As we chose to go with the prediction app the previous sprint, this sprint is going to focus on making the prediction part intractable and test them with people that consider themselves gamers. Luckily, Rizal is back again with a minor hand injury. Good to have you back Rizal!
Week 1
On Monday, the sprint planning and our goals are discussed with Evelien. We decide on the must-haves: meeting up with Robbert, making the prediction part operational and link our research to the choices we made for the prediction app.
We buy a pre-made app-package. The style is somewhat futuristic but in a simple mobile app-like style. However, as the file is an illustrator file and the programmers don’t have a lot of experience of that, it takes a bit more time remaking the app with the new style.
Christine begins finalizing the final paper for the project.
On Tuesday we meet up with Robbert and talk about the possibilities of using OnLive in combination with our prediction app. Especially the first part with the several steps for team-forming can be eliminated with OnLive. The teams can be formed with the people physically present on the event when using the OnLive technology.
As we got vacation days on Thursday and Friday, this was a rather short week.
Week 2
Burak makes the web page and starts on the back-end programming for the prediction part of the app while Rizal makes a few user cases for the testing group and factors we should pay attention to when testing.
We have a translate session on Tuesday with Wouter about the Data Driven aspect of our concept. We also decide to start organizing actively for the expo in the final sprint.
On Wednesday we start testing our prototype! First off, we use three gamers at MediaLAB to test the online version of the predicting app, using 15 minutes of a CS:GO stream. We see that the chatting aspect during the predicting forms quite a big pain, as you only have 20 seconds to make your bet, so we remove that function and decide to let the users each predict their own guesses. In the end, the points will then be combined for the team. This way, you just need to focus on the predicting part and not also discuss with each other.
After the testing in MediaLAB, we head out to the IT section of HvA to find gamers there. We test the offline version with 5 people that we divide into two teams. The students are quite enthusiastic and say that they would be interested in playing such a predicting game during an esports event. However, one thing that stands out again is the lack of interaction during the predicting, as everyone is still just predicting for themselves. We are not worried that this is going to be a big problem though, as the final points are still a team effort and a minimum amount of interaction is needed for that. You need to decide with your team which award to pick up after all!
Week 3
We try to revise the design of the app with the feedback of coach Felipe and DSS colleague Nour. It was noticeable that we are missing a designer, but we try to make the app as user friendly and pretty as possible.
We also start planning for the set up of the expo on the 20th. The idea is to simulate an esports event in a really small format so we can show the functionality of our prediction app. Event aspects like tickets and pamphlets will be made. We will need three stands, one to simulate the ‘online’ watchers, one for the streamer to play Cs:GO in and the ‘offline’ attendees to watch. Both these stands will be accessible to the expo attendees and pairs of two will be able to play the app. 7 android phones, two gaming laptops and a tv screen have been reserved for our stand.
Rizal makes 3d visualization on SketchUp of how we want our stands to look like.
On Thursday morning we have the sprint review at ExMachina. Jeroen and Ronald from ExMachina, Wouter from eMense, and Freek from TNO all attend the meeting. Robbert also manages to attend through video chat. We discuss several important points to take with us for the final sprint. The data driven values of the stakeholders need to be incorporated more clearly into the final prediction app functions. Wouter stresses again that we need to show clearly on the expo not just the application itself, but what we did and why to reach these final decisions for the app. A lot needs to be done, but the motivation level is higher than ever!
And so begins the final sprint..