Well, we’ve done it. We’ve officially reached the half-way marker for mediaLAB. It’s absolutely wild to think about. It doesn’t feel like it has already been two-and-a-half months, but here we are. This past week has been filled with interviewing people from Oost, testing at the Volkshotel, preparing our presentation, Peer Pitching and giving our stakeholder Sprint Review (and brainstorming a tad).
Folks of Oost.
Atossa started off her week (actually, she went out on a Sunday cause she’s just that awesome) with some fieldwork in Oost. She interviewed people in order to understand their stories about the area so that we can potentially add these stories onto our interactive map of the area. She found that people – young and old – have a lot of stories to tell about the area, like first dates ice skating at Jaap Eden Ijsbaan and all kinds of goodness. Another insight? People love sharing their stories, and feeling like they are making a contribution to their neighbourhood. Amazing.
So bright. Such test.
On Tuesday morning Nikhil, Atossa and Lisanne headed over to the Volkshotel to test our prototype. We checked out our work on two different resolutions, so that we could compare the look and feel of our visuals with our test at OBA last week. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of people actually at Canvas at 11 o’clock in the morning (note: breakfast ends at 11, lunch starts at noon), so we didn’t get the chance to do any user testing. But now we know…
Revised project model: Used during the presentation to well, explain stuff.
We also spent a lot of time as a team preparing our presentation (for our peers and stakeholders). Giving presentations is something we struggle with as a team (read: always over time, always all over the place; we’re like your funny uncle who shows up at Christmas and tells really long stories that don’t make a lot of sense). So, we looked at our user stories on our SCRUM board and revisited all of the work that we’ve been doing this sprint and attempted to translate it into a clear narrative. Oh, and we rehearsed. And tested. A lot.
Post-Peer Pitch happy faces.
Wednesday morning was our Peer Pitch and all of the previously mentioned rehearsing and testing paid off. We were within the time limit (hello milestone) and got some stellar feedback that our narrative was much more coherent and easier to follow that our previous presentations. Score. One of the best things about giving a solid presentation is our feedback was more about our ideas (instead of, you know, the overall messiness of our pitch or something). We had a bit of a brainstorm afterwards, to talk about how we can better incorporate the residents of Oost into our project, and also inform them as to the goings-on of our project. It’s gonna be fun.
Pre-pitch: Taking some group shoots. Shreya’s channeling Charlie’s Angels.
The next day we headed over to the OBA to give our pitch to our stakeholders. It was our first time presenting at OBA, so we showed up super early to make sure everything was more or less flawless. Gijs wasn’t able to join, but Felipe was there to help facilitate and guide the pitch which was great. We’ve gotten to the point where our ideas make sense to our clients, but they want to know how – on a very concrete level – our ideas are going to work for them.
Teaching Nikhil how to pronounce Oost through rhyming words.
Ps: Two other accomplishments this week: Cleaning out the disaster that is our group locker. Going through it was like entering a wormhole into another dimension. Crazy. Also, we finally taught Nikhil how to say Oost properly. He’s been saying it like (b)oost when it’s really more like (b)oast. What a time.
No words.
C’ya next week!