More than a simple guide
the CD-Rom is a "multimedia travel log"

Give a glance to the Slide Show or read the description!
 
 

This series, designed by Lynx and based on the hard-copy series published by Fratelli Palombi and Lapis, is an interactive guide for the youngest visitors to Italy's most beautiful cities.  More than a simple guide, the CD-Rom is also a kind of "multimedia travel log". While it can be used to help children and their parents prepare for their visit by getting to know the city, selecting different routes, and printing customized maps, it also allows them to write down their own impressions and insert images and video material collected during their travels. This product, the only one of its kind, makes it possible to combine traditional navigation with the materials provided by the young tourists; photographs, audio, and video material produced by children during their visit can be inserted. The product has been designed completely from a child's point of view - both as regards the media used and its content and routes - and contains information on the monuments as well as amusing stories, picturesque spots, and games. Each title in the series also contains a "survival kit" - a set of information indispensable for visiting the city: public transport, museum schedules, green areas, reception facilities, etc.

The guides The guides are designed to be used directly by children (8-14 years). The young tourist is the main player in his "trip" among ancient ruins, majestic palazzi, lanes, and museums. These locations, often considered "boring" for children, are described in simple language, accompanied by lots of illustrations and games that allow for an immediate approach and stimulate the child's interest without compromising the information's scientific accuracy. Indeed, all the texts are written by authors working inside scientific institutions or museum teaching sections, and are carefully vetted by university instructors and museum directors. For each building, the guides do not merely explain, but recount its history, use, and legends, and also provides stories about artists and historical figures, which help the child to "see" the palazzi or ancient ruins animated and full of  people - a theatre of exciting adventures. The games also entertain the child and encourage him or her to observe, identify hidden details, and remember things previously seen or read.

The software In brief, the software contains a navigation environment - in which, starting from the map, the children can follow thematic paths and navigate freely between topics, or play one of the games contained in the CD-Rom - and an author environment, a virtual drafting table, allowing users to customize and enhance the guide's content with their own material. The activities that the CD-Rom offers its young users go far beyond simple reading; drawing the paths actually travelled, adding photographs of the locations visited, and drawing the people met, and even calculating the length of the chosen itineraries, printing out the fact sheets, and building a personal travel log will surely stimulate the children's creativity, truly making them the main players in their visit.

The navigation environment It is easy to move about the navigation environment, simply by clicking on the sensitive icons placed on the map. Each icon is linked to entertaining animation, drawn images, video, and audio material, which help the child discover the city. Young tourists can also select the contents of their guide by topic: for example, they can ask to see all the monuments from the Roman period, or to find all the places where Carlo Goldoni lived. And of course, users can play by clicking on the appropriate icon: entertaining riddles, puzzles, and other games help children get to know the cities' places. Where possible, the locations (museums, for example) have been linked to their official Internet sites, accessed via a child-friendly browser. Then, the contents of some fact sheets can be further developed and the CD-Rom periodically updated by downloading the files from the series' site.

The construction environment The construction environment is accessed by a simple click. This activates a set of functions placed on a virtual drafting table: the map may be customized using the functions of a full-blown author tool. It is easy to trace a path and ask the computer its length, or to add an icon of a famous palazzo, describing it with photographs taken during the trip. The map may be saved at a later time with the new materials.