Sweet Release
Creating a culture of collaboration and feedback in DMDL
Overview
As the student of Digital Media Design for Learning (DMDL) program at New York University, we created Sweet Release which helped to build community between the students and faculty, communicate our creative and innovative spirit, and make the students feel good to be in the working space.
Team
Xueyi Xu, Simran Parwani, Eddie Futterman, Zhuo Wang,
Duration
1 month
Tool
Laser Cutter, 3D Printer
User Research
What does the student want?
we interviewed 5 students from the DMDL and G4L (Game for Learning) programs. Through the interview, we aimed to understand our classmates' lives, needs, and desires, also their thoughts about the program and the working space.
Below is the interview script:
From our interviews, we discovered that users feel that the current space lacks visual unity and the infrastructure conducive to community building. We found that DMDL students desire collaboration and interaction with each other both academically and socially to further their learning and projects. Therefore, we aim to design a common space for community events and visual branding that connects students to the program and each other. We wanted to create a space that fosters a diversity of options for people to perform different activities, such as working on group projects or unwinding from work. We wanted the students to feel connected and supported by each other and by space.
Visualize the User
Personas
After synthesizing findings from our interviews, we developed two personas and scenarios to help guide the design process.
Ideation Process
Brainstorming
We performed two rounds of brainstorming. In the first round, we just wrote as many ideas as we had for the project. In the second round, we utilized a brainstorming method called "Mesh This". To be inspired by "Mesh This", we chose several pictures randomly and wrote down our thoughts about these pictures. Then, we connect the ideas with the design.
Initial Solution
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Build a separate prototyping space
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Tools are provided
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Students can peg their prototypes on the pegboard, and others can give them feedback
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Have inspiring things in the space
Feedback for the solution
How to engage students?
Is there a need for a prototyping space given that DMDL and G4L projects are mostly digital?
How can you make the space approachable to a first-time user?
How can you incentivize people to give feedback?
Prototype
Based on the feedback we received, we decided to focus on creating something that encourages students to show their work in the space and give each other feedback.
Using a 3-D printer and laser cutter, we created this machine called "Sweet Release". It is like a candy machine. Instead of putting money in the machine, students need to give feedback to another student's project to get the candy. Below is the instruction on how to use the machine.
Provide Feedback
Move Peg to Box2
Receive Candy
3D Printing Peg
Evaluation
Evaluation Plan
The users will be given the written instructions and asked to perform the following tasks. We will observe whether they can perform the tasks successfully and how they perform the tasks. After they finish the tasks, we will ask them a few questions.
Role A: The person who wants to test his or her works
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Post the prototype (They can choose to post either paperwork or digital work
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Set up the sweet release machine (place candies and pegs
Role B: The person who is giving the critiques
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Give feedback.
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Get the candy.
After-task Questions:
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What do you think about the instruction?
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What do you like about the Sweet Release?
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What do you dislike about the Sweet Release?
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Will you use the Sweet Release in the future?
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Do you think the Sweet Release is an effective way to test your work? Why?
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Do you think the Sweet Release helps to build the DMDL community? Why
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Is there anything you want to add?
Findings
Based on the user testing, we found that
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Candy might not be enough of an incentive for people to give reviews
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Users had difficulty physically taking the pegs out and putting them in
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Users had difficulty knowing which box was meant for which task
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Users did not have paper or anything on which to write their feedback
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Users thought we should have more pegs to collect the feedback
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It appeared to be unclear which pegs to pull first and which holes to put them in
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One user thought it was “cool”
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Users liked the idea of normalizing the process of giving and receiving feedback
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Users liked that this would give students the ability to “productively procrastinate”
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Users liked they can see what other students were working on