DEFINE PROTOTYPING
Prototyping is an essential element within the design thinking process and for user experience since it enables innovators to test their ideas rapidly, while also enhancing their ideas in an equal amount of time (Gade et al 2018).
The Hasso Plattner Institue of Design at Stanford, commonly known as the d. school encourages the idea of “build to think and test to learn” (Plattner 2010), which means that building and testing are seen to be more valuable than ideating (Plattner 2010). These sub-components of experimentation and experience within prototyping have helped my journey within my digital artefact, which is what I am covering in this blog.
DIGITAL ARTEFACT BACKGROUND
I decided to create a gaming YouTube channel with weekly content based on two (2) elements;
1. LET’S PLAY VIDEOS; which is where two individuals (my partner and I) create a contemplation of funny and or humorous moments with others players or between ourselves. The games in which we play, do not have to be current nor new, it would be a game of our choice. Anyhow, the content itself is random, its utility if for laughs and entertainment for all users.
2. GAMEPLAY VIDEOS; is where two individuals (my partner and I) cover a new or current game of choice. The idea is that when a newly released game comes out, either my partner or myself will cover a game campaign in a series of 30-minute segments. The genre of game will not matter, and only one individual can cover a game at a time. (Different game = different player/individual).
This idea of creating a YouTube channel was idealised since I wanted to grow a sense of equality and respect between gamers in the gaming community, especially regarding females. As I am a female gamer and I have dealt with many difficult situations regarding respect issues with other players. Furthermore, I feel that the media displays a stigma that females do not like playing games, nor knowing the topic or that females play games to earn money or to impress males. Thus, to help stigma issue within the gaming community. The idea of the channel was formed, but the development of that idea to become a reality was done by prototyping.
PROTOTYPING METHODOLOGY
“A prototype can be anything that a user can interact with – be it a wall of post-it notes, a gadget you put together, a role-playing activity, or even a storyboard. Ideally, your bias toward something a user can experience. Walking someone through a scenario with a storyboard is good, but having them role-play through a physical environment that you have created will likely bring out more emotions and responses from that person.” (d-school – Hasso Plattner Institue of Design, Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE 2010, ‘Design Stages’ by Hasso Plattner).
By prototyping and then testing more prototypes, I could reveal my assumption and biases I had towards my digital artifact, and I could uncover insights about my users while also improving my solutions. Prototyping within my digital artifact was done for research; which allows me to explore problem areas while also helping me to see new areas to improve (Plattner 2013). The process of prototyping and testing within my digital artifact was interesting as failure was a substantial part of my process. The following steps below present how I fulfilled my process through my digital artifact;
Exploring and experimentation: Where you can utilise prototypes to investigate problems, thoughts, and opportunities inside a particular area of focus and test out the effect of incremental or radical changes (Gal and Lewis 2018).
Learning and Understanding: Learning and Understanding: Using prototypes to keep in mind the end goal and to comprehend the elements of an issue, item, or system by physically captivating with them and dissecting what makes them work or come up short (Heinrich et al 2018).
Engaging, Testing, and Experiencing: Using prototypes to connect with end users, in ways that uncover further understanding and more valuable experience, to inform design decisions to go forward (Plattner 2013).
Inspiring and Motivating: Using prototypes to offer new thoughts, and encourages new ways of thinking and doing things through your finding within your project (Plattner 2013).
PROTOTYPING STAGE 1 OF DIGITAL ARTEFACT
Application – Adobe Illustrator:
The start of the prototyping stages of my digital artifact began with the development of our online persona for our Twitter and YouTube accounts, as a symbol of which we ‘ChanniandNatty’ will stand for. My partner and I discussed a range of themes and or characters in which we thought were relatable to ourselves, and we finally agreed that a unicorn would represent us well as a unicorn is random and magical, which we believe ourselves to be, once the concept of the unicorn was agreed upon. It was time we started drawing and creating the symbol, which we so desired, this was done by digitally drawing the unicorn on the application “Adobe Illustrator”. Adobe Illustrator is a drawing app, that provides tools and features into a streamlined interface, with ten drawing layers and photo layers, which backs up your work to your desktop. It has a creative cloud, and you can apply finishing touches in Illustrator CC and or Photoshop CC, which was perfect for what we needed to create our desired logo (Wikipediaorg 2018). I used a lot of tools from the creation of my logo like;
1. The pen tool – was used to sketch and draft the unicorn’s facial features and overall create the form of the image.
2. Pathfinder panel – was used when my partner created shapes made out of other shapes, it helped me create the perfect and refined shapes for the unicorn’s eyes, nose and teeth along with the horn.
3. Appearance panel – was used to reduce the use of having many shapes to create the unicorn’s face. As the appearance panel let her use one shape for drawing the base of the unicorn.
4. Colour – was used with the swatches panel to aid the images look from black and white to colour, that was done by using a range of gradients to palettes of skin tones and default patterns and textures.
What we learned from my DA was that vector art was hard. But though partnership, my partner and I were able to come to an understanding, that drawing and creating an image is hard. Personally, I challenged my ideas and myself by being honest with my idea’s of what the unicorn should look like because I wasn’t afraid to fail. Therefore, if I didn’t like something about the image I was honest about it and picked myself up, when my partner agreed or disagreed and keep at it until myself and my partner was happy with the outcome of the image. Illustrator was an advantageous medium to work with for what we desired. The photos below further explain the logo process;
Partners First Person View Of Making:
“Design thinking is a misnomer; it is more about doing than thinking. Bias toward doing and making over-thinking and meeting.” (d-school – Hasso Plattner Institue of Design, Design Thinking, Bootcamp Bootleg 2013, ‘Design Stages’’ by Hasso Plattner).
This quote implies that you will research every supposition through dynamic testing, rather than hypothetically suspecting it through, by utilising controlled examinations, you can either demonstrate or refute your ideas in their original setting and hence additionally refine or even abandon your underlying thought (Plattner 2013).
PROTOTYPING STAGE 2 OF DIGITAL ARTEFACT
Video 1 Making:
Applications – OBS, PS4 Remote play:
The prototyping stages of video making was a very default process, as the process of filming started by using PS4 remote play as I play games on PlayStation 4. The reason I used PS4 remote play was that at the time I did not have a capture card. The PS4 remote play is an application in which you can use to control your PlayStation 4 system from your computer, which was my MacBook Air (Playstationnet, 2018). With this application installed on my laptop, I could play games on my computer while being connected remotely to my PS4 system. I used this application on my computer screen so I could capture my gameplay with another app which was OBS. But first I needed to set up PS4 remote play, this was done by;
1. Having my Computer on
2. Having my PS4 system on
3. Having the DUALSHOCK 4 wireless controller connected by the USB cable to my computer, enabled me to use the controller wirelessly with the application on my laptop.
4. I also needed to log in to my account on PlayStation Network on the remote play application.
5. The remote play application relays on the Internet connection when playing.
Now that the remote play was set up and understood, I needed to add the recording software. I used OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) to capture video and audio from the laptop. The steps to set up OBS was;
1. Download the software from the official OBS page.
2. Source where the video will come from on the computer settings and see how the final capture video will appear.
3. Then when you start the application it would ask you whether you wish to run the setup wizard or not. This would allow you to set up specific settings quickly, but I would not have as much control over the setup as without the wizard. So, I did it manually instead. After clicking on no to the offer of help, you will be greeted with the main OBS screen. The display window will be entirely black as you will not have selected a source yet.
4. The only thing that OBS selects by default is the scene. The default scene takes up the entire screen, which means that if you choose to record your full desktop screen, it will just fill up the whole video. If you want to add more sources, like your webcam feed, then you can add more scenes too later on.
5. To add a source, all you have to do is click on the plus (+) icon on the sources window in the bottom of OBS. To record your desktop with OBS, select the “Display Capture” option from the list.
6. Once you click on OK, OBS will instantly show you a preview. Here, you can also choose whether or not your cursor will also be displayed. In case you have multiple displays, you can also choose which one to capture.
7. With the video sorted, now it was time to configure audio. The Mixer window at the bottom of OBS shows you the current audio sources. By default, the program will enable both sounds coming from your desktop and your microphone.
Once the PS4 remote play and OBS was ready, my partner and I chose Fridays and Tuesdays to record as that was the best days to film with our schedules. Anyway, we decided to film our first gameplay video of us playing a game called Fortnite. The process occurred with the following steps;
Exploring and experimentation: Our prototypes were our (video attempts) to explore the problems in which could occur when recording, and to also identify any further opportunities in which we would like to focus and test out in future when recording.
Learning and Understanding: Learning and Understanding: When the recording of the video was complete, we had to review what we filmed and played, to better understand the dynamics of a problem and system by physically engaging the applications and gameplay. However, when examining the videos, we noticed that the quality of the video was a fail as the ps4 remote play keep having good quality images to bad. Since, the application works with the Wi-Fi to work, which the OBS picked up while recording the screen of the remote play through the computer. However, OBS worked quite well, but it was slow sometimes, and the computer crashed due to file sizes which was annoying, but the audio was a success as the quality was excellent. Nevertheless, even if the capturing of the videos where not great, the sound and the overall content was funny, so we decided to run with one video.
Engaging, Testing, and Experiencing: Once my partner and I felt happy with the final presentation of the video. We decided to engage with our end users, by putting our content on YouTube and linking our video on our Twitter, this was to reveal a more in-depth insight about whether our channel would be watch-able and or successful within the internet and to inform that our design decisions would go forward.
Inspiring and Motivating: Using the prototype video we found that we would like to fix the capture quality of the video by buying a capture card, as the overall video was successful, and we felt like the quality would help the video, as we thought users would not like bad quality videos.
PROTOTYPING STAGE 3 OF DIGITAL ARTEFACT
Video (Capture Card) Making:
Applications – OBS, Capture Card USB3.0 with QuickTime player;
The prototyping stages for video 2 failed. As the process of filming started with OBS once again but this time we had a capture card. The capture card worked by plugging in an HDM1 cable from the PlayStation into the capture card and then plugging in the cable from the capture card to the computer were QuickTime player opened up, and then the image is shown on the screen. In this attempt, OBS was used the same way as the first video above.
Exploring and experimentation: Our video attempts were used to explore the problems in which could occur when recording with the capture card.
Learning and Understanding: When the recording of the video was complete. We had to review it once again, to see if there were any problems with the quality of the video which was the purpose of shooting the video. We had come to an understanding that, yes, the video quality was high, but the speed at which it was captured showed huge delays, we could not even play well because the speed was so slow. However, the audio was great along with the OBS recording. Yet, the problem was that we could not fix the speed of the video; therefore we failed to produce a video that week due to us trying to fix the capture card issue. Prototype failed test video below, in the lobby in call of duty 4;
PROTOTYPING STAGE 4 OF DIGITAL ARTEFACT
Video 2 & 3 Making:
Applications – PlayStation 4 Button with a Plug-In Mic.
The prototyping stages for videos 2 & 3 was successful, as we used the PlayStation 4 share option which records your gameplay on the PlayStation by double-tapping the share button on the PlayStation controller this will immediately start recording your gameplay. You can press the share button once to change recording settings or record more than a few minutes of gameplay you can set the maximum recording length as high as 60 minutes. To retrieve the video for editing, all you have to do is plug in a USB stick into my PlayStation 4 and use the Capture Gallery to copy the videos over from the capture Gallery select options and choose “Copy video to USB” then the recording was ready to edit.
Exploring and experimentation: Recording to identify any further opportunities in which we would like to focus and test out in future when recording and or to see issues in the recording.
Learning and Understanding: When the video recording was complete and put on the computer, we once again reviewed the video and what we found is that the plugin mic’s audio to the PlayStation 4 was not as good as the first video put on YouTube. However, the quality was way better, not as high as the other attempt with the capture card but the quality was okay, and there was no delay in gameplay. Therefore, we filmed 2 videos to up on YouTube, but the difference with video 3 from 2 was that we added a thumbnail, since we did a twitter poll and people felt like a thumbnail would look better.
Engaging, Testing, and Experiencing: Once my partner and I, felt pleased with the final presentation and editing of the videos we decided to engage with our end users once more, by putting our content on YouTube and linking our video on our Twitter for incites of our design decisions to keep going forward.
Screenshots below for an extensive view of feedback and engagement from all videos;
Inspiring and Motivating: Due to using the PlayStation 4 share button option for the videos, we found that we would like to keep exploring ways to fix the quality of our videos, as the share button option makes the audio quality terrible. So, we ordered one of the top capture cards in the gaming world which is the Elgato HD60; this will hopefully get excellent quality video capture with good audio too. Probably this time it will be successful.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON PROTOTYPING AND DIGITAL ARTEFACT
Many times I served to invest in exciting new ideas, to brainstorm, and plan for their implementation but now I realise, after launching them, that my designs did have a connection with my users through feedback. In other words, the ideas I based my solutions on might have been wrong, and when they are wrong, they lead to significant wastes of time and resources. However, prototyping helped prevent this issue. Prototyping quickly, and frequently, is the best way to test my ideas and learn about my users while also improving on my thoughts. Prototyping allows me to make my ideas tangible and testable while also helping me create a bias towards action (in making rather than thinking) the innovative spark I needed to develop genuinely is useful and revolutionary within the solutions to my digital artifact.
References:
Gade, Norkjaer A, Jensen R, J, Larsen T, S, & Nissen, S, 2018, “GOAL SETTING IN SUSTAINABLE BUILDING RENOVATION–EARLY PROTOTYPE DESIGN AND TESTING OF A NEW DECISION SUPPORT TOOL.” In DS92, Proceedings of the DESIGN 2018 15th International Design Conference, vol 1, no 1, pp. 305-314.
Gal, D & Lewis, M, 2018, Designing a Programmatic Digital Learning Environment, Lessons From Prototyping, Journal of Educational Technology Systems, vol 46, no 3, pp.315-328.
Heinrich, P, Richter, A, Stocker, A & Schwabe, G, 2018, Digital work design, Business & Information Systems Engineering, vol 60, no 3, pp.259-264.
Plattner H, 2010, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE, d-school 2010, viewed September 19 2018, <https://dschool-old.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/designresources/wiki/36873/attachments/74b3d/ModeGuideBOOTCAMP2010L.pdf>
Plattner, H, 2013, Bootcamp Bootleg, d.school 2013, viewed September 16 2018, <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57c6b79629687fde090a0fdd/t/58890239db29d6cc6c3338f7/1485374014340/METHODCARDS-v3-slim.pdf>
Playstation.net, 2018, PS4 Remote Play viewed September 16 2018, <https://remoteplay.dl.playstation.net/remoteplay/lang/gb/index.html>
Wikipediaorg, 2018, Adobe Illustrator, viewed September 19 2018, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator>