INFO 442 Team C
http://info442-madlibs.herokuapp.com/
Team Member Names and Roles:
- Harkiran Saluja, Designer
- Victoria Huynh, Developer
- Jill Nguyen, Developer
- Markus Shriner, Project Manager
Team Name: Team Childcare
Mission Statement: Enriching child social development in a virtual world.
Problem Statement: Before everything went virtual, students were accustomed to attending gatherings in-person. Since the pandemic hit in March, students are forced to stay home and learn online on their own, with parents stepping up as temporary teachers. For students in late elementary school and middle school, this greatly affects their cognitive, non-cognitive, and social abilities since their environment has now drastically changed in their earlier years of life. As children get older and more socially adept, friends and peers become increasingly essential for their social development compared to their immediate families. According to Ronald Dahl, a pediatrician who founded the Center for the Developing Adolescent at UC Berkeley, “kids want to figure out who they trust, who likes them, and how to find a niche where they can shine;” they want to be able to develop strong friendships, but this is something they’ve had to put on hold (Denworth, 2020). In a time where support is needed most, children have limited options as to how they can gain that assistance, especially since they likely feel much lonelier now than before. Nowadays, what used to be recess time is now just a break where children do nothing for the 15 minute duration. Children miss the interaction they have with their peers during recess because it was the only time (besides lunch) where they could hang out with their friends at school. Additionally, Mad Libs games have been popular among children, but there are no collaborative Mad Lib games with clear layouts on the web. What if there was a way for children to virtually have an interactive recess? What if there was a way for children to play Mad Libs with their friends online?
References
Denworth, L. (2020, June 24). What Happens When Kids Don't See Their Peers for Months. Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/06/how-quarantine-will-affect-kids-social-development/613381/.
Solution Statement: We envision a collaborative platform that consists of a Mad Libs game, since the people who created Mad Libs only have it via mobile apps, not on the web. To start a game, users can create a game lobby or join an existing lobby by typing in the code to that lobby. Before entering a game lobby, users can set a name so that players are identified. Players should be able to see which other players are in the game lobby and the lobby code will be displayed to share with others. No more than four players will be allowed to enter a lobby. When in the game lobby with their friend(s), the users will be presented with a list of clickable Mad Libs titles to fill out. All Mad Libs will be listed in alphabetical order by title. The Mad Libs will be authored by the team and will also be taken from existing Mad Libs (existing Mad Libs will be credited). Once they click on a title, the title will be highlighted, and the game begins once the users click "START." Turns will go one at a time, starting with the person who entered the game lobby first.
During the game, users will receive a prompt and a text box that asks them to input certain parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. In order to input a word on a blank, the user must tap on the blank, and the cursor will appear. The user will then type the word via keyboard as text-based input and then click “DONE”. Afterwards, the next player will receive the same prompt for text input. The players waiting on another player to input will have their screen tell them that the another player is inputting text. Since we want children to have the freedom to input whatever they want, there will not be any validation that the system will check whether the text input matches the required part of speech. This will repeat throughout all users involved and all inputs needed for the Mad Libs template until the story is ready.
At the conclusion of the round, all users will click “FINISH” and the completed story will be presented to everyone. The system will encourage users to read the story aloud to each other. Since this is meant to be done during break times at school, students will already be on a video calling platform such as Zoom, so they will already be communicating with each other.
After the game is over, users will have the option to either play another game or exit the game lobby. If all players in the game are idle for 20 minutes or more, the game session will be timed out.
Link to our visual concept: https://www.figma.com/file/MIvRqZRluVFYyts6jWtfBP/442-Mad-Libs?node-id=0%3A1
Logo:
