Bakker

I felt that the project answered the final aim however I felt there was a lot more room for improvement with the design output, the graphic user interface needed refining and I wanted to get Maori community more involved with the design process, I was not able to do so as much as I liked because of time constraints.

I outsourced a person who speaks fluent Maori to help me with the translation of my script - I condensed the original story to make sense for the structure of this project. After I had the script translated I offered narration to the person, they were glad to do it.

Refined How might we statement

I used mixamo, an Adobe family product to rig my modelled characters with a skeleton and added key-framed animations - I saved these out and imported them back into blender where I blended animations into different states of which I could integrate back into Unity game engine.

I utilised Playmaker a visual programming tool that works by having functional state machines (FSM) where you set up node networks to add physics, animation, interactive objects and scene changes easily

The final iteration saw that I processed the story with post production techniques and completed soundscapes for each scene, I checked back in with the user testers after each layer of effect added.

I then  iterated the prototype so that it had a Low detail design, and added captions with real voice narration The feedback the users gave was that it needed a soundscape and a post production to help bring immersion to the story. This was an easy style for me to work with as the actual creation was low effort to do with Blender (3d modelling software).

User testing 03 (Low poly design).

Olivia (User feedback 03)

1. What is your initial impression of this?

It’s a lot better than the high detail from before because i can focus on the text and the character walking. Without all the other things going on.

2. What is your current understanding of this prototype?

This is a digital storybook really, it’s not a game because it doesnt have like a solid objective to it.

3. What do you recommend doing to improve the prototype

At this stage I was able to continue prototyping using unity;  I was working on the code weeks prior to user testing that was needed to allow a prototype to function. I tested the interactive mechanics and visual style; the feedback I received  was that there was too much detail And it hard to focus on the story.

Finley (User feedback 02)

1. What is your initial impression of this?

The detail is nice but the test character you have doesn't really match with the style of the scene, you should watch how to make everything consistent

2. What is your current understanding of this prototype?

Yeah I understand that this is the testing of the controls for the character from the last prototype, now that its programmed. I didn’t think it was clear at first to use the arrowkeys or AWSD so maybe put a hint? 

3. What do you recommend doing to improve the prototype

I then started prototyping a click by click proof of concept using adobe XD. Feedback I received was that the storyline was not easily understood because there was no subtitles or audio. I really needed to work on getting a better sense of the storyline across to the users.

Ruth (User feedback 01)

1. What is your initial impression of this?

I don’t really understand the story because it’s not clear with audio or like text anywhere? But I get that it is a story.

2. What is your current understanding of this prototype?

Well I think it’s a game and a story in one? Telling a story in a game.

3. What do you recommend doing to improve the prototype

It needs some detail and text or audio so I know what is going on.

Iterated XD Prototype (Voice added).

Finley (User feedback 02)

1. What is your initial impression of this?

The robotic voice really takes away from the story, you really need to have a human voice in it otherwise its just going to be weird.

2. What is your current understanding of this prototype?

You’ve added voice and sound so that it makes sense, but it’s a bit stale.

3. What do you recommend doing to improve the prototype

I utilised virtual reality to storyboard scenes of the story in a virtual 3d environment. This was a great way for me to quickly and freely move and draw the scenes I had envisioned

The tools I used while ideating a solution for the HMW question were:

1. Concept Sketching 2. Storyboard 3. Collaborative Sketching Concept sketching was where I sat down and dumped a bunch of my ideas on to paper sketching what they might look like, i find this method particularly fun and a great way to get me into building a vision for a project to evolve from.

Storyboarding was another tool i used where I took one Maori story and took apart the story to really understand how it was told, this was a particularly useful tool as it really helped visualise how the story could be constructed to engage with users at different stages in the story, understanding the narrative like this was a good use of time.

Collaborative sketching was an exercise I conducted with a group of Maori students who fit the criteria of my target group of the HMW. This exercise was where we collaborated in sketching possible ideas for the HMW questions, we did this for one hour before narrowing down the concepts towards Three possible outcomes that we all felt worked really well:

1. Illustrated storybook that is digitally linked using Bluetooth to a nearby device; enabling oral tradition/narration of the story while detecting a page-turn.

2. Board game that is thematic of Kupe’s journey to New Zealand; teaching traditional Navigation techniques using augmented reality.

3. Episodic mobile-based visual storytelling with interactive game elements.

I started a synthesis process by analysing and then grouping the statements that were most rich and reflective. 

During the next stage I digitised the information and then interpretively labeled the grouped statements.

Insight 1: Some Maori feel that their culture is taught and portrayed  in a way that is not future focus or appealing for a younger audience.

I conducted 4 user interviews with people with Maori heritage,  and 1 expert interview with a Maori cultural and academic mentor who works for Maori liaison at AUT, this was very valuable to get insight from someone who works with Maori

My script contained a series of questions that looked towards the participants involvement with Maori cultural at different stages during their upbringing, as well as their understanding, current beliefs and opinions around the awareness of Maori culture within Auckland city centre. And more specifically Maori legends and what their initial understanding of these traditional legends are.

I gathered some interesting statements from the interviews such as  

“I think Modern Technology will help bring connect the next generation of Maori  back with their identity as Maori.”

And