At the due date, our project seemed complete and appeared to
have no significant deficiencies. After taking time to reflect
on the possibilities for what we could have accomplished, however,
there was certainly no lack of ideas.
-LCD, the bigger the better. A larger LCD would allow us to create
more intricate courses and place more options on the menu. Also,
a larger display would allow us to print everything in a larger
size--something that might appeal to our non-youthful market.
-Self-Contained Unit. After seeing a friend's project, we came
to the realization that our project was fragile, ugly, and non-portable.
All of our wires were connected through a breadboard (as opposed
to soldered onto a prototype board), and so could easily become
disconnected. All of our wiring and pinouts were visible, nearly
to the point of obscuring the LCD. Hiding this from the user (i.e.
in a box) would make out project more aesthetically pleasing.
And finally, we required two power sources plugged into the lab
bench. Anyone who wanted to use our golf game had to travel to
it; not quite the convenience one hopes for in a toy. For future
groups, it's possible our unused $15 budget could have solved
these three problems.
-Better Code. Going home to my PC and playing a commercially
written golf game further revealed how much more potential there
was for continued development of our own project. Assuming no
limits of time or memory, we could have written code to support
more directions in which to hit the ball, more clubs with which
to swing, and atmospheric conditions (ex. wind, rain) to introduce
chance into the ball's flight.