Bacteria
[Bacteria] is a two-player interactive game installation for kids to learn how bacteria and virus work in the microworld.
Team with Jan Hopmans and Tartaruga Feliz. A 2-week summer school project about Interactive Electronics at School of machines making and make believe, Berlin.
Concept
The main idea behind this project is that we want kids to learn while play. Instead of hi-tech devices, we believe that physical toys are still attractive to kids, and provide so much possibilities for kinds to explore by their own hands. Adding digital elements to the physical toy makes the toy interactive and also creates a connection between the players.
In this project, we invite kids to control the virus and the bacteria, and to see what happens when they meet each other. In this way, we try to simplify and mimic what happens inside our body, and translate the process visually to make it easier and more fun for kids to learn. There are no losers in this game, they will win when their bacteria and virus meet and create a super life together. The installation consists both ‘microscope’ (the tangible interface) and hidden ‘microcosm’ (the digital interface).
Criteria
Playful
Educational
Interactive: player/machine, player/player, players/ other audiences
Tool
Processing, Arduino, Laser cut, 3D print
Discover and explore
Brainstorm session to find out which area/topic to explore, what matters most for the audiences and us
Concept
Our team was really into the ‘'unseen’ world, like microcosm, outer space, etc, and the pictures showing biological process interested us very much, not because of the beautiful colours and random shapes, but also the amazing movements, activities and the dynamic biological reactions. It made our eyes opened. So we decided to design a playful game for kids to learn the biological process inside our body.
Feature prioritisation
Fun and playful interaction
Intuitive control
Iisualized process
Quick to build from scratch by hands
Digital vs. Physical
The first challenge for us was to figure out how digital/physical this installation should be.
We were aiming at authentic and holistic play experience, which means ideally, a combination of tangible interface as game gear and fun interactive experience.
Research on existing games play solutions
We did researches in 3 scales, total digital solution (mobile phone apps) to non-display-based solution (interactive installations), and analyse how much people enjoy them, and what the benefits and limits they have. We wanted to keep the digitalisation at a level, where makes the experience more memorable but not overwhelm the physical product.
Design and iteration
We decided to use the shape of microscope and hide all the digital experience inside a ‘black box’, so the players won’t be distracted by visible displays, and the whole setup was to attract people to try it with their own hands. Last but not least, we wanted to created spontaneous interactions between the players while playing and after the game.
Each of the versions below contains physical interface and digital experience, we built mockups to test usability and technical feasibility, and did quick iterations according to feedbacks.
Outcome
Emotion analysis and feedbacks
Reflections
In this project, we tried to put aside our ‘designer’ jackets and free our minds as kids, this approach led us to the principles that we applied: short learning process, keep rules as simple as possible, intuitive control.
From project management aspect, transparent communication within the team made the project go fast and united, code are marked for everyone to read and understand easily, we also kept tracking the process, saved files in different versions to trace mistakes/bugs back at any time, also convenient for further iteration in the future.
We didn’t have chance to engage more kids to test our model because of time and resource limits, but we’d invite more kids to try out the game when in develop phase, so we can get more instant feedback to improve our prototype. Also we’d like to try more digital elements in this game to see if they can make the process more fun and memorable.