Edu Gametion
Case Study
Long Story Short
6 min read
Challenge
'Edugametion' need an investor ready concept demo refining and showcasing their 2-part business model idea; pairing a free- download AR game with paid-for playing cards, to engage dyslexic students aged 7-11 for leisurely learning.
Process
Business framing the idea through competitor analysis and a value proposition canvas, led to storyboarding user- centred design concepts for an interactive, historically themed, puzzle quiz, which adhered to the Dyslexic Association Accessible Design Guidelines and allowed users to customise their profile with their accessibility requirements.
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Experimenting in development with Adobe Aero, allowed A/B testing to refine the balance between helpful
on-screen prompts and potential distractions.
Result
User/business aligned solution
By business framing via market and user research with a value proposition canvas to find a fit.
Innovative AR product demo
By integrating scannable, themed playing cards with AR figures and quizzes, in line with the company's 2 -part business model, ready for investor pitches.
An innovative and inclusive tool
By adhering to the Dyslexic Association Design Guidelines, offering narration and varied colour text overlays.
Responsibility
End to end cycle, from research to concept and delivery.
UX / Product Designer
3D Modeler
Logistics
Client
Adobe XD
A
3 Weeks
Adobe Aero
A
Solo
Trello
Tags
Concept Generation
Storyboarding
Strategic Thinking
Value Proposition
Accessibility
AR
Full Case Study
Goals
1
Research
Business frame the idea and understand dyslexic learning aids.
​2
Ideate
Create a concept to combine a free app, with paid-for playing cards
3​
Develop
Refine and develop and AR demo
Business Framing
To align business and user goals, I needed to understand opportunities in current market landscape, empathise with dyslexic users and identify a fit between the 2 through a value and proposition canvas.
What are competitors offering?
Doodle
Personalised programmes for Maths and English.
4 -14
Civilisations AR
Virtually explore historical artefacts from UK museums.
16+
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GoLexic
Personalised to help dyslexic users practise core skills.
6-16
AR Elements
Narration
Rewards
Sound effects
Parental tracking
In game purchases
Subjects outside of Maths, Reading or Spelling?
Dyslexic friendly
Screenshots
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Intuitive
Likes
Dislikes
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Only available in landscape, better experience during play.
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Has the static feel of a flat animated PowerPoint slide with a lack of game excitement.
Yes. It leads you to where you need to go and what to do.
No. Resorted to trail and error as couldn't remember unclear instructions.
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Limited to 4 exercises a day, to maintain motivation.
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Temperamental audio.
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Assets are too small when clicking and dragging, your thumb covers it entirely.
No. I kept missing instructions which were on a time limit due to AR distraction.
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Vibration when AR appears, generates excitement.
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Main body of text isn't included in narration feature.
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Unclear instructions.
Findings:
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Gap in the market for an AR educational game inline with school curriculum, outside of Reading, Spelling and Maths.
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Best experience is in landscape with vibrations and sounds, while earning rewards from the start.
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Fun to interact with the AR element itself.
Identifying dyslexic design requirements
Whilst each case of dyslexia is different, I preformed secondary research by reviewing The British Dyslexic Association's Style Guide, which advises ways to design layouts and texts to assist dyslexics. The key items are below.
Font
Arial, Comic Sans, Verdana, Tahoma, Century Gothic, Trebuchet, Calibri, Open Sans
Bold only
12+
Colour
Text coloured overlays can focus letters
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Left
aligned
Large spacing
X1.5
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+35%
Layout
Language
Short, clear sentences.
Short paragraphs with a
direct style.
Images to support text.
Text narration.​​
Understanding the users and finding a product fit
Continuing with secondary research in parent forums and blogs, and talking first-hand to kids between the target age of 7-11, I was able to undertake a context of use analysis and feed that into personas and value proposition canvas to gain a deeper understanding of their pains, requirements and environment.
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Primary Persona - The User
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Secondary Persona - The Buyer
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Storyboarding a concept
Taking a human-centred design approach, I identified the context in which the game would first be introduced to Lily.
Refining the concept
Planning the Information Architecture
As the client requested the app should cater for a growing range of subjects, I looked into the KS2 curriculum and identified there are various topics within subjects, that also need to be included.
Breaking down how this content would be structured, I created a cut back site map focusing on 'History'.
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Key takes:
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Once the account is set up, subsequent logins take you to different landing page, streamlining the experience.
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Text colour overlays are determined when creating a profile.
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Parents are able to be notified on progress per profile.
Wireframing the flow
With the structure planned, I needed to storyboard a game concept that integrates physical playing cards with a digital game. The chosen concept presented each subject as its own mission, 'History' would be 'Save the Timeline'.
Challenge
Figuring out the best way to penalise a player for a wrong answer was tricky. Empathising with Lily, the typical deduction of points/XP would discourage her when she already lacks a sense of achievement. The best approach was to pair a 'time freeze' where Lily must wait before attempting the question again, with only earning the reward when the correct answer was chosen on the first attempt.
Choose profile
All pre-sets of text colour overlays etc are saved to each profile and editable in account section.
Choose subject
Navigate to multiple subjects.
Video intro
Skippable adventure backstory.
Homepage: Fix the timeline
Choose and track progress by how complete the puzzles are.
1
2
3
4
Start with the UX design, planning out the flow of the information and stages which the user will experience
Testing development
Low fidelity prototyping
Following the game concept, sketch designs were iterated for best UI positioning. As Lily will be using a touchscreen, I re-positioned the Hud elements, inline with the heat map, to show the most important buttons in the easy to reach areas of the screen and information/secondary buttons in the hardest areas.
Sound
Help
Quit
Elements are floating without backdrop so user can see as much of camera screen as possible.
'Hard' level is on the right, as most users will be right-handed this is the easiest button for them to press an encourage to be challenged.
Mid fidelity prototyping
Challenge
Whilst creating a mid fidelity prototype, the client requested a new font to be used following a news article, presenting 'Open Dyslexic' as a dyslexic friendly font.
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Although I believed we should stick with the official guidance of the British Dyslexic Association Style Guide, the client felt this was the best direction for the product and so we proceeded with it.
Prototyping the AR element with Adobe Aero highlighted needed iterations which weren't identified in 2D designs:
​
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Numbers got lost and required a coloured background.
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A surface scanning page required before actualisation.
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Figure is overcrowded with 5 numbers, reducing this to 4 brings focus back to AR element.
3D Testing
A/B Testing
Challenge
Hypothesising that users will get distracted by an image of the AR figure displayed on the information and quiz cards, an A/B test with 6 children in the target group was carried out on Zoom.
​​​
Findings suggested we keep the image, as Test-A users:​
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Showed higher engagement in performing the task
-
Liked a visual reminder of the text subject
-
Didn't look away from the screen, in contrast to 100% of Test-B users who lost interest.
Test - A
Test - B
High Fidelity onboarding prototype
Scenario: Lily and her mother are setting up her profile and selecting blue as the prefered text overlay colour.
Turn sound on for audio interaction.
Branding
With the goal of bringing education to life through AR games, the logo for ‘Edu Gametion’ needed to convey a digital game element with a nod to academia for KS2 students.
Once finalised, a mock-up was created of Edu Gametion’s ‘Save the Timeline’ History adventure QR scanning cards, which would house a selection of cards representing different periods in History, then when a card is scanned a famous figure would appear alongside information and interactive quizzes.
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Explore Edu Gametion's logo evolution by clicking through the deck below.
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Result
A demo showcasing a streamlined learning aid for dyslexic students in KS2, integrating AR with both a digital and physical product.
Turn sound on for audio interaction.
Retrospective
The opportunity to experiment with a new tool and create a product concept which aligns with business and user needs was really exciting. It's fantastic to have contributed on product delivering a positive impact to accessible inclusion.
With more time, I would:
Add progressive disclosure
Displaying all adventures on one page, progressively disclosing details when clicked.​​​
​​​​​​​​
Redesign playing cards
Realign with target user age, due to design debt, this wasn't iterated.
With a larger budget, I would:
Explicit Affordance
Show how to search the AR figure once it appears.
​​
Give context
Replace the wormhole animation with a skippable film giving the user deeper context of the narrative and their mission, as well as an on-boarding tutorial.
Testimony
"Great job, exactly what we needed at this stage. Thanks for bringing the ideas to life, testing the core journey and creating the audio/narrative elements."
Owner