The Work This Week:
The work this week started with a debrief from ETC Playtest Day last Saturday and ended with our client meeting, giving us a direction for the last third of the semester.
Playtest Day Results:
Overall, Playtest Day went well for us. Guests understood the core interactions and their suggestions for next steps were close to what we’re currently designing. Overall, the common findings from Playtest Day were:
- Guests moving too close to the screen
- Guests wanting feet symbols/line to know where to stand
- Guests having trouble finding their picture / wanted it to be bigger / highlight user picture
- The Kinect was too sensitive
- Guests liked ideas of archiving famous alumni and featuring them
- Guests wanted to be able to use avatars
- For those uncomfortable taking the photo but who want to participate in information
From this results, we began work on our core next steps, which include:
- Adding boundaries for where you can stand
- Fixing the sensitivity of the Kinect
- Highlighting the guest picture in some way (so that it’s easier to find)
- Implementing use of avatars
- Implementing the “Where are You From?” Question
Of these, the last bullet point is of our top priority, as our prototype will not be complete until the Question is implemented. The others are additional fixes and polish that are not as significant, yet still needed.
Client Meeting:
Our client meeting reiterated some of these findings. Feedback from this meeting was that conceptually, the idea is continually solid, but it needs a more concrete, understandable, and visible plan on how it would look like upon completion.
Specifically, they want to see:
- The guest photos be customizable (complete with different CMU backgrounds or potential filters for each picture)
- The UI for how guests send the photos to themselves
- The specifics on how alumni and guest info is shared on the wall. They need to see these details before they begin the process of contacting the alumni network for their info.
- A more specific schematic on the layout of our space. They remain a fan of our pitch to use projectors as our display, but they want to see how we intend to lay these projectors out, how we plan to deal with natural light, and any wiring/electrical means needed for the exhibit.
We also discussed issues of privacy concerns that have come up. They said that, indeed, they can bring their legal team in on this to implement a fully functional Terms & Conditions page, but, again, they need to see the specifics of what specific information is being asked of the guests, how this information is being shared, etc.
Going Forward:
Going forward, there is much to do. We need to finish implementing the Questions, as well as the last few pages needed on the iPad (i.e. the page where guests can customize their photos, the page where guests can share their photos to themselves). We also need to figure out how to visualize guest & featured alumni information, and we need to fix the sensitivity issues on the Kinect.
We also need to begin our documentation work. The hope is to have a completed prototype, along with the documentation necessary so that our client can take our code, and then be able to customize it and add additional content (i.e. additional questions; additional videos for specific events, etc.).
Therefore, we need to begin detailing and outlining every step in the exhibit, and also develop the schematics of the space. Plus, as part of the technical aspects of the documentation, we need to make sure that a potential vendor can follow our code easily.
There’s still a lot of work to be done. Now begins the final sprint to do so.