Comments on: Sneak Preview: The Scatter Game

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:29:03 +0000

Hey Byron, awhile back I almost completed the image feature and was almost ready to release it, and then I decided it could get myred in copyright issues very quickly and I didn’t want to tackle that just yet. I reasoned that basically every one of the images people will post on Quizlet will be copyrighted because people will get their images out of textbooks and other materials like that. So I put it on hold, but I may be re-addressing that later.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 14:19:51 +0000

So my fiance and I have a constant battle about who knows the most “trivia”, especially with those un-credited celebrity voice commercials you see/hear now (http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=21395) – (btw… youre not related to this guy, perchance??)

Anyway, I came up with the idea of a celebrity-quiz webapp to test our knowledge, driven by images, not text. …a much simpler version of quizlet, along the lines of “name this celebrity” (image shown) with a freetext response area, or multiple choice.

An image-quiz would be a natural extension to Quizlet. Partof my idea was for the user to upload a list, and then the app “collects” the images from a free image service (Yahoo has an API, and so does Amazon). The user then reviews each term in the list and selects the image that best describes their term.

FYI, I used IMDB’s “free” database to create a list of actors/actresses, but I stopped there.

I havent finished the app, and it doesnt look like I ever will, so I thought Id share my ideas and hopefully see them implemented in Quizlet. Love the site btw. Good luck with everything.

–byron

By: Lani

Lani — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 05:19:02 +0000

I agree with Nik – having terms and definitions separated from each other could be really helpful, even if it’s just that they’re in different colors. And not overlapping when the board first loads would be nice. After all, why waste time moving terms around just so you can see everything?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 02:40:29 +0000

Cool news: Scatter will be embeddable on your own pages. I’ve already built that functionality and it is BEAUTIFUL.

By: Neil Kelty

Neil Kelty — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 04:44:14 +0000

I like that Nik – definatley something to think about making an option.

By: Nik

Nik — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 03:06:18 +0000

Games are a great idea, Andrew! It’s always nice to enjoy learning (cheesy as that might sound). Now, I might be OCD, but I do think there should be more… well, order. Frankly, its too messy. Perhaps an option to have a straight list (with the terms on one side and the definitions on the other) or a scatter approach (like this one)? Because I’m sure the random sizes and locations were hard to set

By: AmbushCommander

AmbushCommander — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 00:40:04 +0000

Looks great, looking forward to seeing it be released.

A little question: if you’re dealing with a larger set, how would the playing board scale?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 22:24:37 +0000

Neil, but of course. There are tons of things I’m going to change by the end.

By: Neil Kelty

Neil Kelty — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 20:55:28 +0000

How about a “Congratulations. You’re done!” – that sort of message (with all the usual stats, etc.). Better than a blank white screen.

By: Julian Schrader

Julian Schrader — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 17:55:36 +0000

Great feature!

I’m definitely looking forward to use this myself.