Testing the Full Classroom Experience

This week, our focus shifted from refining individual parts of STAiGE to testing how the entire classroom experience works from beginning to end.

Through playtests with educators, continued outreach to local schools, and rapid iteration across design, art, and technical development, we began evaluating not only whether individual features work, but whether STAiGE can support a realistic teaching and learning flow.

Simulating the Classroom Flow

One of the most important activities this week was a full classroom simulation with Amanda.

We tested the complete experience, beginning with teacher input and AI-generated output, followed by the teacher guiding students through the performance, and ending with a reflection on what students had learned.

This playtest helped us identify several areas that still need refinement, particularly around pacing, stage clarity, character movement, teacher guidance, and the connection between performance and learning outcomes.

Rather than evaluating STAiGE only as an interface, this test pushed us to think about the system as part of a larger classroom process.

Designing for Younger Students

We also reviewed feedback from our playtest with Lacy, who provided valuable suggestions from the perspective of younger learners.

One especially useful idea was replacing human figures on the stage map with simple animal characters. This could make the experience feel more playful, approachable, and visually engaging for elementary-age students.

Based on this feedback, Ailun created five animal character models and began importing them into Unity.

This also reinforced an important design principle for us: visual representation is not only decorative. It can influence how comfortable, understandable, and engaging the experience feels for students.

Refining the Prototype

The team continued iterating on the prototype based on playtest feedback.

Tassi focused on improving the clarity of the stage and performance flow. Updates included maintaining actor position continuity between beats, clarifying Stage Left, Stage Right, Upstage, and Downstage, preventing characters from blocking one another, adding character actions and emotions during dialogue, and exploring ways to display upcoming lines.

Agnes and Angie continued refining the UI and visual consistency. We also began discussing clearer visual and style guidelines so that future pages and components can follow the same design language.

At the same time, we started moving the updated Input UI into Unity.

These changes are helping us move toward an Alpha version focused on a clear and functional core experience before introducing more advanced features.

Defining Alpha, Beta, and Final

This week, we also organized a clearer development roadmap for the remainder of the semester.

For Alpha, we are prioritizing the essential teacher-to-performance workflow and core functionality. More advanced features, such as environmental changes, additional background elements, and expanded sound functionality, will be considered later as we move toward Beta.

Creating this Alpha → Beta → Final structure has helped us better prioritize the work that is necessary to prove the core concept before expanding the system.

Connecting with Schools and Teachers

Teacher research continued to be a major priority.

We followed up with Anthony and emphasized our need for teachers who can participate in interviews and playtests. We also reached out to Grade 2–4 teachers through Assemble and Pittsburgh Public Schools.

In addition, we connected with Bon Air Elementary and Dr. Croushore. Through these conversations, we learned more about the school’s classroom structure and curriculum, including their use of AMPLIFY and the integration of Social Studies content into English Language Arts.

We are continuing to coordinate classroom observations and identify authentic lesson plans that can be used for future testing.

These partnerships are especially important because we want future design decisions to be based on real classroom practices rather than assumptions.

Client Feedback

During our October 2 client meeting, Rory responded positively to the progress of the prototype, particularly the editable scripts, interactive 3D staging, and teacher-controlled performance mode.

One promising area was the use of visual staging to support educators who may not have a theater background. The ability to visualize character positions and movement could help teachers explain and facilitate performance more confidently.

The meeting also surfaced several important priorities.

First, learning outcomes need to be explicit. Teachers should be able to define what students should understand or be able to do after the activity, while still allowing students to do the thinking and discovery themselves.

Second, the system should support flexible classroom timelines. Preparation, rehearsal, and performance may happen across multiple class periods rather than in a single session.

Third, we need to continue testing with teachers and authentic lesson plans across different subjects in order to better understand both the strengths and limitations of the system.

Preparing for Halves

A large portion of the week was also dedicated to preparing for our Halves presentation.

We outlined the overall presentation structure, divided presentation responsibilities across the team, and discussed how to communicate the project through a clearer narrative.

The presentation will introduce what STAiGE is, why we are building it, our goals and design principles, the teacher journey, our current prototype, technical development, art direction, playtests, key learnings, challenges, and future timeline.

Our goal is to make the presentation communicate not only what we have built, but also how our understanding of the problem has evolved through research and testing.

Key Takeaways

Several important lessons emerged this week.

The full classroom flow matters more than individual features.
A useful interface is not enough if the overall learning experience is confusing or difficult to facilitate.

Teacher control needs to remain central.
Teachers should be able to understand, edit, and adapt both content and performance structure.

Designing for children requires a different visual language.
Simple, playful representations can make the system feel more approachable and engaging.

Learning outcomes must remain visible.
The theatrical experience should always connect back to what students are expected to learn.

Real teacher feedback is now essential.
As the prototype becomes more complete, our next iterations need to be driven by classroom observation, teacher testing, and authentic lesson content.

Looking Ahead

Our next phase will focus heavily on testing and iteration.

We will continue refining the Alpha prototype, integrating the updated UI into Unity, and improving the staging and performance flow.

At the same time, we will continue working with Bon Air Elementary and other local teachers to observe real classrooms, collect lesson materials, and test STAiGE with more realistic teaching scenarios.

The goal is to move toward an end-to-end experience that is not only technically functional, but also understandable, flexible, and practical for teachers and students.