DorkBoard - Week 2
- os3677
- Sep 30, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Dec 13, 2025
Unfortunately due to Fresher's flu our lecturer, Tina Burton, could not lead our lesson today. However, we are still working on our first pilot project and learning about SCRUM.
Scrum
Scrum is an agile framework used to help small teams manage a complex project in easier ways. It helps people manage their workload a lot more using numerous roles and methods. It is mostly used in projects which have a short deadline and outlines the values of the team.
A Scrum Team is seperated into roles:
Product Owner
In charge of assuring that the Scrum Team understands the business needs of the product consisting of market trends/customer expectations,
Makes sure the team is fully informed of the the goals to achieve desired outcome,
When the product is finished, the product owner visits the client and delivers them the outcome.
Scrum Master
Responsible for the team's effectiveness,
Helps the team focus on creating high-value increments,
Ensures all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive and kept within timebox.
Developers
People who are committed to creatibg any aspect of a usable Increment each Sprint
Broad skills,
Responsible for creating a plan, a Sprint Backlog,
Adapting plans daily toward the Spring Goal.
Scrum Events:
The Sprint
Ideas are turned into value,
Fixed lengths of one month or less (2 weeks in our case) to create consistency,
During Sprint:
No changes that would endanger the Spring Goal
Quality does not decrease,
Product Backlog is refined as needed.
Sprint Planning
Initiates the Sprint by laying out work to be performed for Sprint. This plan is creative by the collaborative work of the entire team
It is timeboxed to a max of eight hours for a one-month Sprint. For shorter Sprints, the event is usually shorter.
Daily Scrum
Inspects progress toward the goal and adapt the backlog as necessary, adjusting upcoming planned work,
It is like a 15 minute project debrief, a little catch up on how people are doing and what they have done so far, the structure of this is up to the Team
Improves communications, promotes quick decision-making and eliminates the need for other meetings.
Sprint Review
Inspects the outcome of the Sprint and determines future adaptations,
It is the second to last event which can last a maximum of four hours for a one-month Sprint.
Sprint Retrospective
Increases quality and effectiveness,
The Team inspects how last Sprint went with regards to individuals, interactions, tools and processes,
Discusses what went well, the challenges, and how the problems were (or were not) solved.
Scrum Artifacts:
Product Backlog
Ordered list of what is needed to improve the product,
The refinement is the act of breaking down and further defining the Backlog into smaller and more precise items,
Product Goal:
Describes a future state of the product which can serve as a target for the Team,
Long-term objective for the Team.
Sprint Backlog
Composed of The Sprint Goal (why), the set of the Backlog items selected for Sprint (what) and a plan for delivering the Increment (how),
It is a plan by and for the Developers, it is a real time picture of the work that the Developers plan to accomplish during Sprint in order to achieve Goal.
Increment
Concrete stepping stone toward the Product Goal,
Multiple increments may be created.
There is more information on the Scrum Framework on our Miro Board (in "Scrum Glossaries"), including our Backlogs. https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVIiNs0BQ=/
Continuation of Pilot Project 1 "Dork Board"
As Week 2 approached quicker than I thought, I forgot to email Student Union about permission to leave the boxes inside, and did not email the library support to ask them aswell. Due to that, I was left to just show up unannounced and hope that the SU is kind enough to let me leave it on the day.
On Monday this week I had completed the boxes! I had access to a printer and printed my design I made in Canva and cut them out with my knife, they came out so good I did not need to use the back up pages that were printed! I glued them on. Unfortunately after a while of them sitting on top you could see the outline of the glue through the paper. Maybe I should have stuck the papers onto a piece of cardboard with tape and then glued that to the box, or laminated the paper and glued it after. I thought that the boxes were still missing something, so I stuck some stickers I had leftover onto the boxes, and it really elevated the look! Either way, I was still happy with how they turned out. I think seeing that this box was very handmade gives it a little charm.
My next step was to bring them to university! I left one of the boxes in the baseroom as I got permission from Tina to do so, and I set it up with a cup full of pens and on the side the 'submission slips' (revision flashcards), and the second box... Well, I did go to the Student Union, as I was given the impression that they would be quite leniant, but my project got rejected. I should have emailed them from the very beginning, because I did not want to sell an idea which wasn't a reality at the time.
So instead I went to one of my favourite places to see if I also needed permission to leave my project there; the sensory rooms! I looked around for any staff and stumbled upon someone who worked in that faculty, and said that I can leave my box with no problem! I left all the supplies on one of the tables, and now to play the waiting game.
I needed some promotional content for the account, so I took videos of the locations and set up of the boxes to later edit in Instagram reels. I wanted to post these as soon as possible so people could see it the same day and put in submissions in case they were already in university.
I wanted to use the editing software that is implemented into Instagram (create mode) as a lot of companies already do that. It is convinient, easy to understand, and the style carries over the entire app so it looks uniform. I stuck with using simple fonts as I wanted everybody to be able to read clearly (as accessibility is more important than aesthetics), but I used flashy colours to match the style of the boxes and to get peoples attention. I did not want this to look too professional as to some it would deter them to get engaged, so I treated it as how I would have liked it to look to get my attention. The audios I used for both reels I took from the Instagram music feature through the trending category, as using trendy audios gains more attraction and makes the reel feel relatable to current trends.
This is the reel I posted to promote the box located in Rus137 (baseroom) for the Digital Media Productions students. I wanted to create a seperate reel, as I did not want to give off the impression that anyone can come into the classroom to submit. Reason being is I did not want any class disruption from students who do not even attend this course.
This reel showcases the box outside of the sensory rooms. Now, THIS box anyone can leave submissions in, as you do not need any special access to come into the building. However, this place does not get a lot of traffic coming through, so I was a bit worried about just how many people would notice it, but alas I gave it a go.
I had also reposted the reels to my story so it would reach more people. I used hashtags in the posts, such as #aru, #socialmediacampaign and #university, as I wanted to reach my target audience. Hashtags may still not play as an important role nowadays as it did 10 years ago, but it still boosts creator's content through topic specific searches.
Submission Posts
As I announced on my accounts story that the boxes have been picked up and that I would be posting the results over the weekend, my friend realised she never got the opportunity to leave a submission and suggested I do online submissions alongside. I thought this was a great idea as most of the people who followed the account did not attend ARU, so this would give them the opportunity to get involved in the project.
I had considered using a third-party app to collect these submissions, however I have had a bad experience with them in the past and are also flooded with bot responses which I do not want to deal with. I only want real, authentic human stories, as the point of the project is to share real stories that happened to real people! So instead of a third-party app I decided to use the Instagram questions feature, which is an interactive box the user can type their response into. These would appear as anonymous once I posted them, so there is no problem with that, but I could see who posted what on my end, which ruins the surprise for me.
I counted the amount of physical submissions from the boxes, and I only got two submissions from the Helmore box, and seven from the RUS137 classroom. I think these results make sense, as the Helmore Sensory Rooms area does not get a lot of traffic coming through, so most people would have not even heard of the box. The seven counted from baseroom makes sense, as there are constant classes going on and the lecturers could also leave their submissions in.
Going back to the online submissions, since I got 8 responses saying Yes to my poll and zero for No, I felt more comfortable giving this option away to people. So, an hour after I posted the poll I posted a story including the question box (I'm not actually sure what it is called), and I waited 24 hours for the responses, since stories only stay up for 24 hours. When I went back to look at them I was amazed at just how many people interacted! I think this way I reached more people, so I ended up with more submissions, which made me happy because that meant I got slightly more content to post to the account. This got me thinking of how I will be posting these online submissions without revealing the people. When you actually press on the prompt to post it, it deletes their information, so I decided to use a blank picture of my dorkboard as the background of these, and save the photo that way, but cropping it to a square ratio to guarantee consistency across all the submissions in the posts.
I received a lot more responses through the Instagram Question feature than with the physical box. I got a total of 6 seperate stories (it looks like more because one person came across the word limit, so they continued in multiple submissions). I think I got this many Instagram submissions as you do not need to leave your house to submit a story, you are already on your phone so this makes everyone's life easier.
My first post
My second post
First Online post
Second Online post
Third Online post
What Went Wrong
I should have started by researching properly into how others manage to have successful social media campaigns to better my project,
however, I really liked going into this blind as it gave me an opportunity to explore my creativeness and push my potential,
Physical submissions are fun, but I could have done all the submissions online from the start to reach even more people,
Designed posters to put around university to reach students from other faculties, as well as handing out flyers with all the information on them, like the Instagram QR Code and brief description of the project, and guide students to the physical boxes,
If I had started this project slightly sooner I could have made it for Welcome Week or the first week of term, and that way I could have gotten more engagement from the first years.
Overall, I would totally do this again! I think I want to continue doing silly projects like this after graduation and see where they get me, but this time with more preparation, potentially gathering a team of people who would want to make it a reality? Who knows!
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