Archive for September, 2011

Mole Mash App Reflection

7 months ago
by Heather Braum in

Reflection

I continue to be frustrated by the limitations of the App Designer interface. I’m not a professional coder by any measure, but I do now how to get code to what I want it to do in most other interfaces. With that said, I had fun learning how simple it was, once you learned the logic, to get an object to move on the screen with this app design experience. I also added some simple customizations to the app that are listed below. Even with my frustrations, I continue to be amazed at the simplicity of this coding experience. I wonder if kids could be using this program, to learn programming skill and logic skills. I know there’s the Scratch project and the Alice project that have similar goals, but this would have immediate results. Definitely would be interested to hear if any schools are using this platform in the elementary, middle school, or high school levels.

App Media Credits

Game Background Picture, used under Creative Commons

Mole graphic from O’Reilly book site

Uh Oh Sound (Miss), used under Creative Commons

Gunshot (Hit), used under Creative Commons

Mirror Shattering (Reset button), used under Creative Commons

Start/Stop Sound Effect, used under Creative Commons

Download the App by scanning this QR Code:

Week 4: Paint Pot Application

8 months ago
by Heather Braum in

This week, I built an application that allowed you to draw on a pre-loaded photograph using different colors, and different dot sizes or using a line. You could clear edits on the screen using the wipe button, and I customized it so shaking the phone would also clear the screen. Finally, you could also take a new picture to edit on it.

I wanted to tweak how the buttons displayed on the screen and added extra Horizontal and Vertical Arrangements between the buttons and image to spread out the display. I wanted to tweak where the loaded photo displayed (I wanted it to be centered, not left-

justified), but couldn’t figure out how to do that yet. Hopefully we’ll learn how to do that in the future, maybe? One other thing I couldn’t figure out how to do is add a button that allowed the image to be saved to the phone or emailed to an email address. Maybe in the future, or could this not be possible in the App Inventor?

I’m finding the App Inventor interface easy to use, but not quite logical or intuitive yet. Maybe it will be eventually, through lots of practice and patience?

 

You can download my Android app, by scanning this QR code:

Instructional Design Reading Quiz

8 months ago
by Heather Braum in

Week 3: Hello Purr App Reflection

8 months ago
by Heather Braum in

For mobile app design class this week, we designed our first, very simple app for the Android platform. Using the lesson in the App Inventor: Create Your Own Android Apps textbook and the appinventor website, we developed a very simple app using an interactive design tool. It reminded me somewhat of learning HTML — starting small at the very basic levels — and also a WYSIWYG editor, using buttons to add components of the app. As long as I was following the instructions, I found the process to be very simple. The appinventor interface was made up of buttons and palettes, similar to other design desktop applications. I’m sure this process will get complicated quickly, but I was happy with my results so far. Plus, when I would test the app, it drove my cats nuts. They don’t like to hear other cats meow!

Go to Top