A box of iteration

Well, we are in the last month of the project and we have been moving quickly with a fairly large team of talented young designers involved now. My reflections on game design are forming around: the culture (I hope to go to a games show to find out more about ‘the scene’); the design language used; user testing; and iteration.  In this post I’ll just jot down a few thoughts on the latter two.

I have been following how user-centred design has evolved within the space of my career in product design. Coincidentally, during this time, my architect cousin has been writing her thesis on user-centred design, so I have been aware that architects are ‘way behind’ product designers in terms of their engagement with users. I have also worked with the HCI group at the University of Bath, and know from publications too, that this community is ‘way ahead’ of product design in terms of real engagement with users through the process. This is perhaps because in HCI (and game design) it is relatively easy to produce virtual mock ups and digital prototypes to show to users. This has certainly been the case in this project too. Last night we tested the game in a ‘games bar’ in London, partially to drink beer together, and partially to see whether anyone would come over and be curious about what we were doing…. And sure enough they did…

This relative ease of prototyping for the game design has also led to prolific iteration in this project. I think we are on version 9 of the game design and rules. Each time these changed they have had an effect on: the tangible blocks (I think we are on version 4 now); the user interface design; screen graphics; and sometimes on the electronic system (the platform design and its code)*. It’s a good job everybody is enjoying the project so much… 

*(the design relationship between the tangible and the virtual parts of the game is not one-directional as I suggest here… but that is a topic for another post.)