Know Your Neighbor
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Know Your Neighbor *
“Know Your Neighbor” Figma Interactive Prototype
Storyboard, 2024
This Figma Prototype was the final for my Graphic Design II Course. The point of the project was to build something that would be beneficial to the public. I decided to make a game where you can get ideas on how to get to know your neighbors for young people, since a lot of us feel lonely and isolated, but rarely interact with people outside of our homes.
Moodboard for all characters, 2024
The first thing I did was think of the setting, which was originally going to be in a suburban neighborhood but was changed to an apartment complex to make it relevant to the average person. I gathered research, brainstormed a storyboard. Before research, the prototype was originally going to take a more didactic how-to approach, but after research, I found that it would not be as engaging or fun for the average viewer. Thus, I decided to gamify it and give it a narrative like a dialogue-heavy game (ex, small-scale dating simulators). The “story” was of the protagonist moving on their own for the first time and trying to get to know their neighbors. The storyboard included five interactions, three positive and two negative.
Drawing Cutouts, 2024
The feedback I received was to make each character (except the protagonist) an exaggerated caricature of the types of neighbors one might encounter when moving into a new neighborhood, but in a more modern sense that the current generation of young people would experience. I had typed a script for each piece of dialogue in a Google document. For the characters and poses, they would be hand-drawn and scanned into the computer, a technique I had taken inspiration from in a previous project of mine.
Sound addition demonstration, 2024
Originally, patterned backgrounds were going to be used for each character and the game would be silent. However, after testing the prototype and the interactive storyboard, I decided it would be better to add some sort of soundtrack to play in the background. I acquired free musical tracks from freesound.org for each scene in the game, converting them into MP4s and adding them to each frame. I also decided to use realistic photographs for some of the backgrounds and patterns for others.
Sticker sheet for the frames, 2024
I had also created a sticker sheet to house all of the buttons that would be implemented into the prototypes, something I had learned from my UX Design course. Each frame was then connected to the other and tested to ensure it worked as intended. The prototype was played through three times to ensure it worked properly before being sent off as a completed assignment. However, I’m working on making the game more accessible to the average person who doesn’t have a Figma account.