Spring Quarter, 2018
Prototype V1
OUR
MARIO VERSION vs. CREATIVE VERSION
Which version is more fun?
In the Mario Version, the goal is to recreate an image of Mario that is displayed on the screen. The theater is divided into four quadrants, and each group works on 1/4 of the image of Mario (top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right), without seeing the work of the other groups. Once all groups are done, their work is merged on the screen and compared with the original picture to see if it is correct.
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In the Creative Version, instead of recreating a target picture the goal is to create a unique person/creature. Each team is given a portion of the creature to create, and can't see the work of the other groups. Team one draws the head, team two draws the body and hat, team three draws the hands and arms, and team four draws the feet. Once all groups are done, their work is merged on the screen to reveal their creation.
The results created during the prototyping sessions can be seen below!
BEFORE
and what we learned
EVALUATION SESSION
For both prototypes, our evaluation sessions consisted of a playtest of our prototypes while we observed and documented what we saw. After the playtest concluded, we administered a survey for players to fill out asking a handful of questions about their thoughts, feelings, and opinions of the game they had just played. When observing the users begin playing the Mario Version, we noticed a lot of initial confusion. Our instructions were not as clear as we had anticipated, and people were confused about how to update the color (since you must press enter or move to a new pixel to see changes). There was also some confusion regarding which pixels they could play on. Once they began recreating the Mario image pixel by pixel, we noticed that there was not much communication amongst the groups. Some groups didn't communicate at all throughout the entire game. As we evaluated the feedback form results, we also learned that people found it hard to see the grid of the target image on the big screen, which made it harder for some people to figure out how to copy the picture. However, some users reported liking that they knew exactly what they were supposed to draw. Once we displayed the completed image on the screen, there were only a few pixels that didn't match the target image. We noticed that it was hard for the users to find which pixels were incorrect, and they had to search the image for a moment to figure it out.
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" I like the [Mario Version] better because it had more structure to it and we were all working towards a specific goal "
As the users began playing the Creative Version, they didn't really know where to start. There wasn't much active communication at the beginning to talk about what each group wanted to make for their section as we had hoped. They started looking over each other's laptop screens, and later on they began to collaborate and talk to one another. We noticed that they communicated with their groups more than the Mario Version, as they tried to coordinate within their sections. We heard laughter throughout the game, and the group seemed to be having more fun with it. When looking at the feedback form results, some people didn't like not knowing exactly what picture to make, but a majority of the responses were positive regarding the creativity that this version allowed. Once it was time to put the sections together, you could see the excitement in the room. Everyone was eager to see what they made together, and once the picture was displayed there was a lot of positive responses. It was a much more exciting reveal than with the Mario version.
" The most fun part was seeing the picture come together "​
KEY INSIGHTS
and how they changed our design
Taking in all of the information we learned from our first round of prototyping, we decided to move forward with the Creative Version of the prototype. People generally seemed to have more fun with this version, and it allows us to explore different manners in which we can help inspire creativity. Moving forward, we also knew that we would need to have more clear instructions so that it does not take as long for users to get right into the game. The written instructions were not sufficient, especially since the users read/heard them before opening the sheet they play with. So moving forward with our next prototype, we decided to have them open up their respective sheet and show them a demo walking through the important steps, allowing them to follow along to learn how to play. As we went through our feedback form responses, we noticed that we included many demographic questions that weren't helpful in us evaluating the design itself. For the next iteration, we removed these superfluous questions to focus solely on gathering information that will help us evaluate the pros and cons of our design. Since many people reported not knowing where to start with the creative version, we decided to give them more direction. To do this, in the next prototype each group will be given a section to work with, along with a type of object (For example: animal). They can then write in what object they would like to collaboratively draw (For example: dog). This way before they even start drawing, they all know what the overall goal is. This may also foster more communication because the group can discuss what exactly they would like to create!