For the first assignment of the 2nd semester with the Blackstone Fellowship I made a problem statement and a stakeholder map for Culturally Kreative. Not only did I include the features that I currently have, but I also have future stakeholders.
Once we created the stakeholder map for GroupMe we then began to draft a survey for people to explain their experience with GroupMe! We utilized the 6 categories to draft different questions. First, we listed the out the goals for each category and then we listed out the questions that would help us answer the goals listed. We wanted to primarily focus on finding the best way to improve the GroupMe application.
As my partner Parker and I examined the app GroupMe we wrote out a problem statement and made a stakeholder map. We started with the problem statement, because as students who have been using the app for an extended period of time we have first hand experience. For stakeholders we found that GroupMe was a product of Microsoft and found that there was much overlap.
Good Experience
For my good experience I did aerial silks with Anetha. It was an extremely fun experience. In regards to usability this process was easy to navigate. You go from the website and show up to the class. The actual class in itself is pretty fun as well. As someone who doesn't enjoy working out in the traditional fashion it was very enjoyable. For usefulness aerial silks at this location for this experience is very useful. They have options where I can learn this new skill and take sets of classes. It helps me with my workout goals. In regards to equitability, in terms of simply getting to the location, it is not convenient if you don't have a car. It is on the beltline, but really out of the way. In terms of the experience of doing the aerial silk itself it may be difficult for those with disabilities at this facility. For the enjoyable piece, it is a very enjoyable experience and creates a fun avenue for me to accomplish my workout goals.
Bad Experience
For the bad experience I spoke about my experience with USPS when they lost my package. The usability is very convoluted and ineffective. The tracking number is super long and it does not really tell you relevant information. Although the customer service has been great, none of the information has been really usable to get to my end goal. For the usefulness, although the mail service is extremely useful in getting my packages delivered, the process of finding a "lost" package is extremely inefficient. No one has really been able to help me with resolution. In regards to equitable, the process of finding a lost package is extremely time consuming and not really accessible to those who work a typical 9-5 job. For the enjoyable piece, the process has been really bad. I wish I could give this a zero, but the customer service is what brought it up to a 1.
The interactive bookshelf is an app that has a collection of books that allow for the user to not only read the story, but interact with story on another level. The user will be able to make decisions within the story so that change the story. There will also be games at the end of the app so that the user can play as well, to again engage with the story. The app will bring another level of engagement that children will be able to interact with along with the stories that they are reading.
Interactive Storytelling Final Pt. 2
Interactive Storytelling Final Pt. 1
These past two weeks have been extremely busy.
I was able to bring in my puzzle and have multiple people test it. I got feedback on the layout and started discussions on possibly having a holiday bundle with the puzzle inside.
I was able to print out a couple of my illustrations for the innovation lab coloring day and was able to get some fun pictures for my social media. I also got feedback on designs for the coloring book.
I was able to go to a practice pitch event at Georgia Tech’s Startup Exchange event.
I was able to speak with Audrey about pricing and brand management. We are now working on the best way to insure that I am properly compensated for the work that I do.
I went to Tiger Pitch and pitched Culturally Kreative. It got great reception and so I got 2nd place.
Overall these past two weeks were extremely fruitful.
The video game that Auriyana and I are making is a video game that takes place in a high school. The objective of the game is to win over one of the four love interests in the game. The user will choose one of the four characters that we will design.
The theme of your interactive AR museum
The theme of my interactive AR museum was my children’s book Who Has Hair Like Mine?
An explanation of how your interactive project works (What does the user need to do?)
The user would need a copy of the book. They would put in the code given at the beginning of the book and when the user flips through the book, they would be able to see different in depth looks at what is going on in the children’s book.
Rationale for each of your 5 physical interfaces and their AR artifacts: Why did you choose each physical piece? Why did you choose each AR artifact?
Each page was a page of my book that represented both me, the book, and dynamic hairstyles. I enjoyed showing the movement of different hairstyles to show how they move.
The Interactive Sculpture
1. The concept
The concept is a large screen that will capture those who identify with Spelman’s institution. There will be a large screen that captures a plethora of people who are at Spelman’s homecoming.
2. The objective of the interactive sculpture
The objective of the interactive sculpture is not only to demonstrate how diverse the Spelman community is, but also demonstrate how connected we are as well.
3. The intended audience
The intended audience of the this interactive sculpture is anyone affiliated with Spelman College.
4. The duration of the experience
The duration of the experience would ideally be for a week during Homecoming festivities. However, if I am going to make this a reality before I graduate I will most likely put up the sculpture up during founders weekend.
5. The physical interface for the experience
The physical interface will be a large touchscreen that the users can interact with.
6. The intended user interaction
The intended user who will interact with the sculpture are current & future Spelman students, Spelman alumnae, and Spelman faculty/staff.
7. The equipment needed for the interaction
The equipment needed for this interaction would be a large touch screen that can display images, a camera, a computer (if user does not have a phone to scan QR code), a button
For the past two weeks, I was able to accomplish many things.That included the items below
Visit the 44th & 3rd Bookstore
During these visits I was able to meet staff of the bookstore and was able to discuss potential for my book to be placed within the store and an author event. I was supposed to meet with them again this past Tuesday, but they cancelled and I am in the process of rescheduling that meeting.
Event at Georgia Tech
At the Georgia Tech event, I was refreshed on what it takes to make and test an MVP and low fidelity prototypes.
2 Spelpreneur Events
At the Spelpreneur events I was able to host the event with 3 notable Spelman alumna.
2 Entrepreneurship Club Events
At the Entrepreneurship Club meetings I was able to present my business and was able to support other businesses on Spelman’s campus.
Book Production
I have made a schedule where each day I alternate between working on my next picture book and working on my next coloring book.
Website
I was able to add my Instagram feed to my website.
The image above is the first post for my Twitter Choose Your Own Adventure. The link to this is https://twitter.com/blanca_burch11/status/1441359553535352832?s=20
Not too many changes were made from my original path of my Choose Your Own Adventure. After multiple trials with both students within the class and outside participants I came to the conclusion that minimal changes should be made. What most people enjoyed about my Choose Your Own Adventure in regard to the content was the dry humor. In regard to playability many people enjoyed how there was a replay button at every ending. That made the replay-ability of the Choose Your Own Adventure extremely accessible.
The media that I included on each post was a gif. I chose the gifs to feed into the dry that was present throughout the Choose Your Own Adventure. Some gifs that I chose were that of funny animations and memes.
Choose Your Own Adventure - Midterm
1. Rationale
The twitter thread story line will be a Choose Your Own Adventure, where the participant is simply told to survive by making choices. My intention was to create an engaging story that will keep people on their toes, but in the process realized that some of the paths are actually relatively funny. My inspiration came from the many thriller movies that I watch from “The Walking Dead” to A24 films, although those examples are not particularly funny, I always enjoy a good amount of comic relief.
3.User Feedback
My user feedback was from Evan, Stephanie, and Ravyn. Both Evan and Stephanie found the story to be funny and engaging. They told me that the set up was good and in fact wanted me to expand on multiple different routes. The main criticism that Stephanie and Ravyn gave was that on the route into the city, the action scenes should come quicker. Although I see where they are coming from I want to be sure to set the scene without too many words. That requires more decisions that may not be the most entertaining, but portray the context that I feel is needed.
The Scavenger Hunt was a story of 4 students from the AUC who tragically passed away on Spelman’s campus. It was the participants goal to solve puzzles and find all the locations of the ghosts. After meeting each ghost they are supposed to collect 1 piece of the talisman. By the end of the scavenger hunt they will have a full talisman. This talisman will release all of the students.
This process began with meeting as a whole class multiple times to discuss the overarching theme and story that would connect all of the groups. I took the lead in making sure that we are all on the same page by creating a google doc where all thoughts and discussions could be held. From there we met with our smaller groups. I was in Group 1 and we decided that the participants would have to have to solve three puzzles to get the ghosts name. I designed the puzzle, the talisman, and the physical copies of the challenges in the room.
Overall from the feedback our room was well liked due to the multiple puzzles along with the simplicity of the puzzles. However, during the first group there was a document that had been left lying in the room that we had not accounted for. The participants thought it was part of the game play, so after they left the room we moved the folder to be hidden. They also did not seem to have any issue finding the first room with the clue. One overarching comment that I heard was that it would have been nice for all of the ghosts to wear white rather than just a paper that says ghost.
The original design is to the left and the redesign is to the right. In the original design, guests would put their trash in the mouth of the penguin. The mouth of the penguin overflowing with trash speaks to how pollution affects wildlife. However, it does not look like the intention of the designer to make that statement. I think that the designer was simply trying to design a cute trash can.
My design still incorporates the cuteness of the penguin, however it does not allow the guest to place garbage into the penguin. Instead the penguin will hold its wing over the garbage and the guests can do their part with cute character to keep the planet clean. This design in more aesthetically pleasing both before and after the garbage is full.
This is the current progress that I have taken with Culturally Kreative. Culturally Kreative is a publishing firm that focuses on increasing the diversity within the publishing industry by creating children’s books.
“You don’t believe that they will recognize you?” She asked.
“I… I can’t say. I’ve changed so much in such a short amount of time. Sometimes I look at myself and I barely recognize what I see...” I said as I stared at my hands, trying to see if I could notice any visible changes. They looked similar, but there was definitely something different about them. But are these changes that are noticeable to people who aren’t me?
Everyday I look in the mirror and I notice things that no one catches. My skin, my hair, my whole demeanor, these are key parts of me that change on the daily. But people recognize me despite the little things I notice. These changes feel different. Maybe it’s because of the time that has passed, maybe it’s because of the experiences I went through, but something has definitely changed.
“What do you mean, you’re you?” She asked, grabbing my hand. She tries to make eye contact, but I look away. How can she know that? She hasn’t known me long. She’s only known me for a fraction compared to them. She can’t possibly understand what this means to no longer know who you are, where you stand with the people you care so much about.
When I look into my reflection I no longer see the person I was a year ago. My reflection is so unfamiliar it’s scary. If I’m scared of what I see, what will they think? Will they recognize any part of me? Or will I be a stranger to them like I am to myself?
“How could anyone recognize me?” I ask, looking in the mirror.
A paragraph explaining your rationale for the five images you chose:
The face with the question mark represents the main character questioning who they are. They are unsure of what they have turned into after recent experiences. The shaking hands represent the main character looking at themselves and noticing the small changes. These small changes show that they are changing in ways that they cannot help. The hand reaching out to the people that are leaving represents the fear of loss that the main character is experiencing. They think that through the changes they will be left behind by the people that they care about, because they are no longer recognizable. The smiling face represents the person speaking to the main character and how their optimism is intimidating. They represent the fear of acclimation into society. The hands underneath the broken glass represents how the main character feels truly disjointed from who they are and the image that they once knew of themselves is no longer there.
A paragraph explaining the feedback you received in class:
The reaction that I got from most of the class was what I was hoping. The main point of my pieces were to depict a lack of understanding of oneself and how lonely that process can feel. If I were to change anything I may change the broken mirror image to have reflections of the main character that all look a little different. Overall I was happy to see that most people could understand the story I was trying to portray through the emotions that I was trying to get across. In my experience, the stories that leave the most impact for me are those that make me feel something other than a surface level emotion; be that anger, empathy, or joy. As long as a feeling is evoked it leaves a trace of itself behind.
The Natural Hair Journey
The Natural Hair Journey is an interactive art exhibit that will depict different people’s journey with transitioning to natural hair. The process of learning about your own hair and what your hair needs can be a long and treacherous journey. At many points it can feel like you can never get it right. However, It is important to remember that with everything that we each go through we are not alone. This exhibit will allow for people to see that they are not alone in this journey, no matter how they may feel throughout the experience.
I chose this story because of my long journey with my natural hair. I grew up seeing little to no representation of people wearing their natural hair around me. Those that did wear their hair out had extremely loose curls and I had the perception that there was something wrong with my hair, because it didn’t look like theirs. Ever since I started the process of wearing my natural hair out I find myself always seeking advice from others. Where I grew up not too many people could give me advice, so I was on my own. Now I hope to help others see that even though the path is long it is a path that is worth taking, because they are not alone.
princessmeap-blog reblogged
- The beauty of Black Girlhood .
Paintings by Tawny Chatmon
oh. my.
thankyou @resmeae