29/11/18

29th of November is the official day for our beta testing. And in case anyone doesn't know what does beta means, beta means the latest version of a particular product before it's official finalized version, ready to be used. So of course, we do need to get some user feedback to improve our project by implementing user testing. Sadly however, we couldn't finish to do our basic structure to demonstrate a complete user experience.

We had the base built up to the minimum requirements but the real issue is the light and sound feedback once buildings were squeezed.

I inserted in the barometer into the sponge (one of the Twin Tower building) and attached the lights around the building. Once I began squeezing for testing, there is no response. No lights, no sounds, nothing. I tried to reconnect the wires again. Still, absolutely no response. Tried to reconnect AGAIN, tested wires with a multi-meter, changed the wires, changed the arduinos AND still no response. It is really strange since I made no changes in the codes whatsoever.

We were behind schedule compare to everyone else and it's almost impossible to complete our whole beta build by the end of the day. I was very frustrated. So instead of stressing out even more, Ron, my lecturer, advised me to take the day off and come back tomorrow to continue where I stopped.

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30/11/18

I came back by the morning and had a good conversation with one of my lecturer's son, Jin Yang, who is aspiring to be a future engineer. Despite his age, he knows a bunch of stuffs about what I'm working on, and probably knows more that me. I asked him whether he could help me with my project and he gave me a few Arduino Nano, which is essentially smaller versions of Arduino Leonardo. I started to recall a problem with my current setup.

On thursday, I am using locally made Arduinos that my Macbook wouldn't allow me to upload the codes to it. So I had to use a friend's PCs to upload the same codes. But there is a big chance that I missed to install 1 or 2 libraries to my friend's computer, otherwise the setup on thursday should be working.

Anyway, today I uploaded the codes from my computer to the Arduino Nanos, attached it to the circuit setup and voila, the Nanos worked like they should. So now I just have to worry about wiring issues and finishing stitching up the buildings.

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5/12/18

Apparently my team wasn't the only one who haven't done the Beta testing. So a bunch of us "leftovers" gather on this day and prepare for our Beta testing. Our setup turned out better compare to our first Alpha but I am confused to see why I cannot get the audio to work properly. I guessed it has something to do with the power supply. But when I thought about it again, it has to be the wiring. And yes, wiring is, by far, the most frustrating thing compare to anything else I have done for this whole project.

We received some feedbacks from our seniors and here is what they said in general.

• The squeeze feedback is not very stable
• The building is not standing properly
• Visual may need to improve to make it more interesting
• The patterns on the platform is confusing the audience to spin the building
• The “head” of the building pops up when squeeze
• The banner is enough to attract the audience, but need more supporting elements to tell people what to squeeze and where to do it, maybe texture and icons help to make it better
• The music is not working again
• Take care of feedback and make it work
• Consider the space between buildings and buildings, it may be a problem when more people play it
• Overall the experience is interesting and fun
• Is will be fun to play with more people

Me and my partner took all this into consideration. And this is obviously a lot more work than we anticipated.