LDL Concept Release Survey

This is a survey about the initial release of the Level Description Language (latest version: 0.0.2, released on the 27th of April 2008). We would be grateful if you could fill it in by the 2nd of June 2008, once you have tried LDL - though if you're reading this after that date, please do still fill it in; your feedback will not be ignored.

The survey is about your feelings towards LDL and is designed to give us information on the areas of research needed to improve the system, or systems like it, in the medium to long term.

As it primarily for research, not development, purposes (though development will be influenced by the outcome), please do not use this form to report bugs. If you find bugs that stop you using the system, please report them to the mailing list and/or Launchpad. We will then do our best to fix them before you fill in the survey.

You are under no obligation to fill in this form and my withdraw at any time. No personal data will be collected without your permission. We will never sell or even broadcast any data that can identify you to anyone else. The data will be held at Loughborough University, UK and used in the preparation of academic papers and to inform the future direction of LDL. The data will be deleted at the conclusion of this research project.

About You

1.1

What is your age (years)? (optional)

1.2

What is the severity of your sight condition?

1.3

What is the name of your condition (optional)?

1.4

What is the duration of your condition?

1.5

What type of assistive technology do you use the most?

1.6

How would you rate the effect of your sight condition on your ability to view text on screen (when you are using any assistive technology)?

1.7

How would you rate the effect of your sight condition on your ability to play computer games?

1.8

Have you ever written computer programmes?

1.9

Have you ever constructed a web site using HTML?

1.10

Have you ever written an XML file before?

1.11

How long have you been using AudioQuake?

1.12

Please list any other 3D accessible games you have played (optional)

1.13

Please list any Interactive Fiction games you have played (e.g. Zork, Lurking Horror, Spider and Web) (optional)

1.14

Please rate the level of your desire to make maps for AudioQuake

Mobility

2.1

How would you rate your skills at navigation?

2.2

How relevant do you think navigation in the real world is to that in AudioQuake?

2.3

How well do you feel LDL currently captures this relevance -- that is to say: how "realistically" does LDL capture navigation?

2.4

How do you think of an individual route through 3D space - such as the route to the corner shop on your street - in your mind?

2.5

If you said "other" above, please enter the details here

2.6

How do you think of two or more routes through the same 3D space, which may cross (such as routes within a building to different rooms, where some of the routes, e.g. a set of stairs, are common, or routes between buildings on campus, or between rooms in your home)?

2.7

If you said "other" above, please enter the details here

Using LDL

This section is about the way you used LDL. The next one is about how you felt about it.

The first 7 questions ask what percentage of the errors you encountered when using LDL you attribute to different causes. To signify 0 percent, leave the box blank.

3.1

What percentage of the errors you encountered do you think were down to your vision impairment?

3.2

What percentage of the errors you encountered do you think were down to human error?

3.3

What percentage of the errors you encountered do you think were down to unfamiliarity with XML or something similar?

3.4

What percentage of the errors you encountered do you think were down to the strictness of XML?

3.5

What percentage of the errors you encountered do you think were down to difficulty in conceptualising the layout of your map?

3.6

What percentage of the errors you encountered do you think were down to a lack of spatial awareness?

3.7

What percentage of the errors you encountered do you think were down to LDL not providing you with the features you needed to design your map?

3.8

What other factors, if any, caused errors? (optional)

3.9

Did you give up using LDL?

3.10

If you gave up, why did you give up?

3.11

If you succeeded, was the result what you expected?

3.12

If not, why not?

3.13

How well did you cope in having to provide direction information to LDL (the points of the compass and so on)?

Your Opinion of LDL

4.1

When specifying the relationship of one room to another, which of the following would you prefer?

4.2

If you said "other" above, please enter the details here.

Within a building, all rooms and interconnection corridors have a relationship to one another. If can be rather difficult to say where one particular room is in relation to another unless we know the structure of the space.

4.3

Bearing this in mind, which types of interaction would you like with the LDL?XML
Natural Language Description
Dialogue (questions and answers, computer remembers previous rooms)
Non-speech audio based
Use AudioQuake as the level editor [not currently possible, but a blue sky idea]
Use a touch (haptic) interface.
Others (please specify)

4.4

If you said "other" above, please type in details here.

4.5

How helpful did you find the LDL Tutorial?

4.6

How could the LDL Tutorial be improved? (optional)

4.7

How would you rate your experience of the LDL?

4.8

Please list any additional features you would like. (optional)

The next few questions are about any experience or knowledge you have of tools similar to LDL. When answering them, please bear in mind that other accessible game editors may offer programming features. LDL does not because it is just a map description system. The programming side of AudioQuake (via the ZQuake engine and QuakeC) is already accessible and in use, so is not the subject of these questions.

(If you do have problems or suggestions regarding the programming side of AudioQuake, please discuss them on the AGRIP-discuss mailing list.)

4.9

Are you aware of any similar tools to LDL?

4.10

Please list any other accessible game editor tools you have used. (optional)

4.11

Please list any other accessible game editor tools you are aware of but have not used. (optional)

4.12

How does LDL compare to these other tools?

4.13

How much potential do you think there is to improve LDL so that it is as good as or better than competing tools?

4.14

Last question: what, if anything, can be done to improve LDL? (optional)

Finally

Thanks for answering our questions. Now we must ask how we may contact you in future.

5.1

What is your email address (optional)?

5.2

Please retype your email address if you gave it above

We may wish to contact you with further questions or information regarding your answers, or the survey results.

5.3

Please indicate your preference on any future contact

5.4

Are you interested in being contacted with the results of the survey?

Please press "send" to send your answers, or press "reset" to clear and start again.