Lorna Macdonald

Oweek Project - Aims and Background

Aims

There were two main reasons for designing this experience:

• To test, refine and inform framework proposed in my honours work.
• To create an engaging and informative experience for first year Interaction Design and Multimedia Design students.

Through the experience, we wanted to...

• Engage students with orientation activities.
• Promote greater understanding of program and context.
• Promote socialisation amongst cohort and through this a sense of belonging to the university.
• Maximise participation in the experience by ensuring:
  • cost to students is kept to a minimum.
  • technology required for game-play is accessible to all students involved.
  • information is presented in a meaningful manner.

Background

2004 Trial Precursor

In 2004, we tested a treasure hunt style experience for commencing students. A series of contextualised activities were developed, based on assumed knowledge for first semester courses. This experience aimed to step outside the traditional lecture- and lab-based delivery of previous orientation experiences, using site-specific physically-based interactions.
Student engagement in the 2004 experience was low with most students not taking on board the information delivered through the game process. Reasons behind this were varied, with students stating that they did not understand the context of the game and that they attached little importance to the game content. Also, many of the activities in the 2004 experience were designed on the expectation that participants, new to the university, would complete tasks introducing the university context by revealing, interpreting and understanding hidden information.

Links to Related Works/Influences

Blast Theory
Blast Theory works with the Mixed Reality Lab (MRL) to create experiences that explore the cultural and social spaces around mobile devices, the internet and place. Their work considers the nature of location and involves players operating both at the site and online through a virtual overlay of the space.

Images from Oweek 2005

Click on images for a larger view.

Orientation 2005

Orientation 2004

Created By Lorna Macdonald © 2006