Authors: 
Whitney Mak, Leah Henderson and David Effa
Case revision date: 
2011-09-23
Length: 
9 Pages (Case study)
Summary: 

XMG Style Studio Mobile Game Interface XMG Studio Inc., located in Toronto, Canada, is a start-up mobile game development company that specializes in using agile game development methodologies to create the next generation of interactive mobile games. The company is developing a fashion genre game that allows users to create and design their own custom clothing (see Figure 1). The fashion genre game has a “design interface” where users are designing the clothing and a “wardrobe interface” for when users wish to use the clothing they have designed. The current design and wardrobe interfaces have memory management problems such as lagging and crashing, as well as complaints about the graphical user interface usability.

Whitney Mak, a coop student from the University of Waterloo, has been working on the development of this game with her team lead and supervisor, Adam Telfer. She is responsible for ensuring the problems mentioned above are solved in the final release. 

Learning objectives: 

This case study is intended as an example of user interface design and performance optimization. It could also be used as an introduction to some of the basic methods and principles used by software engineers, including software requirement and interface design. This case is particularly designed for SYDE 162 (Human Factors in Design) course where students are introduced to some of the basic design concepts of human-machine environments and analytical methods of determining user needs in systems. Courses could include SYDE 223, 348, 542, 543, ECE 150, 155, 355, and SE 382. 

Key words: 
Mobile application; Framework; Game Lag; Menu Layers; Memory Allocations
CEAB attributes: 
Problem Analysis; Creativity; Use of Engineering Tools
Modules: 
Module 01 - Case Study
Module 02 - Need analysis (Restricted to educators only)
Module 03 – Preliminary Design (Restricted to educators only)
Module TN - Teaching Note (Restricted to educators only)

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