Paper Prototyping for VR

Materials

• Construction paper, glue, sticky tack, scissors, and markers

Before the lesson…

• Review key coding concepts and ensure you are confident describing them to your group
• Learners should be placed in pairs or small groups

Introduction
Students should think of a problem in the world that they would like to use VR to help or bring awareness to. Examples can include global warming, gender equality, global water consumption, food waste etc.

Ask: What is a prototype (A: See Terminology)

Ask: Why is prototyping useful? (A: Foresee problems, visualize your product or software, get user feedback from others)

The main goal of creating a prototype is to answer the following questions:

• Looks like? (Colors, shapes, style)
• Works like? (What can I press?, What moves? What lights up? )
• Experience like? (Is it easy to use? Is it intuitive?)

Explain the three types of prototypes, and their purposes. Demonstrate that you start with a low fidelity prototype and work towards high fidelity prototype by improving the product based on user feedback at every step.

Activity
Students will pretend they are VR game designers who have been tasked with bringing awareness to their cause through a VR world.

Using construction paper, they are to create a 3D low fidelity prototype using paper (paper prototype) for their world - similar to a pop-up book. Students should be encouraged to test out various colors and materials to determine which ones fit their theme the best. Students should use sticky tack rather than glue when attaching objects. This will allow them to be moved and changed easily. Interactivity is encouraged! Students should find ways to make objects mobile!

After most groups have completed their prototypes, have each group decide on a ‘product designer’ and a ‘user’. Users will test prototypes of nearby groups and provide feedback on things they liked and things that could use some improvement. Feedback will be given in TAG format (See terminology). Product designers will stay with their prototype and tell users what their theme is. Product designers should be encouraged to see how a user interacts with their prototype and ask if there is anything they find confusing.

Half-way through this activity switch the users and product designers so all students have the opportunity to perform both roles.

Once all groups have had a chance to get some feedback, they should work to improve their prototypes based on the feedback they received.

Example prototype:

Learning Outcomes:
I know what a prototype is used for.
I know the different kinds of prototypes - low fidelity and high fidelity.
I can modify a prototype based on user feedback.
I can create a paper prototype.

Assessment Ideas:
Have students present their prototypes to a panel of ‘investors’. They should talk about their prototype and what users thought of it in their testing. The investors will then decide if they would like to invest in the cause and why. Ensure that at least 1 person invests in every group.

Take the VR Prototype to the next level:

• Use a phone or laptop to add music to the prototype. Experiment with different kinds of music and see how each song gives the prototype a different feel
  • Create your own music with soundtrap.com
• Add additional paper prototypes to represent different environments in the virtual world
• After prototyping, create a high fidelity prototype of their VR world using CoSpaces.io using the “Envisioning a Better World in VR” lesson plan

English:

• Create a pitch/ad for their prototype (ideas include: iMovie, drama skit, poster, brochure, Scratch animation, etc.)
• In a journal, learners can complete a reflection on their prototype. What worked well? What could be improved? etc.

Math/Data (Organizing Data):

• Organize simple data in a database or spreadsheet:
1. Create a Google Forms survey to gather feedback
2. Using this feedback, create a Google sheet and analyze the data

Design (User Design):

• Identify the basic principles of design thinking & prototype a digital artifact reflecting different user perspectives and needs.
• Further explore Design Thinking
• Explore other design Challenges:
• Little Inventors Challenges
• micro:bit Design challenges
• Ozobot Earth Day Challenge | Bot Beach Cleanup
• Makey Makey Workshop - Design Challenge

Why is prototyping important?
https://blog.zipboard.co/why-is-prototyping-important-13150d76abc4

Types of prototypes
https://theblog.adobe.com/prototyping-difference-low-fidelity-high-fidelity-prototypes-use/

What Is Design Thinking? - John Spencer
http://www.spencerauthor.com/what-is-design-thinking/

Little Inventors Challenges
https://www.littleinventors.org/collections/

micro:bit Design Challenges
https://microbit.org/projects/design-challenges/

Ozobot Earth Day Challenge | Bot Beach Cleanup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-gJaULVc1o

Makey Makey Workshop - Design Challenge
https://sites.google.com/view/makeyproject/building-the-foundation/design-challenge

Teach lessons that are tied to your existing curriculum! https://bit.ly/CLClessons