{"id":317,"date":"2013-04-19T02:11:30","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T02:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/dotdotdot\/?p=317"},"modified":"2013-04-22T02:14:59","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T02:14:59","slug":"week-12-rush-to-softs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects-old.etc.cmu.edu\/dotdotdot\/?p=317","title":{"rendered":"Week 12: Rush to Softs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Week in Review<\/h1>\n

With our soft opening just a week away, we \u00a0spent much of the last seven days rushing to \u00a0ensure we had a polished product to show \u00a0faculty and get their feedback before we ship \u00a0our exhibit to Texas.<\/p>\n

Part of the rush was figuring out just how we \u00a0would get our exhibit down to the San Antonio \u00a0Children\u2019s Museum. Early on, we had decided to have heavy theming in the hope that it \u00a0would attract kids to the experience. We designed a six-foot tall book in which a TV would \u00a0be placed and a desk made of books in which \u00a0a touchscreen would be placed. We asked \u00a0Ben Carter from Carnegie Mellon\u2019s theater \u00a0department to build it for us. This week, for the first time, we received the build and realized\u00a0two things. First, it looks awesome. Kids will \u00a0love it. Second, it\u2019s heavy\u2014way heavier than we \u00a0had originally estimated when budgeting for \u00a0shipping.<\/p>\n

This second realization prompted a mad rush \u00a0to find a company that could get the exhibit
\nto Texas on time and in a reasonable budget.\u00a0After calling a half dozen companies, sharing
\nweights, photos, and measurements, meeting estimators, and looking at every possible way \u00a0we could save money and give us the time we \u00a0needed to finish our work, we had a shipping \u00a0company and a plan.<\/p>\n

As this was going, on we ran our second full\u00a0playtest. On Wednesday afternoon, half of a local second grade baseball team came to the ETC to try out our storytelling experience.\u00a0The boys provided great feedback. This was the first time we had seen kids run through the\u00a0experience without their parents and it went off without a hitch (that is, of course, aside from our\u00a0story\u2019s distinct lack of evil hungry donuts named Sprinkles, as one kid pointed out).<\/p>\n

We also introduced a help feature. While we\u2019ve designed our experience to be easy to understand for even the youngest kids, we know that \u00a0kids won\u2019t always have parents with them to \u00a0explain what to do. So, we designed a friendly \u00a0onscreen character who would be available to \u00a0act as a sort of surrogate grandpa and provide \u00a0help if kids don\u2019t understand what they\u2019re supposed to do at any point. We recorded an actor \u00a0(thanks, Paul), prepared animations, and introduced a green question mark button that could \u00a0be pressed to call the character.<\/p>\n

In the final weekend before Softs, we\u2019ll continue \u00a0to polish and run our last playtest at the Children\u2019s Museum of Pittsburgh. We hope to test \u00a0our latest build, especially our help function, and\u00a0get any last-minute feedback from kids.<\/p>\n

We Recommend:<\/h1>\n