During Spring 2019 I worked on a project with 1 Human Centered Design & Engineering student and 2 Interaction Design students to create an installation that aimed to bring together the Computer Science community at the University of Washington for my CSE 441 Capstone Class. Over the course of 10 weeks, we worked together to interview students and faculty, come up with an idea, and develop a final prototype of our installation to showcase. I was the sole developer on the team and worked closely with both designers to create our interface. The installation is called Duck-Libs and aims to bring together the Computer Science community through duck-themed mad-libs. The Final Documentation goes into more detail about our process our what we learned.
The purpose of Duck-Libs is to provide a platform for the CSE undergraduate community to reflect, share advice, and “de-bug” common challenges and experiences. It adds a personalized community activity to the Gates Undergraduate Labs, and creates a more connected and inviting environment. “Rubber Duck Debugging” is a way software engineers use to debug their code, they talk through their code to a rubber duck in hopes that explaining their thinking out loud, a software engineer will be able to notice what’s wrong with their code. In our installation, students may talk to a duck to debug problems in their code, and now they can debug situations in their lives by reflecting on past and present experiences. The platform resembles “Mad-Libs”, a guided fill-in-the-blank children’s story activity, and utilizes ludic design to encourage playful reflection. When students approach the main podium they can begin interacting with the Duck-Libs interface which walks them through a series of prompts, asking them questions about their own life. Once they finish the prompts, they receive a personalized, printed story about their life. The story has an encouraging tone, and highlights that although everyone has different experiences, they are all still united as a Computer Science community and don’t have to “debug” life’s challenges alone. Students can take the story with them, and it serves as a tangible artifact to remind them of their journey and place in the community.
The whole installation with the projection, podium, and advice board.
- A short intro is readable on the side
- Fill out your personal mad-lib using the podium
- Print your madlib
- Leave your advice on the board
- Look at everyone else's responses
- Take a duck!
