Wonderlab
Sponsor:
Give Kids the World Village
Duration:
2022.1 ~ 2022.5
Tools:
Figma, Miro, Illustrator, Photoshop
Team:
Yuchan Wu, Jingyu Zhuang, Lori Kipp, Wish Kuo, Tongzhou Wang, Muru Chen, Xinyi Guo
WonderLab is a team of seven students at the Entertainment Technology Center. We are partnering with Give Kids the World to create an interactive experience for wish kids to explore and learn.
For more info, please check out our website: https://projects.etc.cmu.edu/wonderlab/
Project Intro
We hope to create an immersive and unique experience through a combination of physical interaction, projection-mapped walls and spatial sound.
The project will be installed in Mayor Clayton’s WonderLab, the newest attraction at Give Kids the World Village that features hands-on technology and tools to inspire a lifetime of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) learning.
My role
UX Designer, UX Researcher, UI Designer, Graphic Designer
Final Deliverable
Digital prototype, Demo video, Preproduction package
Target Users
Aged 7-12 wish kids
Give Kids the World Village
Give Kids The World Village is an 89-acre, whimsical nonprofit resort in Kissimmee, Florida, that provides week-long, cost-free wish vacations to critically ill children and their families from around the world who want to visit Central Florida.
Background
Give Kids the World is repackaging one of their existing facilities into Mayor Clayton’s Wonderlab, a makerspace-like environment with an emphasis on STEAM learning (Science Technology Engineering Art, and Math).
A 15.7 ft wide circular room with projection-mapped walls and spatial sound. It’s envisioned as an immersive interactive environment where kids can enjoy gaming and learn new knowledge.
Since our users are aged 7-12 wish kids, the experience should be wheelchair accessible.
Brainstorming
Virtual Ride
Problem Solving
Interactive exploration
Insights
Multi-Users / Problem Solving / Physical Control
Narrow Down
Interactive Playground
Interactive Exploration
Conclusion
Like train-building fantasy / Focus on exploration / No right or wrong answer
Exploration & Design
1
Playtesting
Logistic
20 Students / Paper Testing
goal
collect users’ preference on train coloring and help our team lock down design decisions
2
Playtesting
Logistic
25 Students / Cardboard Prototype Testing
goal
Examine if our experience is intuitive enough
Examine if our table design was accessible
Collect users’ preference on how they want to see their train presented at the end
Insights
Should angled slightly and choose the bigger table
Prefer to see their train in a 3rd perspective
Find the overall experience intuitive
Story Board & User Flow
3
Playtesting
Logistic
kids from 8-10 / Two functional stations and physical prototype
goal
examine whether our physical controllers were enjoyable to interact with
set up
Insight
Kids like hanging around, so they need to start at any station. Therefore we add the RFID chip to store kids’ information to ensure they can start wherever they want.
Kids don’t understand the gameplay, so they need to quickly understand the game. Therefore we add a tutorial at the beginning.
Kids don’t like our music, so they want to have more interesting music. Therefore we add some animal sounds after further interview with kids.
4
Playtesting
Logistic
kids from 5-12 / Fully playable experience with physical controller
Goal
Further test out if our playthroughs are intuitive enough for our target audience. And find things to improve for each of the four stations.
set up
Design Decision
Kids cannot stay focus for a long time, so they want to cancel the tutorial part. Therefore we change the mechanism to ensure that some of the button cannot be activated before certain period of time.
Kids thought our game are only combination of minigames, so they want to have connections between each of the game. Therefore we add reminders of other stations throughout the game.
Kids feel like they cannot learn from the educative gear station, so they want to understand how gears work clearly. Therefore we add UI design of meters to show the relationship between speed and torque.
