Forbidden Island

2016

UI and UX: Forbidden Island game manual application

Team member: Hye Jeong Park, Mariangely Iglesias-Pena, and Srikanthan Ramesh

About the project (short version):

The purpose of this work was to determine if a rulebook mobile application that was designed with new or novice board gamers in mind. The hope was that in doing so, these gamers would be encouraged to use an app that could potentially enhance the user’s experience in learning the rules and gameplay of a game, potentially, eliminating any setbacks, confusion, or interruptions of using outside sources to decide or clarify on how the game should be played.

The participants, ranging between the ages of 22 through 27, who identified as females and males, board game users and smartphone owners, took part in a 70 minute experiment, however, participants were quicker than expected and did not last longer than 30 minutes to complete the entire experiment. Findings demonstrated that there using a concise medium, aside from the traditional manual, does provide a quicker solution for the users. Along the same lines, participants demonstrated to have a better experience with the app than the manual. Regarding the current design, most participants found the app to be simple enough to learn and use, providing the opportunity for improvement, however, they did not like that that the search feature had its own section.

In conclusion, this evaluation has provided the opportunity to further explore the implementation and desirability of a mobile app integration. Although this evaluation may not benefit easier board games, intricate tabletop games might benefit in identifying easier ways to present the rules to new coming players, along with eliminating any possible intimidations, pressures or insecurities of knowing how to play a game when no one else can teach them or do not know exactly where to start when searching for the internet.