Capstone Prototypes Part 2
What | Prototypes
Course | Capstone
Year | Fall 2018
After getting feedback on our initial project proposal, we decided to pivot the idea and prototype beyond our initial iteration. Re-examining the core of the project and the purpose, we posed a new research question:
RESEARCH QUESTION
Does gamification help improve involvement beyond the classroom in undergraduate studies to additionally foster community, projects and technical skills?
Goals:
Get students excited to create outside of their curriculum.
Motivate students to further their technical knowledge.
Expose students to the community around them and available opportunities.
Give students a sense of the professional world.
Our solution takes inspiration from educational alternate reality games.
Role Prototype
On boarding Storyboard
We place invitations on chairs before class on the first day of Design Foundations to target a large amount of students new to the program.
Students come to class, and see the invitations on their chairs. Instructor will mention “there’s something for each of you on your chair”.
Invites will prompt possible players to go follow an Instagram account (@After_Hours) to find out more information about the game. They will have 72 hours to do so.
When 72 hours is up, all players to have accepted will be admitted to play the game. Soon after, they will receive a DM for information on how to access the game on Thursday night by being prompted for the first hint to a scavenger hunt. Scavenger hunt will have to be completed prior to the first event.
The first hint will lead a player to an envelope hidden somewhere on campus. The information in the envelope will have another clue.
Leading players to the next envelope, players will find the official access to the game that presents the mission of After Hours, meeting time and place of kick off event and a “key” to the game space.
Through the series of on boarding events, we hope to create an initial atmosphere full of creators, thinkers, technologists, designers, etc. that have the drive to get this far.
Look/Feel Prototype
The invitation mockups display the darker look and feel that we are hoping to capture in our final design.After Hours encompasses the multifaceted benefits of TAM and rewards those of the secret society with a gift to an extensive network of people. The mood that we want to capture is an elusive underground society that brings together the best minds cultivate novel idea.
This prototype falls into the realm of Look and Feel Prototype as well as Implementation Prototype. We created a mockup of a website as well as invitations. The website walkthrough begins with a login page, where participants can enter their given code to access the rest of the site. After login, the website lands on the Home page, including a “Latest” section with recent posts of projects and activities. Players will have the ability to scroll through updates to where challenge posts and further information week-to-week challenges can be found. Users can navigate to an About page, which includes information about the founders and mission. There is also a Projects page, which will house the documentation for projects from previous weeks and act as an archive of student work. A leaderboard is easy to view at any time and any page located in the sidebar along the right of the pages. This shows the current ranking of the participants to help create motivational impulses to complete more activities.
Implementation Prototype
Tentative Calendar
Each week will focus on a new theme, with different challenges released on Friday mornings. The Thursday night events will wrap up the week’s challenge, where participants can come together and complete their projects. Weekly Bonus points will be offered depending on the Atlas/campus/community events happening that week. These can look something like:
Attending an Atlas lab open house
DM’ing videos to us on social media
Attending local workshops
These can be submitted to us through online or through social media.
Here are some disciplines/job routes we hope to touch on through the weekly events.
Game Design
Creative Agency
Creative Technology/Physical computing
UX/UI
Web Design
Mobile app development
Photography
Graphic Design
Looking forward, we are beginning to plan how each week and event will be structured, as well as conduct research including reading what others have done, interviewing and surveying potential participants, and more.
We plan to research:
Cicada 3301 (Youtube Videos)
Reality Ends Here
Alternate reality games
Local businesses in Boulder
Possible motivations/prizes for participants