The launch process is a design cycle that is used by engineers and designers the world over. Our Maker class has been learning exactly what it is using hands-on learning. Our goal was to create a fun sport for the class to play using a variety of items. My group was Anika, Luciano, Caleb, and I. We recorded everything in our LAUNCH notebooks. 

STEP 1: 

The first step of the LAUNCH process is to Look, Listen, and Learn. During this part of the process, we learned what our materials were and what people wanted to play. Our materials were two badminton rackets, a bag of balloons, unlimited tape and string, five cups, and a wiffle ball. We immediately started figuring out what each material could become, and we had to use four of them. 

To find out what others wanted, we did a survey. Each person asked one question. The question I asked was ‘How much effort are you willing to put into a sport?’ 

The available answers were No Effort, Minimum Effort, Medium Effort, and Maximum Effort. I was surprised to discover that fourteen people picked Maximum Effort, six people picked Medium Effort, and no one picked Minimum Effort or No Effort. 

STEP 2:

The second step is to Ask questions. In this step, you figure out what people would want to know about any particular sport. We wrote down a list of questions on a piece of paper, and left it at our table as we travelled around adding questions to other people’s pieces of paper. When we got back to our table, we had enough questions on our paper to know exactly what people would want to know about our sport.

STEP 3: 

The third step is to Understand the process or problem. This step was when we went over what was boring and what was exciting about different sports. For example, soccer is exciting when the ball is near the goal, but boring when everyone’s standingup  around. Then, we drew what a fully engaged athlete should look like. A fully engaged athlete should have certain qualities, like sportsmanship and love for the game. 

STEP 4:

The fourth step is to Navigate the ideas. During this step, we used the questions we came up with in Step 2 and figured out the answers to all of them.

If you don’t want to watch the video, here’s a quick overview. Just skip this part if you watched the video. We decided to play a game where the goal is to knock over two stacked cups with the wiffle ball. There would be two teams playing across a field, with two sets of cups on opposite sides. There would be a goalie with a badminton racket defending the cups from the wiffle ball on each side. Once a cup stack is knocked over by the wiffle ball, the person who knocked it over gets a chance to throw the wiffle ball into the field goal from where they were standing when they scored. If they landed it in the square, they scored two points, while knocking the cups over was worth one point. However, there were some penalties. If someone took more than two steps while holding the ball, someone is deliberately hit or harmed, or the person trying to score a field goal moves from where they were standing, possession of the ball changes. 

STEP 5:

The fifth step is Highlight and fix what’s failing. This step is the last, and one of the most crucial ones, before the sport is launched. This is when revisions are made to the sport to improve the simplicity of gameplay. We quickly realized that it was no fun to play without a ton of people. So we made a solution- we played with more people!

STEP 6:

LAUNCH! 

A timelapse of the class playing our game.

We successfully launched our game to the class. We called it Oogabooga. There were a few minor rough patches, but all in all, it worked really well. I think learning about the Launch Process is going to be really useful in the future, especially with Blue Sky around the corner. Thanks for reading!