Minor Project - 202003
04.14.2020
Joseph (0336620)
Minor Project
Exercise
Week 1
On week 1 we were briefed about the module, we were told what to expect throughout the semester. We were grouped based on 4 months ago, and today we were asked to choose our clients based on what the project is, and for our group we chose Petrosains. For a little brain teaser, Mr. Mike gave us a little bit of exercise involving reading and watching videos. Here are the questions
1.) Please describe what is Design Innovation based on the article "What is Design Innovation?" by Alex Obenauer". Please cite some examples to elaborate your observations.
Design Innovation is the process of going through products or anything related to design that require immense amount of trial and error to discover what can be improved about it. For example, Steam has been around for 15 years. It's UI has been improved throughout the years of development, Valve has consistently tried to improve the UI for users to enjoy and navigate easily. This was the first UI for steam.
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| Fig 1.1 First Steam UI |
This UI started back in 2004, at the time Valve wanted to make a software that would have a gaming library and update the game library based on the steam software, and that was the UI for it. As time went on Valve had updated their software with more features, games and a more cleaner UI for the users to experience.
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| Fig 1.2 Steam UI 2014 |
This was the steam UI in 2014, and this UI presented a more cleaner version for the users, users had an simpler time making transactions on games, and a wide variety of currency is available for users around the world to use. This UI was tweaked with small changes up until 2016 - 2017, up until that year Steam introduced their discovery queue, and had many other feature such as its own hardware section that supports steam controller and VR games, etc.
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| Fig 1.3 Steam UI 2018 |
Steam's UI has been improved up until now with a more minimalistic look for the software itself. It gives a much cleaner look towards the UI, games are neatly organize and easily accessible through the preview screen in the middle, while the game can also be accessible on the left side of the screen.
Another example would be Apple Products, Apple started out as a phone company that design the first touchscreen phone for users. At the time it was very revolutionary, having design innovation can lead to huge growth and differentiation. If we were to travel back 20 - 30 years ago and said :" What if this phone is just a screen that we can touch and it could do anything in our control?" People back then would think that its impossible. However Apple proved that its possible and it started from a phone company and its now building an Apple "Ecosystem" and has now made laptops, and touchscreen watches and everything works well together.
2.) Please watch this documentary about Design Disruptors and write a short essay about what are Design Disruptors with cited examples.
Design Disruptors are a group designers that are willing to break the norm in order to create something better. They are willing to break what is considered normal and then create a new trend that would change the industry.
A good example would be the shift from Apple with people using flip phones and blackberries, apple created a touchscreen phone with only 4 buttons and that was breaking the so called social trend, and because of the creation of a touchscreen phone from apple other companies such as Samsung, LG, etc. Started creating more phones that are touch screen based and that has taken the world by storm throughout the years.
Week 2
For this week, we had meeting on what project will we be working on. There were 9 projects to choose from and this was a first come first serve system. The project are as follows :
-Petrosains : Tech Lab
-Petrosains : Future Energy
-Petrosains : Oil Platform
-Petrosains : Geotime Diarama
-Petrosains : Speed
-EatWhat/ Feast In
-MVP FARMERS
- WAYE
For my group we didn't know what to work on and eventually we ended up with Petrosains: Future Energy. For our project, we were told that our topic has something to do with Solar Energy and Hydroelectric. However Petrosains has yet to give us their contents. So for now Mr. Mike gave us task to work on, he gave us a bunch of websites to look at and do a little bit of research regarding on the topic of the ungiven content. With everything being said, it was still unclear to me what is the endgame that we are trying to achieve. One of the links that Mr. Mike gave sparked my interest on whats inside the website. My group found some educational interactive games which was very interesting. These are screen shots of the game.
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| Fig 1.1 Simple Machines Screenshots |
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| Fig 1.2 Simple Machines Screenshots |
The game showed some interesting mechanics that would later on help us on our ideation for the upcoming challenges.
Week 3
For this week we were told to wait for the contents that is going to be given by Petrosains. With nothing to do on this week's class, we gathered more research and had a conversation with the computing science team to get to know each other a little bit and initiate a healthy relationship to avoid future trouble. This week I was also told that I'll be in charge of handling the 3D Unity Space for my team, and that worries me since I've never touched Unity at all. So it's quite scary to think about, but I guess I'll just have to see what's going to come my way.
Week 4
For this week, There was a different meeting concerning the Unity team where different groups that are working on Petrosains are nominated to be part of the Unity team to create a map based on free assets from the Unity Asset store.
We also had a misunderstanding between the design team and the computing science team about the collaboration due to different expectations between the different schools. We were hoping that the meeting could shed some light on the misunderstanding, luckily it did. We were also expected to get our contents by the upcoming week but it came really late and that really damaged our time to think about ideas and have a discussion with the computing science students.
In the meantime there were feedbacks from Mr Mike in the form of Consultation Notes:
Need to aim for a mock presentation of the interactive learning apps that will be built for the week 6 presentation.
Flow of production:
Decide the type of game or interactive learning application (must be supported by moodboards)
Design the flowchart (Information Architecture - IA)
Design the UI/Wireframes
Design the intended final visual of key interfaces (Art Direction)
Design a few key interactive activities that shows the strongest features of your games or interactive apps
Week 5
For this week, we finally got our content and also at the same time I was task with showing my 3D space, the first I tried to do it, it looked very horrible. Everything looked really bland and unappealing, Mr. Mike commented that it didn't look really futuristic and it doesn't invite fun at all, so during that time I redesigned the entire layout of the 3D Space and Mr. Mike commented that it looked better, but he wasn't sure about the waterwheel being in there. Here are screenshots of the 3D Space
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| Fig 1.3 Waterwheel 3D Model |
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| Fig 1.4 Solar Panel 3D Model |
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| Fig 1.5 3D Space Screenshots |
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| Fig 1.6 3D Space Screenshots |
For this week, we we're also told to complete our presentation slides for the upcoming presentation. Mr. Mike gave us some consultation notes to refer to on what to do, here are Mr.Mike's comment :
"A story has been developed to combine both the projects of Solar Energy and Hydroelectricity. The interactive story flow is also designed and is pragmatic to be completed by the end of the semester. The focus for both implementations are screen-based, hosted as virtual kiosks or screens in the Virtual Science Centre. However, considerations are made to use the virtuals space as the expanded implementation by utilizing 3D models that could be interacted with. The screen-based design is currently aimed for the 2D-Platformer game design but this idea would need to be verified by the computing side in terms of their capability to produce it."
He also gave us a list of things to do by next week :
Need to produce:
Art Direction (typefaces, color palette, character design, environment design, UI/HUD design)
The confirmed game flowchart as a 2D Platformer Game with the proposed story embedded within
Draft visuals of as many level design art as possible
Draft visuals of the 3D virtual installations if decided to proceed for the VIrtual Science Centre space
Week 6
This week is presentation day, we were the second group to present our google slides. Things were going well, we took a gamble on some of the things that we wanna implement and it turns out that the clients loved the idea and that bought relief to our hearts. However there were some feedback regarding on the 3D Space, the panelist commented on the Waterwheel not being a fit to the whole look and theme to the 3D Space. I explained that there was no intention of it being there, however I put it there anyways because there was no replacement for a more futuristic looking model that's related to a water dam or anything that's hydroelectric related. Luckily after the presentation the panelist mentioned that our models should not be limited to only Solar Energy and Hydroelectric Energy, we were advised to focus more on Renewable Energy hence giving us more flexibility to our designs.
Here are the slides to our presentation.
Here are the pictures of our 3D Space
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| Fig 1.7 3D Space Screenshots |
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| Fig 1.8 3D Space Screenshots |
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| Fig 1.9 Solar Panel |
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| Fig 2.0 Waterwheel Model |
As usual, there were consultation notes and course to actions for us to follow after the presentation so that we have a clear idea on what to do. Here are the notes that Mr. Mike made.
"The new combined interactive animations of solar panels and the hydroelectricity station us lopsided in favor of the solar panels. The story needs to be of equal emphasis for both topics. Therefore, a short extension at the ending is required to lengthen and focus on how the hydroelectricity station generates power for the town. The story’s setting is also tweaked to start with the one robot that works to power up the rest of the robot workers in the hydro plant that is in need of repairs. Users will use solar panels to generate power to bring the other robots to live one at a time through interactive navigations. When all the robots are back to life, they help gather the parts that are needed to repair the hydro station. When all parts are found, the sun has already set and there’s no more solar power to get the hypro station started again. As the robots repaired the hydro station with the missing parts, the user will be shown how electricity produced front the hydro stations is used to power up the town.
The medieval water wheel will need to be replaced by more relevant and modern renewable energy equipment and could extend beyond water and solar sources such as wind. The virtual space should also match the visual styling of the actual gallery."
Here are the course to action that Mr. Mike provided :
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Rewrite the interactive animation story
To confirm on the scope of the prototype
Prepare the complete list of assets needed for the prototype development
Confirm on the pixel art style’s count for foreground, middle ground and background objects as a low count will lose definition.
"
Week 7
It is week 7 already and it has never failed to surprise me that we’re going through the semester quickly. This week we did some revisions for our miroboard containing our game, Mr. Mike requested for a list of assets for our 2d game and another set for 3D Space by June 10. That means confirming all of the asset needed for 3D Space. This made me panicked because I haven’t found a replacement for the waterwheel.
More Consultation Notes from Mr Mike :
The animation story has not been rewritten to completion. The scope of interactive options for the prototype has not been confirmed yet. The Gantt Chart has been prepared but no one has been assigned yet to all the tasks. Also, this chart will change depending on the prototype’s interactive options. Therefore, it is crucial to confirm the prototype’s interactive options immediately. The art style is still being considered between pixel art and vector art that is stylized.
More Course to Action Notes from Mr Mike :
Rewrite the interactive animation story immediately (Revised storyboard done in Miro)
To confirm on the scope of the prototype immediately (Computing to revert)
Prepare the complete list of assets needed for the prototype development immediately (Done)
Confirm on the pixel art style or stylized vector art direction immediately (Vector to Pixel Edges)
Confirm on the 3D assets needed for Unity virtual space with the information panels (Joseph to revert by 10 June)
Week 8
Very stressed out during this week because there’s so much to handle in terms of work, although its not as hard as the other members, but I’m doing UI Designs for the 2d game while refining the 3D space. However, I managed to pull it off luckily. We also got news that the remaining parts of the 2d game that is not being coded needs to be animated. That causes distress to our only animation students and us also as we must prepare to help if the workload is too much. With extra news comes extra works, this means that the Gantt Chart needs to be readjusted based on the given workload each week.
More Consultation Notes from Mr Mike :
UI or screen designs need to be shown next which includes all the HUD and UI elements. Since only 1 of the levels will be fully interactive, the remaining 3 levels would need to be animated as simulation/mockups. All of the relevant vector assets with pixelated edges need to be prepared for the Level 1 game development in Unity. Use the reference below as a guide for production preparation.
Interactive Animation for Unity 2D games production workflow reference: (https://www.behance.net/gallery/80697867/ZapperSnapper-game-Unity-Games-Design)
(https://hanifrrashidupdesign.blogspot.com/2018/08/games-design.html)
As for the 3 other levels which are simulated animations/mockups, production will be via animation pipeline. Latest confirmation from the Computing Team states that they will not be producing any interactive features for the Unity 3D space but just player-approach activation of pop-up text screens. The full interactive features will only be done next semester in Capstone 2.
More Course to Action Notes from Mr Mike :
Screen designs need to be completed for approval.
Upon approval of screen designs, prepare game assets (sprites) for the Unity game development by Computing Team.
Upon approval of screen designs, also prepare for animation production of the simulated/mockup levels which are not interactive.
Prepare the confirmed list of 3D models to be used for the 3D Gallery.
Week 9
This week was mostly refinement work about the assets and the 3D Space. Mr Mike commented on consistency of the pixelated assets, Julius shared with us his template for drawing out the pixels for us to make our pixelated assets more consistent.
Week 10
Not much to say about this week as there was no meeting for us.
Week 11
We’re approaching finals week and to be honest Minor Project isn’t really my biggest concern right now. Lots of work coming in especially with the other coding subjects coming in. The next 4 weeks isn’t really going to be easy on me.
More Consultation Notes from Mr. Mike :
Need to produce the landing home screen for the interactive component. Should emphasize the teaching and information sharing purpose for the 10-18 year olds about renewable energy. Need to maintain the same art direction for all the screen designs.
More Course to Action Notes :
Show a few screen design proposals and the relevant information to be taught by next Tuesday
Joseph to update and confirm on each 3D exhibit’s information type or format (information panels, or video as downloaded from YouTube etc.)
Week 12
Not much to report because there was no meeting for us.
Week 13
This week is really just more refinements made to the 3D Space (on my side at least), for the 2d game we’re supposed to get it from the IT Students because they are responsible for level 1 and then we can send it to the Unity Compiler ( Aaron Lee ) for testing.
More Consultation Notes from Mr. Mike :
To get the prototype from IT team on Tuesday. The information panel screen should be designed and shown next Friday for review and the animation should start from Level 4 since the likelihood of it being interactive is quite slim.
More Course to Action Notes :
Screen designs need to be revised on the brightness contrast controls for the factory background so that the light rays and all the other foreground elements will pop.
The 3D kiosks screen design needs to be tested in Unity to set the proper size with optimized file sizes and also design the interactive buttons to control the visuals and videos. Make sure that the infographics are properly adapted for screen viewing with sequential design considerations.
Week 14
We finished everything and now is really just waiting for the announcement of when the final presentation is going to be held. Finally done with this subject, means thats one less module to worry about.
I believe the aim for this module is to let us students experience what industry level production planning is like, and I can dare to say that I’ve learned a lot, throughout these 14 weeks there has been some sudden challenges and obstacles for us to face and we dealt with them carefully and confidently. Our plans were mostly rejected and with each rejection has taught us to plan better and get better ideas quickly as I would assume the industry level is also like that. Although we were working with a really popular company, its not say that they will be professional on they are doing. That has taught me that just because a company is big and popular does not mean that they will be professional. It’s definitely not the most fun module but it certainly has taught me a lot of things.
More Consultation Notes from Mr. Mike :
The animation progression looks fine but the timing for the text might be too fast for the audience.
Computing team has not completed the level 1 interactive prototype as agreed and have not confirmed when. Deadline is Sunday for this level 1 prototype. The rest of the levels will be animation simulations. The Unity 3D space models need to be sent over by today the latest for compilation.
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