We can’t believe it’s week 10 already! Now that we are more than two thirds through the semester, team Puppamatics is looking to polish our web applications and tie up loss ends. This week we met with our project consultants and went to the Playtest to Refine workshop.
Project Consultant Meeting
Project consultants are faculty members assigned to out project in order to lend a fresh pair of eyes to our project. There aren’t supposed to have much experience in our project area so they can add a new perspective and see things we might have missed. Jonathon Walton and Scott Stevens are our project consultants. Unfortunately, Jonathon got sick before our meeting and couldn’t join us. Still, Scott got the chance to look through our project.
We showed him the new iterations of instructions, sample UI tutorial, intro video, web application, and end sequence. Our team focused on connecting what we have already to where we’re going with the project. Scott gave us some advice on usability and was concerned about use after puppet creation. He brought to our attention that this project is a collaboration with teachers and we should consider their contribution further.
Playtest to Refine Workshop
Michael Christel held the Playtest to Refine Workshop where he helps us prepare for Playtest Day. Playtest Day is a a day where our department invites guest to play the games and tools developed this semester. It runs from 9:30am until 3:00 pm with 6-12 groups testing your project. The purpose of this event is to help teams collect more data on the user experience. Mike arranges the playtest groups to be as close to your target demographic as possible. The Playtest to Refine workshop is meant to guides through organizing those playtest.
The workshop focused on conducting interviews and honing in on the key information we want to get from the playtest. For the Puppamatics team, we want to get more information on the programs interest curve and the new additions to the tool.
Next Steps
Our goals for this week and the next are to continue development of the tool and present more polished program on playtest day. From then on, we will be focused on quality assurance and our reach goals.