Our client this semester will be the MAKESHOP, a division of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. We will be working with Lisa Brahms and the members of the MAKESHOP staff which include multiple ETC alumni. This is the third project conducted between the Entertainment Technology Center and the MAKESHOP and we look forward to producing another quality artifact to help grow the boundaries of the current MAKESHOP. The first project between the ETC and the MAKESHOP came in the fall of 2011 with a goal to let the children record a short video that highlights their trip to the MAKESHOP by showing off the artifact they created. The two students working on the project designed an interactive video kiosk that served as a portal for the children to capture their exciting visit to the MAKESHOP.
In the Spring of 2012 a group of students designed a table-top platform with the goal to teach children the basics of computer programming. Considering the age range of four- to nine-year-old children this became a daunting and overzealous task. The group did a great job in coming up with a platform that offered multiple levels of entry for the age ranges that visit the space and kept a kid friendly theme through vibrant colors and wooden building blocks with simple jigsaw puzzle piece shapes. The connection between the physical world and the digital artifacts the children could manipulate became a fun experience for the children and the parents.
This semester we hope to pull from the pros and cons of the previous semester’s projects to create a truly meaningful, educational and fun experience for the children, their parents and the staff that are in the MAKESHOP day after day. The MAKESHOP is centered around the Maker-Faire culture of “creating with function” and we hope to capture this throughout our experience design.
Visit the MAKESHOP Website