let's pretend
DESCRIPTION
Playing is simple, even a child can do it, but designing something simple is hard. How can we combine prototyping with production software to get our ideas in front of real people? How can we evolve our software over time? How do we measure if something is fun? I will talk about how Ruby’s flexibility and a strong testing ethos can bring some sanity to this uncertain world. And when I say testing, I’m not just talking about RSpec, Cucumber or Capybara, I’ll share stories from Mightyverse about how we test whether our software actually “works” for the people who use it — sharing failures, I mean, learning, as well as success.TRANSCRIPT
Let’s PretendSarah Allen @mightyverse
Mightyverse
A network for sharing language & culture
Mightyverse
A network for sharing language & culture !
where the people create and benefit from a global corpus of human spoken language.
collections of language around an experience
native language videos with translations
across multiple languages
Marketplace for Language
Social Mission
Almost 50% of the world’s languages are endangered One goes extinct every 2-3 weeks
A global, crowdsourced living language community can make documenting an endangered language easy and accessible to all.
At the beginning…
2008
Mightyverse web app — Rails 2.1 — Globalize — whatever we used before devise !
2008
Mightyverse web app !
2008
Mightyverse web app - need to add recording feature !
2008
Mightyverse web app - need to add recording feature - and fix a few bugs !
2008
Mightyverse web app - need to add recording feature - and fix a few bugs !
- and I needed to learn Rails
2008
Mightyverse web app - need to add recording feature - and fix a few bugs !
- and I needed to learn Rails and Ruby
2009
Mightyverse web app - need to add recording feature - and fix a few bugs
2009
Mightyverse web app - need to add recording feature - and fix a few bugs - finish application development
“the smallest thing you can build that lets you quickly make it around the build/measure/learn loop” !
— Eric Ries
Tests Define the Product
learn: what do we know? (numbers are good)
hypothesis: what do we believe? (numbers are good)
test: how can we check against reality?
analyze: does the data support our hypothesis?
the majority of the people in the world speak a second language
How do we find this huge audience of
language learners? “
”
How could our target audience
find us?
“How can you say...” Google Searches in English
Googlehttp://www.google.com/trends?q=how+do+you+say&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
“How can you say...” Google Searches in Spanish
8x increase in search traffic thru SEO
Rails 3 upgrade
dinero.com article
broke caching
fixed caching
green tests
green tests WTF?
Google Custom Alerts
Alert
Every web application should have an immune system.
What is does it mean for software to work?
Language Exchange
Social Game Language learning processshould be reflective of the interaction they are seeking:social, engaging, fun
Mightyverse Database
Web App
Juan Bill Xian
View
Record Request
Content Creation Feedback Loop
People can also ask their friends to record phrases
Phrase Contributors
Mightyverse Database
Phrase Contributors
Thank you in Japanese
Mightyverse Database
More Search Results
Content Creation Feedback Loop
Phrase videos create phrase pages
Phrase Contributors
Thank you in Japanese
Mightyverse Database
More Search Results
Web App
Content Creation Feedback Loop
Phrase pages drive traffic
Social Mission of Mightyverse
Almost 50% of the world’s languages are endangered One goes extinct every 2-3 weeks
A global, crowdsourced living language community can make documenting an endangered language easy and accessible to all.
Crowdfunding as Validation
Crowdfunding
Lean Startup Landing Page technique - create an ad for your product - measure click-thru to validate an idea
Crowdfunding
Lean Startup Landing Page technique ++ - start with an ad for your product - collect advance orders - only create the product, if you raise enough
funds to build it
4 Drivers of Crowdfunding Success
Make a video (raise 115% more) !
Multiple founders (raise 94% more) !
Ask for less than $10,000 !
Experience running a successful campaign
4 Drivers of Crowdfunding Success
Make a video (raise 115% more) !
Multiple founders (raise 94% more) !
Ask for less than $10,000 !
Experience running a successful campaign
<$10K 38% success
< $50K 18% success
< $100K 7% success
Crowdsourcing Language
Life Cycle of a Phrase
Designing a game
Getting Gamification Right by Sebastian Deterding
Meaning Connect to personal goals and passions !
Mastery Goal + rules create interesting challenges !
Autonomy A sense of freedom, the ability to curiously explore opportunity”
Fun is just another word for learning “ ”RAPH KOSTER
Fun is just another word for learning
under optimal conditions “
”SEBASTIAN DETERDING
Getting Gamification Right by Sebastian Deterding
Think design process not features. !
Know your users: you are not your target audience.
Getting Gamification Right by Sebastian Deterding
Create a paper prototype.
Play test and iterate.
Test #1 Did we have fun?
Test #1 Did we have fun?
Best Practices in Language
!
Immersive yourself in your new language Don’t speak your native language Avoid relying on translations
Test #2 Are we moving toward our goal?
Test #2 Are we moving toward our goal?
Test #2 Are we moving toward our goal?
What did we learn?
Both games were fun. !
This game was much simpler. Only required one bilingual player. !
What did we learn?
Both games were fun. !
This game was much simpler. Only required one bilingual player. !
This could actually work as a card game…
Learning is the essential unit of progress
for start-ups “
”ERIC RIES
Test #3 Would anyone else play our game?
Shut up and sit in the corner and watch. See if people who play your game are having fun
and playing the way you expect, and are able to learn the rules easily
“”
MATT LEACOCK
M. E. Stevens
What did we learn?
Validation of our language learning model - helps people learn - sparks curiosity - scalable across language !
The game created an ecosystem !
New Experimental iPhone App !
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Thanks John Fox! @djembe
Tweet @mightyverse How do you say “_________” in Spanish? #rmr2014 !
or !
@mightyverse How do you say “_________” in Japanese? #rmr2014
KENT BECK
Agile is what works. “ ”
