1

MYP Design
e-Portfolio 2021-22
Identity through culture
Key concept: Communication
Related concept: Perspective
Global context: Personal and cultural expression
Statement of inquiry: Sharing aspects of culture can enhance international-mindedness
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CONTENTS
Criterion A: Inquiring and Analysing
• Interpretation of Unit Details
• Design Situation
• Target Community and Product
3
• Research Plan
• Analysis of Pre-Existing Products
• Design Brief

Criterion B: Developing Ideas

• Design Specifications
• Developing Design Ideas
• Selecting the Best Design
• Amendments Made to the Selected Design
11
• Sitemap of the Website Design
• Layout of Final Design
• Resources Required to Pursue the Design
• Potential Steps for Product-Development

Criterion C: Creating the Solution

• Logical Plan for Product-Development Process
• Project Timeline –– Gantt Chart
• Application of ATL Skills in Developing the Product 22
• Demonstrating Excellent Technical Skills
• Changes Made to the Product Design
• Changes Made to the Product-Development Plan
• Final Product Presentation

Criterion D: Evaluating
• Expert Evaluation of the Product
• Evaluation Against Design Specifications
37
• Areas of Improvement of the Website
• Impact on Target Community

Bibliography 43
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Criterion A: Inquiring and Analysing

Interpretation of Unit Details

Identity through culture revolves around the deep notion of culture; its various aspects and inextricable
link with individual and societal identity; cultural diversity and interaction, and international-mindedness.
Culture is the ‘way of life’ of a people. The ‘people’, here, can be a nation, state, tribe, group, etc. No culture
is deficient or inferior to another; all are equal. Culture is a multifarious concept that has, broadly speaking,
the following core aspects:1

1. Social organisation: how people of a society are ranked and arranged

2. Language: a clear system of symbols and meanings used in communication
3. Customs and traditions: the beliefs, social habits, behavioural expectations, laws and norms
4. Art and literature: the creative outpouring and forms of expression
5. Religion: the complex code or system of faith and worship2
6. System of government: the system of governance of a society by an authority
7. Economic system: the system of production of goods and distribution of resources

Culture is what separates one society from another; it’s the identity of a society. But, culture also constitutes
a large part of one’s individual identity. The culture(s) we are exposed to, identify with, and internalise drive
our behaviours and define our predispositions. Different cultures give us different interpretations of what is
right and wrong; moral and immoral – which is a large portion of our individuality. The very name of this
unit alludes to the powers of culture; it is through lifelong cultural exploration and interaction that we can
mould and alter who we are.

The key concept of this unit is communication. It is only by means of expressive intra- and inter-cultural
communication occurring in a variety of appropriate ways that we can transcend pre-existing social
frontiers; appreciate diversity, and cooperate with one another. Furthermore, communication – in the form of
cultural exchange – is vital for individuals to shape their identity and self-concept. Our identities are not
given, or bestowed to us from birth; they are shaped and built over time, and are malleable.3

The related concept is perspective. Our identities are dependent on the perspectives from which we have
viewed the world. Socialisation helps us absorb and acknowledge the characteristics of people with differing
cultural backgrounds. Consequently, the cultural lens through which we view the world expands, and we
value unique perspectives.

The global context from which both the aforementioned concepts are viewed is personal and cultural
expression – this context encompasses the expression of idiosyncratic ideals on an individual and communal
level; the reflexive expression of emotion and creativity, and the beliefs and values we adopt. An example of
a reflexive expression would be the famed sideways nod, used by Indians, as a gesture of approval. This
broad contextualisation of the unit is liberating in that I have a lot of freedom in developing possible design
situations in which I can build a digital product. I dissected the global context through analysing the
explorations under it and possible design situations they could entail (refer to Appendix A1).

The statement of inquiry that meaningfully amalgamates the aforementioned details is: sharing aspects of
culture can enhance international-mindedness – an almost unassailable truth. When cultural communication
and subsequent dissemination occurs, we eradicate cultural stereotypes and encourage constructive
conversations wherein the nuances of peoples are appreciated. It also results in more informed decisions
being made at every societal level – because all perspectives are considered – hence leading to a fairer
environment.

1
(Rebecca Carr)
2
(Oxford Languages, Culture)
3
(Khan)
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To become internationally-minded global citizens, we must expose ourselves to many cultures and realise
that all people, despite their differences, are intricately entangled in a single social fabric.

Design Situation
The world is a varied mix of countless thriving cultures and subcultures that people embody, and that
we are exposed to throughout our lives. It is important for us all – especially children, however – to learn of
the cultures and cultural backgrounds of those around us, through cultural education and awareness. When
youth gain this understanding, the future formation of xenophobic stereotypes4 and preconceptions caused
by ignorance is minimised; they become unprejudiced and empathetic, accepting, reflective, interculturally
sensitive, tolerant, open-minded, and respectful of the diverse tapestry of people that our world is – they
gain lifelong transferrable skills that make them internationally-minded. This, in the future, may result in a
more peaceful world with fewer culture-related conflicts. By teaching cultures to the up-and-coming
generation, we perpetuate them, reducing the chance of cultural extinction or endangerment, and
maintaining the world’s diversity.

The learners’ social networks also become more diversified, which is an aspect of life that children are
inherently anxious about. They develop a positive self-image, sense of identity and belonging, and build
their self-esteem – they build their identity, as they internalise aspects of learned cultures.5 This has led
many educational institutions to implement cultural learning techniques – such as student exchange
programs and diversity training – that help build a more well-informed classroom environment.

A study conducted by the Association of Graduate Recruiters6 shows that companies seek applicants with
cultural competence; applicants capable of appropriately engaging with clients and co-workers of different
cultures and regions – and there is an inadequacy of such workers. Cultural awareness, therefore, also
expands the possible career paths viable for students as they grow into adults. In my school, cultural
interaction amongst young students needs to be made more effective, as the current practices are inadequate.

My school’s Primary Years Program coordinator states that, within the classrooms, there is a strong demand
for a tool to help young students gain a concrete, rudimentary understanding of culture. “[It] would be
beneficial to build knowledge and comprehension skills,” they say, believing that understanding cultural
values “is an integral part of their learning.”

To help better the cultural education provided to youngsters in my school, I aim to develop a website that
serves as a source of facts on aspects of Indian culture, and as a tool that orchestrates cultural interaction
amongst students in the classroom. This aspiration was occasioned by my preliminary analysis of the global
context, secondary research, and inquiry into the current situation of my school’s PYP.

Target Community and Product

My website will target members of my school community: students of my school’s Primary Years
Program. Since there are hundreds of students in the PYP, it will be impractical for me to meaningfully
cooperate with everyone. Therefore, I have contacted a small subset of the students, whom I can correspond
with regularly to develop my website: the PYP student council – they will emulate the entirety of the PYP.

The student council, according to the coordinator, “are more responsible to reciprocate to the needs of [my]
project.” Of the members of the council, one is my client, whom I will specially consult for planning,
product specifications, and feedback. The PYP consists of young learners who are yet to enter adolescence,
and I will specifically be targeting those aged 6 to 12, as the coordinator believes that is where my tool
would be most apt and the demand is strongest. Within the scope of this project, my focus is on covering
only Indian culture because the overwhelming majority of the students and teachers of my school are native

4
(Hastings)
5
(Southwest Human Development)
6
(Picardo)
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to India. However, India is an incredibly diverse nation with countless cultures and subcultures with varying
beliefs, antiquity, and traditions that have coexisted throughout history – an often-unappreciated fact.7

In the contemporary climate of national politics, Indian heritage has largely been neglected and funding
toward heritage preservation and cultural dissemination is insufficient. Consequently, cultural ignorance
amongst nationals is high, which is a problem not least because people have been bereft of the general
enjoyment of engaging in cultural interaction, but also because cultural ignorance inevitably leads to
cultural indifference and xenophobia. When culture has no audience, it becomes stagnant and endangered.
When people are left uneducated, cultural conflict and prejudice become more prominent – this is why it is
imperative that children learn about culture in their formative years.

Naturally, since Indian culture is so infinite and nuanced, I will further be limiting myself to only the
cultures of 5 out of India’s 28 states: I will cover one North Indian state, one South Indian state, one East
Indian state, one West Indian state, and one Central Indian state. I selected the exact states whose cultures I
will be covering on the basis of data collected from a survey of my target community (or target audience) –
the goal of this survey was to identify the following:

1. The students’ outlook on the concept of culture

2. Their proficiency in their own culture and the cultures of their peers – and whether they were content
with what knowledge they had
3. The extent to which they sought to augment their understanding of Indian culture, and engage in
cultural interaction with their classmates
4. Their preferred mode of learning
5. The five Indian states whose culture they were interested to learn about

From the due survey responses that I amassed, I learned the following (refer to Appendix A2 and A3):

1. Each student swears by a different definition of the word “culture”

2. Some definitions associate culture more closely with tradition and festivals, others equate it with
nature and the manifestation of beliefs, and a few are overarching
3. The students have varying degrees of insight of their own cultures, but they all feel they have
inadequate insight of the other cultures of India, and of the cultures of their peers
4. As a result of that deficiency of necessary knowledge, they all want to learn more about Indian
culture
5. Roughly 80% of the students personally want to share aspects of their culture with their classmates
6. This figure is projected to increase lest the website is developed and leads to an increase in
awareness, amongst students, of their own culture and the cultural backgrounds of others
7. Exactly 40% of students believe that video is a superior medium for education, while the remaining
60% believe that its effect is best when it is accompanied by reading material and images
8. The five states of India the students want to see me cover are: Rajasthan, Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, Nagaland, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh

Of these five states – that are located in and span across different regions of India – I will cover, in brief, the
cultural aspects of food, customs and traditions, art, and festivals. My main attention, though, will be on the
religions, norms, and ideals of each state. This is because today, the topic of religion is pertinent; tensions
between religious communities have been rising, of late. The constitutional values of secularism upon which
India was established are being challenged, and many minority groups have been violently pressed into
subjugation. This tragic status quo has been caused, in part, by misinformed chauvinists, extremists and
supremacists with incomplete religious knowledge that they try to compensate for with erroneous beliefs
that lead to stereotyping and conflict (refer to Appendix A4). My goal is not to impose or advocate my
religious pluralist beliefs through this website; it is merely to provide veracious accounts of the religions that
constitute each state – I will be elucidating the truth in a way that is accessible and clear.

7
(Varma)
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To achieve this, my website will be an amalgamation of communication modes: it will contain text, video
and audio. Employing these different learning modalities – in parallel with unique pedagogical strategies –
will make the website more variegated, and the sensory experience more immersive.8 “[It will also] help all
kinds of differential learners,” says the PYP coordinator. It is conspicuous, from the aforementioned main
cultural aspects I plan to address, that the explorations under personal and cultural expression, the global
context, upon which my design situation is predicated are philosophies and ways of life and belief systems.

My website, however, will serve as more than merely a repository of cultural insight – it will also be a
means by which to facilitate and moderate cultural interaction amongst students within a classroom. This is
to provide children with the opportunity to socialise and share their own personal experiences, knowledge,
anecdotes and cultural backgrounds. This transmission of information will help students augment their
understanding, appreciate the diversity of their classroom, mould their identity through subconscious
internationalisation through socialisation, and realise that culture is not merely an abstract concept, but an
individual learned and felt experience.9

My website will fit seamlessly into classrooms and may be used by teachers for varying purposes, to
contextualise their teachings and demonstrate how it relates to culture. For example, in a maths class, when
teaching a concept that was initially devised in an Indian state, a teacher might refer to the website to show
how said concept and its origins relate to Indian culture – thereby encouraging constructive, interdisciplinary
discussion, and cultural communication amongst learners.

Research Plan
I have adopted an inquiry-based method for the research for the website development, that demands
the initial prioritization of the different areas of research. Below is the tabulation thereof. Each research area
is guided by a set of fundamental research questions – a list of intriguing what, when, where, why, does, to
what extent, how, etc. questions that may be characterized as factual, conceptual, or debatable. From these
questions, further subinquiries may stem amidst the process of research (refer to Appendix A5).

Research Sources of answers

Priority Research questions
area Primary Secondary
Paramount: A Factual My MYP Scholarly
primary goal of • What are the chief art forms, languages, integrated offline and
my website is to cuisines, clothing styles, traditions, and humanities online
provide students festivals of each state – are they underpinned teacher, articles,
with genuine, by beliefs? research research
objective • What is the religious demographic of each statistics, papers,
descriptions of state? actual YouTube
the cultures • How do the characteristic cultural ideals of historical explainer
linked with each each state manifest themselves? accounts videos,
state – to do so, I Conceptual books
Theory must conduct • What historically-significant ideologies have
thorough emerged from each state?
research using • How do different cultural communities (i.e.,
credible tribals and non-tribals) within each state
resources to interact with one-another?
obtain
• What are the cultural, ideological, and
information and
historical similarities of each state?
augment my own
Debatable
understanding of
Indian culture • What are the commonly-oversimplified and
glossed-over cultural nuances of each state?
• Through what means have communities with

8
(Bevan)
9
(Jelliffe)
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varying belief systems historically coexisted?

Extremely high: Factual A language Blog posts,
For the • What are the commonly-adopted styles of and articles,
information writing to cover cultural concepts such as literature YouTube
provided to these? teacher from explainer
resonate with the • What level of vocabulary and literary devices my school’s videos
students, it must should I expect the target user to have? PYP
be Conceptual
communicated • What is the key to making effective
Literary with great explanatory analogies that enchant the user
efficacy; which all throughout?
is to say, age- • Should connections between cultural
appropriate concepts and popular culture be established?
language Debatable
• Should every cultural account abide by a
constant formal structure, or is it better to
present unmethodical accounts?
• Is communicating with a humourous
undertone apt, in this scenario?
Very high: To Factual The Online
ensure that the • For what exact purposes should each of the coordinator articles,
hopefully well- three educational modes – text, audio, and of my YouTube
written video – be utilised? school’s explainer
information is • Which institutionalised pedagogical PYP, my videos,
made engaging strategies appeal to today’s preteens? MYP design scientific
for learners, I • What are the benefits of gamification? teacher literature,
must brainstorm Conceptual guides on
and employ the • How can learning be gamified? coding
most effective • How technologically-difficult is the
Pedagogy pedagogical gamification process?
methods using
• What is the ideal length for an educational
technology
video meant for preteens?
Debatable
• What style of video is most apt: live-action,
animation, whiteboard, typography … or a
mix of them all?
• What functionalities must the website contain
to maximise user engagement,
enlightenment, and enjoyment?
High: My Factual My school’s Online
website is a • What constitutes a website that is frictionless department articles,
compilation of and easy to navigate? of design YouTube
all the content Conceptual technology, explainer
UI; UX
produced, which • What website layout and structuring of on- a videos, pre-
is why it must screen material would be most appropriate technologic existing
have a perfect for my website? ally- products
user interface – • What UI elements contribute to a good UX? competent
with the needed • By what means can I collect the students’ entrepreneu
elements and feedback on the user interface, within the er
features – so that website itself?
the time spent on Debatable
it by students,
• Considering the situation, should my website
and the quantity
be professional or child-like … or a bit of
of content learnt
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are maximised both?

• What coding language(s) should I utilise?
High: Having a Factual My MYP Online
characteristically • What are the universal design conventions in design articles,
refined, novel, website development? teacher, an YouTube
visually- • What common traits do trademark website art teacher explainer
appealing user logos share? of my videos,
interface will • How do websites relay information, while school’s research
make the user still incorporating negative space? MYP papers
Aesthetics experience more Conceptual
memorable and • Which universal design conventions ought to
help each be followed in creating this educational
webpage website?
command the • What design choices may be made to convey
focus of the the desired tone and mood of each webpage?
students, which
Debatable
later leads to an
• How can I, as a website-developer, strike a
increase in the
balance between usability and creativity?
retention of
information • To what extent can I develop an objectively
good design – one that pleases virtually
everyone?

Analysis of Pre-Existing Products

As part of my necessary research preparatory to drafting the product specifications, I viewed three pre-
existing websites that are similar – but, far from identical – to the one I plan on developing. I scrutinised
them to identify their virtues and shortfalls, and to acquire inspiration for my website.

1. Indian Culture10

Indian Culture is a website that provides

accounts of miscellaneous aspects of
Indian culture and stories thereof. It is
run in partnership with the Indian
government’s Ministry of Culture –
which means there must be credibility to
it. I love the content presented on this
website, and its user interface. Every
page – from the homepage to the
informational pages – is well-designed
and structured. All of the main on-screen
text and information is centred, and the
colour scheme is a tasteful mixture of
white and grey, with accents of different shades of purple. This site utilises a vast number of media forms to
share insightful stories, events, heroes, and facts about the tangible and intangible aspects of Indian culture.
Text, audio, video, images, data reports, manuscripts, maps, and paintings constitute some of the modalities
contained within the website. Each section of the website is succinct and seems to be written with a
scholarly approach. I am particularly fond of how not only comprehensive each cultural account is, but also
how each account respects the reader. The writers sympathise with their audience and introduce each idea in
a hospitable fashion that hooks in the readers, intrigues, and comforts. However, the website is slightly
rudimentary, particularly with regard to the user interface. On occasion, it does not provide adequate
feedback and response to the user’s inputs (i.e., clicks).

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(Indian Culture)
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One also has to click multiple times on certain hyperlinked elements for the website to respond and transport
the user to the desired page.

Furthermore, certain images are elongated and/or foreshortened, which make them look unappealing and
unpleasant. Lastly, the various archives of vast historical documents, images, news articles, videos etc. seem
to be disorganised – they have been haphazardly mustered. It would be ideal to see a more organised topic-
based approach to electronically-storing these documents on this site, as that would make it easier to
navigate and find the desired document. Overall, apart from these flaws, the site is impeccable and, most of
the time does justice to the cultural concepts of varying popularity that it covers. I would rate this site a 7 out
of 10.

2. Cultural Atlas11

Cultural Atlas is a collaborative project – which, in this case, manifests as a website – to inform people of
the cultures of migrants in Australia, to promote inclusion and diversity within the country. The section of
the website dedicated to Indian culture briefly recapitulates the core aspects of Indian culture; its various
religions; the do’s and don'ts; the nuanced ideas of business, communication, etiquettes, naming, family,
greetings – and more.

The purposeful accounts on this website

target an audience of laypeople; those
not immersed in Indian culture – even so,
it covers a wide range of topics and
issues in respectable detail – for
example, when discussing how families
are predominantly structured in India, it
mentions not only marriage conventions,
but also gender inequality, and how it is
particularly noticeable in conservative
environments. The website has been
designed with a minimalist approach.
Each informational web page consists of
a white background upon which there is centred text that is dark grey in colour. The only other consistent
source of colour present on every page is the cropped image of the Taj Mahal located on the header. This
level of simplicity in the design symbolises the straightforwardness of the website, as I see it. The user
interface of this website is possibly its greatest strength. The site contains a small number of functionalities
but they all work together harmoniously to form a cohesive whole. Each web page is short, clean, and well-
structured – the user can toggle between web pages seamlessly using a set of connected nodes that display
available pages. The site also provides ample feedback to the user whenever a command has been made –
for example, if one clicks on a certain element, they receive an immediate response that their action has been
registered.

The website contains no fanciful features – it’s practical and pragmatic. However, it ought to contain some
features that make the site seem more tailored for the audience it’s for. For instance, since it’s made for
laypeople, readers are likely to have questions upon reading this information that is novel to them. Having a
live chat option with an expert to whom they can pose their questions, to get answers, will help them acquire
a clearer image of the truth, and eliminate ambiguity surrounding what they have learnt.

3. Incredible India12

Incredible India is a website dedicated to providing travellers, tourists and potential foreign and native
visitors deep insight into the rich, diverse cultures of each Indian state, the major regions within the states,

11
(Indian Culture)
12
(Incredible India)
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and the historical monuments therein. It is the official website of India’s Ministry of Tourism. The
comprehensive site spans countless webpages and conveys the information in digestible quantity and
language.

The home page consists of thumbnails

and sketches of each state’s cultural
description – one can find the exact
state they are interested in by selecting
the right checkboxes on the left-hand
side of the screen.

The site is addictive because it contains

novel information that is fun to read
(i.e., how a day in each city feels like,
the activities one can do in each region
to entertain themselves, etc.), but also
because the user interface is properly
thought-out. It is a breeze to navigate between pages, and the experience is smooth. The arrangement of text
and images is neither overwhelming nor underwhelming, and certain on-screen elements are subtly
animated, which add slight depth to the experience. The website contains a live chat option by which one
can ask questions. The one criticism I have is that the site is bereft of any personal tourist reviews – which is
something tourists often look for, as a way to verify whether a place is worth visiting.

Design Brief
Through primary and secondary research, I have formed a concrete – but not fully planned-out – vision
of how my website will be, and it is summarised in the following points (refer to Appendix A6 and A7):

• My website will be an online space where young students – in this case, those of the PYP in my
school – can learn about the cultures native to five Indian states: Rajasthan, Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, Nagaland, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh
• Religion (and belief systems) is the aspect of each of these cultures that will be stressed on the most
• The site will contain none of my opinions; it will merely provide veracious accounts of each culture
• References to popular culture will be made – to make the study of culture relatable and impactful
• Information will be communicated through three means: text, audio, and video – the main genre of
video will be animation
• Text will be the main form of communication; audio and video will be incorporated wherever apt
• To make maximise retention, and make learning more hands-on and motivating, certain parts of the
learning process will be gamified through single/multiplayer mini-games
• Aside from being a source of information, the website will also facilitate cultural interaction amongst
students in the classroom – for example, it may contain verbal literacy games based on sharing
culture, whose rules are propounded on the website and that students are expected to follow
• The website will be easy to navigate and will be responsive, providing the user with feedback when
they make commands
• The site will be designed with an eye to modern professionalism, but also still contain some child-
like elements and design choices which form the impression that it is a site tailored for youngsters
• The key on-screen text will be centred and the colour scheme of each page will be different

The product-development stage and completion of the design cycle will occur in the space of a few weeks –
to achieve this, I must meticulously plan out the resources I will need to create my product, alongside the
actual steps I will carry out, the order I will carry them out in, and the amount of time.
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Criterion B: Developing Ideas

Design Specifications
Through ideation in forums with my client and the target audience they are a part of, I have managed to
develop the following table of specifications that the website – which will aid in the cultural and religious
education of PYP students – must adhere to for it to be considered a successful product. The site will be
called Infinite.com – a name that is easy to recall, and one that encapsulates the vastness of Indian culture
(refer to Appendix D2 for product rubric made on the basis of the below design specifications).

Area Specifications Justification Testing

The site will provide an in- Covering every one of these The students will be tasked
depth account of the various points with utmost veracity is with probing and surfing
cultural aspects of five Indian extremely important because the different webpages of
states: Rajasthan, Andaman only then will the students be the website, after which
and Nicobar Islands, able to gain a near overarching they will be quizzed on all
Nagaland, Maharashtra, and understanding of the cultures of of these topics by both
Uttar Pradesh the mentioned states they filling in a test integrated
The exact aspects that it will wanted me to cover. into the website, and an
cover, in a positive light, are: Additionally, doing this will external questionnaire that I
religion, language, attire, also eliminate any doubt about will prepare – if the
festivals, architecture, cuisine, the nature of each religion students generally perform
and art present in India, and shed light well, the website will be
on the truth – which will allow considered successful in
Theory
The religious demographic students to become more imparting all of the
and major belief systems that literate in this area, more open- necessary information
reign in each state, and India minded, and sympathetic
as a whole, will be toward people with differing
emphasised more than any cultural backgrounds13. Aside
other aspect of culture from directly absorbing facts,
How different religious when my website is used to
ideologies manifest and facilitate cultural interaction in
coexist, underpin other the classroom, students can
aspects of culture, and look augment their understanding,
when juxtaposed with one- better their social skills, and
another – this will all be form a more understanding
explained ambience
The expository, Since the age range for the I will ensure the language is
conversational style of product is 6-12, users are not of the required level by
language used to expected to have a high level of consulting a language and
communicate the information command over language – they literature teacher of my
will be elementary – no are in the early stages of their school’s PYP, and that
convoluted phrases, literary linguistic development there are no grammatical or
devices or complex syntax errors, by using a
vocabulary will be used on digital writing tool
Literary the website
The website will contain not Any level of biasness in the The content presented will
even the subtlest indication of presented information may be expertly proofread, and
my stance on any of the topics mislead the reader to false strictly scrutinised for any
– the information presented conclusions that provide a minute signs of
will be absolutely factual and warped understanding of the subjectivity. For example,
objective truth14 lest the phrase,

13
(Center for American Progress)
14
(Šimundić)
 12

“Maharashtra has a
beautiful culture,” is
spotted, the word
‘beautiful’ will be erased,
as it indicates an opinion of
mine; that I find
Maharashtrian culture
beautiful
Wherever appropriate in the Connecting the content to I can measure the efficacy
website, references to popular events that students are familiar of my references by tasking
culture and contemporary with can make it seem more students with reading a
events will be made approachable, memorable and cultural exposition from a
relatable15 – however, I must be pre-existing resource that
cautious because since I am does not contain pop-
targeting such a broad age culture references and then
group, it is possible that I reading an exposition from
unintentionally marginalise my website that does
certain students who cannot contain pop-culture
understand my references references. Then, they may
compare their experiences
and tell me which they
preferred over the other
The volume of textual Young children will want to I will speak to a range of
information on each webpage focus more on visuals (i.e., PYP teachers and the
will be moderate: between images, videos, and student council thereof to
200 to 800 words animations), which is why they verify whether the text to
are unlikely to read thousands image ratio of each page is
of words on end16 reasonable
Despite the circumscribing Skimming over important I will examine my texts for
word limit for each webpage, details of cultural aspects may any oversimplified
no gross oversimplification of lead to the user gaining an descriptions of the truth
cultural nuances will occur improper, or even erroneous, with the help of my MYP
understanding of the topic – integrated humanities
which is not desirable teacher
Three learning modalities will Straying away from the The advantage of each of
be used: text, audio, and video traditional educational medium the media, and the
– of the three, text will be of text will benefit the students’ coherence with which all of
most ubiquitous, and it will be learning experience. Through them work together, will be
accompanied in places by the audio, one can communicate the quantified by surveying the
other two media nuances of information in the target audience
exact desired tone and pace –
this is far more difficult to do
Pedagogy with mere text.17 Audio also
helps build a bond between the
learner and teacher. Video,
meanwhile, is extremely
versatile and makes content
attractive, and engaging.18
The video(s) present within Each video style has its
the website will be an advantages in terms of
amalgamation of different education, and deploying the

15
(Ascione)
16
(Elrick)
17
(Glover)
18
Covideo

video genres: live-action,
animation, whiteboard,
typography – of these,
animation will be
predominant, and the exact
style of animation used will
be motion graphics
Alongside text, each webpage
will contain a pedagogical
functionality that is not
present in any other page –
this will make every webpage
characteristic (the
functionality may be a type of
game, video, audio clip, quiz,
etc.)
Multiple aspects of the
learning process will be
gamified through single-
player side-scrolling video
games with point and reward
systems; drag and drop
quizzes, and verbal literacy
games with a social facet
The website will contain a
UI; UX systematic navigation feature
wherein the buttons through
which one can access each
page will be conspicuous and
explicit
Each cultural concept will
have dedicated to it, one
entire webpage – the
19
(SmithVideo)
20
(Learnlight)
exact style(s) demanded by a
situation will allow for better
communication. Motion
graphics – a style of animation
that entails displaying minutely-
differing images of elements in
quick succession to create the
illusion of linear or angular
motion, or changing opacity –
will be used the most widely
out of all the styles because it is
most feasible for an amateur
animator such as myself, and
one can clearly depict and
visually illustrate abstract
ideas19, which is useful when
dealing with historical data,
maps, and cultural
demographics
Having each webpage offer the
content in its own unique way
through a novel functionality
can prevent the website from
seeming monotonous, and also
the accumulation of fatigue
within the users
Gamification is an incredibly
useful tactic in education; it
makes learning interactive,
engaging, motivating,
competitive, and immersive – as
a result, the students’ retention
of learnt information increases20
This will make each webpage
easily accessible, and the
website may be navigated with
ease, making the user
experience highly pleasing
This adds organisation to the
site and ensures that every
detail related to each concept
13
I will test the success of
each communication
mode/functionality by
integrating a feedback
system into each webpage –
the users can conveniently
share their feedback with
me, directly from within the
website
I will divide my target
audience into two groups,
and quiz both of them on a
certain cultural concept my
website covers. The first
group will be a control who
will merely have read a
treatise on it while the
second group will have
visited the content through
gamification – I will
compare the results of the
two groups, on the test, and
hence determine the effect
of gamification
I may measure the time
taken for the intended user
to reach the webpage of
their desire, and ascertain
whether the time taken was
acceptable
I can interview the target
audience about their
thoughts on the

exposition of no concept will
be spread over multiple
webpages
On each webpage, there will
be a cheerful sprite who
communicates with the user
through speech bubbles,
providing them with
recommendations, noteworthy
insight, and guidance
Each of the clickable
buttons/elements on the site
will be responsive; upon
being clicked, an indication
will be provided that the click
has been registered
The site will be animated; it
will contain subtle animations
that manifest as the user
operates the site
Most on-screen text will be
centred, keeping the right-
hand and left-hand sides of
the screen virtually blank,
devoid of any information
At all times, the font colour
and background colour will
Aesthetics contrast strongly
Negative spacing will be
utilised perfectly such that
each page is legible and clear
There will be consistency in
the margins and some design
choices of every webpage
Every expository webpage on
the site will have its own
characteristic colour scheme
Developing Design Ideas
I have loosely referred to the specifications to develop three designs for my website. It is to be
presupposed that each of the designs satisfies every criterion under the theory, literary, and pedagogy areas
of the website – the designs are merely aesthetic and user interface considerations. For each website design,
the prospective homepage has been presented, alongside a sample page that provides a cultural exposition,
and another page (or another portion of the same page) containing any standout pedagogical functionality
(refer to Appendix B1).
21
(Elegant Themes)
22
(Gregurec, Ana)
23
(UX Movement)
24
(Creative.com)
25
(NI Business Info)
14
can be found in one location, as organisation and use of
opposed to being scattered over childlike elements – and
multiple locations whether it benefits the user
This will make the website experience
more child-friendly, as children
enjoy and are accustomed to
interacting with cheerful
characters
Providing feedback to users as I can interview my design
they interact with the site will teacher on the inclusion of
prevent confusion, and give these delicate details
them a clearer idea of whether
and when their commands will
lead to the desired outcomes21
Animated webpages are better
at attracting the users’ attention
than static webpages22
Centred text adds symmetry and I may discuss the positive
balance to the look of the site, and negative ramifications
and since it entails shorter lines, of these design elements
it makes reading and scanning with my design teacher, and
the text far easier23 an art teacher from my
This will help me emphasise school’s MYP
certain words and sentences,
and make the overall on-screen
easy to read and comprehend
Spacing objects and elements
will create a visual flow within
the website, and prevent
clutter24
This helps it look more
professionally-designed,
coherent, and harmonious25
This gives each webpage its
own aesthetic identity; making
the website feel layered
 15

Design 1: ‘Mapped Culture’

Page Annotated pictorial representation
Homepage

Sample
expository
page (top
section)

Standout
function
 16

Design 2: ‘Cultural Blocks’

Page Annotated pictorial representation
Homepage

Sample
expository
page

Standout
function
 17

Design 3: ‘Bite-Sized Culture’

Page Annotated pictorial representation
Homepage

Sample
expository
page

Standout
function
 18

Selecting the Best Design

I presented all three of the designs to my target community, with whom I evaluated the designs – the
quality of each design has been quantified in the table below. Since these designs do not concern the theory,
literary, and pedagogy, these three aspects were omitted from the evaluation; only aesthetics and the overall
user interface were used as a basis upon which to grade the designs. Using the grading system below, each
design was assessed both with reference to the apt design specifications, and its general qualities.

Design
Aspect Specification
1 2 3
The site has a systematic navigation feature 9 9 9
Each cultural exposition is fit within one webpage 10 10 10
UI; UX
There are cheerful sprites with speech bubbles 8 8 0
Each page has a unique pedagogical functionality 9 0 8
All the important on-screen information is centred 5 8 7
The font colour and background colour contrast 7 9 9
Each page has a characteristic colour scheme 8 0 9
Aesthetics
Negative spacing makes pages legible and clear 9 9 6
There is consistency in the styling of every webpage 9 8 8
The overall site is visually-pleasing and neat 9 6 7
The design can be made in the given time-frame 7 6 6
Feasibility The design can be made without monetary investment 9 9 9
The design can be used and navigated with ease 9 9 9
Total rating (out of 130) 108 91 97

From the above quantitative analysis, we see that design 1, named ‘Mapped Culture’, is the best. It scored a
total of 108 out of 130 points, with an average of 8.3 (out of 10) in each specification. This ingenious design
satisfies most design specifications, and overall, is good. It has great aesthetic elements that not only please
the senses, but also have practical implications within the user interface. The standout feature here is the
Indian map on the homepage, from which one can learn about the culture of each Indian state by merely
hovering over it with their cursor. This idea was highly appealing to my target community – it makes
navigating the site fun, and maximises the overall accessibility of each of the state-related webpages.

Apart from the miniature preview of information that is invoked on the left-hand side of the screen, when a
specific state is hovered over by the user, all of the important on-screen information is centred. All the
cultural exposition is arranged on a state-by-state basis; meaning, unlike in design 2, each expository
webpage is dedicated to explaining the complete culture of one Indian state – the cultural exposition of each
topic/state is localised; present within its own single webpage (that is a demand required by the
specifications). Each webpage has its own colour scheme and pedagogical functionality that the user is
guided through by the sprite. Since each webpage is vast, the user can navigate between different regions of
a page using a set of hyperlinked blocks provided at the top, which serve as quick links. From any of the
state-related webpages, the user can return to the homepage by clicking on the website logo present on the
top of the header of every page. The logo is well-designed and somewhat symbolic of the Indian flag, and
the feathers of a peacock.

However, Mapped Culture is definitely rough around the edges. Firstly, although the vertical colour gradient
on each webpage is, by itself, easy on the eyes, it does not pair harmoniously with the on-screen; it seems to
somewhat clash with the text and make it hard to read. Additionally, while it is easy for the user to go to any
state-related webpage from the homepage using the Indian map, it is tiresome for the user to go any state-
related page from a different state-related webpage (i.e., it is difficult to go to the Maharashtra page from the
Uttar Pradesh page), as they would have to access the bank of contents page (which looks rather similar to
the homepage of design 3) using the taskbar. This process is frustrating, and may even negate the positive
effect of the Indian map and hyperlinked blocks.
 19

Amendments Made to the Selected Design

I eradicated the identified flaws of the selected design and bettered the user experience of it by
augmenting it with novel features and incorporating elements from the other designs into this one. The
amendments made to the design have been tabulated below.

Amendment Justification
Replacing the current taskbar on each page with the The current taskbar looks dull and uninviting,
taskbar of design 3 whereas that of design 3 is vibrant and symbolic
Integrating, into the homepage, the slideshow of The slideshow makes the website interactive from
cultural monuments present in design 2 the outset, giving the user a visual taste of Indian
culture
Underneath the slideshow and above the map, on the This is to acclimate the user with what aspects of
homepage, there will be an array of boxes that, when culture will be covered on the website
clicked, provide brief ideas of certain cultural aspects
At the top of every state-related page, rather than An automatic slideshow atop every expository
having one static image related to the culture of the page will give the user a broader pictorial
state, there will be multiple images that are introduction of each culture, and make the website
automatically displayed in succession seem more animated and less stagnant
Underneath the automatic slideshow, each clickable A little detail such is purely for aesthetic purposes;
quick link box will contain an icon in it, that is related it will make the site feel more delicate and
to the aspect of culture that the user will learn about attractive
when they click the box
Having the background colour at the centre of every This is to make the text more readable and visible
page be white, and only allowing for the colour and prevent the clashing of the background colour
gradient effect on the sides, where text is scarce and text, which is distracting and irksome
Adding a dropdown box to the left side of the screen This will aid users in navigating from one state-
that turns into a navigation bar, when hovered or related webpage to another, without having to
clicked on, displaying all of the webpages of the site repeatedly access the bank of contents
Shifting the sprites toward the right-hand region of the This is to avoid having too much negative spacing,
screen and to give users a reason to look at the entire
screen, not just the centre
Having the sprite on each state-related webpage don Each sprite will look more apt, and the overall
an attire that is native to the state collection of sprites will be diversified

Sitemap of the Website Design

This sitemap
displays all the webpages
that ought to be present on
the website. The map is
largely accurate, but
slightly oversimplified. In
truth, it is meant to be
interconnected, because
from any page, the user can
access and teleport to any
page. But, few nodes have
been drawn to indicate that,
as otherwise, the map
would be too hairy to
interpret.
 20

Layout of Final Design

This table displays my final design, and the changes made from the design chosen initially: design 1.
Page Annotated pictorial representation
Upward
region of
homepage

Downward
region of
homepage

Sample
expository
page
 21

Resources Required to Pursue the Design

Leaving aside the sources of information – online and offline, primary and secondary – that I will
need to consult to obtain the cultural knowledge which I want to share with the PYP students, the table
below states the resources needed to code the website and develop its various functionalities.

Tool Purpose
HTML To structure each of the webpages of my website
CSS To thoroughly style the webpages and the layout of information
JavaScript To code the interactive elements of the site (i.e., slideshows, video games, etc.)
Visual Studio Code To write and edit all of this code
Google Chrome To test out my code on a browser
Paint 3D To draw out the different components of my animations
Microsoft Video Editor To animate the components and create the illusion of movement
iPhone SE To record the live-action and whiteboard video pieces
Google Docs To compile my research before pasting it onto the site

All of these computing tools that I will avail are free of cost – I am dedicated to refraining from investing
money into the creation of the website. Alongside tools, I will also need to consult many experts – teachers,
mostly – in different fields to ensure that my website is up to par with the expectations set. I plan on
consulting my MYP integrated humanities teacher to get their expert opinion on how I have covered the
cultural concepts; a language and literature teacher from my school’s PYP, to confirm whether the language
used is objective and appropriate for the age group of students that I am targeting; teachers from my
school’s design technology department, and online entrepreneurs, to get aid in building technical aspects of
my website; my school’s librarian, who is an expert in copyright law, to verify whether the images I pick
from different resources are free and usable for academic purposes, such as this project – and others, too.

Potential Steps for Product-Development

After considering the specifications of my prospective product, the available resources at my
disposal, and the situation surrounding me, I drafted a step-by-step plan that tasks I will conduct, and in
what order, to develop my product in fashion that my target community finds satisfactory.
 22

Criterion C: Creating the Solution

Logical Plan for Product-Development Process

The table below displays the stage-by-stage plan of action that I brainstormed and will attempt to
follow, with the aim of successfully developing a website that facilitates cultural education and interaction
for the PYP students of my school. My goal and product specifications are both highly ambitious, and I have
a relatively short time-frame to work toward them. Additionally, alongside this project, I have several other
academic assignments and recreational activities to balance. Therefore, it seems logical to conduct multiple
tasks in parallel – because this will maximise my productivity and pace of progress.

Stage Tasks Importance Resources Time

Conduct extensive research on This research task forms a 1. Websites, online
the religious demographic of foundational religious articles, YouTube
India, and the practices, beliefs, understanding that will help videos, books
and ideals of each major religion me – and, by extension, the 2. A word processor
in India: Hinduism, Islam, students – appreciate and (i.e., Google Docs) Three
Christianity, Sikhism, better understand the religious days
Buddhism, Jainism – note down practices and cultures of each
important facts and figures state, when it comes time to
unearthed through the research learn them
Familiarise myself with the This will allow me to brush 1. Online educational
languages of HTML, CSS, and up and solidify my resources (i.e.,
JavaScript through research and understanding of the three W3Schools, Stack
hands-on experimentation languages, and further it such Overflow, etc.)
One
that I can develop my web 2. My MYP design
day
application properly teacher
3. A source-code
editor (i.e., Visual
Studio Code)
1 Convert the research notes on This is when I begin trying to 1. A word processor
religion into formal accounts share my insights on Indian (i.e., Google Docs) Two
that explain each religion religions with the PYP day
properly students
Develop a preliminary draft of Here, I outline and present the 1. Online resources
the website (a prototype) that aspirations of my website and (i.e., W3Schools)
Two
contains the homepage and how I plan to achieve them 2. A source-code
days
certain basic functionalities editor (i.e., Visual
Studio Code)
Showcase my website prototype This is so I can get feedback 1. My design teacher
and tentative religious accounts and realise how and where I 2. My integrated
One
to specific experts need to improve, before humanities teacher
day
working on the remaining 3. A language and
bulk of the product literature teacher
Consider and implement the This can help hone what I 1. A source-code
feedback acquired in the manner have made up until this point, editor (i.e., Visual
Two
demanded and steer the further product- Studio Code)
days
development in the right 2. A word processor
direction, toward success (i.e., Google Docs)
Conduct extensive research and The information amassed 1. Websites, online
2 draft notes on the respective from this research task is the articles, YouTube Three
religious demographic of each of crux of what will be presented videos, books days
the five Indian states, and the on the website, for the PYP 2. A word processor
 23

various religious and cultural students to learn and (i.e., Google Docs)
aspects, practices, and ideals of appreciate
each state – the research must
occur on a state-by-state basis, in
the following order:

1. Maharashtra
2. Rajasthan
3. Nagaland
4. The Andaman and Nicobar
Islands
5. Uttar Pradesh
Develop a fair template for the Most of the important 1. A source-code
state-related webpages, into webpage layout and editor (i.e., Visual
which all of the textual and structuring for the state- Studio Code) Two
visual information can be related webpages will occur 2. Online resources day
inputted once it is ready here (i.e., W3Schools)

Showcase my state-related I can gain insight into how my 1. My design teacher

One
webpage templates to my design product and design can be
day
teacher bettered
Convert the research notes on All of the facts learned from 1. A word processor
the cultures of each state into the first step of this stage will, (i.e., Google Docs)
Two
formal accounts that cover each here, be converted into
days
state thoroughly readable and digestible
material
Verify, with the help of my I can realise if PYP students 1. My integrated
editorial consultants, whether the will actually be likely to read humanities teacher
veracity, length, language and what I have written 2. A language and
One
objectivity of the accounts is literature teacher
day
appropriate, with the help of
experts – then, implement the
feedback, if required
Input each of the five state-based This is when the website truly 1. A source-code
cultural accounts into their begins to take shape and what editor (i.e., Visual One
respective webpage templates was once a vision in my head Studio Code) day
becomes a real product
Brainstorm satisfactory methods These are all characteristic 1. Websites, online
to gamify the learning elements of my website and articles, YouTube
experience (i.e., video and verbal key reasons as to why the site videos, books
literacy games) and execute the will appeal to the PYP 2. A word processor
3 ideas students (i.e., Google Docs)
Create the videos required in the 3. A source-code
Two
website, ensuring to incorporate editor (i.e., Visual
days
a wide range of styles, such as Studio Code)
whiteboard, live-action, 4. iPhone SE
animation, and typography 5. Windows Video
Integrate audio into the website Editor
by any means required 6. CloudConvert

Present the website to all of the A discussion with these 1. My design and
teachers concerned, for stakeholders is a prerequisite integrated
One
4 evaluation purposes for the next task, as it will humanities
day
give me insight into the teachers
virtues and shortfalls of my 2. A PYP language
 24

website and literature

teacher
3. The PYP
coordinator
Share the website with the PYP Here is the moment my 1. My school’s PYP
student council; giving them product is dispatched and the student council One
time to interact with it and with target community begins 2. Microsoft Teams day
one-another in a group session utilising it
Interview the target community This is a requisite to ascertain 1. My school’s PYP
and conduct the necessary tests the efficacy of the product, student council One
laid out in the specifications to and the overall impact it has 2. Microsoft Teams day
realise the product efficacy on the audience 3. Microsoft Forms
Recognise the overall areas of This is when, after the time- 1. Websites, online
improvement with reference to frame of this project, I begin articles, YouTube
scalability looking at ways to enhance videos, books Two
my product and the possibility 2. A word processor days
of making a global impact (i.e., Google Docs)

Project Timeline –– Gantt Chart

This is a chart – called a Gannt chart – that conveniently exhibits the tasks I conducted throughout
the e-Portfolio, and how long they each took – with reference to Criterion A, B, C, and D.

November December January February Mar

Product-development stage

Through analysis of the chart, we can see that as time went on in the project, and as we approached the
deadline, my work pace increased, and I began multi-tasking; conducting multiple tasks in parallel. This is a
useful tactic that helped me be productive.
 25

Application of ATL Skills in Developing the Product

1. Research skills: information and media-literacy

Research was a continuous element of this project that occurred alongside other tasks. I conduct vast
amounts of research not only during but also prior to the product-development process. Only through
primary and secondary inquiry was I able to identify the design situation that needed to be addressed; the
target community that needed to be focused on; the product I needed to develop; the specifications of the
product; the cultural and religious material I needed to share – and more.

In terms of researching religion and Indian culture, I relied most heavily on online articles, tourist websites,
books – I did not find myself accessing and extracting much information from YouTube videos, which is
surprising considering video is my favourite medium of learning and disseminating. Through accessing the
array of resources that I did, with the goal of enlightening myself before going to enlighten others, I applied
my information-literacy skills. I ensured that the information gained was veracious by analysing the
credibility of the used cites, through the CRAAP test – in taking this measure, I applied my media-literacy
skills (refer to Appendix A5).

While I was researching for information to place on the website, I was taking electronic notes
simultaneously. The systematic note-making style that I adopted for this is the Cornell Method – it helped
keep me organised and, when it came time to transform the notes into readable accounts for the PYP
students, I did not feel overwhelmed; it was made straightforward and doable.

2. Self-management: organisation and reflection

The given time-frame for this project spanned multiple months, which seems relatively long. But, in truth, it
felt like a tragically short amount of time considering the countless other tasks – both academic and non-
academic – that I had to balance alongside this one. There was constant pressure on my shoulders, and I
never went long without feeling stressed. In the preceding pages is the plan of action I pursued to develop
the product –it was undoubtedly helpful, but notwithstanding that, I was still having to cope with significant
amounts of backlog, because of deferment, and a slow work pace that was caused by my fixation on
unimportant details of each step of the project. I managed to soldier through, though, due to my sheer
determination, and by reflecting on my situation on a daily basis, and laying out my plan for each day, to
reach completion in satisfactory fashion. I also made time for engaging in entertaining activities and hobbies
such as cycling, reading, and indulging in science-fiction videos and reading material.

To track my progress during the project and stay organised, I maintained a Gannt chart (see page 24). As is
visible from the chart, during the early months of this project, progress was quite slow as I was focusing on
other tasks, such as preparations for my Summative Assessment 2. But gradually, as the other tasks cleared
up, I shifted my focus entirely to this project and, consequently, my work pace grew exponentially – it
peaked in the latter stages of the product-development process, where I was in overdrive for long periods at
a time.

3. Communication skills

Verbal and non-verbal communication was an indispensable skill from my repertoire that I applied – and,
hence, developed – in great measure during this undertaking.

A primary goal of my website was to communicate – through various media – veracious information about
the aspects of the culture of five Indian states; specifically, I wanted to communicate in a manner and
language that PYP students, my target community, could understand – and I achieved that by researching the
rules of communicating to my age group (6-12 years) and applying those rules as I was writing my accounts.
My overall language was a mixture of playful, formal, and conversational – it works well to get across the
message in a neutral tone that displays objectivity, which was a goal of mine.
 26

However, the implementation of my communication skills was not restricted merely to the product. I was
also highly communicative and collaborative with the great people whom I worked with in order to develop
my product.

4. Social skills: collaboration

Every stage of the product-development process entailed that I interact and collaborate with a range of
experts, students, and teachers to achieve my aims. I formed bonds with people who I had not known about
prior to this project, and furthered my relationships with those whom I was already acquainted with.

• I discussed with my design teacher on a nearly-daily the status of my product and issues faced
• I held multiple meetings with my school’s PYP student council (my target community) to understand
their view on culture, and discuss the features of my website
• I electronically corresponded with my school’s PYP coordinator to set up meetings with the council,
and realise the situation of cultural education in the PYP, from a teacher’s perspective
• I contacted a technologically-competent entrepreneur – who my design teacher knew as a friend – to
understand the concept of image mapping and scalable vector graphics, and how they could be
incorporated into the homepage of my website
• I enlisted the help of my school’s DP computer science teacher to solve issues in my website’s
source-code
• I discussed ways to build my website by speaking to amateur artists, and coders who happened to be
studying in my school
• I consulted my school’s librarian, who is an expert in copyright law, to verify that the images taken
from online sources were usable for the academic purpose of my website – I also borrowed books
from the library under their supervision, for research purposes

All of these people I value and admire greatly – for their support, I thank them.

5. Thinking skills: critical and creative-thinking

The creation of such an ambitious product demanded the application of both critical and creative-thinking
skills. During research, it was important for me to expend energy and time into ensuring that I was not
misinterpreting the information I was absorbing; that I was actually understanding what I was reading. Once
I had understood the material myself, I had to brainstorm how I would word and present it in, so that it
would appeal to the youngsters I was targeting.

Some of the information that I found was, in all honesty, somewhat mundane – but I believe I used the right
language to make it engaging for youngsters (video and audio were used as a medium to do so).
Additionally, the aspects of video, audio, and gamification, which were key parts of my website, took a lot
of thought and creativity to integrate into the website (refer to Appendix C1).

Demonstrating Excellent Technical Skills

My complete product is a manifestation of my know-how in HyperText Markup Language,

Cascading Style Sheets, and JavaScript, paired with the technical assistance and guidance of a few experts.
Below is a brief overview of the webpages that constitute my website. Each overview is accompanied by a
scroll-screenshot of the webpage (that provides a complete static display of elements on each page), and an
excerpt of the source-code. The languages used to code each
webpage, alongside why they were used, have also been specified.

Webpage 1 –– Home

The homepage is the introductory webpage of Infinite.com; it is the

first page seen by the user as they access the website. As is the case
 27

with every webpage, it consists of the website logo in the header, present on the top region of the page, and
the taskbar. The logo and taskbar have been embedded on the page as a PNG image file that is hyperlinked.
The taskbar consists of three buttons that link to three different pages: the homepage, the about page, and the
bank of contents.

Underneath the taskbar, there is a

slideshow of the following six images
of watercolour paintings that relate
closely to the theme of the website:
India’s most recognisable monument,
the Taj Mahal; a landscape of rural
India; a thriving marketplace in an
Indian desert-like setting; Mumbai’s
renowned Gateway of India; a
traditional South Indian thali;
fishermen using traditional Indian
means.

Within this page, the creation of this

manual slideshow is where I utilised
CSS and JavaScript. Using CSS, I
designed the components of the
slideshow (clickable white coloured
left and rightward arrows) and created two div classes which formed the basis of the JavaScript that went on
to make the slideshow functional and responsive. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, I did not use CSS in any
measure for the purpose of designing the layout of this webpage; I succeeded in designing the webpage
layout and structure solely using HTML. All of the content on the page is placed firmly in the central region;
roughly 30% of the width of the page is devoid of any content – negative white spacing is ample. The
background colour of the entire page is white.

As the user scrolls downward, they see that under the

slideshow is the clickable hyperlinked Indian map image that
leads to the webpages of each of the states – this is the
characteristic feature of this webpage. To the right of the map,
there is a sprite that explains to the user how the map works:
they can click on a state, and they will be transported to the
webpage dedicated to explaining the cultural aspects of the
state.

Initially, after speaking to a technologically-competent

entrepreneur, I planned to use a scalable vector graphic to
integrate this feature – but, after struggling with that method, I
diverted to using the HTML image mapping feature, which
involves setting up square or rectangular shaped areas by
assigning coordinates on the image plane.

Webpage 2 –– About
The about page recapitulates the purpose of Infinite.com, and
the importance of learning about culture. In the topmost
section of the page lies the logo and taskbar. When the
hyperlinked logo is clicked on, the user is transported to the
homepage. In all honesty, relative to the other webpages, the
about page is rather uneventful. It does not contain any
interactive features, and only displays a handful of
information. This is somewhat intentional – the about page
 28

has been made plain because it is not the main focus of the website, and users are not expected to spend
much, if any, time looking at it. No JavaScript was utilised in creating this page. HTML and CSS were
used to design the structure and layout of the page. To centre the on-screen text, I pasted it into a div
class that essentially acts as a table cell present on the centre of the screen.

Webpage 3 –– Bank of Contents

The bank of contents page serves as a means by which the user can access any webpage on the site that they
would like; it is a hyperlinked sitemap. Beneath the header containing the logo and taskbar of the site, it
contains buttons that lead to the following pages:

1. Home
2. About
3. Religion
4. Maharashtra
5. Rajasthan
6. Uttar Pradesh
7. Nagaland
8. Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The buttons of the sitemap are centred. Each of them is in the

same colour as the webpage background that they link to. This makes the buttons look more
recognisable and vibrant. The actual sitemap was coded – as is the case with the Indian map on the
homepage – using the image mapping feature of HTML.

Webpage 4 –– Religion

This is the first expository webpage on the site. With accuracy and succinctness, it defines what religion is;
presents the religious demographic of India (based on statistics calculated from a survey in 2011); the major
religions of India; their ideals and history. This page contains
roughly 800 words worth of text, all of which is centred using the
same CSS technique as in the about page. The heading of each
religion is bolded, and of the same font as the account of the
religion. Each religious account spans multiple paragraphs and is
accompanied by a related image – for example, the account on
Islam contains a picture of Kaaba, whereas the account on
Sikhism contains a picture of Guru Nanak.

The height of the entire page is roughly 3800 pixels, and the
background colour is a very gradual, subtle vertical colour
gradient of white to light grey. This look was achieved using a
CSS <div> id, which I titled “grad1”. JavaScript was not used in any form in the making of this page. Only
HTML and CSS were used to design the look and layout of the page.

In the upper region of the page, sandwiched in between the

presented definition of culture and religious demographic of India
is a brief animated comic that consists of two stick figures
communicating with one-another through chat bubbles, engaging in
a conversation about which religion is the best, ultimately
concluding that all religions are equal. The integration of this 19-
seconds-long animation was done using HTML. The video contains
slow-paced orchestral music in the background playing as the two
characters say their dialogues:
 29

Stick figure 1: “Hey. I have a question.”

Stick figure 2: “Yeah?”
Stick figure 1: “There are so many religions out there … but which is the best?”
Stick figure 2: “No religion is superior to another. People are all equal, regardless of their religion.”
Stick figure 1: “Oh, nice. Thanks!”

During this brief interaction, the two characters not only speak to one-another verbally (which is depicted
with the speech bubbles) – they also gesticulate to indicate their feelings to the viewer.

Although the empty space that separates each religious

account is relatively modest, a great many <br> tags were
utilised to achieve that space because the ‘master’ centre-
aligned table cell wherein all of the accounts lie has a
position of ‘absolute’, which unfortunately necessitates that
I add the vast number of <br> tags that I did. In a few other
webpages, the table has a position of ‘relative’, and as a
result, the source-code of said pages contain fewer <br> tags and look far less haphazard. This webpage can
be accessed from the bank of contents, and from any of the state-related webpages. On each of the state-
related webpage, the first mention of any major Indian religion is hyperlinked, and when clicked on, leads to
this page, so as to give the reader the opportunity to gain an elementary insight about the religion.

Webpage 5 –– Maharashtra

This webpage is, as the name suggests, dedicated to elucidating the following aspects of Maharashtrian
culture: religion, language, attire, cuisine, art, architecture, and festivals. This page looks aesthetically
similar to the aforementioned religion page, in that it too contains a gradual vertical colour gradient in the
background (only this time, the gradient is from white to pale brown),
and an analogous arrangement of on-screen text, and formatting of
headings. And, as is the case with the previous page, only HTML and
CSS were used to create the page; JavaScript had no use – this is how
most state-related webpages were coded. Additionally, just like every
webpage, the font colour is black the font style is Helvetica, and the size
is 17 pixels.

The overall page contains roughly 700 words worth of text. In the
traditional clothing of Maharashtrian women is dressed a sprite on the
screen who shares an interesting fact about the cultural roots of Marathi,
the official language of the state of Maharashtra. For each of the cultural
aspects of religion, attire, festivals, architecture, and cuisine, one image
has been embedded. In the case of art, there is a 30-second-long video embedded – a timelapse whiteboard
video of me, an obvious amateur, painting a scene in the Maharashtrian folk art style of Warli. There is
graceful electronic music of guitar and drums playing in the background of the video, which adds an
auditory layer to the experience and compensates for the fact
that the painting is utterly one-dimensional and somewhat
lacklustre.

This page, just like every page on the website, has no footer. It
ends rather abruptly, with a mention of the symbolism behind
the folk-dance form of Koli – similar to how the previous page
just ends with a mention of Jainism’s admirers. However, unlike
the previous page, this is one of the few pages wherein the
centre-aligned table cell containing all of the text does not have
a position of ‘absolute’ but has a position of relative. As a result,
far fewer <br> tags have been placed after each paragraph. The
reason I positioned it ‘relative’ in this case is that I wanted to
 30

have a sprite positioned exactly beside some text, and this was the only way to do it, according to my
school’s DP computer science teacher.

Webpage 6 –– Rajasthan

This webpage – which covers the religion, language, attire,

cuisine, art, architecture, and festivals of Rajasthani culture –
contains more information than any other page; almost 900
words. The page is so voluminous in terms of text because it
delves into the nuances of the state’s culture unlike any other
webpage, and provides a multitude of examples. The religious
and linguistic minorities of the state, the confluence of Hinduism
and Islam in the form of Rajasthani weddings, the variations in
the clothing preferences of people from different regions of the
state, the historic background of Rajasthani cuisine and
architecture … the explanation and/or mentioning of these
detailed cultural facets account for the large word count in
some form or the other.

Unsurprisingly, this is also one of the longest of any

state-related page; it has a height of 3000 pixels. The
background of this webpage is a vertical colour
gradient that shifts from white to bright pink, which
is inspired by the reddish-pink colour prominent in
all of the culture-related images present on this page.
Just like webpage 5, this page contains a video – it is
a 30-second-long montage of some of Rajasthan’s
most well-known and commonly-visited forts. It has
cheerful, funky music playing in the background,
which complements the fact that the movement of
the camera, is zooming into each of the castle images that are displayed on-screen. This page does not have
its own characteristic sprite to entertain the user.

Webpage 7 –– Nagaland

This webpage discusses the cultural aspects of religion, attire, cuisine, festivals, language, architecture, and
art that are native to the West Indian state of Nagaland. The accounts of all these aspects add up to roughly
700 words. The background of this page is a vertical
colour gradient that shifts from white (at the top) to
light green (at the bottom). The monochromatic
shades of light green that we see in the background
contrast well with the rich hue of red present in all of
the state-related images that accompany the
accounts.

Just underneath the logo and taskbar, beside the

introduction to the culture of Nagaland, there is a
sprite standing in a traditional Naga male outfit,
greeting the user by waving at them, and informing
them of the cultural richness of every one of the
tribes that constitute Nagaland. Predictably, all of the
on-screen text in the black font has been centred – the
regions of emptiness present at either side of the page
seem larger than as compared to any other page, even though in reality, that is not the case.
 31

This is the only page to integrate the learning modality of audio. At the bottom of the page, present in the
description of Naga folk arts, is a nearly three-minute-long audio clip of a traditional Naga folk song about
the difficulty of crop production, and the importance and pleasure of harvesting crops. The audio clip serves
as a way for learners to acquire an auditory taste of how Naga songs are played and sung. If and once the
learner listens to that clip, they have arrived at the bottom of the webpage – there is nothing more that can be
done here; it ends abruptly but emphatically.

Webpage 8 –– Andaman and Nicobar Islands

This webpage presents a compelling overview of the culture that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has to
offer. In the introduction presented below the taskbar, it is established that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
is actually not a state of India, but a union territory. This Galapagos, to quote the webpage, “is governed not
by its own local government, but directly by the federal government of India.”

The background of this page is a colour gradient

that shifts from white to dark blue – in the
backgrounds of each of the webpages, the CSS-
made gradient always starts with white at the top
before transitioning into another colour. In this
case, the various hues of blue in the background
are meant to symbolise the vast oceans that
surround the Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
separating it from mainland India.

Underneath the religious demographic of the islands, in the section dedicated to explaining the languages
and linguistic communities of these islands, a multiplayer verbal literacy game has been attached, called, I
Spy With My Little Tongue. The instructions of this game, attached as an image file, have been propounded
in little rectangular boxes that are pale yellow in colour. The name of the game may sound somewhat
familiar to the PYP students because the game is predicated on the well-known game, I Spy With My Little
Eye. However, the two games themselves are disparate and have different rules and challenges. The
instructions of I Spy With My Little Tongue are:

1. The first player must scan their environment for any object that they like – once they find it, they
must call out its name in their mother tongue
2. While the other players try to decipher what was said, the player must define, in English, the object
whose name they have just called out
3. The other players then have to identify what the object of concern is, here
4. If they succeed, they claim a point. If they fail, they claim nothing
5. Now, it is time for another player to go ahead and switch places with the one using their ‘little
tongue’

The game has simple objectives and rules and is meant to help encourage social and cultural interaction
amongst the students of the PYP. This sharing of language may help break pre-existing linguistic barriers. as
the user scrolls downward, below the game, they will come to see that there is a sprite sitting on a chair,
attempting to play a beat using a traditional instrument, while they talk about tribal dances. On that note, the
page ends.

Webpage 9 –– Uttar Pradesh

This webpage offers the shortest description of any of the state-related webpages; the word count of this
cultural account is roughly 450 words. It is, therefore, also quite short: only 1800 pixels in height. The page
has been made, using HTML and CSS, with the same font and design specifications as the other webpages.
Here, the background is a vertical colour gradient that shifts from white to red – the shade of red selected is
the same red that the clothing of dancers in certain folk dances of the state is coloured in.
 32

The standout
feature of this
page is that it
contains a
somewhat
comical side-
scrolling
video game
with a point
system that
revolves
around the cuisine of Uttar Pradesh. One of the most famous dishes of the state is ‘chole bhature’ – a dish
consisting of spiced beans and fried bread (the beans being the 'chole' and the bread being the 'bhature'). In
this game, Bhatures For Chole, the main player is a bowl of chole that needs to traverse a never-ending
array of pipes with holes in each of them. To control the chole, the player needs to click their mouse to make
it jump upward. The key is constantly clicking the mouse at the right instant and the right number of times to
ensure that the chole survives. If the chole falls or runs into a pipe, it dies. The number of pipes crossed, per
run, before the imminent death of the chole determines the number of bhatures it earns.

This game has no lessons, morals or narrative

associated with it – it is merely a simple
gamification of the process of learning about
Uttar Pradesh’s cuisine. Technically speaking,
this game is not situated in the webpage of
Uttar Pradesh. Due to technical limitations, it
had to be set in its own separate webpage that
can be accessed from the Uttar Pradesh page.
But, for all practical purposes, the one-
dimensional webpage housing the game and
the Uttar Pradesh page can be treated as one –
the former is merely an extension of the latter.

To code this game, HTML, CSS, and

JavaScript were used – one of the
few instances in the website where
JavaScript has been utilised. The
CSS file for the side-scrolling game
has five <div> tags to account for
the colour of the pipe, the size of the
character, the dimensions of the
game and pipes and holes within the
pipes – and more. In the script for
the game, there are two main
functions, each meant for specific
events. When the chole comes into
contact with the pipe, the game will
stop and a pop-up message will
appear, saying, “Game over.
Number of bhatures earned:
[number of pipes crossed]”. On the
other hand, if the chole traverses a hole in a pipe, they will continue on their way unscathed.

Changes Made to the Product Design

 33

Obviously, my website does resemble the initial design, but it did not turn out exactly as how I had
envisioned it would. There are aspects of my original design which have unfortunately not made it into the
product, and they are summarised in the table below, alongside an explanation of why – broadly speaking,
however, the reasonings may be attributed to either technical or time-management issues. The features
discussed in the below table are only related to the aesthetic and user interface aspect of the website, not the
theory, literary, or pedagogical aspect.

Webpage
Initial feature Actual product Explanation
and feature
Homepage: The images of the slideshow The images of the The only plausible way for me to
Image were meant to span the width slideshow obey make an image span the width of the
slideshow of the entire webpage (they the same margin entire page was to set it as a half-
right beneath would take up 100%) of the rules as the text, background image – but, in that case, I
the taskbar width, unlike the on-screen utilising only 70% could not make the actual slideshow; I
text that was meant to be of the width of the would have but one static image with
centred screen which the user could not interact. This
was a path that I felt was not worth
opting
Homepage: Underneath the slideshow was The boxes did not When a box had been clicked, I
Array of meant to be a scrollable make it into the wanted the information to be
informational horizontal list of clickable website – and presented underneath the list, in a
boxes below brown boxes that provided there is nothing separate section – but, I was unable to
the brief absolute definitions of similar in their achieve this functionality
slideshow what each basic aspect of place straightforwardly and ultimately had
culture is to abandon the idea
Homepage: I had ambitioned for the map No thumbnail as The level of coding required to
Hyperlinked to be a standout feature – if such appears on achieve such a feature was beyond
Indian map the user were to hover over a screen, nothing what I was capable of achieving in the
specific state, a thumbnail happens when a given time-frame – I tried to utilise the
describing said state would state is hovered image mapping feature to invoke
appear on-screen, providing over – when it is thumbnails, but it was a catastrophic
the option to visit the webpage clicked on, the failure, and out of necessity, I had to
dedicated to that state for in- user is taken to resort to developing a page much
depth learning the webpage on simpler than planned
that state
State-related On every state-related There are no I could not execute the idea because I
pages: A webpage, under the taskbar, images nor image had planned for there to be a label on
slideshow of was meant to be a slideshow slideshows at alleach cultural image, stating what that
images of images just like that on the on any state- image was of (i.e., on an image of a
related to the homepage, except here it was related pages Kathak dancer, there would be a label
state’s meant to be automated saying “Kathak”), but I was unable to
culture find a way to make the label seem
underneath legible, while simultaneously having
the taskbar the slideshow be automated
State-related In my plans, I wrote that There are no At first, I was unable to ascertain how
pages: A set under the slideshows (which quick link boxes I could arrange the boxes in the
of clickable never ended up existing) on on any of the arrangement that I had desired – but,
quick link each state-related page, there state-related by the time I learned the answer to
boxes would be six neatly-arranged webpages how I could (by setting the position of
clickable quick link the ‘master’ table cell as ‘relative’ and
rectangular boxes with icons. not ‘absolute’), it was too late, and I
Written in each box would be could not find the time to do it as I had
one aspect of culture covered to move on to a further stage of the
by the webpage. When a box project
would be clicked, the user
 34

would automatically scroll

downward to the section of
the page covering the aspect
of culture written in the
clicked box
Expository In order to prevent the
pages: clashing of the font and
Vertical background colours, I planned
background to have the background colour
colour gradient manifest only at the
gradient sides of each page while the
centre region (containing on-
screen text) remained white
Expository At the left-hand side of the
pages: expository webpage, I wanted
Navigation there to be a small square-
bar on every shaped dropdown box that
page would morph into a taskbar
displaying all the website’s
webpages, when clicked or
hovered over
State-related When analysing my product
pages: designs, I realised that it
Sprites would be smart to have one
sprite per state-related page,
dressed in the native attire of
that state, and aligned to the
right-hand side of the page,
communicating using speech
bubbles
The background When I tried to implement my initial
colour gradient is idea, the background colour kept
present overlapping peculiarly with the
throughout the taskbar to create a dissonance at the
entire width of the top region of the webpages – so, as an
page, even where alternative, I decided to make the
is on-screen text vertical background gradient so subtle
and light that it barely, if at all, clashes
with the on-screen text
No such The absence of this element from the
dropdown box- website can also be credited to my
cum-taskbar is fixation on having the ‘master’ table
present on the have an ‘absolute’ position up until the
site, meaning the very last moment when I was taught
user must the virtues of having it in the ‘relative’
repeatedly access position state: when the table was
the bank of ‘absolute’, it was not possible to align
contents to the taskbar to the left-hand side of the
navigate through screen, and when I changed the table’s
the site position to ‘relative’, I could align it –
but, by then, there was too little time
left to make the necessary alterations
There is one sprite I was unable to find or properly sketch
each on the a sprite wearing the native attires of
Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – they
Nagaland, and involve lots of tapestry and ornaments.
Andaman and The reason I failed to satisfactorily
Nicobar Islands align the sprites that do exist to the
webpages, dressed right-hand side of the page is unknown
in the native attire to me – I could not ascertain the
of those states – reason, even after consultation with
but, they are not some experts
properly aligned
to the right-hand
side of the page,
they are more so
centred

The lack of the features and functionalities in the website mentioned in the above table means the product is
less multidimensional and scalable; it is incomplete, in a way. Consequently, this makes it less appealing
and effective – a reality that I am not willing to accept. Therefore, in the future, beyond the framework of
this project, I aim to install the necessary functionalities to maximise its scalability.

Changes Made to the Product-Development Plan

When pursuing the logical plan laid out at the outset of Criterion C, I had to make certain alterations
to it, as a way to deal with contingencies and time constraints. We can observe the exact changes made by
juxtaposing the Gannt chart with the plan. Summarised below are two of the biggest changes made and the
reasoning behind them.
 35

Initial plan Alteration Justification

I wanted to enlist the help of
my MYP integrated humanities
teacher and a PYP language
and literature teacher, both to
act as my editorial consultants
with the task of verifying the
veracity and readability of my
cultural accounts
I planned to first create a fair
template of each of the state-
related webpages, draft the
cultural accounts, and then
input the accounts into the
template to finish the webpage
I ended up enlisting the
assistance of my aunt, who is a
retired history teacher with
tremendous experience in
writing and knowledge in
theology, anthropology,
mythology, linguistics, and art
Instead, in practice, I worked on
both the template-designing and
writing processes
coincidentally, and completed
the latter before the former
In the former option, I would have to
consult and speak to two different
experts in parallel, which would be
more time-consuming. In the latter
option, I could easily consult just one
satisfactorily-qualified person for both
the purposes
Designing the template was a far more
time-consuming and taxing process
than I had anticipated – I encountered
countless technical issues, and was
forced to contemplate which planned
website elements I would forgo and
which I would integrate because of the
difficulties faced (put another way, I
had written the accounts before the
templates were ready to avoid running
the risk of having incomplete accounts)

Final Product Presentation

Home About Bank of Contents

Religion Maharashtra Rajasthan

 36

Nagaland Andaman and Nicobar Islands Uttar Pradesh

Above is a collection of scroll screenshots of each of the webpages of my website, which has the following
specifications:

• Nine webpages: a homepage, about page, bank of contents (sitemap), page on religion, and five
state-related webpages
• Roughly 5800 words worth of textual information in the form of than span over a multitude of
cultural and religious accounts
• The following states are covered: Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, and Nagaland
• The religions of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism are all covered
• The following cultural aspects of the aforementioned Indian states are all covered: religion,
language, festivals, architecture, cuisine, art, and attire
• Four uniquely-dressed sprites who each communicate bits of information through speech bubbles
• Thirty-three images
• Six pie charts (all of which depict the religious demographic of specific regions)
• Three videos: one white-board video, one montage, one animation
• One side-scroller single-player video game
• One verbal literacy game whose instructions have been laid out for the users to read and find useful
• One audio clip (excluding the presence of audio in the montage and white-board videos)

All of this content within the site means the file is over 80,000,000 bytes in size (refer to Appendix C2).
 37

Criterion D: Evaluating

Expert Evaluation of the Product

For the stage of evaluating my website, I consulted two of the experts with whom I had spent the
most time developing different aspects of the site. The first person I spoke to was my design teacher, who
was a chief aid and support from the outset of the project – with him, I discussed the UI and aesthetics of the
site, alongside its functionalities. The interview, lightly edited with an eye to brevity, goes, as follows:

Me: “What do you think of the visual appeal of the website?”

Design teacher: “The visual appeal is good. But I figured that space could be utilised with more efficiency;
more information could be added. I would like to see [on the state-related pages] appealing material related
to the states on the sides of the pages – sort of like a football or cricket jersey that you can glance at from
any angle, like the sleeves or elsewhere, to easily identify which team the [player] belongs to … I would
also like to see the integration Google Maps, for the states – you should be able to locate exactly where each
state is in Google Maps, through your site.”

Me: “What are the positives and negatives of the user interface of the site?”
Design teacher: “The interface is to the point, and very enjoyable, because you have not only kept the
content in textual format, but you have given it in multiple other formats – I can see the video, the images …
But there is [the issue of having to zoom out of every page to see it properly] – that is a negative. Also,
weirdly, because of this zoom issue, I have the ability to scroll horizontally through the pages – which
should not be the case. And, I doubt this site is compatible with all devices, like handhelds. Otherwise, it is
good.”

Me: “What do you think of the use of animations, montages, and audio clips that accompany the text?”
Design teacher: “You have many incredible features in this website – but you have failed to project them.
Had you not informed me about them, I never would have been able to see the video and audio clips on the
site. Somewhere, on the site, you should be explicitly projecting them. Your user interface, if you ask me, is
a 10 out of 10. But as far as the user experience is concerned, the site is unpolished. Unless you inform me, I
am not able to trace out that, ‘Okay, there is this feature, this feature, et cetera.’

“For example, your videogame, Bhatures for Choles, is fantastic – but, you need to project it somewhere;
perhaps in the homepage, about page, or elsewhere. Maybe, in the sitemap attached in the bank of contents,
you could add a hyperlinked tag stating, ‘Click here to play an Uttar Pradeshi game.’, or something … yeah,
you could do that, right? Or maybe [in the case of the audio clip on Naga folk music], it could be, ‘Enjoy the
folk music of Nagaland here.’ The PYP kids will love the features of your website – but they would want
them to be at the tip of their fingers.”

In similar fashion, I also interviewed my aunt, the cultural and linguistic editorial consultant of the website.

Me: “What level of cultural/religious understanding of each state does this website successfully impart?”
Consultant: “A comprehensive amount; the students are bound to leave the website with much more
information than when they started with. This site is a great way to introduce the awe-inspiring culture of
India to them.”

Me: “What amount of subjectivity does the shared information contain?”

Consultant: “Minimal; the information is almost completely bereft of any form of subjectivity. I, personally,
have hardly been detected any signs of biased language, cherry-picking, and the like. One instance where I
have detected is in your account of the Hornbill festival celebrated in Nagaland. You wrote ‘The culture of
Nagaland is worth preserving,’ which, of course, indicated an opinion.”

Me: “Have you found any of the information to be oversimplified?”

Consultant: “Sometimes, but it is a negligible amount that does not negatively impact the quality and
 38

veracity of the presented information.”

Me: “Is the language used to convey the information apt?”

Consultant: “Although I find your accounts fantastically-worded and well-structured, I do think it could be
slightly simplified to appeal to a broader audience of young learners who may not be accustomed to words
such as ‘conscientious’, ‘melodious’, and ‘ambience’, that you have used.”

On the basis of the feedback given by the two experts, I graded the various aspects of my website that were
evaluated – the rubric used for grading was the one made alongside the design specifications propounded at
the beginning of Criterion B (refer to Appendix D1). Below is a display of the level ascribed to the product
in each aspect, and details on product performance in the aspects, directly extracted from the rubric.

Legend: ok = graded on the basis of first interview ok = graded on the basis of second interview

Aspect Level (out of 8) Pointers

• The site offers comprehensive accounts of the seven cultural aspects of
Theory 7
each of the five Indian states
• The well-written accounts are largely understandable and contain good
phrases, diction, and no grammatical errors
• The presented information contains little bias
Literary 5 • There are no popular culture references in the accounts
• Every account sits comfortably within the set word limits
• Appreciable efforts have been taken to cover the nuances, and there is
little oversimplification
• The modalities of text, video and audio have been utilised well, and each
Pedagogy 6
are a crucial part of the website
• Navigating the site does not involve much hassle
• The site is largely unresponsive, often leaving the user without feedback
UI; UX 5 on whether their commands were registered
• The website is largely inanimate
• The cheerful sprites on the site sufficiently guide the user
• The unique colour scheme of each page makes it characteristically
artistic
Aesthetics 6 • Professionalism is achieved through the presence of appreciable
consistency in the design of each page
• Negative spacing is incorrectly applied

Evaluation Against Design Specifications

After speaking with the two experts, I evaluated how well my website performed in each
specification by conducting the tests laid out in Criterion B. Some of the tests conducted, mentioned here,
may differ from the original ones mentioned in Criterion B. This is because although I was able to conduct
most of the planned tests, some I necessarily could not, and I therefore improvised and carried out a
different test. The tests conducted, the results of those tests, and product rating in each are summarised in the
following table.

Legend: ok = fail (0-1.5) ok = partial (1.5-2.5) ok = pass (2.5-5)

Mark Specifications Executed test Result

Theory
The site will provide an in-depth Rather than pursuing The participation in the oral quiz was
4/5 account of the various cultural my initial plan of extremely high, and the overall
aspects of five Indian states integrating a quiz into understanding the students gained
4/5 The exact aspects that it will the website or from the website was substantial to
 39

cover, in a positive light, are: formulating an online the point of it being conspicuous
religion, language, attire, festivals, questionnaire, I
architecture, cuisine, and art conducted an oral
examination of the
The religious demographic and PYP student council,
major belief systems that reign in on the record, asking
4/5
each state, and in India as a whole, them about the
will be emphasised on the most cultural aspects of
The manifestation and coexistence every state
of varying religious ideologies, the
religious underpinnings of cultural
2.5/5
practices, and the juxtaposition of
the cultures of different states –
this will all be covered
Language
The expository, conversational I regularly consulted The expert confirmed, during multiple
style of language used to and interviewed my occasions, that the language in which
communicate the information will classmate who the accounts have been written is, by
3.5/5 be elementary – no convoluted happens to be an and large, appropriate, objective, and
phrases, literary or complex expert with great readable
vocabulary will be used in the linguistic and
website theological credentials
The website will contain not even
the subtlest indication of my
4/5 stance on any of the topics – the
information presented will be
absolutely factual and objective
Wherever appropriate in the It was implausible to attempt a testing of this aspect as it is
website, references to popular non-existent; virtually no popular culture references have been
0.5/5
culture and contemporary events made in the accounts, out of fear that they might alienate and
will be made confuse readers incapable of recognising the references
The volume of textual information I questioned a subset The art students were largely content
on each webpage will be of the art students in with the images and text, but the
moderate: between 200 to 800 my grade, and the PYP council found that the amount of text
5/5 words council, on their per page was slightly too much
opinion about the
website content and
image-to-text ratio
Despite the confining word limits I had my editorial She found neglectable levels of
for each webpage, no gross consultant analyse the oversimplification that were benign.
4.5/5
oversimplification of cultural texts on the website
nuances will occur
Pedagogy
Three learning modalities will be The advantage of each The videos on the site increased the
used: text, audio, and video – of of the media, and the engagement and enjoyment factor of
4/5 the three, text will be most coherence with which the site; their presence was
ubiquitous, and will be all of them work universally approved – however,
accompanied in places by the other together, was discussions have revealed to me that
two media ascertained by audio has been used too sparingly,

The video(s) present within the
website will be an amalgamation
of different video genres: live-
action, animation, whiteboard,
2.5/5
typography – of these, animation
will be predominant, and the exact
style of animation used will be
motion graphics
Alongside text, each webpage will
contain a pedagogical functionality
that is not present in any other
4/5 page – this will make every
webpage characteristic (the
functionality may be a game,
video, audio clip, quiz, etc.)
Aspects of the learning process
will be gamified through single-
player side-scrolling video games
2.5/5
with point and reward systems;
drag and drop quizzes, and verbal
literacy games with a social facet
The website will contain a
systematic navigation feature
wherein the buttons through which
one can access each page will be
conspicuous and explicit
2/5
Each cultural concept will have
dedicated to it, one entire webpage
5/5
– the exposition of no concept will
be spread over multiple webpages
On each webpage, there will be a
cheerful sprite who communicates
with the user through speech
2.5/5 bubbles, providing them with
recommendations, noteworthy
insight, and guidance
Each of the clickable
buttons/elements on the site will
be responsive; upon being clicked,
an indication will be provided that
2/5
the click has been registered
The site will be animated; it will
1/5 contain subtle animations that
manifest as the user uses the site
40
surveying the target and more video styles need to be
audience incorporated
Due to my failure to The verbal literacy games and side-
integrate a feedback scrollers were viewed as one of the
system into the most innovative and refreshing
website, I was left aspects of the website; they were
with only the option to enjoyed by both experts and students
test the success of during the testing process, and
each communication invoked strong engagement and
mode/functionality laughter
and attempt of
gamification, by
verbally interviewing
my design teacher, and
members of the PYP
UI; UX
I timed how long it It was found during the testing
took the intended procedure that it took the PYP
users to initially
students a mean time of three minutes
access the website, to access and enter the site for the first
and once acclimated, time – this lengthiness can be
how long it took them attributed to technical issues in
to reach the webpage opening the RAR file I shared the
of their desire, from website as. Once they were on the
another page site, however, it only took seconds for
them to jump around different pages,
due to the bank of contents (sitemap)
I interviewed the The interconnectedness of the website
target audience about and amount of hyperlinking done
their thoughts on the impressed the audience greatly – they
organisation and use had some knowledge about HTML,
of childlike elements – CSS, and JavaScript, but had no idea
and whether it benefits that they could be used to create such
the user experience a website as Infinite.com. In terms of
images and sprites, the students were
conflicted: some were content with
the number of images, while others
felt it was insufficient
I interviewed my The buttons on the site, when hovered
design teacher on the over, will cause the cursor to change
inclusion of these from an arrow to a hand, indicating
delicate details that they are hyperlinked and
clickable – but, upon being clicked,
no feedback is given to inform the
user that their click has been
registered
The site is relatively inanimate, there are no elements that
move, rotate, change in opacity, or anything of that sort

Most on-screen text will be
centred, keeping the right-hand
and left-hand sides of the screen
5/5
virtually blank, devoid of any
information
At all times, the font colour and
background colour will contrast
4.5/5 strongly
Negative spacing will be utilised
perfectly such that each page is
legible and clear
3.5/5
There will be consistency in the
5/5 margins and some design choices
of every webpage
Every expository webpage on the
5/5 site will have its own characteristic
colour scheme
Areas of Improvement of the Website
After having my product evaluated in multiple ways, I have come to realise the following most acute
areas of improvement of the website. The table below was drafted after taking into consideration the
feedback from various experts, target community, and others.
Aspect Fault
Theory The statistical account of the
religious demographic of the
nation and each state uses
outdated data
The language used to disseminate
the cultural insight is of a level
that is slightly too high for the
students to easily comprehend
Literary
The volume of text on each page
is too much, most users are
unlikely to read the entirety of
every page
The various pedagogical
functionalities present within the
website are each buried under
vast amounts of state-related
UI; UX information, and are difficult to
access on their own
41
Aesthetics
I discussed the The central alignment of the text is a
ramifications of such constant for every page, and it makes
website elements with reading the text easy – but according
my design teacher, and to all those whom I spoke to, there is
a subset of the art excess empty space on either side of
students in my grade. every page
Additionally, I also Except for the red background on the
had an expert coding Uttar Pradesh page, the art students
teacher in my school feel that there is conspicuous contrast
surf my website between the font colour and
without giving them background throughout the website
any prior context or The pages may be legible and easy to
background to I – they read – but they seem empty and
helped me neaten my deficient because there is too much
source-code and polish negative spacing, the sides of the
the website pages have been utilised at all; the
central portion of the pages dedicated
to housing text is too narrow
For all the webpages, there are the
same margins and centred text; a
vertical colour gradient that begins
with white; and a logo and taskbar at
the top – giving the site uniformity,
consistency, and professionalism
Improvement Methodology
The data provided is ever- A server and database
changing, and so it must must be erected for this
automatically update on the demand, or else updating
website itself, with time, too has to be done manually
The word choices, sentence This can be achieved by
structure, and sentence length further editing and
must be simplified slightly augmenting the pre-
existing cultural accounts,
The accounts must be more in a word processor (i.e.,
succinct and briefer; Google Docs), alongside
imparting more knowledge in my qualified aunt
fewer words
The games, visual and Anchor tags must be
auditory clips, animations, utilised in a specific
etc., all need to be referenced manner, in HTML, to
in the about page and linked conduct this special coding
to a specific location from operation
which they can be easily
accessed – that location may
be the sitemap in the bank of
contents, somewhere in the
 42

homepage, or the about page

The webpages that constitute the
site seem too stagnant and
inanimate; they are devoid of any
mobile elements that give it life
The text-to-image ratio on each
page is imperfect; there is a
deficiency of images, visuals, and
sprites
The website is not readily
compatible with different screen
sizes – depending on the size of
the device, users will have to
zoom in or out of the page from
the default zoom level (100%) to
properly view the content
There is an excess of negative
spacing just dying to be filled up,
Aesthetics on either side of every webpage –
this makes the website feel empty
and severely lacking
Specific elements of each
page need to be animated in
subtle ways to better engage
the viewers in the content
More sprites, images, and
video must be added into the
sight, while the volume of
text is reduced – this will help
the website emanate
jovialness and become more
child-friendly
The website must look the
same on every device from
which it is accessed, or else it
will seem unpolished and
unprofessionally-designed
The wasted space on each
webpage must be replaced
with sprites, and bite-sized
bits of the relevant content of
different forms
To incorporate animation
in the site, keyframes in
CSS must be used
Microsoft Video Editor
will be used for videos,
Canva for designing
sprites, and the internet for
acquiring usable images
Using Visual Studio Code,
the ‘master’ table cell in
which all the on-screen
content is placed must be
changed from an
‘absolute’ position state to
a ‘relative’ one
The source-code must be
completely altered such
that information can be
cleanly placed on regions
page that is not the centre

Impact on the Target Community

On the PYP student council, with whom I have interacted so far, the impact of sharing the website
with them has been significant. The students have augmented their understanding of their nation’s culture
greatly. I surveyed them about my product, and the overall feedback they had was largely positive. Every
one of the students felt that my explanations were, among other things, fun and understandable. I have
succeeded in helping them gain a rudimentary understanding of the ideals and histories of the major
religions of India, and the cultures of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Nagaland, and the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands.

But, obviously, none of the council members were completely content with my explanations. Some felt I
was overly formal and statistically-inclined, while others believed I should have deployed more visual
learning methods – and nearly all of them thought I was too verbose. Regardless, all the members
collectively saw the site as a useful repository of cultural information. It aided them augment their
previously-inadequate understanding of India’s culture and religions.

The students were highly approving of the incorporation of different learning modalities – the PYP
coordinator predicted right: the different modes were indeed helpful for all kinds of differential learners (see
page 3). “I loved the videos about each topic, and all the explanation, especially [Nagaland.] I had not
[known a lot] about that place, and it was very nice to learn about that,” wrote one student.

However, unfortunately, even though the learning tools were great, the experience of enjoying them was
somewhat stifled by certain aspects of the user interface that made surfing the site difficult. Specifically,
users found the task of having to continually zoom in or out of pages to properly view them annoying. One
user suggested that I solve this issue by creating a settings page of some sort (refer to Appendix D2).

All in all, my web application is a respectable first attempt. It is not perfect, but has potential, and once the
required problems are dealt with, it may even fulfil its potential to boost and catalyse cultural education and
interaction in the entire young classrooms of not just my school, but of schools from around the world.
 43

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