Gameboard-1
designing the User Setup of a digital tabletop gaming platform
ROLE
This project was a collaboration. I worked remotely with two UX researchers/designers. We each partook in the research, data synthesis, ideation, prototyping, wireframing, and usability testing.
GOALS
The goal for this project was to figure out the best way to create an intuitive user setup based on user insights that would bring users into the digital game space seamlessly at the start-up of Gameboard-1
CHALLENGES
The Gameboard-1 is a hardware device that we did not have in our possession. We did not have the resources to properly replicate all of the gestures, functions, nor display of the Gameboard-1 through remote testing. We would have to create work-arounds using what we had at our disposal.
Overview: What is Gameboard-1?
The Gameboard-1 is the world's first digital tabletop gaming platform which blends physical, digital, private screen and augmented reality to bring social gameplay into the 21st century. The interface of the Gameboard-1 device facilitates digital tabletop gameplay which mimics traditional physical tabletop gameplay and enhances the experience.
The 16" x 16" Gamebord-1 boasts a touchscreen surface that allows individuals to interact with the board as they normally would with the traditional tabletop board and physical pieces in new dynamic ways
Discovery
Exploratory Research
Exploratory Market research
First we started out with exploratory market research in order to identify:
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Who are the lead competitors in the market?​
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How saturated is the market place?
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Who is the target for this platform?
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Who are the successful people in this space who we should be looking at and can learn from?
Competitive Analysis
Once we identified the lead competitors we researched each business and compared them by performing a competitive analysis. This helped us answer the questions:
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What makes each of these companies different or standout?
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Where can my client position themselves in the shared market place to set themselves apart?
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What are some of the key features that the competition are using that are successful?
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What are the trends in the market space?
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What opportunities are there in the market place?
Direct Competitors
Indirect Competitiors
Distribution of features amongst competitors
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Account creation
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Peripheral device connection
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Connection to player network for remote play
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Ability for developers to upload own games
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Offline mode
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Portability
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Multiple types of games
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Smart pieces
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Object Detection
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Augmented reality
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Ability to connect with other physical boards
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Ability for users to play the same games offered on their own device(s)
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Battery operated
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Game streaming
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Ability for users to play the same games offered on their own device(s)
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Object detection
We had difficulties finding comparison information because at the time none of the competitors had officially released their products.
Although the top 3 competitors were creating similar products their approaches appeared to diverge greatly in their choice of technology and its application to address the same issues.
This resulted in the each product being quite unique. However they did share some features such as all 3 direct competitors allow for developers to create and upload their own games and focus on gesture controls.
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We concluded further expanding understanding of the abilities of board connection as well as the capabilities of the technology used for the Gameboard-1, since those are what mainly set this product apart from others, would be worth it.
For whom are we designing?
Through our exploratory research we found that the Gameboard-1 is unique; there was nothing on the market like it and it drew a specific crowd.
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The target audience varied widely between the competitors; from families who hold game nights together to adults who who game alone.
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However, the group that we found most interested in the concept of the Gameboard-1 were avid gamers ranging from the ages of 30 - 45.
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Understanding this and being avid gamers themselves our client (The Last Gameboard) decided to target avid gamers first and then expand into the aforementioned markets.
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​Since the Gameboard 1 is starting off by mainly targeting an audience different from the main competitors, it is worth exploring just how to make this product uniquely appeal to avid gamers.
Michael Dodd is a persona created to represent our average user.
Interviews and surveys
Because of Covid-19 we interviewed members of the demographic remotely. We inquired about their tabletop and digital gaming culture, experiences, and habits.
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This gave rise to insights into the avid gamer's needs, wants, and aspirations for the Gameboard-1.
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It also allowed for us to define the problem by identifying the user's behaviors and frustrations.
Honing Our Focus
Defining the Problem; Problem Statements
We conducted 12 user interviews ​consisting of SMEs and users. Here's what we found:
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Users need to quickly set up complex games so that it doesn't take away from actual gameplay​
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​Users feel frustrated by the time it takes to plan and set up games, especially when continuing a previous game.
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Avid gamers need an intuitive and seamless way to set up their gameboard because they want to spend their time in personalized, meaningful gameplay.
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​Users prefer logins that are quick (with as few steps as possible) so that they can quickly get into setup and gameplay​
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​​users were concerned about the maintaining the communal and social aspects of gathering around a traditional physical gameboard for gameplay.
MICRO
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Avid gamers need a simple way to connect their board to other devices because they want a more engaging socialized gameplay when playing with multiple players.
Aligning with Stakeholders and defining our scope.
To help us align with our stakeholders our team organized and led workshops with them. Here you see the results of a priority matrix workshop which enabled discussions on which features were most important to the stakeholder for MVP launch and which features are important for user gameplay. These discussions also allowed us to see which aspects of the initial brief overlapped.
Items in the 2 right quadrants were seen as most important. So, we focused on these Items.
Concept Exploration
After gaining understanding of our users, aligning with our stakeholders and defining the problem, it was time to start generating ideas on how to address the issue. We came up with design principles.
Design principles are a set of values agreed upon by the team that act as a compass for your product. They served as specific, nuanced, and actionable guideposts keeping the entire team on the same path as we moved through the design process.
Seamless Immersion
Our users play games to immerse themselves in a different world. We design to create a seamless bridge between the user's reality and game world
We create shared experiences to help users build deeper connections with others and themselves.
Discover the World
Follow Us
Discover the World
Follow Us
Our users play games to immerse themselves in a different world. We design to create a seamless bridge between the user's reality and game world.
We create shared experiences to help users build deeper connections with others and themselves.
The gaming world is always evolving; so we lay an adaptable foundation that's built for innovation.
Imagination is the backbone of gaming. We design to further enhance imaginative gameplay. We provide tools that compliment their creativity.
Seamless Immersion
Our users play games to immerse themselves in a different world. We design to create a seamless bridge between the user's reality and game world
We create shared experiences to help users build deeper connections with others and themselves.
Concept Exploration
After gaining understanding of our users, aligning with our stakeholders and defining the problem, it was time to start generating ideas on how to address the issue. We came up with design principles.
Design principles are a set of values agreed upon by the team that act as a compass for your product. They served as specific, nuanced, and actionable guideposts keeping the entire team on the same path as we moved through the design process.
Seamless Immersion
Our users play games to immerse themselves in a different world. We design to create a seamless bridge between the user's reality and game world
Concept Exploration
After gaining understanding of our users, aligning with our stakeholders and defining the problem, it was time to start generating ideas on how to address the issue while keeping in mind user pleasure and pain points alongside stakeholders' visions and restrictions. We came up with design principles.
Design principles are a set of values agreed upon by the team that act as a compass for your product. They served as specific, nuanced, and actionable guideposts keeping the entire team on the same path as we moved through the design process.
Design Principals
Our users play games to immerse themselves in a different world. We design to create a seamless bridge between the user's reality and game world
We create shared experiences to help users build deeper connections with others and themselves.
The gaming world is always evolving; so we lay an adaptable foundation that's built for innovation.
Imagination is the backbone of gaming. We design to further enhance imaginative gameplay. We provide tools that compliment their creativity.
Seamless
Immersion
Collaborative Connection
Expect
Evolution
Imagination is the Only Limitation
Divergent Concepts
Divergent Concepts
We needed to conceptualize for 9 tasks. We created context scenario maps to help guide our designs by helping us to understand the user flow for the tasks. Each team member developed a divergent concept based on a section of the user flow as seen below.
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Context Scenerio Mapping helped us explore screens and interactions.
Low-Fi Prototype
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I designed for the first scenario of the user flow which consisted of the tasks of:
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logging into the account,
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choosing ones position around the game board,
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connecting with a friend to play remotely and register a game piece for gameplay.
Guided by our user research, concepts were explored by creating low fidelity wireframes and a prototype using Figma. We tested the concepts with users from the target population.
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The design tries to address the issues of:
Presenting information to many people around the table at once
Logging in avoiding having to type. The design addressed this through having a lot of white space, an interface that can be rotated similar to a round table to enable access by multiple players at the board at the same time and completion of tasks in a few steps.
Users Thoughts
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Users wanted a way to easily find players they frequently play with
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Users needed clearer instructions and calls to action
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Needed clearer definition of player positioning on the board
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Wanted subscription, stats, game history, and recently purchased items in their profile
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Different way to enter info other than on-screen keyboard
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Clearer Instructions and language use; no jargon
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Need a way to register multiple game pieces at a time quickly to ease setup
Stakeholders Thoughts
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Needs more clearly defined player positions around board
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Needs to give the appearance that there are up to positions around one Gameboard-1
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Instructions need to be clearer
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Need a way to register multiple game pieces at a time to ease setup
Converged Concepts
Usability Testing
Users were asked to complete the 4 tasks listed below:
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1. Log In
2. Adjust brightness of the board
3. Select player position relative to the board
4. Register a gamepiece
PARTICIPANTS
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8 Users
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Avid Gamers
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Males
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Ages 30+
GOALS
Validate the order of tasks in the user flow
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Measure users understanding of language and icons
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Identify hinderances to task completion
METHODOLOGY
Remote testing of Figma prototype through Zoom screen sharing
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Users were asked to to use clicks as hand gestures while they indicated which hand gestures they expected the click represented
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Outcomes
Based on usability test results we decided on future recommendations for the direction to move for further iterations on the design.
LOGIN
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Explore better ways to distinguish instructions
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Research and test diferent user profile layouts
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Explore opportunities for for simultaneous login
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Explore different ways of logging in
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Clearly display where players may seat themselves around the Gameboard-1.
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Explore ways to better discern chosen profile card
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SETTINGS
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More testing of icon for Connect page
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Test gear for Setting tab
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Test the position of Settings tab in the corner of the board
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Explore different gestures that users might use in order to expose the settings tab
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Incorporate accessibility settings; i.e. colorblindness settings and text size
REGISTER GAMEPIECE
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Explore ways to register multiple pieces simultaneously in game mode
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Create a system for user to categorize and access game pieces in setup
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Create a system for users to view their registered game pieces and amount of pieces needed for gameplay.
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Define the difference between "new" and "existing" gamepieces
Takeaways
IMPORTANCE OF INCLUDING USERS EARLY ON IN PROCESS
​It's important to ​include users early on in the process to be able to fully understand, frame, identify and define the problem to be resolved. It also helps to be able to advocate for them and create something better tailored to the user.
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STEER CLEAR OF ASSUMPTIONS
It is always better to ask than assume how something may be. There were many unknown elements at the beginning of this project because it is unknown platform.
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​WORKSHOPS WITH STAKEHOLDERS
Holding workshops with stakeholders gave us
a better understanding of on their viewpoints on the product. Workshops were also helpful to bring up and address questions that neither side had thought of previously.
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FOCUS ON WHAT'S IMPORTANT FOR MVP
The duration of this project was only 4 weeks with a large brief. Instead of taking on the entire scope We needed to shift our focus from what the client considered least important as well and hardware focused tasks and spend more time focused on what was important for the MVP
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