Tall Tales

A Storytelling Mind Game

Created By Donte Polimeni

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

Contents

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

Concept

pg. 3

Wordle

pg. 4

Objectives

Goals

pg. 5
pg. 6

Usability Research

pg. 7

Sketches

pg. 8

Information Architecture

pg. 10

Brand Identity

pg. 11

Style Sheet

pg. 12

Personas

pg. 13

Competitive Analysis

pg. 14

SWOT Analysis

pg. 16

Wireframes

pg. 17

User Interface Design

pg. 22

Production Infomation

pg. 27

Gantt Chart

pg. 28

Stake Holders

pg. 29

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

pg 2

Concept

Tall Tales is a responsive website and mobile app for tablets,

smartphones, and computers that gives a new meaning to
creative development and freedom through creating fun and
ingenious stories with either yourself or with your friends. With
the primary focus being the writing of short stories, users will
sign up online to create an account on either a computer or
mobile devices to have access to developing stories and
uploading those stories onto their profiles. From there, users will
have a chance to publish their work, claim copywrite over their
work, and pay to have their work produced in a quality printed
format. This would be for people who love to write stories, or
would like to get into writing stories, or even enjoy reading user
created stories in their free time. To achieve this project, Tall
Tales will be developed through HTML5, CSS, and JQuery to create
a responsive webpage and app with parallax scrolling. Tall Tales
aims to be the place where creative writing can flourish and
writing can be a fun and creative activity.

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

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Wordle

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

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Objectives

Personal: Creating Tall Tales is my way of giving

people a chance to be creative writers, no matter
how unknown those writers may be. Writing is one
of those long forgotten arts, it should be respected
and remembered today as the most brilliant artform
in the world.
Mission Statement: To create an environment
where users add onto a continually developing
story. This social experiment will result in wide
spread influence and community between different
users.
Success Metric: Young adult audiences looking for
something interesting to write.

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

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Goals

Short Term: To develop a party game for users

looking to write funny and creative short stories
with friends using mobile platforms
Long Term: Developing a social interactive medium
through writing, by offering an online platform for
stangers to write funny and interesting stories for
everyone to read.

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

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Usability Research

-User testing on a physical plane, with a yellow

writing tablet, a group of five.
-Tests will study group interactions, creative
development, and fun factor.
-Afterwords, users will be given a sheet that asks
them a serious of questions relating to their
experience and what users would be interested in
the development of this product.
-Then tests via a physical mockup of the website,
asking questions about the layout, etc.

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Sketches: User Interface

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

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Sketches: User Interface (Cont.)

User Login

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

Genre Selection

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Information Architecture

Sign In

Home

Setup Popup
Window

Writing

Read

Continue
Writing

Thank You
Page

Story Information
Transfer Data

About

User Page

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

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Brand Identity
Sketches

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

Final Design

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

pg 11

Style Sheet

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2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

pg 12

Personas

Theodore:

An Animator in the industry that is looking to create a short

story to develop his latest animation. Using himself and a few other members
of his animation team, they write a short story following a single genre. They
worked together and communicated to write a clever short story on Tall Tales.

Robert:

A student at his local univerity, he enjoys writing in his spare time.

He prefers to write from a tablet, but also wants to collaborate with
serious writers. He even wishes to publish work of his own. Tall Tales
marketing method will allow users like Robert to collaborate with other users
to publish their work for a minimal fee and even be a part of a colaborative
series of books published under Tall Tales.

Jessica:

A young adult that wants something different from her mobile

experience. She finds Tall Tales on the internet, signs up via her smartphone,
and enjoys spending time adding onto ongoing stories with other people
online. For her, it became close to a social experience, different from that of
Facebook or Twitter.

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

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Competitive Analysis Part 1: Evil Apples

Strengths:

-Based on Cards Against Humanity, taking from it the games mechanics into
a mobile platform
-Play with up to five people locally or randomly with people who have this
app.
-Strong multiplayer elements
-Customizable answers for certain cards.
-Adult Target audience

Weaknesses:

-Dumbs down to being a mobile version of Cards Against Humanity with it

being exactly the same game
-Matchmaking is confusing, and works better when you are in a group in-person
-IOS Devices only
-The inclusion of pay to play causes issues when one person can not play for
longer, in order to continue playing or last longer or even play people randomly you have to buy certain items to continue playing

Opportunities:

-Better options to allow people to play freely after they paid for the initial
game, instead of inputting coins and continue elements
-Android version

Threats:

Cards Against Humanity: http://cardsagainsthumanity.com/

1. There is already an online version for your computer set up for people to
play, which includes new cards and constant updates for more fun
2. They have a free version available for people to print out and play
3. No mobile implementation but being that it is a board game that does not
stop them from making the game happen.
4. Evil Apples might have based their game on Cards Against Humanity but at
least the original still has good value.

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

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Competitive Analysis Part 2: Story Wars

Strengths:

-Developed as a party game to battle your friends

-Creates stories with given characters to see who would win in a fight
-Competitive fan-fiction
-Consists of famous fairy-tale/mythological characters and locations, but is
not completely limited to a fairy-tale setting.
-Lasts about 30 minutes total to play a single game
-Lots of creative freedom for players to make the story up as they go, even
enough to reference pop culture.
-The age to play is 8 to up, this is targeted for younger audiences

Weaknesses:

-No web based platform/mobile usage. This is a complete board game.

-Limited in more fantasy and other fiction narratives than in non-fiction
-Competitive nature may cause overwhelming debates that could lead to inconsistent facts (anything goes type of thinking)
-No means of actually writing or publishing involved, due to its card game
nature.

Opportunities:

-A mobile platform/program could offer popular alternative as well as a way

to help influence the game itself?
-Can offer a story-writing element to spark creative writers

Threats:

Once Upon a Time (Board Game Developed by Atlas Games):

http://www.atlas-games.com/ouat3/
-For having a game where there is a controlled plot, conflict, and resolution
though cards that show typical elements. Much like Story War, it too is set in a
fantasy setting, but takes much of the artwork and themes from fantasy stories and games like Dungeons and Dragons. In addition it has come out with
numerous books, revised rulebooks, and cards for people who wish to get into

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

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SWOT: Tall Tales

Strengths

- Offers a Creative Writing Medium on free online platform.

- Additional Cooperative Storytelling in a Game-Like format.
- Providing user produced creative work.

Weaknesses

- Requires online access in order to properly use, especially for mobile users.
- Threat of inappropriate content that could tarnish the brand name.

Opportunities

- Captializing on publishing stories into a large collection of books.

- Random groups for mobile users.
- Use of publishing websites such as Blurb of Shutterfly.

Threats

- Story Wars: A Storytelling Board game that is a mix of Dungeons and Dragons with a storytelling
game basis. With the idea of having random events and characters to fight eachother inorder to tell who
would win in a certain fight.
- Evil Apples: A mobile game developed to be similar to Cards Against Humanity. This game focuses
on people playing with random groups to play for amusement and fun, while implimenting online
freemium methods of gameplay

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Wireframes: Login
Design is made responsive to accommodate all devices.

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Wireframes: Home
Design is made responsive to accommodate all devices.

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Wireframes: Pre-Write Setup plus Navigation

Organizing and Writing Section

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Wireframes: Writing
The story writing page, with inspiration to
texting as a basis.

Tall Tales:
A Storytelling
Game
Tall Tales:
A StorytellingMind
Mind Game

Tall Tales
Donte Polimeni,
Philadelphia
UniversityPrep
2014 Donte 2014
Polimeni
Philadelphia
University
Capstone

pg 20

Wireframes: Reading
Reading page along with additional navigation to
provide different reading choices.

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

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Wireframes: Thank You

This page will offer users a time frame to
return and write on their time.

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UI Design: Login

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UI Design: Home

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UI Design: Reading

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UI Design: Writing

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UI Designs: Web Thank You

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Production and Technology Usage

Design Developement: Photoshop for

designing elements, Illustrator for
developing wireframes, and InDesign
for presentation layout.
Codeing Process: Html, Css, PhP, and
Javascript.
Server-side Programing: MySQL and
MAMP
Inteactive Testing: InVision for UI
mockups and Testing

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

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Gantt Chart

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

pg 28

Stake Holders

-Donte Polimeni
-Philadelphia University
-Linda Daniels
-Educational Organizations
-Neil Harner

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

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Thank you!
And enjoy the
start of this creative
experiment!

Tall Tales: A Storytelling Mind Game

2014 Tall Tales Donte Polimeni, Philadelphia University

pg 30