The Nature Disconnect – Part 3
Concept Development
My final idea was one that I had played around with since the early stages of the module. When coming up with several ideas for the Digital Interaction concepts I ended up picking an idea that was one of several. It was just a non-developed notion at the time, but one that I believed could be taken to the prototyping stage. The main motivation for my idea being that people have become too reliant on technology. Parents now stick a device in front of a child and hope for the best. I now have a concept which allows them to take said device to ‘discover, capture and learn’, about nature.
The idea i decided on is a nature scavenger hunt app. It takes the fun and excitement of nature, and combines it with technology. Having the module stay true to the brief is an essential part of the design process – one I feel I adhered to. The concept is to get young teenagers (12 -15 year olds) outside and exploring instead of exploring their computers and games consoles. Instead, users would travel to their local park or forest trail where they will discover posters with the Nature Hunt information. This will direct you to our application that can be downloaded from the app store. Open up the app and it will show you a screen similar to that of a bingo card but instead of numbers on each tile, you have an animal or object. The aims of the game is to find what is on the tile and photograph it using your smart phone. Once captured the image saves onto your app and the corresponding object/ animal will be ticked off. To complete location, the user must tick everything off on the card. Players gain points for each object they find, the more difficult the object the higher the points awarded. This totals to an overall score. Moreover, how quickly the user completes a location is also recorded. Furthermore, players can add their friends, and can compared their scores and time for each location. Overall, such will hopefully encourage the users to go outside and explore, as they can get competitive with their friends.
When developing my final idea I found it difficult to transfer the concept in my head onto paper. Once I discussed it with my peers, as well as my lecturer, I found it easier to visualise and plan my idea. The more I talked about it the more excited I became about my idea. Such enthusiasm inspired me to think about different directions i could take to develop the project, and how such could translate into a potential real life app.
Next, i began creating a storyboard. The narrative is the most important part of a Digital Interaction Project in my opinion, so I spend most of my time completing this to a standard I am proud of. As i decided the target market to be young teenagers I kept the theme fun, bright and engrossing throughout my work. I decided on a comic book style storyboard which I thought would be more intriguing. For example, a comic book style includes interesting text choices such as overlapping onto the next scene, and illustrations that are zoomed in. This style kept me away from the classic, boring square shaped boxes.
Such development led me to explore nature myself and I used the resources I had around me to help. A couple of class mates from the product design assisted me with gathering nature shots. This really helped me show how the app would work within nature. We explored Dundee looking for scenery that would look great for visuals. Having never went much further than the city centre I found this helpful not just with my project but to get to know the new city I now reside in. We visited the botanical gardens which we found the best for little more obscure plants making the images more interesting.
