The culmination of the project was a week long public trial where visitors to the Watershed could register and use an IPAQ handheld computer and play Schminky. Players work to solve musical puzzles that involve dientifying sounds that are missing from an audio prompt. They can play individually or invite other Schminky users in the bar to join in a group game. The game was specifically designed to promote social interaction and test acceptability of new technologies in social spaces.

Over the course of the week 140 different people tried the game, 5 people came back on different days to play again, 95 questionnaires were completed and bar taking increased 11% compared to the week before. Three quarters of our users played a multiplayer game and half of these were with strangers and nearly everyone enjoyed it.

Josephine Reid (Project management. Interface design and User Studies)
Tom Melamed (Client software design and implementation)
Richard Hull (System architecture and consultancy)
Duncan Speakman (Game concept, soundset creation, visualisation of social network design and implementation) Kleindesign
Paul Marsh (Server, database and invigilator system implementation)
Jenny Hyams (User studies, interface design and system evaluation)
Mathew Lipson (User studies, interface design and system evaluation)
Kate Shaw (User studies and system evaluation)
Gill Haworth (Project management)

Ben Clayton, Hans Daanen, Constance Fleuriot, Erik Geelhoed, John Honniball, Rachel Murphy, Stuart Martin, Dick Penny, Phil Stenton, Dirk Von Lehm, The Watershed staff

Schminky was developed as an experimental field trial to explore the role of pervasive computing in social spaces
There were two main hypotheses
1.Technology mediated experiences can be designed to integrate with the ambiance of a social context
2.Social interaction can be enhanced through such an experience.

"Fancy a Schmink?: A novel Networked Game in a Cafe"
Schminky: The design of a café based digital experience:
Cooltown article - Serving up Schminky - Situated Experiences on the Edge