Ideation & Prototyping Week 4
Scary Maze Game - Translating Affordances
When thinking of what to make, I remembered a game called “The Scary Maze” that my brother made me play on an old desktop computer. This was our way of having fun before iPods and iPhones came out with games to keep kids entertained. The idea behind the game was to follow the maze with your mouse and if you go out of bounds, in the beginning, the game will restart. When getting close to the end of the game, if you go out of bounds or even win the game, the scary face will appear along with a terrifying scream sound. When my brother had me play this game as a child, I remember having my eyes glued to the screen, focusing to win the game, and was completely terrified by seeing the face at the end when I did not win and had this scary face pop up on the screen.
For this project, I wanted to replicate this maze and think about what it would look like physically. Though I could not magically make a scary face appear, I tried to think of a way to have something that alerts you when you hit the sides of the maze. To do this, I used a board for stability and popsicle sticks that I wrapped in copper tape to make it conductive. I then drew out a maze on paper to test and then created one on board. After making my maze layout, I started cutting the sticks to size and gluing them down on the board with gorilla glue. I was so happy to see this maze come together after the time-consuming process of creating it but did not realize the challenges to come.
I had to think of a way to make the maze react when you hit the sides to alert the player to restart the game. To do this, I had to tackle my fears and use a bit of wiring and electronics. To replicate the mouse going across the screen, I wanted to make a stick that had a metal tip for conductivity that you could use as “the mouse.” I took sticks from a wooden stick mat, stripped the wire from an ethernet cable, and watched a video on how to make a battery holder case using cardboard to power it up. I then ran the wire down the wooden sticks and placed them inside a straw for stability. The tip is a metal bead that was glued to the end with the wire poking through the bead to make sure it continuously has contact. I watched a video on how to make circuits from Professor Bentedella which inspired me to push through with making this come to life. When you use the stick and hit the side, it will alert you to restart by vibrating, beeping, and lighting up with an LED Light
Even with making all of this, unfortunately, it is not 100% successful. Since the copper-coated popsicle sticks are all separate pieces, there are some parts of the maze that are not conducive as they are all not touching together. Looking back, though I started with drawing a maze layout, I should have tested it with the popsicle sticks on a smaller scale before pasting them onto the large board. If I were to do this again, I would make sure that the maze all flows together instead of using my imagination to make all these intrinsic bits and pieces make the maze more difficult to navigate.
The materials used are the following:
Popsicle Sticks
Copper Tape
Cardboard
2 AA Batteries
Wire stipped from an Ethernet Cable
A vibrating motor, buzzer, and LED light (1 wire and resistor used as well)
Breadboard
Wooden Sticks and Straw
Gorilla Glue
Metaphors and Imaginaries in Design Research for Change
This research paper uncovers design research for change which is an underexplored area that is useful to better understand how people think. It discusses how design influences people’s behavior as it is seen everywhere through products, apps, and technologies. It was interesting to read the section on energy as I personally never gave any thought to “what energy looks like.” I believe that mental landscapes should be included more in the design process as figures, sketches, and drawings can explain or portray things visually in a way that words cannot compare. I related greatly to a section in the paper that discusses how most of our world’s challenges are complex and difficult to understand and interpret. Metaphors and analogies help make difficult subjects approachable. Using these methods as designers are important to help us better understand our users and their thought processes. I was intrigued by the card process of using metaphors to grasp more difficult concepts. In the past, I have worked as a UX researcher and often struggled to have my audience dig deeper when trying to better understand their frustrations. Looking back, I believe I could have been more creative and asked for them to maybe draw a quick sketch to help me visualize their problems. In my Psychology classes in undergrad, I was often taught that everyone views things differently as we all come from different backgrounds and cultures. Moving forward, facilitating the exchange and discussion of metaphors and visions in order to deal with change is a great concept I look forward to using in the workplace
Design Practices: “Nothing about Us without Us”
The chapter from this book is one of the many reasons why I felt an urge to learn more and dive deep into the field of design. Coming from a social science background with a Bachelors's in International Studies and Public Policy, I learned a lot about our world’s social, cultural, and economical issues. I spent a lot of time studying the wealth and gender gap and the ‘glass ceiling.’ As a creative individual, I often looked at government websites and wondered why they were not designed better to include more visual representations. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and many in-person services like the DMV, job applications, and grants went fully online, I wondered how people with disabilities or older adults would access these resources. At a time when we are more technologically advanced than ever, we are not designing for all types of people as many are often underrepresented. This is why I decided to pursue my master’s, to learn how to better create products and technologies for everyone. As the author mentions, “design justice as a framework recognizes the universality of design as a human activity.” It is interesting to read about the positive relationship between racial and ethnic diversity and better financial performance.
WARNING - Scary Face pops up at the end of the video
Challenges
The “mouse” made to use while playing the game
The maze board created with popsicle sticks wrapped in copper tape
Timelapse of making the Battery holder
Demo of the Translating Affordances Game