With this week over, we’ve only got a month left at the lab and already our team is starting to get all mushy with each other (picture moments like Gosling and McAdams on that boat in the rain). Case in point: we spent Monday night at the Volkshotel together, all cozy sharing beds and morning coffee (and testing our work, naturally). Super cute. We’ve also been busy with our Translate Session, solidifying our new concept and getting started on this Sprints’ tasks – from our research paper to more technical ones.
Shreya cartoonifyes everyone. Told ya things were getting cute. Top to bottom: Lisanne, Gijs, Orlando, Shreya, Atossa, Nikhil.
On Monday, before said cuteness happened at the Volkshotel, we pitched our separate concepts to Gijs. Everyone had researched like mad in order to pitch something new, but we ultimately decided to go with the concepts that had come out of Atossa/Lisanne and Shreya’s pitches: provocative hooks that are landmark related. Wanna know more? Keep reading…
A room with a view.
So after our meeting, we headed over to the Volkshotel to check in and begin our 24-hour (sort of) testing marathon. Side note: A huge thank you to Alexander for letting us stay over. It was hella fun and the rooms were outta this world (Really. Have you ever been a hotel room that uses chain mail or a newspaper as a shower curtain? Yeah, neither had we…).
They be taking photos like we famous…
Our first round of testing was during dinnertime. And folks? We. Got. Results. We played the video (link here) and watched as patrons took photos, laughed, chattered, pointed, and um, licked their elbows. For like, a while. It was a smash-hit success. More or less. We went to bed all happy and super proud of what we had achieved.
Breakfast buds.
The rest of our testing, however, was not quite so successful. During breakfast (included in our stay #ballers) and lunch, people barely looked at the screens, let alone had any real reaction to the content. Sigh. We realized that we have to start creating content that changes re: time of day. #Genius.
Translate Session. Good times.
After our testing, we sat down once more with Gijs to discuss our findings and make plan moving forward. We’d come to the conclusion that our previous idea (the one that we’ve just been pouring our sweat, blood & tears into for the past few months) just hasn’t been having any sort of effect on our users (read: zero engagement. Nada). Doing something drastically different, however, really did, so we’ve decided to keep on going with it.
Hooks with humour work.
To break it down, the way that our current idea works is… One. We gather data, three different kinds, grouped into two different categories: Weather data plus social media data and time of day data. Two. We use these two different categories to filter different kinds of visuals that will appear on the screen. The first category (weather plus social media) determines the quality and content of the archived footage that will be displayed on the screen. The second (time of data) determines the type of text-based hook that will appear on the screen. Then three, content on screen, four, users, five, engagement. It’s a rough sketch but hey. We’re on our way.
Unrelated photo, but part of the Volkshotel breakfast. Cute sprinkles for one? On board.
Post Translate Session, we sat down to divide up tasks. Atossa and Orlando have started work on the research paper, with all of their mad researching skills finally coming out to play in a very serious way. You go Glen Cocos. Shreya has begun to look into different stories that revolve around the landmarks that we have selected, as we want to develop our hooks accordingly. Once the stories have been created, Lisanne is going to play around with hooks, and then Nikhil is going to code us through to the other side. Hallelujah.
Nikhil’s excited face?
Tune in for next weeks post to hear all about how our Peer Pitch and Review sesh goes down. Thanks for being so loyal to the blog! Kisses.