Week 11 · Lab
What Are You Actually Trying to Make Someone Experience?
Final project feedback
First 10 minutes · project diagnosis
Everyone writes, before anything else
I AM MAKING:
________________
FOR:
________________
I WANT THE PERSON USING IT TO
FEEL / NOTICE / UNDERSTAND / QUESTION:
________________
THE MOST IMPORTANT INTERACTION IS:
________________
Feedback priority, work in this order
- 1 · Concept, what is it?
- 2 · Experience, what does the user actually do?
- 3 · Form, why HTML / Construct / audio / whatever technology?
- 4 · Scope, can they realistically finish?
- 5 · Technical problem, what needs fixing?
- 6 · Polish, only after everything else.
Your most useful intervention: scope
Too large
- “I want to make an RPG about climate change with eight worlds.”
Same idea, stronger prototype
- “One room where every object the player takes makes the landscape less habitable.”
Questions to use, repeatedly
- What is the strongest part of this?
- What can you remove?
- What does the user actually do?
- Why does that interaction matter?
- What happens if the user does nothing?
- What is the first thing they see?
- How do they know what to do?
- What is your ending? Does it need one?
- Why are you using this technology?
- What is currently decoration rather than meaning?
- What can realistically be finished?
Accessibility check, before finishing
- Can I read it? Can I navigate it?
- Does it work without sound?
- Is important information communicated only through colour?
- Does motion need an alternative?
- Do I understand what is clickable?
- Does it work at a reasonable browser size?
Optional Week 12 · open studio
BUILD / TEST / BREAK / FIX- Pair students. Person A uses Person B's work, no explanation.
- The creator stays silent for the first 3–5 minutes.
- Where does the tester click? What do they misunderstand? What breaks? What surprises them?
- Switch, then write:
THE USER DID:
________
I EXPECTED:
________
THEREFORE I WILL CHANGE:
________
The semester arc
WEEK 6 AI can write the code. Who makes the decisions?
↓
WEEK 7 What is an interaction?
↓
WEEK 8 The rules stay conventional, what if the images don't?
↓
WEEK 10 What happens when we refuse the software's defaults?
↓
WEEK 11 What are you actually trying to make someone experience?
What this was always building toward
“Don't make meaningless shooter games.”
Instead: Why am I shooting anything in the first place?