The Problem
Our Solution
Insights
Settling on the island may pose environmental problems in the island.
The island may eventually go underwater due to effects of climate change.
Experiencing the effects of climate change may be an effective way to promote action.
About MS Dos Island
Our team was prompted to create a detailed plan for settlement on the MS Dos Island, an imaginative isolated environment that has yet to be exposed to human lifeforms. This island is surrounded by healthy coral reefs and is inhabited by wild species like the beautiful, endangered Takahe birds.
In this project, we are faced with ambiguity and defining the best solution based on ideation & research.
Challenges
- Create a civilization on MS Dos Island
- Create a green PR initiative
- Create a 10-year project plan
To work efficiently as a a team, we created a working agreement, established weekly check-ins, and scheduled workshop sessions.
Each member also laid out their background, specialized knowledge, skills, and preferred form of communication.
We were able to understand each team member's strengths & weaknesses to delegate roles & tasks more efficiently.
Ian Fenty and Geoff Moore collaborated in creating the prompt and imaginary location: MS Dos Island. Their intention was to give aspiring interaction designers a difficult challenge rendered impossible, but expect reasonable results.
We had a stakeholder interview at the start of the project in order for them to answer any questions and concerns. At the end of the project, we presented our work to them and received feedback and critiques.
The first phase of research was simply to look for any relevant sources that would help us build a civilization on an island. I dove into sources related to survival and management of human settlement.
Key Findings
Local temperatures rise if urban settlement were to encompass 40%+ of the island.
Coral reefs die from 1 degree F increase in temperature.
Transportation via ships will not be an option as ships can introduce invasive species & cause physical damage in the reefs via anchors.
There are many factors we have to consider when settling on an island. I created a chart to help us brainstorm all the questions we want to clarify. This phase helped us find research topics on potential areas of research separated by categories.
Should we settle on the island or should we leave it alone? Conflict began to rise during the ideation phase. Much of our research points towards the fact that island settlement will become extremely problematic to the pristine nature of the island.
We also believe it may be a waste of resources as there is a high chance much of the island will go underwater within the next century. Ultimately, we want to keep the island healthy and far away from the destructive natures of tourism and human settlement.
After finalizing our concept, each teammate separated into an individual subject area. My individual lens was Education & Game Mechanics.
My plan was to ensure users will gain educational value out of the game. Gameplay should also have a healthy balance between education & immersive entertainment. My project plan is catered to suit those needs.
After deciding our research lenses, we conducted a 2nd phase of secondary research & informational interviews/questionnaires from subject matter experts.
Key Findings
"Green nudges" should not be too distracting taking away the flow of the game.
People who play video games promoting positive behavior have a 30% higher rate of enacting them over neutral games.
Tapping into emotions can enhance learning.
How can VR games be effective in influencing people’s behavior positively?
Shanavaz
_________
Using Team Gantt, we created a 10-year timeline. My lens consisted of research phase, planning concepts, game mechanic integration, user testing, design reiterations, and extended studies measuring impact of gameplay.
We encountered the issue of aligning everyone's timeline together due to overload of information and page lag. We found a solution by downloading a JPG version and draw a line down major milestones and phases to correct misaligned items.
To ensure we cover all bases that may become a detriment to the success of our game, we each listed contingencies related to our lenses. Then, we compiled them into a master file rating from a scale of low to high the probability & impact of each risk.
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Techie Takahe
_________
As an artifact presenting our futuristic project, I created a website to help visualize the potential design & game mechanics.
As an objective, players are to reduce carbon footprint, keep ocean levels healthy, and prevent the melting of Antarctica. They can conduct sustainable farming, collect materials, unlock maps & features, and construct eco-friendly inventions to influence the global market.
We want to let players know this location is based on a real place. This may cause players to form an emotional connection towards the island and feel more compelled to help in some way.
Players can feel as though they are taking care of the ocean.
MS Dos Island is the home of Takahe birds. We hope players find joy in repopulating an endangered species & bringing community to the island.
Players are made aware much of the profit from our game goes into environmental restoration projects & organizations that aid in the combat against global warming.
Further details of our plan can be found in this section.
We also included a summary of each of our individual research in the About page.
This is where artifacts from teammates can be found, such as merch & articles.
Recent patch release notes include bug fixes, game updates, and introduces a new varieties of tropical fish.
Overall, much of our feedback on our 5-minute presentation was positive and well-received. Ian & Geoff liked the alternative of steering towards other positive prospects rather than settling on the island.
We also sent them a Canva board beforehand that outlines each team member's individual pages and artifact.
The stakeholders found inconsistency with individual pages and some other details. Opportunities for improvement within these areas can be to use a cohesive template. The individual lenses were also too similar that there seems to be overlap and not enough bases to be covered.
Critiques on our "About" page included potentially making the landing page more inviting. We also have more opportunity to make the content more scannable rather than having walls of text. It remains unclear what the company is and why they decide to create a green PR initiative. Knowing this information could strengthen our narrative.
For our Milestones, some terms such as "attention restoration theory" would need further elaboration. Additionally, other areas we need to be more clear about are titles in our timeline.
Establishing weekly check-ins and work shop sessions helped us clear up any confusion we currently have and get work done.
What also worked was bringing up issues found on the way and pivoting slightly to address them.
As the project progressed, we opened up more about tough conversations and asking each other "What's keeping us from being present?" We felt we all had a lot of things to deal with and did not want to burden each other with revealing our struggles. This of course, would have became a detriment to our project. Since everyone has their unique strengths and weaknesses, I found it beneficial for us to rely on each others strengths to accommodate our weaknesses; and we shouldn't struggle alone.
One thing that was problematic during the final phases of the project was creating the website using the free version of Webflow. Because there is a limited amount of pages that can be made on the free version, our individual research pages required me to perform additional coding that was too complicated for team members to navigate into. Thus, many of us struggled to put information on our pages, creating errors, and others relying on team members to add in their information.
Another problem we encountered was getting informational interviews. We used LinkedIn as a main source of finding professionals for interviews. Unfortunately, we received little responses, as many of them had a busy schedule. One thing I tried was creating questionnaires using Typeform, which didn't amount to any real useful information. I learned questions need to be phrased carefully as well, since people can interpret it differently and cannot be clarified on the spot.
To reduce future complications, I would have used a simpler method like linking them to an external site to view each member's research information.
I felt hesitant to bring up issues before processing what my intuition is telling me is precisely the problem. In the future, I should bring issues up earlier to discuss with the team before going off on tangents of my own thoughts. Although we all came to a consensus, I definitely should have discussed things with them sooner so that I would have saved some time on researching more relevant material.
What I found out after the project was getting informational interviews using Fiverr. It was difficult to book appointments with professionals on their free time. Thus, when a peer mentioned their experience using Fiverr, our eyes sparkled at their success. We weren't sure if for instance, scientists or lawyers would take any sort of incentive for an interview. Therefore it was a lot easier to use Fiverr, as professionals are readily offering their services for a small fee on the platform.
In terms of information delivery, I would make sure to design a layout that is more digestible for viewers. I also have to continue working on my attention for details, such as keeping a more cohesive layout and being more clear with terminology.
