SciScrollEducation for everyone at all levels of interest and knowledge.

“ExplainittomelikeI’mfive;”theageoldmottoofanybeingtryingtograspadiffi-cultconcept.SciScrolloffersscientificknowledgeforeveryoneatalllevelsofinterestandknowledge.

The Story:

AhotbroodingJuly,IrestedontheporchwithmyyoungercousinsreadingtothemEnder’s Game.ArrivingatthescenewhereEnderdiscoversthatdirectionissubjective,myyoungestcousinask“What’sgrav-ee-tee?”Ipickedupasmallrocknearmeandex-plainedtoherwhatgravitywas.Fromitsdiscoverytothespace-timecontinuum.Inmyhead,beingexpressedthroughtherock,Iunleashedthestoryofgravitytomyyoungersiblings.AsIexplainedit,aslidereelportrayedthephenomenaofblackholesandwarp-ingofspace.Thatnight,Iprogrammedaframeworkthatwouldallowmetocreateanani-mationtoshowwhatwasinmyhead.This,becameSciScroll.

From Theory to Testing:

Theideawastocreateascientificjourneythatcanbetakenatanyspeed.Thoughtherearemanycurrentlyavailablesourcestolearningscience,noneofferwhatSciS-crollhas.Speedvariability,stunninggraphicsandeasyaccesibilityareallfeaturesthatdifferSciScrollfromothermedia.

Sincetheconceptwaslikeanimagescroll-ingdown,theideaforSciScrollwastohavestoriesthatareunlockedastheuserscrolls.Toincreaseaccesiblitythisapplicationwillbewebbasedmeaningithadtobepro-grammedusingHTML,CSSandJavascript.

Tosimplifythataniationprocess,IdecidedtousetheJavascriptlibrary,Raphaël.Raphaël[‘ræfeɪəl]usestheSVGW3CRecommendationandVMLasabaseforcreatinggraphics.ThismeanseverygraphicalobjectyoucreateisalsoaDOMobject,soyoucanattachJa-vaScripteventhandlersormodifythemlater.Raphaël’sgoalistoprovideanadapterthatwillmakedrawingvectorartcompatiblecross-browserandeasy.

Settingupthestructure,astructurewhichthenbecamethestandardforScrollStories,itwas important to count scroll increments.