Year: 2019

Weakest link of my project

The difference between entertainment and education within a digital landscape.Would this idea of bridging digital play and physical play only appeal to the child? Parents are trying to avoid digital devices → my solution is to assist the child in using digital devices as a toy instead of just T.V → Interactive is key.

Strongest link of my project

Would be the fact that I am attempting to bring together both digital play and physical play into one interactive experience, The prototype (if it works as intended) is streamlined and easy to use. It will help the child to learn how to interact with more complicated digital interfaces.

_____ FOR PHYSICAL GAME ____ Goal: find out how they would change the current iteration

 

What would make this toy even better than it already is?

 

Would you like to be able to play with the toy on the (preferred mobile platform)

 

Do you think that any of your friends (at school if they go or at daycare) would also like this toy?

 

What would you make using the toy? (in the context of building blocks)

 

How would you put what you made onto your (preferred mobile platform)?

 

_____ FOR DIGITAL GAME _____ Goal: find out if the digital interaction is successful (child uses them in specified way) Goal 2: find out what they dislike (children are always honest)

 

Would you want to be friends with the characters (phrase using character names)?

 

What did you learn from this game?

 

Would you show this to your friends at (school / day care)?

 

Do you like the way your creations moves on the screen?

 

How would you like to play with what you made on (preferred mobile platform)?

here is a video of a quick example of how I think that I want the building aspect of the app should look like from a basic point of view.

The blocks are “magnetic” like the real product will be

for the next prototype I want to take the object that is made in the “building” mode and add a rigidbody to it as a whole simulating that the player will now be able to play with what they have made.

Learning from this I now think that I want to create basic outlines / tasks to fill in with objects to make pre-designed objects that work as intended. This way there is a learning experience in the building aspect of the game.

 

FEATURE TRACKING
Feature	Priority	Goal	First Step	Status	Obstacles	Notes
Digtal Building Blocks	1	Digital interactivity	Build protoype in Unity	In progress	Time	lo-fi proof of concept
Physical Building Blocks	1	Physical Interactivity	Build final blocks with wood	In progress	Material Costs	Makes specific shape
Magentitc building blocks	2	Make step feature above magentic	Make wooden blocks magnetic	In progress	Making it seamless	Try to make it seamless
Digital Story telling	1	Tell a story with the game	Write out a basic story to tell	In progress	Time	Taking a childrens story telling class
Digital world	1	A world that the player interacts with	Build in unity	In progress	Time
Digital world exploration	2	how are the user explores the world	previous step	In progress	Time
Digital Scanning	3	scan physical toy into digital world	The game	In progress	Technical skill
Physical Building Block designs	1	What the shapes of the building blocks	Draw out design	In progress	Material Costs

Exciting constructive exploratory innovative cute interesting wonderful friendly tiny portable comprehensive

 

Tiny – the project is portable. The user is able to take blocks with them and play with them wherever they are, and if that isn’t possible then there is the digital alternative. From a digital standpoint the project is tiny because it needs to be. The demographic of the target audience prefers tiny from a mechanical perspective.

 

Comprehensive – the project needs to be easily comprehensible to the user as they are learning how to interact with both physical and digital objects at that stage in their life. In order for the project to be successful at that then you must make it comprehensive.

 

Wonderful – the project needs to produce a sense of wonder in both the parent and the user. I feel that the scanning element of this project give it that aspect of wonder. The fact that you can make pretend play into real play is that aspect of wonder.

Most of my thesis is based around this concept. How do i present my app and toy to a user between ages 2 – 8. They don’t have the same experience with a digital landscape as users older than them. As of right now the experience doesn’t exist and is where most of the work needs to be done. I plan on looking at similar apps that present the experience successfully to a similar age group. Some of the apps that I have found are made by these guys. A few others include tinybop and Toca Boca.

Thesis 1 (blog) link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mRV059tdR40N_nL5oKJnl348S1NFcwDY

 

Thesis 2: free write

 

My personal goals for thesis 2 is to develop the idea that I have created in thesis one into a real world product that can be marketed and interacted with. You can find information on my thesis 1 work In the linked file above.

 

Strengths:

Complete concept and business plan that will aid in the construction of the thesis. I know what I need to make, how i’m going to make it. A strong backing on why my thesis matters in the market that I am making for. Personally attached to the impact I want to have on that market.

 

Weaknesses:

There is little physical representation of my thesis. That is where this semester is going to be focused on. I need to have something people can interact with. Less research more making. I also need to hammer out a personal time frame of deadlines for the physical assets of my project.

 

Opportunities:

There are more opportunities for collaboration. I feel that I am technically capable to accomplish what I am setting out to do, however I am not the best at ever aspect(as much as I would like to be). Find people who have a similar interest of the theme of my thesis and talk with them, bounce ideas back and forth. Help each other create something that we can be proud of.

 

I need the most help in making sure that I stay on schedule. I am good at planning out my time, but meeting those deadlines become difficult as I expect a certain quality of work from myself that usually takes longer than what I originally planned for. This ties back into opportunities because collaboration can help me see things outside of my perfectionist perspective and help get what needs to be done; done.

 

The focus of my thesis is to design interaction between children(2-8) and digital interfaces. The reason why this is my focus is because recently children have been using digital devices much more than they ever have in the past, and that interaction hasn’t been explored in a way that benefits both the business and the children. I want to create an interaction that can be safe for the child and profitable for the business.

 

The way I want to do this is by creating a physical toy that you can interact with in a digital world. Build a spaceship with building blocks, → input into digital device → make pretend play real.

 

How does this benefit the child? It bridges the gap between physical play and digital play making them similar to each other. This helps children interact with the physical world that they see everyday and this new digital world that they are constantly placed into.

 

How is this profitable? The physical toy and the digital toy can be expanded into a product line of different themes. Before I mentioned a spaceship… there could also be a boat theme, a car theme, an animal theme. The physical expansion of the themes will create products that can be sold via e-commerce and brick and mortar stores. Individually each theme can function on its own and the digital accompaniment is incentive to buy the physical toy rather than other similar toys.