Stories on Site: On Trek to Otter Greatness

For the second edition of Stories On Site for NAC’s Arts in Your Neighbourhood, Pasir Ris was the focus town. Similar to Kallang River Quest, Google Street View was used but instead of a quest, we took a different approach with new features and a wider range of places in the Pasir Ris area.

Ideation

Continuing with the concept of a short, interactive story by a local writer in Google Street View, more frames were added due to the visual novel format, allowing us to showcase more spaces.

We were able to introduce readers to Singapore’s wildlife with a mix of places that are visually appealing and culturally interesting; such as the Sungei Api Api mangrove boardwalk, Sakya Tenphel Ling, Masjid Al-Istighfar, and so on.

This time, we had shorter text segments and more conversation, making it more game-like to appeal to young users more averse to reading.

Focusing on our target audience, we included character animals for users to interact with. We also ended up with a more complex mechanics backend as we wanted to add more frames, create an interactive map and allow people to collect tokens and track their progress – just like a game!

Process

Web development-wise, new dimensions to aspects like illustration, colour palette, web layout, UX/UI design, and so on, emerged in the process. For instance, we wanted the design to be a balance between being trendy and youthful, but not too childish such that it would cater to the target age group of 9-14 years old.

We were also mindful to use typography suitable for dyslexic readers, specifically picking easy-to-read fonts for a wider range of literary levels.

From the usability testing conducted, we found that it is difficult to create one story suitable for the wide target audience range of 9-14 years old, as reading abilities and habits vary widely. For example, an avid 12 year old reader found the story too elementary while another 11 year old avid gamer found it highly enjoyable.