PhoneticExplorer

Basic idea

A phonetics toy, allowing children basic exposure to sounds of the world's languages, via the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA - [[1]]).

The IPA symbols are displayed; user can click on a symbol and hear it pronounced.

Features

• sounds are organized into rows (e.g. nasals) and columns (e.g. bilabials) and other categories
• hover mouse over a symbol to see its full name
• click on a symbol to hear it pronounced (in context?)
• double-click a symbol to add it to your "tray" at the bottom of the screen
• click a "play" button next to the tray to play the sounds of the tray in sequence
• save your tray contents as "my phonetic words" (could integrate to word list building, dictionary building, etc.)

Design / Development Challenges

• There is far more information that *could* be displayed than will fit on the screen.
  • Scroll it? OK, if necessary.
  • Display the broadest categories only, and drill down to get to the symbols? Not great for exploring.
  • Display only most common symbols on main page, and drill down for less-common symbols?
• Finding reliable quality, copyright-unencumbered sound recordings
  • Wikipedia seems to provide recordings in GNU Free Doc License; is the quality good, across the board?
• What does sharing mean in this activity?

Development approach

• Copy an existing activity like TamTamMini to make a grid of symbols linked to sounds
• Set up a few (half a dozen) sounds with symbols, names, sounds, grid layout
• User testing with children
• Fill in the gaps
• Release early and often (as soon as presentable): don't get bogged down in comprehensiveness, complexity and advanced features
• What does sharing mean in this activity? Sharing the tray?

References

• [article on IPA, with links to ogg sounds in GFDL]
• [IPA charts with mp3 sounds]