Fingerthief

Final year IXD student, researching how to encourage sustainability. *Legacy posts: click on title to read

[oliwiawidutoresearch]

Figma Games Research

Today I continued learning Bubble and discovered it is perhaps too limited for what I’d like to do. Although it would allow me to build out the majority off my app, the gamification aspect would be incredibly limited which makes me wonder if there is any point building it at all

https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/749261072790710247/Multiplayer-Pong-Game

https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/823704590502753234/Game-Table

https://github.com/caeleel/game_table https://www.figma.com/file/Je3oA8B6s8ch2cU5WwbJ1t/Figopoly-(Community)?node-id=38%3A1712 https://bubble.io/blog/bubble-app-n-arcade/

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Online Training Research

LinkedIn

https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-create-a-course-on-LinkedIn-Learning

https://learning.linkedin.com/instructors

https://terminus.com/blog/why-and-how-to-create-a-linkedin-course/ To summarise, LinkedIn Learning is fairly difficult to sign up to as an instructor. Another downside is that you need a membership to watch linkedinlearning videos.

YouTube

Another platform I considered is YouTube. I could try a similar format to Bubble - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPDgLFs6WYk-qj16lEyFFlw where I would record videos and seminars, ideally with people from specific backgrounds who could give their expertise.

This would make the content very accessible however there is no way of tracking whether your watched all the videos or assessing what you’ve learned.

Notion

Using layouts similar to these templates https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/the-5-best-notion-templates-for-students-e30409ec98f1 I could create a course in Notion. The drawback is once again a lack of completion tracking.

Figma

Figma would allow for a much more visually pleasing course and I could use a range of plugins or perhaps take a look at developing plugins as necessary. Completion tracking could be difficult but made possible through the use of plugins.

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Researching Bubble

I’ve spent the past couple days researching Bubble to see if it would be feasible to work with. I learned a bit about APIs and Databses. I was quite surprised at how advanced the app is - if I wasnt coming from a tech background, I would have no idea how it works at all. Thankfully I am, and I’m learning a lot about backend as well as frontend design. I actually discovered a couple cool pattern libraries which will help me with a range of projects. I already knew material design, but hadn’t referenced it in a while  https://material.io/design Apple’s human interface guidelines https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ Airbnb - some great articles https://airbnb.design/ iOS design patterns https://mobbin.design/

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North Star Direction

Today was my first day back at uni after Christmas. I met our new lecturer Daniel who gave me incredibly valuable feedback for my project. We talked about what direction Environfriend could head in after it is built. My plan was to research & build all my courses now so that there is a finite amount. This means once the user has completed everything, it’s ‘game over’.

Daniel and I explored whether the courses could be continually updated but I  concluded it wouldn’t be feasible as I wouldn’t have the time while working a full time job and from my research I’ve discovered this kind of education isn’t something developers are really willing to pay for via subscription. Daniel then suggested that perhaps I could sell it as an onboarding training course - similar to ‘ethics’ and ‘code of conduct’ courses you have to complete when joining a new workplace. I thought this was a brilliant idea and could work really well. I considered the format this would take. During my time at Synergy Learning I saw all those courses being built out as SCORM packages (exclusive to Learning Management Systems [LMS]) and even had a go building some myself. This would be perfect except I imagine this kind of training would be picked up by indie companies like Wholegrain Digital, rather than big companies like Western Union. Indie companies don’t tend to use LMS but rather, Notion or Jira so I wouldnt be able to integrate the app. Exploring this idea further, I considered whether I could extract the content from Environfriend and create a Linkedin Learning course. I also considered other popular applications such as Udemy or Codecademy.

Right now I’d like to build the gamified version of Environfriend in Bubble in order to develop my skills. I have been looking at building APIs with GET and POST protocols so I could encourage the user to link their linkedin account and post their progress as a status. I think I may develop a second version as a LinkedIn Learning course, or perhaps even something as simple as Google Classroom. I will need to do much more research before I make a decision.

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Notion Prototype: Lo-fi Environfriend

https://www.notion.so/Your-Friendly-Guide-To-Tech-Related-Carbon-Emissions-baa54409c653465e912a1913a46012e4 Notion is where I have been storing all the related articles I’ve been reading as research for Environfriend.  I am using it as a lofi prototype for Environfriend: in the left hand column are all the articles the user can read, and in the right hand column are summarised to-do lists of the actions the user can take. Additionally I have linked websites and resources which can be referenced both in my build stage and as tools to decrease carbon emissions.

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Tracking tasks with Asana

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Designing for Behaviour Change

Through the first semester I’d been reading Amy Bucher’s “Designing for Behaviour Change” where I picked up some tactics I held in the back of my mind while designing my app. Here are a couple diagrams I designed to support the pages and services of my app.

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Layering 8bit illustrations

The above is an 8bit illustration which took me roughly 3 days. At this stage I was still very much experimenting with the style and splitting it into layers so that it can be animated. The river for example has a regular river layer and another on top which creates the flooding effect. When the user earns enough Environcoins, they can pay off the flooding damage so the river returns to normal. This is a massive oversimplification but for the sake of the prototype I would then apply “display: none;” to the flooding layer.

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Dr Belmonte: A Figma Game

I recently saw one of the Figma CEOs share a game created in Figma: I was so impressed by the versatility of the platform; I’d never thought of doing this myself. https://www.figma.com/community/file/921107254460641894 It’s far too late to pivot but as far as no code tools go - could I actually use Figma? Perhaps, a move away from building a site would be for the best and a user would be more inclined to play a documentary style game as opposed to signing up to a website. I took a look at other resources for building a game. It’s far too late to pivot but I will keep this at the forefront of my mind. https://alyssax.com/x/platformer/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT6T9Mx7RmU&ab_channel=Arttutor

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December Progress Slides

A slight delay with posting this, but here is my presentation covering all the work I’d done up to December. In terms of presentation style, I decided on loads of slides through which I would run through quickly, making my voice the focal point of the presentation and the images supporting material; like a film. Personally I find writing on slides far too distracting which is why I abstained from it. A heads up: because of this, the presentation may not make much sense on its own. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ljHGmmtAJdsS5jCVUHAZPS4WNiUV3wHsO11NY430EKA/edit?usp=sharing

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Twitter Marketing Strategy

To gain publicity for my project, I set up a twitter account.  I am following loosely a structure introduced to me by marketing examples https://marketingexamples.com/handbook/twitter-inspiration More specifics can be found in my slides: https://oliwiawidutoresearch.tumblr.com/post/640286814431838208/december-progress-slides

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How to keep users hooked

For weeks, I’d hit a roadblock. I’d never had writer’s block before, but this time I was definitely experiencing designers block.

Juggling interface design with research, I’d lost sight of what I wanted users to do: log on, learn and then assess their carbon emissions and the progress they are making to minimise these. I’d read a great book on the topic, however it mostly discussed physical endurance i.e. apps helping stroke victims, or fitness apps like couch to 5k. I had to put my project on the back burner which gave me ample time to concentrate on my dissertation and enjoy a weeklong christmas break.

When I came back to Environfriend I spent about a day mulling over all my slides, tumblr and prototypes until it finally struck me: make Environfriend a Tamagotchi.  Unfortunately I can’t find a link, but I remember reading a great article explaining that a virtual character keeps users coming back. Think: Duolingo. I decided not only would I have a virtual character, I would also make the user responsible for feeding them and improving their living conditions, just like a microcosm for the real world. Another benefit of this is that the user will see their impact of their actions on the microcosm momentarily. Personally I believe some of us fail to act with regard to the environment, because we don’t see the environmental impact of our actions as we perform them; it will only become visible in 10s of years when it is far too late.

In order to feed the character, the user will have to read and complete goals within the application. These actions will earn the user Environcoins which can be exchanged for goods the user can purchase for their tamagotchi pet. I feel so relieved that I found a solution. Although I’m not sure if I’ll be able to build this out in code, it’s a North Star to aim for.

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Goal Tracking Apps Benchmarking

https://www.stridesapp.com/

https://www.coach.me/habit-tracker

https://www.goalsontrack.com/

https://wayoflifeapp.com/

really like the day by day + reasons in these

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Gerry McGovern: brain vs Google

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Website Eco Index Review

Today I used a Chrome plugin called Green IT to assess how environmentally friendly the Notion & Google Slides are. This plugin takes into account the number and size of images, what frameworks the site uses and much more, as outlined in ‘Best Practices’

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Benchmarking: Desktop Apps

Ecologi https://ecologi.com/

consistent vector illustrations

moving aspects i.e. windmills

great use of white space

clear visualisation of progress at the top of my page

amount of CO2 offset shown through trees

all my stats are visible to the public

goal setting possible but no accountability

goals are predetermined and chosen from a dropdown menu

information in expandable harmonica is perfectly bitesize

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Empathy Map & COM-B Model

Today I Interviewed Dan, and was able to design and Empathy Map as well as create a COM-B Model worksheet.