Badges on the IDE Part 2

This week was largely a badges planning week. We redesigned how to store and relate badge information to each other, and several of those changes have now been implemented into the community. We also discussed how to introduce badges into Looking Glass so that they don’t only exist on the web. I’m excited about all of the ideas that we came up with, but they mean a lot of implementation, and rethinking how and when to call code tests. Next week, Kyle, Reilly and I plan to discuss how to tie code tests and badge awards with the transaction history as well as when a user shares. I think the most exciting design idea was congratulating a user when they use a new skill, either tied to a badge or not (up in the air), presumably one they’ve never used before. If the skill is tied to a badge, the interface both congratulates the user and shows them how they skill has helped them progress in earning the badge. We also came up with using a progress bar to help the user understand what step comes next in the badge earning process. Caitlin has already implemented some code to make this idea a realization in the IDE, and I’ve started expanding on it to make it tie with transactions and badges.