BLOG 7 – Preparing to Prototype

Leading on from last weeks extended storyboarding/sketching session, this seminar we worked on improving our location-based game idea and expanding the interface to include a map of Wingrove in which users could click on certain ‘hot spots’ and find activities or local information. We wanted to broaden the initial GPS game into something more tangible in which implementations to the local context could be made.

We began brainstorming some ideas for what could be included in the digital game/interface as we did not want to overcompensate and flood the interface with options. We narrowed in to focus on exploration activities and interactive digital inclusions such as camera options that would prompt digital probes in order to gain wider opinions on the local area and Greening Wingrove activities. We wanted to preserve the idea of having a treasure hunt feature, furthering this to think about engaging with the idea of including schools or families, to tackle the safe-guarding/ethical implications a location-based game may have.

For our initial plan, we thought about having a map as the home screen and placing pointers which the user could click on to participate in different activity options. Such as history tours or nature walks. Including options such as these it begins to broaden the location-based games into potentially becoming part of both youthful and family livelihoods, as it could be something that families want to use together to explore their area and get outside. This gives users a broadened scope of activities they could engage with whilst using the service as, although we are mainly focusing on a younger target market, the wider aim of social cohesion can only be met with a developed broadened user base. Our new refined storyboard will be uploaded in a separate blog post as we wanted to ensure it portrayed our ideas seamlessly.

Our idea of location and mapping is key in driving our aim of social cohesion, nationwide there is a lack of children playing outside, we feel that by having this game/app which enforces people to go outside and explore, with the win-win potential of gaining free or discounted activity incentives, it is responding to and tackling this urban issue on a local level. Organisations such as Playing Out address this, by attempting to ‘activate street play in neighbourhoods’.

In response to the digital interface’s unique aspects, the app is a personalised social media space for the residents of Wingrove, from our user research we found out that the Facebook pages are scattered and become very inactive shortly after starting up. Bringing all these pages together into one system would refine the area’s digital platform voice and provide a space for local events to be promoted and spoken about.

 

Moving forward, we would still like to begin to prototype the locational game based idea, focusing on the youth of the area as that group was at the forefront from the opinions of the participants of our user research. Our demo activity for the prototype may simply be a piece of paper with instructions, questions and locations on and then using google maps to travel around the map to complete the treasure hunt quest, or using development software to create and interactive prototype.

In terms of promoting and gaining further user research from our prototype, a youth workshop would have to take place, perhaps linking in with the primary schools or the Nuns Moor centre.

Our next steps are, to further develop and refine the technicalities of: 1) user narrative, 2) the information architecture and data of the interface and 3) initial design views of the interface. We want the product to be focused on the map idea, therefore having the design be centred around the map of Wingrove.

2 thoughts on “BLOG 7 – Preparing to Prototype”

  1. Thanks for the update. I like the idea of putting in activities in the local area and combining this with a sort of treasure-hunt type gaming element. Perhaps Greening Wingrove could add some activities for volunteers to gather and do together? Could you prototype your ideas by drawing on a pertinent use case that Greening Wingrove would find interesting, for example, volunteers street cleaning? I also wonder if you could think about the different kinds of activity types and whether they would require different presentation and information (e.g. could a history tour or a street cleaning action reuse the same interface views or would it require different interfaces). Would the treasure hunt game simply connect different activities together?

  2. Good to hear how your thinking is coming along and how you’re honing in your ideas. I agree that with location based apps comes an ethical minefield, so think about how you might be clever about this – perhaps you don’t need precise coordinates, but it could be concealed in some way? For example, think about how some location based dating apps give proximity to you in terms of an approximate distance (this person is less than 100m away), but for privacy / safety reasons don’t reveal your exact location as a pin on a map. Another example is AirBnB where before you book it protects homeowners’ privacy by showing the location of people’s homes as a ~100m radius around a local point of interest. Moreover, thinking about engaging young people, pins could display as avatars (maybe they could choose their own from a selection), who offer clues as to where exactly someone or something is or suggest what to look out for when hunting. And you can think about how all of this concealing exact locations can add to the intrigue / challenge aspect and be part of the fun – there’s some literature on this I believe. I’ll offer some additional comments on your storyboarding in a moment.

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