PHASE 6 – EDITING & SHOWCASING
1. Prototype & Narrative
Most of the content is sorted out and recorded in Phase 5. Please check them out.
2. Supporting Materials
- Prototype Video
- Prototype Itch Webpage
- Source Code
- Virtual Renaissance Museum – Guidebook
- Slide – Virtual Education Library (Renaissance Museum)
- Slide – UX Design Research
3. Reflection
In this UX Research Project, I gained a lot.
3.1 From Bottom-Up to Top-Down
The biggest inspiration from this Project is that I understand how to look at problems from different perspectives. As an undergraduate majoring in computer science, I always subconsciously look at a problem from the perspective of an engineer from the bottom up, that is, how to “implement” a project.
Whether it is software, a project, or a product, the target is the “person.” As a product designer, the project is seen from the top down. As product designers, we need to constantly ask ourselves questions such as: What is the advantage of this product over other products? What are its highlights? Where is the human-centered design reflected? Who exactly is the audience for this product? In what ways have we created more innovative and thoughtful designs?
My previous view was that as long as I had mastered enough technology to be able to implement all the requirements, then I had done a good job. However, as a designer, I need to lay out a blueprint and roadmap for the entire project before I can officially start implementing it. If something goes wrong with the route, the wasted cost will be hard to calculate.
Designers don’t have the right answer right in front of them like engineers do. As an engineer, if the code runs out, it is correct, and if it does not run out, it is incorrect. Designers need to find direction from the huge ocean, which is changing and uncertain. Designers need to look for clues in various sources, connect them with reasonable logic and effective storytelling, and use their imagination to come up with a “workable” solution. And then lead the team in that direction.
Therefore, the biggest benefit of this project is that I have learned to think about a project from two perspectives.
- From the designer’s point of view, I must grasp the big picture, clear the general direction, and explain why the project has advantages.
- From the perspective of the engineer, I need to escort the implementation of products and the realization of solutions based on my solid technology.
3.2 Overwrite, Iterate, and Improve
This project took me a long time. Because I almost knocked it down and redid it twice. It wasn’t until the third time that I caught the project in the right direction.
If you look at page seven (Archive), there are a bunch of discarded drafts left over. In fact, the original project looked very different compared to what it is now.
My initial thoughts were almost entirely based on the scientific research of CS-HCI. Although I identified the Google Cardboard as the main subject of the study, the content of the experiment was to measure the sensitivity, efficiency, and experience of different input devices. To find out the combination of input devices suitable for different occasions. This isn’t a UX project because I don’t think the experiment has any stakeholders, it just has to be tested in different scenarios.
Therefore, I spent the following weeks thinking about what stakeholders are. Do I need an audience for my project? If there is an audience, my Project can only help a small group of people. This is not technology development, but human-centered design.
In constant discussions and experimental interviews, I finally shifted from such absolutely objective scientific research to looking for purposeful stakeholder design. So I started a second override and started over.
My second thought is based on an assumption that I haven’t tested for the public. I’m assuming that most people like to play games, so some people like to play games on Google Cardboard. Once you design a game, the project is done. However, when I quickly iterated a prototype and showed it in class, the response was not good. It seems that the students think that playing games on GC and connecting to physical devices is far less than playing directly on the computer. GC is inconvenient, has poor picture quality, and high latency, which again forced me to overturn my game idea.
Finally, it came to my third design. I keep thinking about what the advantages of Google Cardboard are: it is cheap, it provides an immersive environment, but the current it lacks interesting interaction. Finally, I defined the project stakeholders and found the direction of the project. I wanted to bring some help to families who can’t afford to take their kids outside and pay for expensive VR devices, but want to give their kids an immersive, educational experience. I have carried out a lot of interactive ideas, using the simplest, no additional equipment input, combined with various interactive means, to design a museum. I hope that the museum I design will not only be a substitute for the impossible-to-visit museum in real but also add various kinds of interaction that cannot be achieved in reality. From the virtual point of view, we can not only save a lot of money to build but also fully use our imagination to do things that cannot be done in daily life.
I iterated a lot of ideas and prototypes during the process of the project. I hope the amount of work was worth it.