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THE METRO BOOK (Week 9)

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THE TRANSPARENT BOOK (Week 9)

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THE ORIGAMI BOOK (Week 9)

After feedback from Jenna, I have decided to limit my origami publication to 5 different pages, instead of 10, in order to not get in the way of actually producing a physical artifact and to better gain feedback concerning the look of the origami publication and how the visual instructions communicate what the viewer should do, in instructing the viewer.

As follows are the digital pictures showing the graphical elements and layout of the origiami publication so far.

https://imgur.com/gallery/ls0KGK8

In order to more effectively gain feedback, I created a physical version of the book, perforated and bound it, the process of which can be seen here:

https://imgur.com/a/wrG5SbL

I talked to a Graphic Design lecturer, and the main feedback was that the english text was a bit too overbearing and heavyhanded, considering the subject matter, the more mindful and precise practice of origami. The instructions themselves were alright, and the lecturer was able to follow an example to completion using a piece of scrap paper, cut to a square.

Concepts I researched while designing this were the concept of affordance, outlined best in James J. Gibson’s 1979 book The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception as the ‘aspect of the environment or object that implies a complimentarity (relationship) between the animal (user) and the object or environment.’ (Gibson, 1979, p. 127)

This concept was explored in particular with the origami publication as the pages constitute the material needed to follow the instructions within the publication itself, and so physically imply this relationship.

Designing instructions and design in general:

Ikea Instruction Manuals: https://www.fastcodesign.com/3052604/how-ikea-designs-its-infamous-instruction-manuals?partner=rss

The Good Notice Project: http://legaltechdesign.com/GoodNoticeProject/design/

Culture of aversion to harming books/literature:

https://academic.oup.com/jaar/article/74/3/593/895794

https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=UkAXPuObVBUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Burning+books+By+Haig+A.+Bosmajian&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1kI6ChIXbAhVDLpQKHXj_AcQQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Burning%20books%20By%20Haig%20A.%20Bosmajian&f=false

With regards to Permaculture principles, this particular part of the project explores the first four principles (quoted from the ARDN706 Project Manifesto):

1. Relationships - Relative Location - Every element is placed in relationship to another so that they assist each other.

This is achieved by physically placing the instructions on the materials needed to follow them, one step removed (in order to still be usable).

2.  Functionality - Multi-Functional Elements - Each element performs many functions.

This is achieved by having each page perform as an index of each origami instruction, as well as serving as a secondary index, once the page is torn out. This is done by having the remainder of the page (after the main part is torn out) have the name of the sculpture that it will be made into, and both parts will have the same colour/texture, and so will link visually as well as textually.

3.  Goals - Support Critical Functions - Each important function is identified and supported by many elements.

Each publication will be provided with a stock of patterned paper for practicing the origami instructions with, before ‘committing’ to tearing off a part of the actual page.

There will also be a ‘bookmark’ or some other accompaniment that will provide an invitation to ‘destroy’ the book, as well as instructions within the spine of the book.

4.  Zoning - Efficient Energy Planning  - The design principle of Zones and Sectors is concerned with efficient energy planning.

All the textual information relevant to each sculpture is contained on the page or on the opposing side of the page in both Japanese and English.

There is no Table of Contents, as the content is designed to be removed and thus conventional wayfinding elements would be useless.

The other principles could be explored with regards to the manufacture of the publication, with #5 (Using renewable resources) being explored through using recycled materials (paper).

#6 (Polyculture & Diversity) could relate more to this publication being part of a larger body of work exploring the idea of sequence in how it is explored through the publication medium.

The last principle (#7, Boundaries & Communities: The Edge Effect) could be seen in how this publication seeks to make the mindful and precise practice of traditional Japanese origami more accessible to an adult audience, of a western variety, and so attempts to blend the two, but this may be a bit tenuous.

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Work done over the break (Week 7 to 8)

Sorted out what kinds of publication I will make with regards to the materials used.

The guiding concept, as discussed earlier in my blog posts, () will be augmented with a focus on the exploration of the concept of sequentiality in the publication structure.

With this in mind, I will design and construct 3 different publications, each exploring a different notion of sequentiality (expressed as elements ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’):

THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL - The first will explore sequentiality through structure ( a > b > c ), both in terms of how content is displayed as well as the physicality of the book itself. This publication constitutes a set of origami instructions printed on the pages of this publication. However, the pages of the publication are perforated along the spine, allowing for the pages to be removed and used as the origami material. This will produce a visually interesting sculpture, as the interplay of instructions and the visuals on each page will produce something weird in the translation of 2D instructions to an irreverent, 3D form.

THE PICTURE BOOK - The second will explore sequentiality through presenting content simultaneously, in a publication with transparent pages (in effect, a = b = c = a). This will result in pages seeming to have multiple sets of content that the viewer will have to hold up to the light, seperate from the other pages to fully see. It is hoped that this seperation of pages, and holding them in isolation will cause the environment to play some part in the use of the booklet as it is seen through these transparent pages. Because of this the content will be mostly focused on producing overlays, rather than textual content. This will also affect sequentiality by producing a series of discrete images, whose total meaning () is influenced by the environment against which it is viewed.

THE NARRATIVE PUBLICATION - The final publication will explore sequentiality through showing how past elements of a sequence influence future elements (a > ab > abc). This will be done by tying this idea to the publication itself. A story will be told visually on one set of pages, reading left-to-right, as per usual. However, on the opposite side of these pages (contained within french folds) will be told a similar story, but which is fundamentally different, read right-to-left.

Story #1 will have elements progressing in regular order (element 1 on page 1, page 2 on 2, and so on).

Story #2 will have elements progressing backwards from the end of the publication to the beginning (element 1 on page 8, 2 on 7, and so on).

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Week 6 Academic Research and Guiding Concepts

06Chandler, D. Munday, R. (2016). Jakobson’s model. In Chandler, & D. Munday, R (Eds.), A Dictionary of Media and Communication (2nd edition, p. 228). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press

Permaculture principles (2018): (Retrieved from ARDN706 2018 Project Manifesto)

Hassenzah, M. (2008, September). User Experience (UX): Towards an experiential perspective on product quality. Paper presented at the IHM  Conference, Metz, France. Retrieved from http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1520000/1512717/p11-hassenzahl.pdf?ip=156.62.3.20&id=1512717&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&key=65D80644F295BC0D%2E393BC165BD0B3654%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35&__acm__=1527580198_801b6704740a9a105a6e41d19ee051d6f

Gibson, J. (1971). The theory of affordances. In B.A. Whitehead’s (Ed.), The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (pp. 127-141). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Snyder, C. (2003). Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Esay Way to Define and Refining User Interfaces. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers

Dwek, N.S. (2000). US Patent No. US6248946B1. New York, NY: Google Patents

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ARDN706 Weeks 4-6 - Idea GENERATION

In the last few weeks I have compiled a list of different avenues to explore with regards to Beth and I’s original guiding abstract or framework: “Presenting physical media through divergent publication materials, practices and outcomes.”

I want to experiment with materials, more specifically how material use can be used to convey their own meaning. 

This is similar to what Beth is doing (see her associated blog posts here):

https://bamboobeth.wordpress.com/2018/03/20/week-4/

https://bamboobeth.wordpress.com/2018/03/31/week-5/

https://bamboobeth.wordpress.com/2018/04/05/week-6/

Because of this, I will experiment more with the conveyance of content, and how this is informed by material and production practice.

To this end, I have ideated a number of outcomes that would be fun to explore in a non-standard way through publications:

Using the same material/publication style to explore vastly different contents, could these form a physical synthesis?

Using a common contentual element across all pages of a publication, around which other content is informed?

Exploring well known subject matter, in a way informed by publication practice. (For instance, in aid of satirization or promotion)

The use of a contentual visual language to help the reader ‘navigate’ these publications.

A separate document explaining the content of the publication. (think ‘Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes’)

These are not an exhaustive list of my ideas, but outline my general direction.

The nature of this project means conventional prototyping methods won’t work, instead, these ‘polished’ outcomes will showcase the potential of this guiding concept, iterating different designs as a proof of the guiding concept.

Other concerns are the inclusion of permaculture principles as well as the concept of affordance in the product design of these ‘products’.

Could I make a publication reflecting each permaculture principle??

Another super-system I want to inform my work is Jakobson’s model of verbal communication, devised in 1960, that will be further described in another post, which will outline the academic guide to my practical work.

In conclusion, none of these ideas should come at the expense of mental effort. These publications should be easily decipherable, these are not puzzle books (except for the last one), they are pieces of communication.

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ARDN706 Week 3 - PRESENTATION

Beth and I have decided to team up to work on our project, which is guided by the ‘abstract’ of “Presenting physical media through divergent publication materials, practices and outcomes.”

With this framework guiding how we work within our minor, we will also look to integrate aspects of our major (Communication Design). This is most evident in the production of the publications, which are a key medium in Comm. Design. The difference will come in our divergent approaches to the publication layout, look and user experience.

I will approach the ideation process using Brian Eno’s 1975 ‘Oblique Strategies’, which are prompt cards that contain weird or otherwise unexpected prompts that are then integrated at some point in the publication process (ideation, design, manufacturing).

While also incorporating aspects of Permaculture I also want to incorporate the idea of ‘affordance’ a concept devised by James J. Gibson in 1979 which describes the idea that an object’s design reflects it’s use. Gibson uses the concept of a coffee cup, whose handle communicates that this is an object to be grasped.

This manufacturing process ideally would result in multiple different end products, all indicative of the overarching framework, with their own content separate from the ideas involved in the creation process (a variety of concepts will be demonstrated in the publication content).

Our playtesting process will, of course, be a little bit unorthodox, owing to the physical, non-game nature of our publication, but we have decided to use Mirza-Babaei’s ‘Playtesting for Indie Studios’ (October 2016) which focuses on small-scale rapid playtesting, with a standardized questionnaire after the playtest process. Manufacturing a paper prototype would involve having a few pages that are indicative of how the whole publication would be. This is because it is often easy to tell at a glance whether or not a design style works in terms of clearly communicating a message.

Beth may incorporate aspects of my process, and I hers, but our fundamental approaches will be different, for more details, see her corresponding blog post at: https://bamboobeth.wordpress.com/2018/03/14/week-3/

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ARDN706 Week 2 - IDEA REFINEMENT AND THE FORMATION OF AN ABSTRACT (unfinished)

The week started with an email from Jenna prompting us to begin the formation of some guiding concepts and goals for this semester. It was established that these goals could, would and should change as the semester progressed and not to choose ones that were too definitive or ‘narrow’, as it would limit our ability to experiment.

Knowing this, I initially chose to focus on exploring the manufacturing methods of publications, more specifically, the binding methods involved. This has the added convenience of being able to use the lvl 7 bindery in the WE building to realize this goal.

Another goal is to gain some rudimentary knowledge of website markup languages (namely HTML, CSS and JavaScript) in order to produce and establish a well-designed online presence, and would be very useful in my major, Communication Design.

A focus on aesthetics (visual) is of importance for this project as Jenna wants our work to be showcased at the MESH exhibition in May, where we will be competing for attention with the other minor projects.

With these ideas prompting me, I engaged in a design sprint alongside the rest of the class, forming many seperate ideas from the initial starting point of wanting to further explore publication methods.

Ideas generated included but were not limited to:

A publication consisting of different materials (foil, scrunched up paper, felt, etc.)

An interactive publication, in line with children’s books with pull-out tabs, reactive elements.

A publication showcasing the scale of design elements of different presentation formats (billboards, instagram posts, etc.) alongside each other and to scale within the same ~A4 spaces.

A modular publication, where the order of page segments can be sorted and changed depending on the reader, with the final product still making sense in any event.

A publication that is not read in the conventional sense (think manga, and how it is read right-to-left, but taking that idea further).

Something to keep in mind is the principles of Permaculture outlined in our brief last week. I want to use these frameworks listed above to explore some concepts that I enjoy learning about, and relate them to Permaculture principles in their graphical or conceptual presentation.

Topics I would explore would be philosophy (as it is a commonly misunderstood practice), design and it’s own misconceptions, and aspects of contemporary culture (music maybe?).

Something I found very beneficial was bouncing ideas off of Quentin and Beth, as well as hearing the ideas of people in the class. As Quentin and Beth are also in my major, our conversations centered around similar concepts, and many of our conceptualizations related to one another.

Beth and I have considered teaming up, but we are withholding a decision until we more succinctly form a guiding framework/abstract on which to base our practice.

During the conversation, it was noted that Cass’ project from last year (an exploration of visual language involving the formation of a new one within a pedagogical game framework) would be a relevant study in how we might form our own projects, we will need to ask her next class time.

Considering the failures of last year, I am wary of teaming up with someone again, but it may help to reduce the workload in my final year of undergrad study, as there is the organization of my portfolio, my application to many design firms, and the running of the end-of-year exhibition to consider.

I have compiled a list on Trello of my to-dos, progress reports will remain on this tumblr. board: https://trello.com/invite/b/OlIlq5nw/c396ce5f35decf289ef639bd4ec717a0/richard-year-3-to-dos

In unrelated note, I am keen to learn motion graphics to expand on avenues of presentation in this project and beyond in major-related practice, as I have recently experimented with the format and found it very engaging.

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IDEA GENERATION - Week 1

My initial areas of interest in the PERMACULTURE sphere is using the principles outlined in my previous post and approaching them in a graphical sense. (https://saccharinegrind.tumblr.com/post/171423890254/ardn-706-week-1-permaculture)

This will have the intent of producing game/play-related graphical artifacts, as opposed to a playable experience or whole game.

In wanting to use a graphical practice in this project, I have the opportunity to ‘market’ aspects of games, gameplay or game design to a mass audience. This can be used as an opportunity to be clever in my depictions of niche ideas.

I am not discounting the portrayal of non-game-related, but I would like to explore this idea of ‘marketing’ gaming culture further, through the framework of PERMACULTURE. Keeping in mind a need for a playful process and outcome, here are my ideas so far:

>A graphical approach to the mechanics of game design (frameworks like MDA, for instance).

>A portrayal of ‘game logic’ taken to a graphical extreme (currently conceptualizing of a cookbook that uses a crafting system, not unlike those found in survival games, stick + rock = arrow,for instance, that removes the subtleties of real-life creation and would not translate into real life).

>An awareness campaign about the dangers of performance-enhancing cheats (drugs analogy).

>The process of game design being shown in a pseudo-reflexive way (show through publication? Video project??)

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ARDN 706 - Week 1 - PERMACULTURE

Today I found out what PERMACULTURE (PERMAnent agriCULTURE) is and how it relates to the practice of game design and formation.

Many of the PERMACULTURE principles relate to graphic design and considering that I will need to integrate the practices of my major (graphic/communication design) in my PERMACULTURE outcome, this is a good starting framework to use in order to better understand these concepts.

Of particular note are the principles of Functionality, Goals, Zoning and Boundaries.

Functionality is a core aspect of design, and in my eyes seperates it from mere art, as design is the practice of creating something for a purpose/function.

Goals to me, relates to the overall intent of a piece of design in what it achieves through it’s function. Communicating non-textual messages visually, for instance, is the main goal of graphic design. Depending on the quality of the design, the outcome can nevertheless not match with the intent.

Zoning controls how design elements are proportioned on a surface or as a three-dimensional object (I deal mainly with the former, as a graphic designer). It is this proportionality that in turn is able to inform function and thus the goal or intent of a piece of design.

Finally, boundaries relate to where a piece of design starts and where it ends in terms of how it is read as well as the context that surrounds it. The environment a design appears in can affect a design through how it is read, and thus it’s ultimate function, whether intended or not.

    In a less literal sense, the concept of boundaries can also exist between the creator of a design as well the final audience. As every member of an audience brings with them their own notions and preconceptions about the world and how they choose (subconciously or otherwise) to percieve the world.

The class has many people that I have met from previous classes, and so integrating with a diverse group of people is my intent at the moment, as I concieve of some ideas for my project.

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Week 12 - Research

I will focus on research pertaining to the ‘reward’ mechanic we have included in our game, that of receiving stickers for doing the “wrong” thing, environmentally.

Key points of interest will be the incentivization of socially-destructive action (that of driving over walking), breaking this system down into both incentivization as well as personal vs. social gain.

Another area of research will be the awareness of environmental issues already present in young children, both historically (in the past) and contemporarily (right now).

Finally, my research will focus on the system of using social media to follow-up on how the player is engaged with the message proffered by the game.

An example of this that we are currently conceptualizing is the inclusion of social media linkage, through taking photos on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, and the creation of a Network-related hashtag in order to advertise the game as well as provide additional, relevant information on environmental issues, both those discussed within the framework of the game, as well as further relevant informant, catering to this younger demographic.

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Week 11 - Reflecting on the playtest process

I am satisfied with how our playtest went, but having watched Ben’s stream, I now recognize the need to reflect on how our process up until that point had excluded a playtest. It is evident that having had a playtest earlier than week 9 would have been beneficial, but realistically not everyone in the group was on the same page, process-wise.

We only really organized well in the week before the playtest, and were able to delegate tasks well, but this was only possible due to us having a “final” idea.

This now leaves us with much less time to find references and write critically about our experiences.

We will meet on thursday to discuss the content of the final slideshow, the video and our group/individual contextual statements.

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Richard Roach Reflective Statement

The last twelve weeks have given me insight into how to improve future group projects, through motivating my team better, taking responsibility for my actions as well as assigning responsibility, better communication, and a better framework for organizing individual work delegation.

From the outset, we knew the general direction our project wanted to take, that of a message focusing on environmental issues, and how it related to a city-wide context, but specific elements, such as aesthetics, mechanics, and even a proper name for our project eluded us.

The unfortunate side-effect of this large group was that the most available people doing most of the work (myself, AJ and Quentin), while the others needed to be constantly updated, as they were not in the ‘loop’ of development (as much of the developmental process occurred outside of uni, over Facebook messaging and Google Drive uploads).

----MOTIVATION----

Motivation was a factor considering that for all students in our group this project is part of a minor and thus efforts were more often than not concentrated elsewhere, meaning that there was little ‘left-over’ for this project.

I found that (with a few exceptions) most tasks I delegated either was not done or done to a low standard and that in both cases I or someone else would have to make up for the deficiency.

One example was during the semester break when I assigned everyone a small task to be completed over the 2 week period.

I had asked Beth, AJ, Daniel, and Angie to each produce a visual mood board, with examples of existing metro/public transport wayfinding, iconography, and text treatment, however, despite constant queries, only AJ managed to complete her mood board within a reasonable timeframe, Daniel and Angie didn’t even complete theirs.

Our group mostly communicated digitally, with 1 weekly meeting, on average, and so in the future, I may be able to use Sosik et al’s framework concerning digital group projects, and especially the leadership of these projects. In their article ‘Transformational Leadership and Dimensions of Creativity’ Sosik et al. stress the significance of digital anonymity in group projects and how this can lead to a lack of motivation due to an absence of immediacy.  (Sosik, Kahai, & Avolio, 1998)

To combat this, I would schedule more face-to-face meetings in future group projects.

----GROUP RESPONSIBILITY----

The group cited outside factors such as conflicting schedules in addition to the aforementioned motivational issues, but this kind of problem affected all of us to some degree, and the project was still able to be worked on.

Using Julian Rotter’s definition, this translates into a group-wide feeling of an external locus of control, (that external factors determine the effectiveness of one’s actions, as opposed to any concentrated individual effort)  (Rotter, 2004)

A lot of my work required the input of aesthetic assets from my group, and so progress was slow in creating vital assets.

Next time, I will try to motivate my group to better self-efficate, maybe using Blumenfield et al’s framework of project-based learning. This methodology would focus on making sure that my team actually understands the reasons behind their workload, and thus inform some kind of motivative factor.  (Blumenfeld et al., 1991)

I would have been able to bypass this deficiency by doing it myself, but I didn’t want to do the majority of the work, preferring a workload shared equally among group members.

Should I have pushed on and done the work regardless?

----PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND THOUGHTS----

However, based on feedback from other people in my group, I have been an effective leader alongside AJ in organizing and motivating those willing to work.

And so exists a discrepancy between my action as perceived by me, and as perceived by my group.

Existing literature on the subject of group work, especially concerning an imbalance of work, is in line with my thinking that the other people in my group, who haven’t contributed to the group work should not be rewarded the same as everyone else. (Conway & Kember, 1993) As the project manager, I want to consider excluding some members of the group if the project does end up going forward, which is based on feedback received from Noelwenn that our project could be included in Auckland Live’s 2017 ‘Summer in the Square’ event.

The idea that something I helped produce could end up exhibited to many people in a public forum is extremely exciting.

To further this, the opportunity to showcase and bring knowledge of personally-important environmental issues would be an amazing experience.

However, there has been a large failure to communicate across the group as effectively as we could have done.

----COMMUNICATION---- 

During meetings, I found oral communication to be a direct and effective way of introducing creativity through direct, yet novel communication, allowing for the quick exchange of divergent thinking. This is in line with the ideas introduced in the literature by Hughes and Large (1993) that there is a correlation between effective communication through oral communication and written/textual communication but concedes that there is a more immediate benefit to oral communication insofar as opening a dialogue between peers  (Hughes & Large, 1993).

--------

I find it almost poetic how the mechanics of our game reflect the different work ethics within our group.

There are the Walkers; people that are willing to sacrifice personal convenience (walking long distance/working hard) for the social good of a larger group (a higher quality end product/grades?).

Then there are the Drivers; people that are willing to destroy social good (polluting/being lazy) in order for personal gain/convenience/easy grades/stickers.

I think the distribution of these types within our group is pretty evident.

----WORK ETHICS/FRAMEWORK----

While we many ideas from the outset, we really should have started prototyping mechanically from the outset, using rapid, small-scale systems, based on feedback we received after the degree-wide playtest.

We attempted the Scrum methodology through standing meetings, internal reflection, and the free-form format of task delegation, as outlined by Azanha, Argoud, Camargo Junior, & Antoniolli in ‘Agile Project Management with Scrum’  (Azanha et al, 2017) but we had issues adhering to this format, and instead focused on the delegation of individual tasks by week.

This was a fault of my leadership, as I should have researched a better way of motivating my team and achieve a better end result.

If I ever head a project again, I will use a predetermined way of organizing a group, to construct a more effective group workflow. The fault, I feel, was not with Azanha et al’s framework, just my adherence to it.

----GOING FORWARD----

Going forward, a project of this magnitude would be an invaluable opportunity to network, as well as show our hard work in this paper to a large audience, but would also involve an enormous amount of extra work to meet the 27th December deadline. However, I feel up to the task, even if my co-creators have some doubts about their possible involvement with the project.

I have been in contact with Noelwenn Lacire, Anastasia Dailianis and Anders Falstie-Jensen from Auckland Live, in an effort to organize our group project being featured in the 2017 Aotea ‘Summer In The Square’ event.

I was told there is a fair chance of this happening, as the issues of transport and pollution relate largely to Auckland’s urban setting, as well as the larger New Zealand eco-conscious zeitgeist.

The focus towards a younger demographic was also noted, however, these are thoughts that will need to be discussed between now and the 27th of December, with the relevant parties.

This is Richard Roach, signing off for 2017; thank you to my team: Quentin, AJ, Beth, Daniel, Jieya and Angie for your continued hard work, and thank you to Ben Kenobi for your inspiring and extremely helpful tutelage.

----BIBLIOGRAPHY----

Azanha, A., Argoud, A. R. T. T., Camargo Junior, J. B. de, & Antoniolli, P. D. (2017). Agile project management with Scrum. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 10(1), 121–142. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-06-2016-0054

Blumenfeld, P. C., Soloway, E., Marx, R. W., Krajcik, J. S., Guzdial, M., & Palincsar, A. (1991). Motivating Project-Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learning. Educational Psychologist, 26(3–4), 369–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.1991.9653139

Conway, R., & Kember, D. (1993). Peer assessment of an individual’s contribution to a group project. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 18(1), 45.    Ellemers Academy of Management Review 29(3) 2004 u.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://dare.ubvu.vu.nl/bitstream/handle/1871/17293/Ellemers%20Academy%20of%20Management%20Review%2029%283%29%202004%20u.pdf?sequence=2

Hughes, I. e., & Large, B. j. (1993). Staff and peer-group assessment of oral communication skills. Studies in Higher Education, 18(3), 379–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079312331382281    

Lecture-20-Cognition-wrap-up-Begin-Emotions.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ubc-emotionlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Lecture-20-Cognition-wrap-up-Begin-Emotions.pdf    

Rotter, J. (2004). Psych 305A: Lecture 20. University of British Columbia.  

Sosik, J. J., Kahai, S. S., & Avolio, B. J. (1998). Transformational Leadership and Dimensions of Creativity: Motivating Idea Generation in Computer-Mediated Groups. Creativity Research Journal, 11(2), 111–121. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1102_3  

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Week 10 pt. III - Paper prototype crit session and feedback

This week we had our first large-scale playtest with members of our tute session, which provided some valuable ideation as well as feedback on existing mechanics.

We found that a large number of cards would be needed in the final product, as despite our best efforts card still managed to concentrate in certain areas, depriving other areas of a playable number of cards. (Maybe distribution of the locations was skewed towards these concentrated locations?)

 There was a conflict in the sticker system, by incentivizing the use of ‘driving’, we were seen as displaying conflicting messages, against our main point of bringing awareness to transport-caused pollution. However, we felt that this ‘reward’ mechanically reflected how driving is always more convenient than walking everywhere, as we have abstracted in our game.

The need to playtest with members of our target audience was displayed, which means we may need to contact holiday programs or daycare centers in order to source this specific audience.

The use of communication design in our wayfinding and mechanical assets was solid, but players noted that children would need extremely simple communicative language in the final product, such as consistent use of logography in order to denote location.

Images showing assets created as well as process work between this week and the last week’s tute session.

https://imgur.com/gallery/VgjhS

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Week 10 pt. II - Teamwork

AJ, Beth, Angie and Daniel are creating origami cubes for use as analogue for the actual foam ‘pollution blocks’ that will be central to the final game.

Quentin and I are sourcing card stock to print our playing cards on, while Quentin has the additional task for sourcing a suitable example of the kind of foam we want the actual end assets to use.

I, meanwhile, have the additional task of mocking up templates for our final assets, mainly the cards and location logos.

Less of a priority is the appearance of the stickers. that will be used as an incentive for the less damaging ‘walking’ mechanic. The throwing of foam blocks, ‘driving’ is done much more often than in the ‘walking’ gameplay loop and thus could be an incentive for this mode of gameplay.

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Week 10 - Preparing for a paper prototype

After our physical play test as well as the meeting with Noelwenn we are now confident in our game, mechanically as well as the core concept and how it fits into the Aotea Square space.

In preparing for the crit session on Thursday, we know what we need for the class to effectively give feedback:

A mockup of the final location within the Aotea Square space, showing scale of game space as layout of ‘location nodes’ in relation to each other and the central bin.

A treatment of the rules, and how they may appear in the space, keeping in mind our target audience as well as the message we are trying to convey with regards to the social issue of transport=pollution.

A final colour palette and refined monogram-type-logo that uses these main colours.

T-shirts that have our group project logo on them and are colour-matched to the whole ‘brand’ (these can be easily made on lvl 7 of the WE block).

A mock up of the physical assets done in card-stock or balsa/MDF wood board, for instance the ‘kiosk’ at each location, as well as the associated visual aesthetic layout on each.

A mockup of the cards that every player will use during the game, either double-sided (assuming players are not lazy) or branching (assuming players are lazy), as discussed previously. A visual template will be put together for both, instead of creating two entire sets of cards.

[deceptivelytall-blog]

Week 9 pt. II - First Playtest and subsequent reiterations

Feedback from Ben indicated that our mechanics and gameplay loop were sound, but he had an issue with how the cards provided a directive for each player to follow.

He said that getting an instruction (by card) to travel to a location on the opposite side of the game space would provide a disincentive for play, due to the physical act of walking across the whole space, making a general assumption about the kind of players willing to engage with this experience in the Aotea space.

He suggested we ideate a way of tying the geography of the game space and the location nodes into how the cards directed the game play, through the mechanic of transportation choice (walking or driving). With this in mind, I created cards that kept the choice of walking/driving, but made this choice explicit rather than implied, and made it so locations the player could choose to drive to were locations that were physically closer to the player at the time of them picking up the card.

This complicated things as making the cards location-specific as well as accounting for all the possible choices, meant that I had to introduce conditional, branching choice into the information displayed in each card.

An example of a card with this would be:

If at Cafe:

Drive Home

Walk to Restaurant

If at Clothes Shop:

Drive to Restaurant

Walk Home

---------------OTHER SIDE OF CARD ---------------

If at Home:

Drive to Cafe

Walk to Clothes Shop

If at Restaurant:

Drive to Clothes Shop

Walk to Cafe

This layout ensures that conditions on the card are always applicable, even when cards are moved around the game space.

However this may enforce too many conditions on the player, restricting the emergent game play, despite the ‘appearance’ of choice.

I disagreed with Ben on this, and said that if players were willing to engage with the game in the first place, then they would be willing to put in effort, which would include walking across the game space.

He suggested that we make two sets of cards, the one I described above, and the original, two-sided ones, and to play test each both in that session, as well as during the play test crit in Week 9. 

Imgur gallery with images of the playtest process, as well as a text description of each step in the process:

https://imgur.com/a/xh3CK