Week 15
Final Stretch


This week was focused on the final documentation of my prototype. With the visuals and interactions becoming more polished, I wanted the presentation of my work to reflect that level of detail and care.

Prototype Video Documentation

Now that I have my prototype in a more presentable state, I wanted my documentation to reflect that. I didn’t want to record the demo straight off my laptop because I felt it cheapened the presentation. Luckily, I was able to borrow a monitor for the filming, although I needed some time to figure out how to get my preview to display properly since I had never used it before.


I kept the setup minimal, placing only two screens in a corner of the studio, with one showing the TouchDesigner files at work, and the other showing the interactive preview of the chatbot interface. This kept the viewer’s attention focused and made the prototype feel more intentional.


Before filming, I created a simple storyboard to plan out the shots I needed. There were not many shots to cover, but having a visual plan made time management easier, especially since I got help from a classmate to participate in the filming.


Overall, the filming went smoothly. I received some very interesting insights from my classmate who tested the prototype. She was genuinely captivated by the chatbot, especially because it produced the visuals live. There were moments where we weren’t even recording, but she continued chatting with it out of curiosity.

The biggest surprise for me happened at the end of filming. While I was adjusting my equipment, I overheard her saying as she typed, “I had so much fun talking to you.” Her reactions were very animated, and I hope the video does not look staged, because this was genuinely her first time trying the prototype. It was pretty rewarding to see someone enjoy something I built.

I also realised I need to make the primer messages stricter. While testing the prototype, they kept asking more absurd questions out of curiosity, which made the chatbot generate longer instructions that eventually overran the available space on the screen. This is something I need to solve soon, maybe by limiting character count or adding a different display behaviour for long messages.

She was also curious about what triggered differences in the background noise. One of her comments was to make the colours a bit more subtle, as these emotions will not always appear at the same intensity.

End of Semester Reflection!

Looking back at this semester, I don’t think I fully realised how much I was experimenting until I paused to reflect on it. In the beginning, I felt quite lost and unsure of where my work was heading and there were a lot of moments where it felt like I was doing things without direction, and that was frustrating.

However, I now see that those early struggles were necessary because they forced me to keep asking questions until I found an angle that felt meaningful. I still have a lot of uncertainties, and I wouldn’t say I’ve reached a “high point” yet, but looking back at everything, I can actually start to see where this is going.

My work now has a clearer purpose, and even though there are still things I need to tighten up, but I finally have something to build on, instead of ideas that float around without direction.

Overall, I think this semester was honestly very tiring but through this I learned that I don’t need everything figured out immediately. Next semester feels less like starting over and more like continuing something that finally has momentum. I’m excited to see how far it can go once everything clicks into place, and I hope I can produce something I am proud of!