Time Frame
January 2023 - February 2023
Partners
Jens Riesenberg, Lukas Speidel
Supervision
Kai Wanschura, Mark Meyer, Johanna Wellnitz, Maximilian Schulist
Tools
"Gemüse Allerlei" is a board game that was created during a design sprint. It's designed to help children learn about the care for and importance of crops through engaging and playful activities. In developing this game, it was important for us to emphasize the joy of playing as well as the educational aspects, ensuring the game is both informative and appealing to its young players.
UX Research
Interview
Usability Testing
Visual Design
Illustration
Animation
Concept
Ideation
Storytelling
Sprint Monday - Map We began by brainstorming ideas for potential audiences or systems we might want to address or implement during this week-long design challenge. We realized that none of us in our group had any real experience in maintaining or starting a vegetable garden.
After conducting several interviews, we compiled the most important goals and marked them on a map. We then used these goals to guide our work over the next few days.
Sprint Tuesday - Research & Sketch In this step of the design process, we researched existing products related to our topic and identified their strengths and weaknesses. We then brainstormed implementation ideas. Each team member began by sketching a few ideas using the "crazy 8" method. From their own "crazy 8" sketches, each group member selected one idea for further development.
Sprint Wednesday - Decide & Merge Now it was time to bring the concepts together and agree on a final implementation of our vegetable garden theme. During this process, we realized that an analog solution approach was very appealing to us. In our case, we decided to use a board game that simplifies real data such as water consumption or light requirements of plants in a playful way.
Sprint Thursday - Prototype On this day, we first created a paper prototype to test the game mechanics we had established. We tested this with our teachers and classmates to evaluate the balance of the game. The next step was to improve these mechanics through several playtests to reach a balanced state. We then designed the illustrations, layout and design of the cards. We made sure the appearance and aesthetics of a vegetable garden were reflected in the cards in a child-friendly way, and that the needs of the plants were simplified into an easy-to-understand system.
Sprint Friday - Test & Iterate Now it was time to test the game we had created with our user group, children. We contacted several elementary schools and tested our prototype with 3rd and 4th graders. After completing user testing, we redesigned our game. We adjusted the size of the cards to create a more child-friendly experience. Also, during the user testing, we noticed that counting the yield became a significant issue, as children quickly became restless and impatient. Therefore, in addition to the game, we designed laminated counting cards to shorten this process and make the end of the game more enjoyable for the players.
