Density, Buoyancy, Buoyancy: Basics 1.2 Postmortem

[samreid]

This issue and issue comment can be used like a journal to jot down ideas, what went well, what could be improved as a resource for discussion at the Buoyancy + Buoyancy: Basics (and Density republication) Postmortem.

• 6/5/2024 SR: In Center and Variability and Buoyancy, each project began with a large legacy codebase which was incomplete and not well-suited for the additional development. Center and Variability began with a prototype which underwent a significant rewrite before we could publish the full version. Buoyancy began with partial and legacy code which was difficult to work with. Having Density with a published phet-io API restricted our ability to make improvements (even with migration rules). As we have discussed at previous postmortems, it is preferable to have as full a design as possible at the beginning, develop all screens/simulations in concert, avoid prototypes, etc, and to work quickly with a high focus to bring it to production efficiently. Switching developers and/or designers also incurs a significant cost that we should try to avoid in the future.
• 9/5/2024 SR: Something that worked well in Projectile Data Lab was to work on multiple aspects at the same time. Due to the legacy and history of this simulation, it was more difficult. For future simulations, consider as many of these aspects as possible during initial implementation:
  • test memory leaks
  • keyboard a11y, including but not limited to focus order, grab drag interaction, group sort, hotkeys
  • voicing/description
  • phet-io, including but not limited to state, studio, and reflowing layout when nearby controls are hidden in studio
  • dynamic layout
  • code commenting/documentation and implementation-notes.md, examples.md, and model.md
  • sonification