Author Topic: IDEA: Not so pointless clickometer! (Read 25272 times)

Chessnia · « **on:** May 07, 2010, 09:36 PM »

Hi there!

I spend a fair bit of time coaching kids in the classroom and I try to make my lessons as much fun as possible.
I normally use a VGA projector or a smartboard. At some point, I begin to ask questions and what I'd love to see to give the kids a bit more motivation is a simple "clickometer" with two vertical progress bars. Every time I click on the green one, it goes up one unit, and the same for the red one (thus, if they pick a wrong answer, the red bar goes up, if they pick the right answer, the green bar goes up one unit and so on).
This would give the kids a kind of being "part of a team" and I think it would be more fun for them (ok, I confess, and me too!

)

Here's a very simple image showing more or less what I'm thinking about:

Sure, the program could have more features, like... I don't know, another image at the top with a green color circle or something showing that the green is beating the red, or a red one if it's the other way around, etc. I don't know, I don't want to make it too complicated for you guys

Anyway, I think other teachers might find it useful also... lessons can be boring, let's make them a little more fun for everyone!

Btw, I use windows 7, so compatibility with it would be much appreciated if someone takes this up.

Finally, I don't know if I'm supposed to say this here, but I'm willing to donate at least 50$ for this. I know it's not much, but we've gotta start somewhere.

Cheers.

Chessnia · « **Reply #1 on:** May 07, 2010, 09:37 PM »

Maybe a way to correct a mistake if you've clicked a wrong one, and also a counter below the bars?
I don't know.

Chessnia · « **Reply #2 on:** May 07, 2010, 09:38 PM »

Maybe the progress bar should be sharper, no white spaces in between?

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** May 07, 2010, 09:46 PM »

sounds like a fun project, i'm almost sure someone here will want to code it.

one thing i think might be helpful is if you have any more thoughts about form size requirements and constraints?
in other words, is it ok if the progress bars are both side by side on one main "form" that could be dragged around and resized? or is it important that these are basically 2 progress bars that float around and are not in a standard windows dialog?

Chessnia · « **Reply #4 on:** May 07, 2010, 11:21 PM »

I'm not really sure about the implications of the 2 different options, but I think I'm looking for a stardard window dialog, both bars on one same form that can be dragged around. (as long as each bar responds to a click independently)
As for size, I'm not really sure, but its height should probably not exceed the standard 600 pixels.

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** May 07, 2010, 11:46 PM »

as long as you dont mind them in a normal windows form, i think this will be a fun project for someone.

skwire · « **Reply #6 on:** May 08, 2010, 12:56 AM »

I won't have time until after this weekend (playing in another hockey tournament) so, if nobody else picks this up by then, I'll do it.

lanux128 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 08, 2010, 07:53 AM »

@Chessnia: i made a prototype of sorts for your Clickometer. please give it a try and let me know what else is needed. the usage is as follows: Left-click increases the bar while right-click decreases, press 'escape' to exit.

edit: new version: more configurable UI options. removed transparency due to flickering in W7.

Chessnia · « **Reply #8 on:** May 08, 2010, 09:02 AM »

Hey, that's looking pretty cool !

What I'd like is a counter bellow the bars and maybe a measuring line on the edges, you know, like measuring tape, you get a thicker line every 5 or so. (I've drown one up to give you an idea of what I mean, although the one I made is not very accurate!

And also some light grey lines below, coinciding with the measuring lines, like in the picture (it makes it easier to read I suppose).
Also, at present I think you can get a maximum of 20 hits. Maybe increase that to 30 (even if you have to make the bars a little taller, say 600 pix).
It'd be nice if the bar's backeground were white instead of grey, like in my sketch bellow.
I don't know. I don't want to get too greedy requesting features, I guess it should be kept as simple as possible

lanux128 · « **Reply #9 on:** May 08, 2010, 11:55 AM »

@Chessnia: i've made the most of the changes you requested but the measuring grid with a thicker line every 5 lines is proving to be elusive. however, i'll try to find out if it's possible in AHK. in the meantime, please try out the newer version.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #10 on:** May 08, 2010, 12:18 PM »

Hey, nice job!

(Great game, too… I've hardly played it at all and I scored 30 already)

Chessnia · « **Reply #11 on:** May 08, 2010, 04:47 PM »

Wow! I'm liking it a lot!

If the thick line proves elusive, maybe a solution would be to use a darker green line every 5, and a darker red every 5 on the other side. or maybe just a darker grey on both sides, every 5.
Possible bug: the grid on the white background disappears when you start clicking on one bar.
Possible minor improvements:
- use a lighter grey on the background.
- the grey space on the right side seems to be 2 pixels longer than the one on the left. If I had to choose how to even them out, I'd probably add 2 extra pixels to the left side.

Other than that, very impressive! the coloured counters idea is great!

lanux128 · « **Reply #12 on:** May 08, 2010, 11:33 PM »

thanks. i'm glad that you like it. i'll add in the other requests in a couple of days. stay tuned.

lanux128 · « **Reply #13 on:** May 08, 2010, 11:38 PM »

Hey, nice job!

(Great game, too… I've hardly played it at all and I scored 30 already)
-cranioscopical (May 08, 2010, 12:18 PM)

thanks.. maybe i can post a version that exceeds the max score of 30. whadya say?

lanux128 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 09, 2010, 09:29 AM »

@Chessnia: i've uploaded a newer version with customizable options. this version allows you to specify the color for the UI and the progress-bar. plus you can create your own grid, an image file with a dimension of 72w x 600h and the program will recognize it. just check out the sample 'Grid.png'. all these settings are available via the ini file: Clickometer.ini. do give it a try and let me know.

Possible bug: the grid on the white background disappears when you start clicking on one bar.

btw, this isn't resolved yet but i'm still looking into it.

Chessnia · « **Reply #15 on:** May 09, 2010, 04:24 PM »

Hi Lanux,

The customizable options are awesome!

At one point I was going to request them, but thought it would have been a bit cheeky on my part!

lanux128 · « **Reply #16 on:** May 10, 2010, 02:04 AM »

thanks, Chessnia! try the new version, the progress bars' background shouldn't disappear now when you click on the bars.

Chessnia · « **Reply #17 on:** May 10, 2010, 05:08 AM »

A couple of things:

- True, the background doesn't disappear, but on my windows 7, the images shakes a lot when I click on the bar. I've tested again the previous versions, and they don't shake.
Finally, I've testes it on my notebook, and have made a nasty discovery. I hope this doesn't mean more work for you

the program can't be seen properly on a netbook with a resolution of width = x, height = 600, it's too high.
That's what I was thinking about when I wrote: "its height should probably not exceed the standard 600 pixels"
I appologize for not mentioning this before. I simply hadn't tested it.

I think with the background grid issue solved, the program is very much what I wanted...

lanux128 · « **Reply #18 on:** May 10, 2010, 07:48 AM »

Maybe increase that to 30 (even if you have to make the bars a little taller, say 600 pix)

hehe.. i read that as 600 pixels for the progress bar itself. plus another 35px for the counter, you'd get 635px in total for the height. so if you using a netbook then it'll be off-screen definitely. but no worries, i've added more customization options so that you can just crop the 'grid.png' to say, 500px and reduce the gui height to make the app fit on the screen.

- True, the background doesn't disappear, but on my windows 7, the images shakes a lot when I click on the bar. I've tested again the previous versions, and they don't shake.

hmm.. by 'shakes', did you meant flickering? if possible can you get video of it? i'm using WinXP so it's quite hard to determine what is wrong.

Chessnia · « **Reply #19 on:** May 10, 2010, 03:43 PM »

The new customizations is definitly a major improvement!

I'm attaching a video showing more or less what's going on. You can see the flickering, but also the background keeps having some problems. Sometimes it turns transparent, showing the desktop colours.
The file is in flash format to reduce the size of the original avi file.

lanux128 · « **Reply #20 on:** May 11, 2010, 07:56 PM »

ok, i understand now why this happens. i made the progress bar to be transparent so that the grid behind them would show but that conflicts with Windows 7's Aero theme. so if the bar goes back to being opaque, with the grid disappearing as the bar is clicked, would that do for you? please let me know.

Chessnia · « **Reply #21 on:** May 13, 2010, 05:42 AM »

I imagine that should be ok, yes, particularly if you can choose colours anyway.

lanux128 · « **Reply #22 on:** May 13, 2010, 08:42 AM »

@Chessnia: i've made the changes, each bar's color is configurable separately. please try again and let me know.. and as noted, transparency has been removed until when/if i can figure it out.

Chessnia · « **Reply #23 on:** May 15, 2010, 04:16 PM »

Fantastic!

Youv'e done an OUTSTANDING JOB!!

I'm sending my donation! (I don't know how to do this, so bear with me if I take longer than expected!)

mouser · « **Reply #24 on:** May 15, 2010, 05:23 PM »

It was really fun watching the two of you get this accomplished.. one of the best aspects of the site.
Now what would be really wonderful Chessnia is if you give us an update after you actually use it in class and let us know that you used it