Cat Scratch

 

Platform: Android Tablet

 

Time: 5 months

 

Role: Creative Director, Content Designer, Narrative Designer

 

Cat Scratch is an enhanced e-book built for Android tablets. While most e-books are built using the standard EPUB format, Cat Scratch was an app built in the Unity3D game engine with art assets from Adobe InDesign that enhanced e-book functionality with features like parallax image, animation, sound and interactivity that are only available in a digital format.

 

We conducted four playtests during our development process, which allowed us to profile the use cases of multimedia reading, gauge reading comprehension through A/B testing and troubleshoot instruction design of the feature types.

 

As inspiration, we looked to games (Device 6, Story Warriors), radio dramas and illustrated books as examples of how to balance multimedia with prose-driven narrative. In addition, we consulted with Carnegie Mellon HCI researchers and applied psychologist Richard Mayer's Principles for Multimedia Learning to the product design. The final app is available for download here.

 

During the semester I worked as the Narrative Designer, Content Designer and Creative Director.

 

Cat Scratch was demo'd at the 2015 GDC and at the IGDA showcase during the Pittsburgh Art Crawl.

 

Teammates: Hannah Turner, Artist; Will Hagen, Producer; Laura Weber, Tech Artist; Allyn Chen, Programmer.