than all ears.
6/13/07
*Changed pants to finalize african mannequin
*Turned the vehicles to make more visible from the platform
*Leveled the main display map
*Moved map and platform closer to the vehicles
*Created and implemented a “selection highlighter” for the vehicles
*Created a sharper, higher quality version of the floor and wall maps
*Added two option signs for the type of visualization
*Created and implemented a “selection highlighter” for the option signs
*Implemented the groundworks of the map-display system
Spending:
*$10 – Upload of another black jeans image
*$10 – Upload of red/black bicycle/walk image
*$10 – Upload of black bicycle/walk image
*$10 – Upload of black motorcycle image
*$10 – upload of black car alone image
*$10 – Upload of black car pool image
*$10 – Upload of black public transportation image
*$10 – Upload of white see region image
*$10 – Upload of black see region image
*$10 – Upload of white compare regions image
*$10 – Upload of black compare regions image
