Developing ideation cards for mixed reality game design

Mixed reality games (MRGs) pose new challenges but also opportunities to designers. In order to make the design space of MRGs easily accessible and enable collaborative design in a playful manner we have developed Mixed Reality Game Cards. These ideation cards synthesize design knowledge about MRGs and are inspired by a variety of other successful ideation cards. We describe six studies, illustrate the iterative development of our cards, and reflect how the structure of our cards might influence future ideation cards

Co-designing Cards on Social Issues for Creating Educational Games

This paper presents a participatory methodology to design cards on social issues with the purpose to democratise knowledge among co-designers on the learning content of educational games. Situated on the topic of everyday sexism, the methodology has been developed through an iterative process involving two collaborative workshops, two iterations of card design and a feedback survey. Extracting findings from the workshops and the feedback gathered on the co- designed cards, this paper presents insights that could be used to inform similar studies using cards to inspire and foster reflection on social issues

Designing Troubleshooting Support Cards for Novice End-User Developers of Physical Computing Prototypes

Previous work has shown that end-user developers (EUDs) find diagnosing and fixing circuit bugs in physical computing prototypes challenging. This paper reports on the design of a card deck to support troubleshooting by novice EUDs. The deck provides EUDs with ideas for different troubleshooting tactics and guides them in their use by encouraging reflection to help build EUDs’ troubleshooting knowledge and skill. We describe the design process and the resulting card deck. Our work contributes a new way of supporting EUDs in troubleshooting physical computing prototypes

Toolkits, cards and games–a review of analogue tools for collaborative ideation

Analogue tools offer distinct benefits for collaborative design ideation and can take a variety of tailored forms including card decks, templates, toys and board games. However, owing to the disparate and multidisciplinary sources of these tools, there is currently no easy way to gain a coherent view of the tool landscape. To resolve this, we conducted a survey of analogue ideation tools within the design and HCI literatures, and within commercial practice. Of 3,395 results, 76 met the inclusion criteria. The resulting collection is presented and classified according to 10 descriptors including a novel taxonomy for distinguishing 7 tool types (methods, prompts, components, concepts, stories, embodiment, and construction). We also discuss gaps and opportunities for future tool development in inclusivity, cultural-tailoring and embodiment. Our aim is to help designers and design teams more fluently select, customize, critique, analyse and/or build tools to support collaborative designerly inquiry

The Art of Serious Game Design: A Framework and Methodology

Serious games developed for learning have gained popularity due to their promise for better learning outcomes. However, designing these games can be costly, take a long time, and may not lead to the desired outcomes if an adequate design process is not followed. Especially critical in this process is the creation of an effective game concept. Based on our experience in serious game development and the research gap we identified from the relevant literature, we developed the Art of Serious Game Design (ASGD) framework and methodology to aid developers in the concept- development stage of the serious game design process to address the needs of multidisciplinary teams through a practical step-by-step methodology. The ASGD methodology offers good potential in helping multidisciplinary serious game design teams improve the design process and, ultimately, the outcomes of serious games. We evaluated ASGD through a mixed-method approach and found that multidisciplinary game design teams perceived its positive effects in efficiency, structure and flow, usability, and team support. The actual prototype design process reflected these perceptions as well. ASGD was applied in practice to lead the design of a serious game during concept development, which produced a structured and detailed game concept with well-integrated learning outcomes in a timely manner. We conclude that the ASGD framework and methodology constitute a valuable tool for multidisciplinary teams working on the development of a serious game concept because of its ability to enhance brainstorming (through iteration) and streamline communication between team members