Haiti Helper

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A game that teaches social awareness to 7-10 year old kids.

Brainstorm Captures

These are the captures we got from various brainstorming sessions.

The first two are from our meeting immediately after our first visit to The Tech (not user testing – this is from the initial group visit).

The next six are detailed HowMightWe’s and project ideas from a subsequent brainstorming session.

The last four are brainstorm captures from early stages of the EarthSurfer development. Of note are the different thematic representations we were considering, before we decided on Haiti Helper.

Filed under: Team Process

Final poster

Final Poster.

Filed under: Team Process

Team Introduction

Our product is titled “Haiti Helper” and we are team Pterodactlys. The team comprises:

Chetan Kalyan, Graduate Student in Computer Science ’10

Zhifeng Koh ’10

Frances Le ’10

Clayton Montgomery ’11

Vignan Pattamatta ’11

Filed under: About Us

Final presentation video

The video we used for a 3-minute madness presentation. You may skip the first ten seconds.

Filed under: About Us, Team Process

Poster Iteration I

First iterationMade up a rough draft for the poster. Formatting/content changes are welcome.

Filed under: Team Process

We have an avatar!

The mascot for our game

This looks good both for marketing and for creating the “story” for the user experience.

Filed under: Team Process

Testing at the GCC

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We tested with six 8-year olds (three boys and three girls) at the Stanford Graduate Community Center today.

Here are some observations and takeaways:

1. Kids found it hard to steer. — Is there a way we can increase sensitivity?

2. The portrait vs. landscape mode — it seems like both of them are hard! We should paint footprints on the wiiboard so they know where to stand.

3. All six kids tried to play the game at the same time– how can we allow multiple kids to interact with the game at the same time? Plywood platform that allows multiple kids to stand on it? Probably not enough time for it, but something to think about for later.

4. Everyone identified the wii board which could have resulted in conflicting metaphors. How do we disguise the vehicle better? Wrap in foil to give it a metallic look?

5. One of the kids stepped on the wings and said “The wings dont do anything.” How can we make them move or do something more exciting? Low on the priority list.

It was a great user test at the end of the day. The kids were very excited to play the game, and I think we are up to something genuinely fun!

Filed under: User Testing,

Testing at the Tech

Click on image for album

Subjects 1-4: 10 year old 4th grader boys

Wants: Probably fly. Do tricks. Crash into stuff and break them. Have big hills so that u can skate over them.

Notice anything else on the screen? Not really.

Wanna know where u are? Yes
Know what google earth is? Yes.
Cooler to fly in a plane. Build your own truck. Choose different items. Magic carpet is cool!
Travel to different places. Different geographies would be coool.  Find other pol on the map don’t want to travel very far. Wanna go faster.
Secondlife vs. this- jetskis, fly. Save people if u want to help them. Save them from bad guys who will be driving over them.
Want a helpful video? Yes. Show the goal.

Helping bring relief to ppl hit by earthquakes is cool but want to do it on a plane.

Subject 5: boy, 10 years old
a little hesitant. Didn’t do too much since we were situated in a plain terrain. Went away very quickly. moral –  always place the car in an interesting zone

Subject 6: boy, 10 years old

put him in without any instructions. Was trying to control the computer rather than the board. Not willing to stand on the board without support.
No girls till now.

Subject 7: Adult female. Surprised by the wii board but found it fun. Difficult to control. Expected a demo before trying it on again.

Subjects 8-10: Girls, 10 years old. 4th graders.

Girls are a lot more gentle and try to stay on roads n stuff. Need more detail and color. Really like the Haiti helper idea. Know quite a bit about earthquakes and relief efforts. Will like personalization a lot. Want to see a person on the screen. Think driving with the wii is harder. Magic carpet cool. Multiplayer is cool.

Observations: Need to do something when the player stands evenly balanced. The car doesn’t move n that’s not cool.
Boys want to run over stuff. Want to go faster. Have weapons. Cockpit view. Really like jumping. Want the driving to be more precise. Explore new places show new terrains. Go underwater. Little bit of both driving n flying. Want more controls.
go to Haiti n give them blankets shoes n food. Take food from bins in different places n take it to Haiti.

They need to be directed towards the helping aspect but once they are led there they really like it.

Collaborative idea- one person uses the wiimote to put food in the bin and another does the wiiboard atuff.

Get the connecting protocols straight. Definitely need a big screen though.

Filed under: User Testing,

Meeting Notes, Wednesday February 24th

Agenda

1. Talk about all the suggestions we’ve received from Tina, Scott and Terry and select the ones we want to adpot.
2. Brainstorm more improvements (vague – clarify?).
3. Schedule user testing.
4. Email Tina about The Tech testing.

Action Items
Output
Zhi, Clayton and Vignan.
Tangibles:

  • Custom vehicle
  • Coordinating multiple instances of Google Earth
  • Orientation (portrait vs. landscape)
  • HUD/Dashboard
  • Reading input from > 1 Wii Fits

Story Themes
- Godzilla
- Santa Claus (delivering gifts)
- Surfing
- Cruise ship
- Globe-Trotter type tourism/collection game
- Scavenger hunt -> Use landmarks and clues to find places
- GTA-type special jumps
- Soul collection (a la Bleach)
- Superheroes
- Planet Earth® In-Person game
- Magic Carpet/Arabian Nights

Choice Ideas:
Superman, Santa Claus, Scavenger Hunt

Features to Work On

- Possibility for multiple users using multiple instances of Google Earth
- Modifying existing code to put in a magic carpet
- Modifying the existing dashboard/HUD/user interface to suit our needs: What features do we want here?
- Orientation of the Wii Fit balance board: What’s more intuitive? What’s better for kids?

Considerations for Final Presentation

- Tent? -> Borrow from Archery team
- Carpet/lighting/props
- Renting a projector from CS 247/ Meyer

Filed under: Team Process

Flickr Photos

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