NOVA’S Exoplanet Lab
Client: NOVA
Goal: Design an online game that explores the science behind the search for life beyond Earth.
Demographic: Middle school students.
Teams:
NOVA Labs: Daryl Choa (Producer), David Condon (Editorial Director), Ari Daniel (Senior Digital Producer), Lorena Lyon (Production Assistant), Gina Varamo (Outreach Manager)
Developers: ThoughtCafé
Research Partners: WHIMC at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Platform: Web-based, optimized for Chromebooks.
Project Summary: With more than 6.5 million lifetime users and counting, NOVA Labs combines the journalistic and production skills of PBS’s flagship science series with the best practices in the field of educational gaming.
The Exoplanet Lab is the next production for the popular NOVA Labs online learning platform for teens. Through a combination of original videos, mini-games, and other interactive elements, students will learn all about the search for habitable planets beyond earth. They’ll study the methods used to discover planets orbiting distant stars in the Milky Way, analyze the data from planets found by their Bubble Lunar Telescope (or BLT for short), puzzle through which of those might have the conditions to sustain life––and along the way will find new homes for their extraterrestrial friends! Read more here.
CLICK HERE TO LAUNCH NOVA’s EXOPLANET LAB
Contributions
Coordinated creative vision of the NOVA Labs team, external development team in Toronto, and National Science Foundation project partners at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Facilitated meetings among teams and key leadership, summarizing and distributing main takeaways
Developed and managed production schedule, prioritizing tasks for the internal team
Conducted research on topic matter and user demographic
Developed and pitched overall narrative and game concepts
Co-designed games with UX designers, scientists, and educators
Wrote and fact-checked scripts with scientists
Created original art assets in Illustrator and animated videos in AfterEffects
Remotely filmed scientists, edited video in Premiere, and audio in Audition
Helped to conduct playtests with students and summarize key takeaways
My classic presentation face while running a playtest to explore with a middle school field trip at WGBH.
Challenges
Pandemic.
The unanticipated transition to working from home posed more problems than we expected. Thinking that we would return back to the office shortly resulted in a delay of implementing better practices for organization, communication, and expectations of working during a global crisis.
Too Many Cooks.
In an effort to value everyone’s opinions, we designed by committee, which led to long meetings and indecision (which also impacted scope). As well, unclear responsibilities among teams and disorganization caused by contract delays due to COVID, led to work being done twice by different teams.
Scope Creep.
Developing the game in 3D posed to be a bigger challenge than anticipated, resulting in production delays. This impacted our ability to playtest, which resulted in having to make design changes late in the production process.
Distilling Complicated Science.
This project involved simplifying really complicated and theoretical science that was changing as we worked on the project (the discovery of phosphine on Venus!). Even within the field, there were disagreements on fundamental concepts like the formation of the solar system. We had to figure out how to explain concepts in a way that was understandable to middle school students and that would also remain evergreen.
Solutions
Daily Scrum.
When it became clear that we wouldn’t be returning back to the office for the rest of the project, I ran daily scrums to assign and prioritize tasks for our internal team. This helped team members to know what to work on and what was blocked.
Seeking Mentorship.
When we began to have issues with communication and expectations, I reached out to my mentors at NOVA for help. This helped me feel less alone in my struggles managing a large project professionally and independently for the first time...during a pandemic!
Being Proactive about Communicating Issues.
We began a policy of simply following up immediately when there were issues. I also started bi-weekly feedback sessions to meet with team members individually to discuss concerns. For my next project at NOVA, I’ll be implementing a sprint schedule with check-ins to better improve our work processes.
Working Closely with Scientists to Simplify Content.
We reviewed all of our scripts multiple times with scientists and fact-checkers to make sure that the content was correct and evergreen. We also ended up simplifying the data in the games to make it easier for the interactives to be understood.
My Learnings
Difficult Conversations.
It took most of the quarantine, but I finally finished reading Difficult Conversations, which came in handy when having (you guessed it) difficult conversations. While I am still learning to implement these strategies, I’ve learned the importance of setting aside time to have these conversations, even if it is uncomfortable.
It’s okay to say no.
Joining a team as a new member is difficult; as a new leader, even more difficult. I had a hard time saying no, because I wanted to be a team player and I wanted people to buy-in to the project. I took the “Yes, and…” clause too far and that caused scope creep. I’ve learned that I need to say no more often and have a firmer hand in making sure that the project stays on track.
Be clear about expectations.
It’s easy during remote working for things to be lost in translation. I realized that I needed to be explicit about my expectations for completing tasks, working from home, and my definition of done.
Hitting Pause.
With the global pandemic and national reckoning going on, I threw myself into my work since it was the only thing that I could control. This was unhealthy for me and for my team. I realized that I needed to hit pause more often and take care of my team first. This meant giving space and time for people to share their concerns and to talk about what was happening in the world.