by Indigo Tschurtschenthaler -

Presenting Constellation Collector

Design&Research 2 with Birgit Bachler

After testing my minigame, I created another version of it with the following improvements: 

  • There is a short introduction about light pollution
  • Before starting the game, there is a disclaimer that explains that the game should be played at night
  • It is explicitly mentioned that Ursa Major is a constellation and that the user is supposed to look for it in the sky
  • Since my app does not feature the VR vision of the sky yet, the use of the app Stellarium is recommended to localise the constellation (so the first screen where users tried to tap on the stars is removed)
  • I added padding to the stars so that it is easier to select them
  • Before sending a report, users are asked if they want to submit their data (so no surprises)
  • There is an explanation of what was reported
  • All exit and back buttons are working

Here you can see the most important screens:

This is only a small gamified feature and I am excited to try out more to make citizen science more engaging.

by Hannah Wasserfaller -

The journey to a result

Okay, so this was the moment I wanted to share the video I edited for my little design and research project with you – a short reel where I try to communicate a somewhat scientific topic / share some facts – in the case of this video, it’s about the topic of map projections and why Greenland looks so big on maps while it is actually way smaller.

And then, this happened:

A big learning from that, I guess, is: ALWAYS SAVE YOUR DATA WITH AN EXTRA BACKUP. Or you might experience the same feeling of dread I had as you check every single one of your SD cards, desperately hoping that one of them might still hold your files, the hope dwindling with every empty folder you encounter. 

However, I had at least one thing – since I exported a work in progress file, I had some footage left to work with.

Ultimately, I ended up editing the preview and managed to create this video piece:

In the upcoming blogpost I will talk about learnings in the editing process and possible improvements for further content creation. Also, I still want to record a voice over because feedback suggested that it would be helpful / possibly improve the quality of the watching experience because following the content might be easier.