TEAM DESIGNHERS GOT AN HONORABLE MENTION!
We are proud of what we achieved in 10 days and that our project was selected in the top 15 projects out of 150+ teams that participated. Winners were selected by a panel of judges, including three celebrity judges:
Krys Blackwood UX, NASA
Jared Spool, UX Educator
Shannon Slocum, Adobe Product Director
Krys Blackwood UX, NASA
Jared Spool, UX Educator
Shannon Slocum, Adobe Product Director
Key Takeaways: Time management, quick decision making, collaboration, delegation and compromise are keys to doing well in a design jam. It is also important to have an open mind and to work hard and quickly!
HERE IS THE PROCESS WE WENT THROUGH...
Context:
To participate one had to work with a partner on a 2 member
team and come up with at least 10 screens in 2 weeks. I connected with Kelli Begeman and we called our team Designhers!
To participate one had to work with a partner on a 2 member
team and come up with at least 10 screens in 2 weeks. I connected with Kelli Begeman and we called our team Designhers!
Target Audience: 11-13 year olds
My Role: Joint UX/UI Designer, Research
Skills: Collaboration, Research, Wireframing, Prototyping
My Role: Joint UX/UI Designer, Research
Skills: Collaboration, Research, Wireframing, Prototyping
Key takeaways from the kick-off presentation:
• Zach Thomas, Ambassador at NASA JPL, gave an inspiring introduction to the JPL Lab.
• A Lego study showed that kids today were 3 times more likely to want to be a YouTube Influencer than be an astronaut!
• NASA seems magical for some but seems distant and too far-fetched for most kids. To make work done by NASA more accessible and to inspire kids to be space explorers again.
• Adobe XD and it’s features can help make cool prototypes.
• Zach Thomas, Ambassador at NASA JPL, gave an inspiring introduction to the JPL Lab.
• A Lego study showed that kids today were 3 times more likely to want to be a YouTube Influencer than be an astronaut!
• NASA seems magical for some but seems distant and too far-fetched for most kids. To make work done by NASA more accessible and to inspire kids to be space explorers again.
• Adobe XD and it’s features can help make cool prototypes.
Problem Statement:
A new, bright generation of kids are apathetic to the real wonder of space and the universe on the whole. While sci-fi movies and fantastical worlds created in video games are getting a wide audience, the beautiful pictures from NASA’s explorations capturing the real beauty and vastness of space are not getting enough notice. We have also lost sight of space exploration as a way to band together as Earth citizens and understand our place in this universe.
We will know this to be true when the app we build delivers an immersive, engaging, and educational tablet experience for kids to work together, learn, and become awe inspired by the concrete work NASA is doing in space exploration.
A new, bright generation of kids are apathetic to the real wonder of space and the universe on the whole. While sci-fi movies and fantastical worlds created in video games are getting a wide audience, the beautiful pictures from NASA’s explorations capturing the real beauty and vastness of space are not getting enough notice. We have also lost sight of space exploration as a way to band together as Earth citizens and understand our place in this universe.
We will know this to be true when the app we build delivers an immersive, engaging, and educational tablet experience for kids to work together, learn, and become awe inspired by the concrete work NASA is doing in space exploration.
The NASA JPL website is a treasure trove of information on the missions and work done by NASA. Ever since I saw the rings of Saturn through a telescope when I was a kid, I’ve always had a fascination for space and the night sky. It was a rich and expansive world to delve into. I also found resources with educational games and activities for kids in our target range. These would be good to incorporate in our app. Since my daughter was in the target group I informally interviewed her and got some inputs on what would interest her. One thing was clear: 11-13 year olds are quite sophisticated and the activity cannot be too juvenile to appeal to them.
Some Questions:
Are you interested in Space?; What interests you?; Would you like to learn more?; How do you like to learn?
Are you interested in Space?; What interests you?; Would you like to learn more?; How do you like to learn?
Global Pandemic:
Meanwhile a global pandemic was raging. Covid-19 had upended our lives. Kids were isolated with online school. Teachers and friends were connected only virtually. Physical distancing doesn’t necessarily mean social distancing, I felt that the app should be designed in such a way that kids could connect with peers, play and learn together.
Meanwhile a global pandemic was raging. Covid-19 had upended our lives. Kids were isolated with online school. Teachers and friends were connected only virtually. Physical distancing doesn’t necessarily mean social distancing, I felt that the app should be designed in such a way that kids could connect with peers, play and learn together.
Miro was the collaborative tool of our choice which allowed us to rearrange and combine our low fidelity sketches into a working user flow. We quickly discarded many activities and ideas so as to create a streamlined experience, trying to balance between learning and having fun.
For the landing page I used this beautiful image of Earth. The interactive button glows when a player touches the screen. For the next screen Earth zooms away as Mars comes into view! I wanted to create an awe inspiring moment right from the start.
Creating a team, picking a mission and designing the team badge:
Nail biting pressure for lift off with the Sequence Challenge game!
Rocket launch! A nice animation done by Kelli.
Next, is the time travel puzzle game that I created and Kelli's trivia game to speed up 9 months of travel time! This was an opportunity to get the players to learn some space facts and understand that space journeys will take a long time as the travel distances are beyond anything experienced on Earth.
Scoping out Mars! The players can pan around and view the terrain through a unique helmet view as if they were actually walking on Mars and taking in the sights!
Finding Ingenuity and getting a selfie taken...a nice idea by Kelli! Notice the badges on the space suits? Bringing up a moment of a past activity ties up the overall experience nicely! Great Teamwork!
Time to head back to earth and a trivia game competition to test the knowledge gained on this amazing journey!
To see the prototype again check out the video:
