A Fine line

​​An interactive experience to teach incoming students about the nature of academic integrity at Carnegie Mellon University.

Collaborators: Hilman Beyri, Sarabeth Boak, Timothy Davis, Ross Houston, Xiaowei Jiang, Sarah Keller, Seowon Oh, Melody Ting, Emily Zhou
Advisors: Andy Norman, Ralph Vituccio
My Role: Interaction Design, User Research

A Fine Line is an interactive experience commissioned by Carnegie Mellon University for use during new student orientations to teach the merits of academic integrity. The project was run in conjunction with CMU's Student Life Office, and the development team was comprised of graduate students from CMU's Entertainment Technology Center and undergraduate students from design, theater, and HCI backgrounds. Our primary goal was to create an intuitive and compelling experience that prompted  students to think about the ethics of academic integrity and their role in CMU's culture.

My primary role on the team was as an interaction designer and researcher. This means that I worked with Timothy Davis and Seowon Oh to design, prototype, and test interactive systems foundational to the experience. These two systems were the user's virtual cell phone and the game's ending sequence.

Virtual Cell Phone

A Fine Line's story was told in interactive graphic novel format, with the player's character meeting characters, taking classes, and experiencing university life over a semester of in-game time. However, because the game was comprised primarily of individual scenes where players interacted with characters and made choices, it was important that we smoothly transition players from scene to scene in a way that didn't feel jarring or waste opportunities for players to interact with the game's narrative. The cell phone system was designed to address this problem by giving users the ability to choose which characters to spend time with after major story sequences. This allowed players to affect the direction of the narrative as well as build relationships with the game's characters. By integrating these sequences into the an in-game phone, rather than into a disembodied UI, we hoped to keep players more grounded and immersed in the experience.

Additionally, because the phone was the primary means through which users were able to advance from scene to scene, it was important that users feel at home with its interface. As such, we worked to combine our game's visual style with designs of real-life phone UIs, so players would be comfortable with their in-game phones as soon as they gained access to them.

Decision Map

The decision map is a feature at the end of the experience that allows players to review their in-game decisions, as well as get hints what may have happened differently had the player chosen other options. This was an especially important aspect of the experience in order to meet our design goals, which strove to prompt player discussion after completing the game. As such, we went through a number of different prototypes and concepts for what this sequence would look like. 

testing

Working on both of these systems required a fair amount of consideration into the direction of the experience; as such, usability testing was critical to making sure that the experience as a whole was cohesive and satisfying for players. Much of my responsibilities as an interaction designer on the team revolved around designing and scheduling usability tests. These tests helped us to really refine not only the experience's interface, but also the overall narrative structure and impact of the project as a whole.

Although development of A Fine Line has completed, the team is working with Carnegie Mellon to integrate it into the university's undergraduate and graduate programs. You can play the completed experience at the following link.

PLAY A Fine Line