Reflection

After putting the pitch together and presenting it as a group we had time to reflect on the work we have done in the past few weeks. One thing that I think as a group we did very well was assign tasks and get them done in a short amount of time whilst also ensuring they were of good standard. However one problem that became a repetitive issue throughout the project was communication. This was because a few members of the group did not show up to a large portion of the sessions making it difficult for work to progress. In conclusion overall I think the presentation was delivered to a very good standard however if I did the project again I would try to ensure that everyone participated equally and showed up all the time.

Draft Designs

After going away from the last meeting I decided to begin work on my part of the pitch which we as a group decided would be Design and Gamification. I decided to create some draft ideas which I can then turn into a complete version through Illustrator and add to the pitch. I decided to make the physiotherapy a game by creating a game in which the players had to stretch to pop balloons to earn points. This will distract the children from the fact that they are completing physiotherapy and also entertain them at the same time.

Assigning Tasks

Having decided exactly what our product would be and what it had to include we asa group decided that we needed to start working on our presentation and pitch. This was so we could decide exactly what style we would present our product in and how we could make it look as good as it possibly could. We decided to create a powerpoint to display our project on and assign certain slides to different people within the group so we could complete the presentation as quickly and as efficiently as possible in order to give us time to practice giving the presentation. We decided on five key areas we all wanted to see in the presentation and then split these amongst our group so each person had one area to work on. After a lengthy discussion with a few members of the team and a lot of messaging between team members that could not make it we decided that the roles for the presentation would be as follows: Sam will talk about the issues that our product could solve and why this is important, I will focus on the design of our product such as a logo and colour scheme and also create a visual representation of our gamification, Rich would talk about the technology we were planning to use and the prices of hardware, Keiran will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of our product and why we had to rule out other technologies such as VR and finally Joe will talk about marketing our product and how we can sell it and make it look appealing to our clients.

Discussion after completion of research

 After everyone in the group had completed their research and uploaded it to the group padlet account we decided to meet in the next session and discuss where we would go from completing the research. After looking in detail at the large amount of research the whole team had done we sat down and began to talk about what we actually wanted our product to be and based on research what it would need to include. We decided the screen would be interactive through the use of a projector and a microsoft kinect kit because this was cheap yet very useful. We also decided the product should be aimed at bedridden children and would have to incorporate the use of gamification to make physiotherapy fun. Another thing we talked about is the possibility of the product being a means of contact for the parents through the use of video or audio chat.

 

References:

https://padlet.com/lupus9332/jrygjq6hqzah?utm_campaign=added_post&utm_medium=desktop&utm_source=notifications

Research

After solidifying an Idea we knew that before going any further we have to conduct our own research. After having a discussion about research we came to the conclusion that it would be a lot more efficient if we did research separately. However although we decided to do our research separately we still wanted to all have assigned areas to research and a place to put this research so we created a padlet account. This was so that we had a place to store all of our research where the full team could access it. It was decided that Richard would research what technology we could use, Keiran would look at common Illnesses amongst Children, Sam would look into accessibility of the product and I would look at our target audience and mainly focus on their needs and limitations.

Selecting an Idea

In the next session we had we decided to choose an idea to work on to turn into our final piece. However because the group was split on which idea we should work on we had to come up with a system to fairly decide which would be the best idea to continue with. I decided to make a list of pros and cons of each idea so we could evenly weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each project. We decided that the one with the least detrimental disadvantages and the best advantages would win and that is the idea we would go forward with. After creating a long list of pros and cons for each idea we decided that the best idea would be the interactive screen. Although when the group was discussing this we decided to add another useful asset to the screen which would be games that used physiotherapy without the child realising it. We decided to incorporate this feature after having a very interesting lecture on gamification in which I went home and did some research on. I read a book online known as Gamification by Design written by Gabe Zichermann and Christopher Cunningham.

 

References

Gamification by Design written by Gabe Zichermann, Christopher Cunningham 2011

Generating ideas

The same day that our group was put together we wasted no time and decided it would be best if we could start generating different ideas for us to work on straight away. The way that we first decided to do this was by first of all deciding exactly who our product or project would be aimed at. After looking at the Assignment brief and discussing the pros and cons of each scenario we decided to aim our project at Children with medical illnesses. We then began generating ideas around the Idea of helping seriously ill children and how we could make their life easier. In this session the ideas that we came up with were as follows: a game in which children can defeat disease and learn about them on a tablet, a game in which the player controls the human brain with levers and buttons learning and blood pressure, respiration and the human body and the last idea was a interactive screen that allows children to keep entertained and in contact with their family whilst staying in hospital.