'Start Over' button in game

[pixelzoom]

Feedback from Trish on 1.0.0-dev.14:

I only have one question about the game. It seems to me that the only way I can change levels is "Start over". I thought I saw threads that were discussing how to move to different levels, but that could have been a different sim. I really have not been keeping up with which decisions go with each sim because it seems to me that some global discussions are being held that impact many sims. I wanted to just do a question and then try another level to get the feel of where I might want my students or me to start. I had the feeling that "Start Over" would mean I would go back to the beginning of level one and I also thought I would lose my score. Have you already made the decision that this will be the way to get back to the level screen? One thing I tried was just clicking on the Line Game icon on the bottom nav bar thinking it might take me back. Anyway, no need to send me a lengthy reply about where you are in the process, I just thought I would tell you my impression since this was the first time I have looked at the sim.

@ariel-phet replied:

The general decision has been on games where you do lots of work on one screen (like fraction matcher and arithmetic) we will lean towards a "return to level selection" button, where pressing that button brings you back to the level selection screen but keeps all you work. In games that are more of a sequential quiz (graphing lines, balancing act, balancing chemical equations) we lean towards there being a "start over" button that returns you to the level selection screen and clears your work. This mimics that flow of the Java versions of these games.

@krhensberry replied:

Thanks, Trish. I was also a little confused at first about what was being started over… Ariel explained this functionality to me just yesterday :) When you click "start over", it basically takes you back to the level selection screen and starts you over on just that level. Any work you’ve completed in other levels will be saved.

This is a little different than the "return to level selection screen” icon (like we have in Build a Fraction, for example), which saves all the work you’ve done and just takes you out of the game — but when you come back everything in that level that you’ve completed is still there.

My understanding is that the decision was made that when all the challenges are presented at once for that level (like BAF), then there will be a “return to level selection” option and saves all your work for all levels. When challenges are presented one-at-a-time, it will be a “start over” button (like in Graphing Lines) and will save any work on previous levels but starts you over on that current level. If you want to restart the entire game, you can click the refresh button on the level selection screen.

Hope that helps.

Trish replied:

When I selected "Start Over", my score was not cleared. That was one reason the button seemed to have an odd name for me. If you mean for the score to be cleared, then I found a bug.

@ariel-phet replied:

One small point....the "Start Over" button does clear your current score, but the stars on the level selection screen show your best score up to that point. So pressing the "Start Over" will only clear your score if you have not completed the level before.

@krhensberry replied:

I wonder if there is a better phrase we can use, like “restart level”, that would make the functionality more clear?

[pixelzoom]

@ariel-phet and I discussed this, and concluded that 'Restart Level' was not better, and potentially more confusing than 'Start Over'. 'Restart Level' implies that you're going to restart the current level, similar to the 'refresh' button in Fraction Matcher. And it definitely does not do that. The button abandons the current game and returns you to the Level Selection screen.

Also note that the 'Start Over' string is in the vegas common-code repository. Changing to 'Restart Level' is problematic because some sims do not expose the concept of 'level' in their games (e.g., Build An Atom).

[pixelzoom]

@ariel-phet I've assigned this to you. Since this involves a common-code repository, it needs to be resolved before we can move forward with release-candidate testing. I'm comfortable with deferring for graphing-lines and moving this issue to vegas. But once we start release-candidate testing, this issue cannot be addressed for a 1.0.0 release.

[ariel-phet]

Yes, @pixelzoom please move this issue to vegas. Although "Start Over" is not perfect we have yet to come up with a better alternative, and this phrase was "KP approved"

[krhensberry]

@pixelzoom The button does return you to the Level Selection screen, but my understanding is that it doesn't "abandon" the current game -- your progress (in terms of completing other levels) is still saved; you only lose what you've done in that particular level. Start Over implies to me, though, that you're starting the entire game over (like Refresh All) rather than just abandoning that level. I'm not married to Restart Level (and I do hear your concerns about it), but I do like that the phrase signifies something to the user about the level changing (or losing what progress you've made in that level) rather than the game as a whole. I'll try to think of something else that might be more appropriate.

[ariel-phet]

@krhensberry - you are correct about the action of the button. It returns you to the level selection screen, but it also clears your work from the level on which you were working. Unfortunately, I think a very clear term would be "Quit" but that is definitely not a term we want to use in a PhET sim. As mentioned "Start Over" is not perfect, but like several other features of sims, sometimes meaning has to be derived from usage. For instance, the Reset All button becomes pretty clear from usage, as well as our Refresh button in a game like Fraction Matcher. This button will be somewhat less clear, but for instance, if a student has played several levels and then on one chooses "Start Over" I think it will be obvious that there scores from other levels are preserved since they will see the stars on those levels.

I am all for it if we can come up with a clearer phrase, but I have to admit nothing comes easily to mind.

[samreid]

I think we discussed at a previous meeting that it is desirable for the sim to keep your progress instead of clearing it when you return to the level selection screen. Even though we haven't implemented this for previous sims and have no plans to retrofit them, it would be good to keep in mind for future sims.

[samreid]

Instead of "Start Over", how about "Back"? Or instead of text, we could use a left arrow? The arrow work nicely when we standardize "scrolling" animation between the level selection screen and levels in https://github.com/phetsims/vegas/issues/18

[krhensberry]

I actually like the idea of a left arrow. Thinking about how I'd interpret that, say, in a browser window... Like I'm typing now, but haven't saved this comment, and I know if I hit my back button, I'll lose what I just typed (but won't lose the previous comment that I posted earlier, like a student won't lose the progress they made in previous levels). I agree with @ariel-phet that functionality will become clear from usage, but a left arrow might be a little less ambiguous than all the words.

[ariel-phet]

@samreid The left arrow will not work in many circumstances (this has also been discussed in several design meetings). For instance in games like "Build a Fraction" a left arrow would imply going back to "the last screen" but it would bring you back to the level selection screen. And in fact, usually a "go back" takes one to the last page, so it might at first be thought to take you back to the last challenge in a game like this. If you want to use a left arrow in the context of this game, it would likely be fine but it should not become the standard in vegas.The left arrow also has the limitation that you really would prefer to place it in the top left of the screen, which may be a difficult constraint to adhere to in certain designs.

[pixelzoom]

@krhensberry wrote:

@pixelzoom The button does return you to the Level Selection screen, but my understanding is that it doesn't "abandon" the current game -- your progress (in terms of completing other levels) is still saved; you only lose what you've done in that particular level.

Not quite correct. It only abandons what you're doing in the current level. You do no lose anything you've previously done in that level - your best score and best time are both preserved. So there is no reseting or restarting of any level going on. All that's happening is you're giving up on one set of challenges, and you're returned to the level-selection screen.

[pixelzoom]

I'm concerned about using a left arrow when the animated transitions are not defined. (PhET is planning to add animated transitions to this and all games in the future, see https://github.com/phetsims/scenery-phet/issues/60.) If we decide to do transitions between each challenge, then I would interpret a back arrow as meaning "go back to the previous challenge", not "go back to the level-selection screen".

[samreid]

Not quite correct. It only abandons what you're doing in the current level.

As we discussed at a PhET meeting, it would be best for future development if the current work in the level is not abandoned.

What about naming the button "back" or "game home screen" or "select level"?

[pixelzoom]

As we discussed at a PhET meeting, it would be best for future development if the current work in the level is not abandoned.

That's not what I recall from the conversation. My recollection is that we decided that we currently have 2 types of games, Fraction Matcher and Graphing Lines being examples. And that the current behavior of both was appropriate for those styles of games. So afaik, there is no plan to change the behavior of the Graphing Lines type games.

[ariel-phet]

@samreid what @pixelzoom said in the previous comment is correct. Graphing lines (like balancing act) has a sequential game. We decided that in such games we would not preserve work done, as that might be quite confusing for users. In a game like Fraction Matcher, since you have all challenges presented at once, we decided it would make sense to preserve state. Also notice fraction matcher has a refresh button, which makes sense in such a game and its action is transparent. We do not have a refresh button in sequential games since its action would very much not be transparent.

[samreid]

We decided that in such games we would not preserve work done, as that might be quite confusing for users.

So the desired behavior you are describing is that:

1. the user presses the button for level 3
2. the user completes two challenges
3. then presses "back to level selection screen" (or whatever we call it)
4. then presses the button for level 3 again

This is supposed to reset the progress on level 3? Why? Why would it be confusing for users for it to keep the progress? I think it would be more confusing for users for it not to keep the progress. An important design principle in many apps (and very predominant in mobile apps) is for the user to be able to take action and be able to "undo" it easily without it disrupting their work. For instance, in the "Principles of User Interface Design" wikipedia entry it lists one principle as

The tolerance principle: The design should be flexible and tolerant, reducing the cost of mistakes and misuse by allowing undoing and redoing,

What if someone taps the "start over" button by mistake, or because they don't know what it does yet?

[patricialoeblein]

My 2 cents: I tend to agree with Sam that we seem to be making things non-conventional and I perhaps too subtle. I wonder if our desire to reduce words and simplifying screens are becoming a problem. I know I have been out of the loop, but we appear to be making big decisions about how the games are going to act and those decisions will impact many sims. I am coming back to some math development teams starting next week and will be active on more development teams after school starts August 11th.

Build a Molecule is similar in behavior as this sim. The progress, like the number of stars for a high score, is kept and students are enabled to have a scaffolded experience. I thought this was so students could move forward, but teachers could check the students’ work. The words “Refill Kit” and “ Reset Collection” are very clear and my students responded well to the sim. I don’t see a “Reset All” and I do think that is often an important feature of sims . Maybe I incorrect in the motivation, but the sim seems to encourage progression nicely while enabling verification by the teacher.

Please excuse my stepping in if doing so is not my place. Feel free to not respond to my comments.

[ariel-phet]

@patricialoeblein the "reset all" button is on the level selection screen

The reset all button resets the entire game from the level selection screen, all work. We decided this would best way to support teachers, especially in the case where a new class comes in or students are trading off on a computer, they can just reset the entire game. Right now, that is a standard for all games with a level selection screen.

@samreid the behavior you describe in fact matches the java implementation of such sequential games, they just didn't have a fancy level selection screen (or a tracking of stars achieved). I think the key is whether the progress is transparent or not. In a game like fraction matcher, or arithmetic, your progress is very transparent, as all challenges are placed before you on one screen. In a game like balancing act, or the graphing lines game, this progress is not transparent. In many normal games, start over, or "new game" relinquishes all progress. That is pretty standard.

[ariel-phet]

BTW @patricialoeblein Build a Molecule is yet another different style of game we tend to refer to as an "implicit game" - there is no explicit scoring (+1 or +2).

[ariel-phet]

I should add one other comment at the moment. Let us consider what students actually DO, having observed many interviews with the sims in question (balancing act, fraction matcher, graphing lines) and a classroom study with Balancing Act.

Students tend to just go through the sequential games. Many students begin at level one and move up, some decide to see just how hard the high levels are first. So experience suggests it is going to be pretty rare for them to hit the "Start Over" button accidentally or on a whim in these games.

For a game like fraction matcher, students do hit the refresh button. Usually first to see what is does, since its action is obvious, they see that it refreshes the challenges. The way students seem to use this in fraction matcher is that if they make a counting error the refresh the level for the motivation of a perfect score. I have seen them use the return to level selection button without confusion (since its action was obvious from use). Not opposed to changing the icon, but they hit the button and saw what it did.

And remember, the design team chose not to have a "return to level selection" button on a game like balancing act, but instead chose "start over". We had decided that "return to level selection" button (since nonstandard) should have a low consequence meaning and retain the state of the sim if we use that button - but it was specifically decided not to use that button in balancing act, and the same conclusion was reached for graphing lines.

[patricialoeblein]

I will gracefully remove myself from this conversation.

I do want to note that running a classroom of 30 needy students is far from the interview environment and I am glad you have some class data to support the interface. I do feel apprehensive about ambiguous buttons for teachers who are not as well skilled at enabling students. I have concerns, based on reading lessons, that unclear interfaces often drive teachers to write more scripted lessons.

[pixelzoom]

From my comment 7 days ago:

Since this involves a common-code repository, it needs to be resolved before we can move forward with release-candidate testing. I'm comfortable with deferring for graphing-lines and moving this issue to vegas.

We don't seem to be any closer to resolving this. If we want to stay on schedule, I suggest that we defer this issue for Graphing Lines 1.0. And move this issue to the vegas repository.

[pixelzoom]

In email, @ariel-phet wrote:

I think you can move forward with Graphing Lines release-candidate testing immediately if you are comfortable with that. Move that issue of the "start over" button to vegas.

[pixelzoom]

Moving this issue to a more general discussion in vegas: https://github.com/phetsims/vegas/issues/25.

This issue not be addressed for Graphing Lines 1.0.0, closing.