My goal was to investigate tabletop hobbies to learn more about introducing them to newcomers.
Novice boardgamers find it difficult and unappealing to learn new board games. Veterans can find it stressful to teach them.
I believe that by creating a phone companion application that uniformly, systematically, and clearly teaches new players as they play their first game, we will lower the barrier to entry and increase overall enjoyment for everyone at the table.
User interviews - High level findings
People seemed to regard learning a new game as a significant undertaking. What was interesting was that for some this was a major deterrent and for others this was a positive challenge.
Whether people were teaching the games or learning, there seemed to be a lot of social angst connected to things going smoothly.
Unsurprising but consistent; when a game took a long time to explain or the rules were unclear, people tended to lose focus and experienced decreased enjoyment.
When people didn’t have a full or firm understanding of rules (despite best intentions) it seemed to undermine their core sense of fairness.
Wire frame
What really started to come to light in this phase was the fact that I had two key user flows.
The flow of the actual app itself. Navigation, informational hierarchy, features, etc.
The flow of the game tutorial. How do you ACTUALLY FACILITATE the learning of a game.
After trying to separate the app from the tutorial, the major insight was that in order to test either one, you need both to be fleshed out. This meant choosing a game and writing a full tutorial for a first time player.
Orienting the user in
“game space” vs “app space”
Initial feedback was “I want a better way to navigate around”. Usability testing showed that while users did want clear APP navigation, what most of those comments were truly pointing to was a lack of GAME progress tracking. Users wanted a way to understand (at a glance) how the GAME they were playing was progressing. Things like “Who’s turn is it?” and “What special abilities do I have?” needed to be surfaced.
progress bar
Giving players color coded progress tracking significantly improved user understanding. In an intuitive way.
Player aids
Giving players periodic primers that shared key concepts lowered user frustration and improved information retention.
User defined
Allowing players to drill up and down in granularity gave them a greater sense of mastery and empowerment.