Immersive games for a design team

Project overview

While working with Nile, I was assigned the task of exploring and developing a set of prototype “design play tools” to inhabit a client's design space. This required me to investigate new, undocumented ways in which to present the client with information from user research.

For this project I developed a number of creative methods for gathering user insights, creating unique 'design games' and playful tools for stimulating group discussions.

I researched and prototyped objects designed to trigger empathy within a design team by bringing the customer's voice directly into the design process.

My role

The purpose of the first project was to explore people’s attitudes and approaches towards managing their finances. At the beginning of the project, I helped to develop a set of archetypes based on people's financial behaviour. This activity was be highly interesting, as it required a combination of psychological analysis of the research data followed by creative illustrations.

I was then given the task of researching and developing a set of prototype “play tools” to inhabit the client's design space, to help remind the design team about their customers/users. This required me to investigate new, non-traditional ways in which to present the client with user research insights.

The purpose of this project was to explore peoples' attitude and approach towards handling their personal finances. One of the major outcomes from this project was a set of behavioural archetypes based on peoples' attitudes and actions towards personal finance.

I was asked to research and develop a set of prototype 'play tools' to inhabit the client's design space, serving to remind designers about the people for whom they are designing. This required me to investigate new, undocumented ways in which to present the client with information from user research.

Outcome

Upon learning that the client's design team were in fact a digital product development team, I was able to draw upon my previous knowledge as a digital product designer to understand their background and way of working.

I was able to access the client's upcoming development backlog, to see the titles of planned features. I was immediately able to recognise that the development team followed an agile methodology to product development, using the structure:

As a way in which to cause synthesis with the client's agile development environment, I decided upon creating a set of "Story enriching" cards. These cards would be able to provide enhanced detail surrounding the user featured in each development story title. Following a client meeting, I learned that the client saw potential and intended to explore the use of this game further.