Manas's N@TM Blog
Night at the Museum
Night at the Museum (N@TM) was an exhilarating event filled with innovation, creativity, and interactive projects. Arriving early allowed me to explore various exhibits, engage with creators, and provide feedback on some amazing projects. It was inspiring to witness so many ideas come to life, and I wanted to share some of my favorite experiences. I am so thankful to Mr. Mortensen for hosting an event that showcases STEM and really shows our parents how advanced and far we’ve come in our coding journey. CODE CODE CODE!!!
Exploring the Event: Projects and Experiences
1. Stock Market Simulator: A CSA Project
One of the standout projects was a Stock Market Simulator, a CSA project that captured the complexities of trading. The interface was sleek, and the real-time data made it feel like a genuine trading platform. With further development, this could become an invaluable educational tool for aspiring investors.
2. Discord Basement Simulator: A CSSE Game
I also had the opportunity to provide feedback on a CSSE student’s game, the Discord Basement Simulator. The game was engaging, with a unique storyline and interactive elements. With some enhancements to the animations and mechanics, it has the potential to become a hit among gamers.
Presenting Prism: My Website and Its Evolution
One of the highlights of the night was presenting our website, Prism, to a diverse audience of parents, students, and fellow creators. Prism is designed to connect people based on shared interests, my team and I were eager to get feedback on this project that each one of us have been working really hard toward for the past 12 weeks.
Feedback Highlights:
- Smooth UI and consistent color schemes
- The UI and the styling is really impressive, we saw other pages and they all had jumbled color combinations but this one had one color scheme
- A manual or help page to guide users
- Dark/light mode toggle was well-received
- Unique project, but UI could better fit the site’s theme
- Creative idea, but some UI elements are too large
- Well-organized and user-friendly layout
- Theming and incorporation of interests make it engaging
- Interest-based chatroom is a great idea, but UI could improve
- API for interests works well
- Functionality is great, but breaking reviews into shorter pages would help
Based on this feedback, I am really happy to be the UI/UX designer and the frontend engineer, and also know what to work on and fix on the frontend. We as a whole team made a How-To-Use pop up on each of our pages so that users would know exactly the pages purpose and how to use it.
Observations from Other Blogs
As I explored blogs from other students covering N@TM, a few elements stood out:
- Clear Structure: Well-organized layouts with headings and bullet points made information easy to digest.
- Personal Reflections: The most interesting blogs included personal insights on challenges and learnings.
Future Applications and Enhancements
Looking ahead, the projects from N@TM have immense real-world potential. Here are some ideas for the future:
- Developing the Stock Market Simulator into a comprehensive educational platform.
- Enhancing the Discord Basement Simulator with new levels and multiplayer features.
Personal Reflection on Night at the Museum
I really enjoyed this event for these major 2 reasons:
- Seeing what CSSE students are coming up with, the new experiences they have as most of them are first time coders
- Learning from our peers in CSA and talking about what that course has in store for us and tips and tricks we can use to suceed in it