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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.
Project Background
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
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
Role & Responsbilities
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
Player
Socializer
Helping people Conversations Dressing up
Explorer
Surprise, Discovering and learning new things
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
Strategy
Way to face the challenge of tight schedule and lack of human resources
Strategy
We discovered the need to balance the level of gamification (indicating the appeal of the game) with the associated time and cost.
Efficiency
Compatibility
Fun
Compatibility
Fun
Cost
Solution
Based on research and discussions, we've decided to design three games with varying degrees of gamification and development costs to balance User Ability, Knowledge Transfer, and Fun.
A. General Type：Efficient
40%
Clear and easy to understand
Low cost
B. Scene Type：Cost-effectiveness
Let users feel and learn the knowledge in a scene
40%
C. Fun Type：
User experience
Allow users to apply what they have learned in interesting and customized scenarios
20%
Fun
User requirement
Ability
User Motivation
User's properties
Knowledge
Case Level
A. General Type
A. General Type
40% A Type: This type of game supports extensive knowledge checkpoints with low development costs. In design, we focused on operational rules, UI, UX, and feedback to create a "learn while playing" experience rather than a typical quiz format.
Connecting Questions
Tangram
Grid Placement
Judgment Questions
3D Questions
Listening Single-Choice
Design simple, easy-to-understand and universal games using conventional interaction design methods
B. Scene Type
B. Scene Type
40% B Type: These integrate knowledge assessment into real-life scenarios, offering high engagement with moderate reusability and development costs. In the design process, we incorporated content related to Quality Education, fostering life skills and fundamental qualities through positive storytelling.
Knowledge check point: Matching quantity to number
Numerical range: Within 50
Basic logic: Count the number of items on the left and choose the number that corresponds to it
Knowledge
Quality Education
“ Education is never just about mastering knowledge, it is also about developing basic skills and helping children develop a complete and healthy personality
Design
Interaction
Drag and Drop
Utilize interactions familiar to young users that align with the given scenario.
Scene & Element
Building blocks
I opted for building blocks, familiar elements in the real world for young users, to enhance understanding.
Goal
Packing toys for friends
The act of giving gifts to friends is a popular and positive expression of gratitude. Users can learn this valuable behavior through the game.
Wireframe
3. Ending: Creating a sense of surprise and engagement
1. Drag-and-drop operation: Label the corresponding numbers by quantity
2. High point feedback: Tearing paper (user's preferred behavior) and packing the gift box
UI UX
Original UX Sketch file
Final Effect
Observation: DIY Cloth
Number: Catch Fish
Gravity: Ball Throwing Game
Some other games I designed
C. Fun Type
C. Fun Type
10% C Type: Fun Type games are placed at the end of Friday's class. Despite higher production costs, we aim to conclude the week with a positive user experience, reviewing the week's knowledge and encouraging users to return on Monday for continued learning. Fun type educational games incorporate gamification insights, as exemplified in this case designed to spark curiosity and create a sense of achievement and surprise.
Rule: AAB ABA
Knowledge
Shape: Matching contours
Orientation: Horizontal, vertical orientation
UI UX
Jungle Adventure: Natural scenes full of unknown challenges to stimulate the desire to explore
01 Beginning
Light up stones
Knowledge: Shape - Outline matching
How to play: Drag and drop the correct gems to the corresponding position, the screen is gradually lit up
Features: Natural and Interesting progressive feedback to drive the plot
02 Development
Strange bushes
Knowledge: Space - Horizontal orientation
How to play: Listen to the audio and click on the grass in the corresponding position as required
Features: Positive feedback will randomly trigger a different dynamic effect, bringing surprise and freshness to users
03 Climax
Go away! Little monster!
Knowledge: Space - Vertical orientation
How to play: Listen to the voice and hit the correct position as required
Features: Create a challenge, fun feedbacks, and offer users the joy of victory
04 Results
Fix the gem mining car
Fix the gem mining car
Knowledge: Laws-ABA
How to play: Find out the correct law and fill in the missing wooden blocks
Features: Create surprises and explain the ending (Sending gems to a village )
Result
This game ranks first among 300+ games with a completion rate of 97% and holds the top spot in user satisfaction.
Results
Data
The project launched on schedule.
Within the first month, the app's average
DAU increased from 26,890 to 45,914.
Users consistently logging in daily rose
from 27% to 41% compared to pre-launch.
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