Week 8
What have we worked on this week
This week, we continued working in 2 groups: ones figuring out the alignment and calibration problems of the laser cutter and ones implementing the prototypes to be tested in this weekend. Regis worked on our design document which will be helpful for our application’s implementation.
Prototypes
Last Week’s Playtesting Observations
Last Sunday (3/1/2013), we held a 3-hour play test at MAKESHOP. We could test our different prototypes with 4 11 years old, 7 10 years old, 1 9 years old, 3 7 years old, 1 6 years old kids. Here is a subset of our observations:
- Control points to manipulate template shapes are hard to control (they mostly tried to use finger gestures instead of using control points for scaling).
- Kids liked changing the shapes when compared to having the size/position of the shapes fixed.
- Kids got excited when they discovered properties (like multi-selection) by themselves.
- All kids got what were happening in Atulit’s application (set-operations) although they could not name them. (1 kid out of 8 could actually name “Set Operations”)
- Template shapes are working really good but kids that we play tested with did not create different things using them.
- Having these in mind, we have changed the plans a little bit, we are now implementing a template shape punching application. Hopefully, I will be sharing the progress of this new plan in the following days.
Atulit has worked on animating the side bar of the application as a drawer where kids can select, drag and drop template shapes from. He used Tween.js library for this purpose.
After discovering the gesture problem, Akshaya has worked on touch gestures for scaling and rotating (by using pinch to zoom/scale and two fingers to rotate) the basic shapes. She also merged Freehand Drawing with this application to test in our next play test session which is on 3/10.
Laser Cutter Setup
While the programmers were working on the prototypes, Sahana and Sangyun tried to finalize the set-up, do fine tuning of the mirror alignment and calibrate the laser cutter. The alignment of the mirrors is finished.
What have we learned this week
Design-wise, Regis is reading more about the previous work with laser cutters and material choices. He tested kids’ complexity vs. color choices in template shapes during our playtesting. Now, he is working on the new design.
As fresh HTML5 developers, this week the programmers mostly learned about working with fabric.js, event.js and Tween.js together.
On laser cutter side,
- We learned more ways to make it more convenient to manually set up before use.
- General materials such as card boards from food packages are coated by thin plastics and it caused lots of black ashes after the laser cutting.
- The mirror aligning needs to be accurate, which is time consuming.
- Focusing the laser is not easy.
What were the challenges we faced
Design-wise:
We are still designing and there is some uncertainty about what the product will be. However, we talked as a team and built our project backlog. Now everyone is on the same page.
Programming-wise:
- Trying different libraries to fix the problems caused more problems but they are all overcome.
- Akshaya is having difficulties with Double Tap gesture. It works alone but stops working when used with fabric.js. She is working on that.
Laser cutter Setup-wise:
- Alignment of the mirrors is a repeatedly time consuming job, it is not easy to adjust it 100% accurately.
- Focusing the laser is still been working on.
Play-testing time!
On Sunday, after team breakfast, we will be heading to the museum to test the applications described above.
Next Week!
- It’s our Spring Break! Lazer Mouse will be working on building a comprehensive prototype this week!
- According to the play-test results and observations, we will reconsider our interface design and art assets.
- We will do Fine-tuning to finalize the set up of the laser machine.
- We will prepare our Halves Presentation this week.