Desk Crit Received #7

From: ki-hyun Koo
Date: 04/23/08

I think that your project concept is very useful and creative. Because it deals with health issues that we all are mindful. I myself also try to calculate calories when I eat Italian food.
I think that game approach would be on of the easiest and most comfortable way to learn the subject. I guess learners would understand the subject easy compared with other strategies (ex> book, homepage, etc)


However, I would like to suggest you few points after experiencing this program. Hope my suggestions would be helpful to you.

1) To me, colors of the above picture look a bit dark, and the objects are not quite related to Italian food, or preparing meal (ex> cook, or person who preparing his/her meal in the kitchen) will be better.

2) I think there are many words with same emphasis in this page, so it’s hard for me to recognize what is the important in the page. How about using bullets or images to improve the readability of the page?

3) There isn’t “back” button, so learners can’t see previous page as they proceed the program. So, if the learners want to know “instruction” part (the first page of this program,), they have to finish all the pages and start again.

How about making navigation menu? next, back button >

4) Since I have no idea of making Italian food, learners like me may need more information what is the best way to cook Italian food. I think the learners also need more information, or tips for this program. How about presenting specific examples? For example, explain advantages or disadvantages for each one when we cook Italian food.

5) After completing this program, the learners were to get feedback. I think it’s a great idea. I would however give more specific feedbacks such as good advices or so.

Desk Crit Received #6

From: Amy Wright
Date: 04/17/08

Given to Daisy at the dress rehearsal. As I went through the module, I noticed that the nutritional informaiton did not come up immediately and people may not realize that it is available if they don't put their cursor over the box so you might want to just have it up versus having it appear. A back button would be nice so people can change their choices after seeing they are not making good choices, but I know that requires more difficult/in depth programming. The serving size is a little confusing or portion size so you may want to rephrase that so people understand how they should be counting the calories. I think providing people a reference of what an oz. is would be nice since most people don't look at their food and think of it in that quantity. Its hard to visualize how much is 1 portion or 2 ozs per serving size. You may want to include some information about how that is listed on the nutritional information of foods and what it all means.Most people don't know how to read and interpret it.

I really enjoyed playing with it and it surprised me the number of calories in one kind of cheese or bread versus the others.

Thanks for sharing,

Amy

Desk Crit Received: #5

From: Audra Edwards
Date:04/13/08

Hi, Daisy!

Here is some feedback about your game. We discussed some of these items Thursday night.

I really like the design of your game and think that it is a neat way to help someone learn about preparing a meal for a diabetic. I have no knowledge about how to prepare a balanced meal for someone with these special needs, so I found the game to be particular interesting and informative.

The introduction is very appropriate and gives good information about how to participate in the activity. You might want to add a statement about having a piece of paper and a pencil handy to help with calculations.

As we discussed, when the game begins, it would be good to have the information for each food already displayed. It is fun, though, to watch the information appear dynamically! Maybe you could add an instruction that says to mouse over each food for the information and then click on the food to choose it. Remember that I suggested you change the words "portion size" to "number of servings" since this is the typical language used on food labels. I like how the calories are calculated automatically based on the number of servings. If someone accidentally leave the serving size blank, the calculation says NaN- maybe add a message here in case that happens. It may be helpful to put something in the directions about clicking on the total calories button to calculate- someone may not realize that they need to do this and they may just continue on to the next section.

I don't know how difficult this would be, but it would be neat to have an area on the screen that shows the choices that have already been made. For example, when the learner moves on to the bread screen, the information about the meat they chose is still displayed somewhere.

The last suggestion that I have is to not only have the calories calculated for each section, but also the carbohydrates. This is because the game specifies that the calories and carbohydrates are important is preparing a meal for a diabetic. It wouldn't hurt to also include the total amount of fat since that information is included in the nutrition information.

I hope that you find my feedback helpful. I enjoyed your project and think that you have constructed a great educational game!

Audra
PS Please see the attachment for some editing feedback.

Desk Crit Received: #4

From: Sunny (HeuiSeon Lim)
Date:04/12/08

Hi! Daisy!

First of all, I love your concept of the project since I am concerned with how much calories that I intake by the food that I eat. Also, Italian is my favorite dinner menu, but it takes lots of calories and carbohydrate! Therefore, your project will benefit not only people who concern with diabetes, but also most of people like me who want to try not to take more calories and carbohydrate than they should.

I am very impressed with the features such as menu selection, different portion size, especially; the function of auto calculation at the end is very useful! I can’t imagine how much effort and many hours and you spent get all the function working properly.

Here is my suggestion for just little things that nice to have.
1. More Selection of the food: I guess it is always nice to have more choices but you already have most popular items for each section.
2. Some kind of feature that make more noticeable about the different calories of the foods.
3. Some improvement on graphic in general would be nicer. 

Again, you did a very impressive job to make everything working properly. I can’t wait to see you

Desk Crit Received: # 3

From Donna Washington
Date: 2/12/08

Daisy,

I wanted to send you this deskcrit of your Prepare Your Meal project after using in during our Studio Dress Rehearsal. I thought your idea for the activity is definitely delightful, which I believe is one of the requirements for the Blue Sock award. I liked how you provide information regarding the food choices and then give the opportunity for the learner to choose based on comparing and contrast. I also thought how you provide immediate feedback for the learner is important. The user knows immediately if their meal choice is appropriate for the purpose of the activity.

I do have a couple suggestions that you may consider. The first is possibly having a place dedicated to place written step by step directions for the learner. You may remember I had to restart and choose my meal again because I didn't realize I needed to click submit ( I believe that was the name of the button). That would make the activity a little more learner directed, but I'm pretty sure you had that covered already. The only other suggestion I would make is to perhaps have a little content prior to the activity on how one goes about choosing a healthy meal. Maybe some dietary suggestions on the amount of carbs, fats, or sugar a food should contain. It's just a thought, so use what you can and discard the rest.

All in all I enjoyed what you have developed. I believe it's an activity we all could benefit from.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Donna W.

Desk Crit Recived 2

From Scott Foster
Date 04/10/08

Click on the following link to see his Desk Crit:
http://smf95.myweb.uga.edu/bizfusion1/bizfusion/deskcrit.html

Desk Crit- Received

Desk Crit Received: 04/01
From: Donna Washington

Daisy,

I know you've been working hard to design your nutrition game. I think you have a great idea in the making, unfortunately due to our course time constraints, I know getting it where you want it to be has been difficult.

I believe your game idea is great because the basic premise can be applied to so many health issues. Beside planning meals for a person with diabetes you could also add a twist and have the player plan a meal that would meet the guidelines of a calorie reduced eating plan. The possiblities are endless.

I like the idea of a shopping cart model because it feels very life-like as well as something people are accustomed to if they have ever shopped online.

I do have a comment/suggestion I'd like to offer. I'm not sure of the formula you've suggested to determine if the meal meets your proposed requirements. You might think of adding some specific data regarding the problems of the meal. Something like a table showing the recommended fat, carb's,etc. and a readout showing the chosen meal's content. That way the learner can see in what nutritional areas they would need to reconsider.

I really hope you are able to work out the "bugs" and produce a great game.
Take care.

Donna