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..3 Prototyping

Initial phase

Before starting on the real prototype, we decided to explore all the possibile ways of the user interaction. After thinking on paper of the basic interaction, we have organized it in two simulation environments:  Flash + Arduino and breadboard. Then we modeled a 3D  version of the wooden prototype.

Logic

1. Standby mode
Light loop on the floor in order to let the user know that something special is there.

2. Game mode
The interaction starts when the user is on both the starting platforms shaped like footprints. Then he has to put a foot on the next lighted brick. During the performance, there is a line on the column which shows the drunkness level.

3. Output mode
When the user is on the last step, the Gobbo states his sentence in two possible colors: green (approval) or red (disapproval).

Try it

Bigger version here.

Arduino prototype video

All the logic is implemented in small scale on the breadboard. The first sequence shows the path without user errors, the second the path with various kinds of user errors together with the serial monitor tracking the error value.

What we have found out

Confronting with a real world protoype, a physical object, various unexpected problems become evident:

  • Testing with casual users we found we needed a much better affordance in order to let the user know that something is there and how to use it, introducing shaped starting platforms and standby light loops.

  • Moving from Flash to Arduino, we found that the reduced resources in terms of memory and speed could cause trouble, so we restarted the coding strategy from scratch.
  • Strange but true, until the very last prototyping phases we still considered the user as a mouse pointer, but actually in the real world it has two legs. This made us rewrite almost completely the error detection algorithms.

  • Trying in first person the installation allowed us to tweak all the timings and behaviours that looked good on paper but were too fast or too slow in the real world.

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