(By Ruchi Hendre/02072020)
Documentation: The Other Side is a client project so one of our responsibilities is also to present our process to our client. Here is where documentation comes in, we keep track of our progress timeline with a daily log, weekly progress through the weekly dev blog and additionally we have a progress slide deck which keep tracks of our research, playtesting and responsibilities, slack channel and a monthly calendar to keep track of the upcoming deadlines.
Grading: Our Metrics, the priorities in this project are Interactivity, Prototyping and Client Requirements. We determined these as a way of evaluating our project for ourselves and the etc faculty. These also help us to decide our milestones for the rest of the project semester.
Work Done this Week
We had our quarters walkarounds this week which had us presenting our research and challenges to the faculty. We got invaluable feedback from the faculty about our project which inspired us to look in directions that we didn’t think of initially.
We also realized the time factor after quarters and regrouped to come up with pitches for a possible direction for the project.
By Wednesday we had three pitches ready and voted on the idea which satisfied everyone’s sensibilities.
How the Three Pitch Concept satisfied the client’s need. 
We used post-it to vote on our emphasis and risks.
We have decided to go with a polling system in front of the huge glass wall of the Kenner room, an interactive polling system equipped with sensors is a good way for a passerby to interact with the room.
Going in further depth we decided to have a storyline on the glass wall that the guest’s interaction can affect, and after the interaction, there is definite feedback. The storyline should be an accumulative content so that the guest can keep coming back to see the new and evolving result.
A summary of the idea can be understood from the drawing below, this is a rough concept of our idea.
Play-testing
(by Annie / 0226)
The concept we decided on was based on our learning from the previous play-tests, where students enjoyed looking at other guests’ input, and appreciated some guidance or hints on how to interact with what was presented to them. Overall, they enjoyed the activities more when the action was simple and easy, that they were given a broad direction to follow to express themselves. We also found that pets were mentioned many times, that people associated joy and warmness to having pets and playing with pets.
Our first story line created for the polling system was a stimulation game, letting the audience participate in the raising and development of a character. We were targeting students’ interests and empathy for helping taking care of a character.
We quickly made our first prototype on the idea, with stickers, paper, and 2D animation. The purpose of this play-test was to see how the CMU residents reacted to a little mysterious and magical things happening in this room, and had a basic measurement on the traffic flow. It was up outside the glass wall of the Kenner room for 6 days, and received a total of 120 votes.
Although afterward we were to pivot the idea of raising a character, shifting the style and atmosphere we were creating away from fantasy and fuzzy cuteness to fit better with the identity of the room. We learned from this play-test that, people started to stop by the room, took some time to check out what’s going on, and started to interact with our design. It proved the potential of the participants we are targeting first, which was the walker-by.
We then started to seek more on what we can do to capture more attention, and motivate people to interact with it. Next week, besides pivoting the theme and topic, we’re also looking to iterate on the polling system. Get rid of the crappy stickers and paper, and polish on the appearance.
Challenges
On Friday when we presented this idea to our client, he said he liked the idea of polling and asking questions. But he wasn’t a big fan of characters or anything too specific. So now the challenge that lies ahead for us is to be abstract and minimalist and convey the message with as much clarity.
Changes Made
We have decided to change our approach and focus more on the language aspect of the global culture and language room. Abstraction is the keyword towards which our efforts are focused as of now.
Plan for Next Week
Next week we want to lock in on the technology and finish testing with Kinect and sensors to determine the challenges technology-wise. Playtesting efforts will also continue and we will monitor closely the reactions and motivations of the students in the Tepper building.
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