Dev Log #5: Ian Hynds
- Ian Hynds
- Apr 3
- 2 min read
April 3rd, 2025
Spring Break: Halfway Mark
Even though spring break hit this past week, the Beyond the Tassel team didn’t slow down. While we didn’t have our usual in-person class session, we made the most of our time.
A major challenge we ran into was weather-related. Due to unexpected rain and wind, the 360 camera that Sara had checked out from the CSUN Maker Lab had to be returned before we could capture content.The team used the week to reorganize tasks and prioritize what we could do indoors or online, keeping momentum going even without ideal conditions.
One of the biggest things we focused on during that time was finalizing the layout and design for the “sticky note” scene, a key part of the experience where users will be able to read messages left behind by CSUN alumni. The concept is meant to feel encouraging and reflective, and we want users to walk away with a sense of connection to past graduates as well as with a hope for their future past CSUN. We narrowed the scope of the scene to consist of a single main stack of sticky notes, that when the user interacts with it, it reveals the next note within the same stack.
One issue we’ve been running into, however, is collecting enough messages to actually populate the scene. We had created a Google Form for alumni to submit short reflections or advice, but response rates were low. So this week, we shared the form through the CSUN EMP Instagram and had it reposted by the official CSUN Alumni Instagram account. With that extra visibility, we’re hopeful we’ll start to see more responses come in over the next few days.
On the physical side of things, we had a small but important victory: our prototype graduation cap QR code cards were a hit during the GradFest demo. After seeing how well they were received, we finalized the card design and started arranging the ordering process for the rest of our supplies. Our target is 500 cards, and while that number felt pretty ambitious at the start, it’s starting to feel more manageable with each step we take. These cards will serve as the key keepsake and door to the digital experience.
As the team’s website editor, I also dedicated time this week to updating and expanding the Beyond the Tassel website to better meet the project’s evolving requirements. I created new information pages to help explain different aspects of our AR scenes, tools we’re using, and overall goals, something that both future users and our instructors will benefit from as we near the final presentation. In addition, I uploaded recent logs from the team so our weekly progress is reflected in a consistent and accessible format. The website is becoming not just a showcase of the final product, but a living archive of the effort that’s gone into building it.
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