Are they able to figure it out? Where do they get confused and why? Do they understand the mapping between the controls and what happens in the experience?
I had two users test my final project, “Tokyo Flight,” and they were able to figure out how to play the game using the physical airplane controller I built. The instruction page was helpful overall, but they initially got confused because it first explained how to play the game within p5 only. This made it very confusing for them to understand how to use the physical airplane to control the plane on p5. The tester eventually understood the mapping between the controller and p5. However, the button on the physical airplane took them some time to understand how it works. Thus, I need to improve the instruction page to clearly explain how to play the game using the physical airplane.
What parts of the experience are working well? What areas could be improved?
The airplane on p5 successfully received sensor values from the accelerometer, so the main feature of the game was working perfectly. Specifically, the airplane on p5 moved vertically according to the tilt of the physical airplane. However, one of the LED pins was not working properly due to a loose wire connection. I had to fix it manually during the game to get the LED to light up. To rectify this issue, I am thinking of using a glue gun or tape to make the connection stronger so the wires do not come loose during the game. Furthermore, the testers told me that the entire experience was a bit too laggy, which made it difficult to play the game. To fix this, I moved all the files to VS Code and used Live Server, which resolved the lagging issue.
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?
I definitely need to improve the UI of the p5 interface, since some text are overlapping with each other, and the Airplane Collection page has poor UI design. Specifically, the point values are hidden behind each box, so users cannot easily understand how many points they need to get to unlock each skin. I also realized that I needed some kinds of background music to make the atmosphere better, based on the tester’s feedback. I added Ghibli music since the main theme is about this ghibli movie called Wind Rises. The tester also told me that the accelerometer is very sensitive and that depending on the delay, sensor values are sent to p5 too quickly. This causes the tilting movement of the physical airplane and the airplane movement on p5 to be sometimes mismatched. I will experiment more with the delay values on arduino to find the best delay value that avoids lag or mismatch between the real tilting movement and the airplane movement on p5.