Work Progress - Mar 16 - Mar 22

• [Done] Change the names to skin color (FemaleBlack, MaleWhite, etc.) rather than ethnicity.
• [Done] Include the MaleBlack character (which I think is currently missing on your site).
• [Done] Update the stable version.
• [Done - expand graphics window now expand to full screen] Either eliminate the “expand graphics window” button, or change the settings so that it has better default values (bigger graphics screen when closed, full graphics screen when open). Either way, the applet should never prevent the user from sliding the panels in any configuration they wish.
• Start on the issues related to codelet visual “readability”
  [Done] 1) Rather than drop-down for x, y, have separate codelets like the blue “y position” codelet in Scratch.
  [Done] 2) In Scratch, the < operation comes with the input box for a literal already included. If you want to replace the literal with a variable, you can do so directly
  3) The black boarder around the operation codelet is distracting. Scratch uses a subtle shading, with the top shaded lighter and the bottom shaded darker, so that it appears that the piece is 3D and lit from above. This is something we could ask Zac Autio to do for us once he is done with classes.
  4) Why all the red? As I recall, this was to tell the user where to “grab” the puzzle piece with the mouse. But we are not consistent about that; in the method codelet it’s a place where you can’t grab it. I would eliminate it (unless it serves some other purpose?), and make the codelets all one color, with the input box in white. So (for example) blue codelets would have their red changed to white (because you can’t grab there).
  5) Notice that in the above image of a Scratch conditional, the blue “y position” codelet is small enough so that it’s bordered by green on all sides. It is visually clear that it has been “plugged in” to the green codelet. But in our case, the operation codelet has essentially disappeared. We try to show it is still there, but because we are using a black boarder, you can’t tell if that is the edge of the operation codelet or the edges of the literal and variable codelets. So I would make the operation codelet all one color (yellow?), including the border. I would add a border to the literal and variable codelets, and make their border the same color as the rest (red?).
  6) The word “if” is too close to border of the operation codelet.