OCAD Principles of Experience Design

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Seen - David Rokeby (2002)

http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/seen.html

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ai49w7QPPY

Exercise 8 - Nicole and Marlissa

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Exercise 10 - Leigh McLaughlin

http://webspace.ocad.ca/~lm07kg/

Image credits to;

Allison Lawson
Eve Zorawski
Aundrey Cherynkh
Mark O

Project Two - Bee Hive! Final!

BEE HIVE!

Objective: The first player to collect 5 ‘nectar points’ by making 5 trips to the flowers and back wins.

How to play: Players (2-4) roll a dice to determine the number of spaces they can move their ‘bee’ game piece. Landing directly on a red circle earns the player a ‘honey slick’ which they can later place anywhere they land to block other players from that route. A player may trade in their ‘nectar point’ to remove a ‘honey slick’ road block.

Why it is fun?
Bee Hive! is a competitive game in which players can block and thus ‘screw over’ other players. Removing a 'honey slick' block decreases a point. Thus, it encourages competition, rowdiness, and laughter.

Bee Hive! Employs highlighting to show that the red spots are rewarded ‘honey slicks’ when landed on. Uniform connectedness is also used because all the places you can land are circles and most are the same color other than the special ‘honey slick’ dots. Affordance is limited as the player moves up the board game because the honey comb narrows. The players themselves can also limit this affordance but laying down ‘honey slicks’ and thus blocking other players.

Improvements: One improvement made since user testing was making the spaces where players would land more apparent by highlighting them with dots. Originally it was just stated that each corner of the hexagon of the beehive was a space but some users were confused by this. It also made it easier for players to cheat as the spaces couldn’t as easily be counted.
Another improvement made was incorporating the red dots in which ‘honey slicks’ could be earned. Originally ‘nectar points’ which players earned could be traded in for ‘honey slicks’ but this trade in was discouraged by the fact that the main objective of the game was to simply rack up 5 points. Thus competition and fun were diminished. By making the ‘honey slicks’ spots that player would land on by chance would increase their likelihood to collect and use them thus blocking other players and heightening competition.
The last improvement made since the very first conception of the game board was narrowing the honeycomb paths players could take. This forces players together, down to only 2 paths at the very end of the game board which heightens competition and limits affordances.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Exercise 10 - Allison Lawson

www.webspace.ocad.ca/~al07ph

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Project 2- Amy

Game #1: Hooked
This game consists of a metal wheel attached to a wooden board and waterbed filled with elastics. The object of this game is to use the steering wheel to try to hook as elastics on the hooks as possible. It is harder than it looks.

Game #2: Taste It
(2 or more players)
There will be a variety of spices that will be given to two groups of players while blindfolded. The objective of this game is to be able to tell what you tasted while blindfolded. The team that gets the most right wins.

Game #3: How Many Can You Poke?
(4 players)
Make two teams of two, each team is to use barbeque sticks to see how many meatballs they can pierce into a bowl of water filled with meatballs. Players can use as much force as they like but each player only gets one jab; this means that players cannot raise theirs hands a second time to pierce. The purpose of having two players on a team is so that each team gets two chances.

Game #4: Make It with Your Eyes Closed (2 or more players)
This game is like making meals in your everyday life except this has a twist. Both players will have a variety of food layout on a table to choose from. The objective of this game is to make a meal with the ingredients provided with your eyes closed; whatever you make you must eat. If players are caught cheating they will have to eat what their components make as well as their own meal.

Game #5: Turn
(2 or more players)
This game serves no real purpose but it is design to see how a person follows instructions when they are unsteady. The objective of this game is for each player to turn on the spot face down while touching a four feet stick. After turning 5 rounds players can let go of stick and proceed to walk in a straight line. You will be amused at people staggering and try to walk straight.

Game #6: What Race Am I?
(At least 2 teams)
Each player receives a card with a certain ethnic background; their job is to communicate to their team members about their ethnicity without verbal statements. Only use gestures to communicate and describe their character to their team. Whichever team gets all the cards correct wins.

Exercise 7 -Amy

Project Two, Part Four

Hi Class:

The final part of Project Two is due at the beginning of next class.

Create a formal proposal that details your final concept. Your proposal should include visual representation of your concept, as well as a written description of why your toy or game is fun and how it employs the course concepts presented to date. You should incorporate improvements derived from user testing. Your proposal must be posted to the blog by March 3 at 6:29PM.

As with the presentation in Project One, the format for this post is deliberately open, and I encourage creative responses. You could (and are encouraged) to incorporate photos or video. You are not necessarily required to change your prototype in any way, but may choose to do so if it would improve your proposal. Think of this portion of the Project as a pitch to a manufacturer: why should I buy this toy design? A discussion of your design process, and the results of your user testing (both in-class and elsewhere) should play a role in your proposal.

Note that this post is the final product for Project Two. I will not be collecting the toys, nor will I be accepting hard copies of your proposal. The proposal should stand alone, and not require any prior knowledge of the toy/game in question. If you are having trouble getting your proposal onto the blog, please let me know as soon as possible.