Strategy Level
Project Overview
Project Background
In July 2021, due to high communication costs and the need to tailor content for the Chinese market, our team decided to independently handle the entire process of developing new courses from 0-1 instead of just optimizing the design from ABC Mouse team in the US.
2018 - 2021 Workflow:Optimization
Syllabus
Contents Planning
Game interaction Design
Game UI Design
Optimization
2021 - 2022 Workflow:Self-development
Syllabus
Contents Planning & Game Design & Visual Design & Programming & User Test
The Goal
Designed the entire spring 2022 Logical Thinking course in three months.
Challenges
Lack of Experience
Lots of new members on the team
The team has no experience to draw on
Tight schedule
Before: 2 months to optimize a unit
Now: 1 month to create a unit
Few People
3 Interaction Designers
3 Illustrators
4 Developers
2 Product Managers
2 Educators
My Role & Responsibilities
Interaction Designer
Early Stage:
Collaborated with the team to set interim goals and test new workflows.
Mid-Stage:
Conducted extensive research to understand the online education industry and designed a new framework.
Mid to late Stage:
Designed various interactive games based on knowledge points.
Late Stage:
Developed and conducted usability testing for prototypes.
Understanding
Users & Gamification & Education
Way to face the challenge of Lack of Experience
Research
Research objective: Understand behaviors of 3-8-year-olds to design interactive games tailored for them, promoting enjoyable learning experiences.
Research Framework
I employed the player framework to conduct thorough research on Users, Actions, Objects, and Feedback to gain a comprehensive understanding of gamification closure.
Actions
Children's behavior and cognition
Feedback
Objects
Game Mechanics
Scenario building
Design Principles
Users
Child Psychology
Battler Player Type
Users
Our users, aged 3-8, align with Piaget's preoperational stage. They exhibit traits associated with the Explorer and Achiever in the Battler Player Type.
0-2
Sensorimotor stage
Relies on senses and movement to learn the environment
2-7
Preoperational stage
Using symbols to understand the world
7-11
Concrete operational stage
Manipulating symbols in different ways
Formal operational stage
Allows for abstraction and reasoning
11+
Acting
Killer
Conquer and destroy
Achiever
Rewards, Points, Passes
Rewards, Points, Passes
Rewards, Points, Passes
Explorer
Socializer
Surprise, Discovering and learning new things
Player
Helping people Conversations Dressing up
World
Interacting
Exploration-based games
Curiosity: Like to explore, love nature, lack of focus
Achievement-based games
Sense of accomplishment: Become a hero, challenge the unknown, keen to collect
I - directedness: Hypothetical game, difficult to think differently
Conclusion:Our users 3-8 year-old children more likely to be Achiever and Explorer
Actions
I conducted Action research, assessing the young users' Ability (how well they can act), Motivation (why they act), and understanding of Rules (knowing the act).
Ability
Align with the mental and physical abilities of young users
Motivation
Infuse a sense of play into the learning experience
Rule
Create clear and understandable rules for young users
Ability
How well the young users are able to act?
Explorer
3-5 years old
Achiever
6-8 years old
Self-centered, animistic, unable to inductively deduce, love to imitate, easily suggestible, love to play, inquisitive, helping others
Have challenging and adventurous goals
Have a certain value orientation
Have a strong desire to win
Prefer positive inferred outcomes
Have a strong sense of competition
Calculate personal gains and losses
Have a positive attribution reflection
No challenging and adventurous goals
Often triggered to act intuitively by stimuli
Does not have a strong desire to win
Desire for the unknown
Likes to speculate on unknown results
Likes novelty and freedom to mix and match
Strong sense of self-satisfaction
Motivation
Why act?
Freely interact with the game's elements
Protagonist Assumptions
Acquire and collect
Feeling challenged but manageble
Victory and praise
"I want to see what would happen if I click here
"I can do well, I'm going to score and get more...
Explorer
Achiever
Changeable interface
To explore more places and trigger more feedbacks
Curious of what will happen
Rule
Knowing how to act?
Requirements of Game Rule
Understandable and clear
Align with user cognition
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Recognized by people
Young Players
Willingness to try things out
Rules requirements to our users
Instinctive action
Ensure concise and clear operating rules with room for trial and error
Align with educational standards
Conclusion:3-5 years old users are Explorers, we can design more exploratory games with more fun effects and feedback.
6-8 years old users are Achievers, we can more challenging games with goals, scores, and rewards.
Game rules should be simple and clear, aligning with user cognitive levels and providing ample room for mistakes.
Objects
Effective games continuously motivate player engagement. Core drivers for users, such as a sense of purpose, uncertainty, and growth, are incorporated to meet diverse user needs.
Source: Chou, Yu-Kai, and Dingjun Wang. You Xi Hua Shi Zhan Quan Shu = actionable gamification: Beyond Points, badges, and leaderboards. Taibei Shi: Shang ye zhou kan, 2017.
Epic Meaning
Accomplishment
Social influence
Unpredictability
Avoidance
Scarcity
Ownership
Enpowerment
Feedback
For educational games targeting children to maintain sustained engagement, positive feedback should be strong, specific, and surprising, while negative feedback should be mild. All feedback triggered by actions should be timely, and delayed feedback creating scarcity can be employed in long-term incentive systems.
Positive Feedback
“Amazing!” "Wow!"
" Wonderful!"
"What a nice Painting! Nice Job, [User name]!"
Negative Feedback
"You will be a great artist in the future! Trust me!"
Appropriate for high-reward scenarios, extending the overall game lifecycle, and enhancing user stickiness by incentivizing engagement during scattered time intervals.
Wrong answer slightly sway + Encouragement
Delayed Feedback
Strong Feedback
Warning Sound
Suitable for activities requiring high and prolonged user engagement, continuously motivating to achieve a state of "flow."
Instant Feedback