My project is finally coming along! After a lot of debugging, failed laser cutting attempts and design fixes, I finally have something to test with my friends!
My project, a single player, finger version twister game has a wheel that spins based on the User saying start-stop and then displays the colors and the hand they need to use and the users just press the switches. Having all the fingers on the board correctly is a win and any wrong attempt is an immediate end to the game.
Are they able to figure it out? Yes, it was evident from the instructions page on what they had to do.
Where do they get confused and why? There wasn’t anything as confusing that they found as it was easy to navigate. The only part of it that was confusing the first time I tested this were the switches. Since the switches are maroon in color they get mistaken as the red buttons. However my intent is to have colored stickers around each button to show which color it belongs too.
Do they understand the mapping between the controls and what happens in the experience? Yes they were able to understand this as the wheel showed which color and even the hand depicted the color on screen making it easier to follow. Sometimes it got a little tricky but that is part of the game where you need a few seconds to process the color and hand when you see so many together.
What parts of the experience are working well? What areas could be improved?
The colors, switches, scores are working well. My only problem is the speech recognition. It is very conditional as sometimes it worked flawlessly and sometimes it just wouldn’t recognize the words, As you can see in the videos below. Since there isn’t anything wrong with the code, I’m not sure how to fix it so I’m looking for alternate ways to control this without the usage of hands since that is not possible. It can get a little frustrating if the person has to keep saying start and stop to get it right and finally get the wheel moving, it might also be too loud. So I’m thinking of shifting it to just one word thats easily capturable and then the wheel would automatically stop after 2 seconds to slightly make this better. But apart from this I will try to see if i can use any other sensors to fix this issue as I want the experience to be as interactive as it is with the sound.
Works: https://youtu.be/o5YWcVglcbk
Stop working after 60-90 seconds: https://youtu.be/eyu1sFvJHdc
What parts of your project did you feel the need to explain? How could you make these areas more clear to someone that is experiencing your project for the first time?
The maroon colored switches! I’m not sure if i should paint them as that would ruin the feel of it. Maybe i can try cutting the stickers and pasting them on the switches to make this clearer.