This project has been honored with the prestigious recognition of 'The Best Bright Color App Designs' by DesignRush.

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Opportunity

I love playing boardgames and as a newcomer to a new city, I often struggle to find others who share my passion. That's why I'm excited about the opportunity to design a social media app for boardgame enthusiasts. The app will make it easy for players to connect with each other, organize and attend events, and find nearby stores and cafes. It will also give cafes a platform to reach more players and host events, making it easier for everyone to discover and attend.

The benefits sought from this design intervention are to bring together a community of boardgame enthusiasts, provide a platform for boardgame cafes to reach a wider audience, and make it easier for both users and cafes to host and attend boardgame events.

Research Questions

1. What are the current challenges faced by boardgame enthusiasts in connecting with each other and organizing events?

2. How can the app be designed to make it easy for boardgame cafes to host events and reach a wider audience?

3. What are the potential barriers to adoption for users and boardgame cafes, and how can they be addressed?

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Steps to solve the problems / answer questions

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Research #1 - GLHF: A Brief Overview of Gaming Cafes

This study paper provides an overview of gaming cafes, including current perception, challenges, and potential solutions. While the focus is on gaming cafes, the insights gained can also be applied to a board game cafe:

1. The importance of human interaction - Gaming Cafes are not just about playing a game, but about creating human interactions and shared experiences.

2. Nostalgia- Nostalgia: Nostalgia is a powerful force in offline gaming, but the appeal goes beyond just nostalgia.

3. Difficulty for new comers - It can be difficult for new comers at these gaming establishments, and not everyone is supportive to people learning a new game.

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Sun John (2017). GLHF: A Brief Overview of Gaming Cafes. scholarworks.sjsu.edu. Retrieved 2017, from https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=art108

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Research #2 - Sequential Recommendations on Boardgame Platforms

This paper give me an insight of the importance of recommendation systems in board game market. Because the board game market has been growing in recent years, and there is a need for a recommendation system to help players and publishers predict user behavior and suggest new games.

Also it indicated me about BoardGameGeeks (BGG), one of the largest online forums for board gaming, with a vast database of over 100,000 board games and 50 million reviews from 2 million registered users. Which have important uses in the industry and contribute to the growth of the board game market.

Kim, J.; Wi, J.; Jang, S.; Kim, Y. (2020) Sequential Recommendations on Board-Game Platforms. Symmetry 2020, 12, 210. Retrieved 2020, from https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12020210

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Online Questionnaire

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After crafting an interview questionnaire, I distributed an online questionnaire to online board game communities. The survey results indicate that most respondents, who are mostly employed full-time and between the ages of 25-44 and skewed towards males, prefer to play board games in a group and have faced difficulty finding people to play with. They are interested in using a social media app to meet other boardgamers and organize events, with a strong interest in features such as location and the ability to control privacy and personal information.

The app should consider preventing bots and trolls, integrating with Board Game Geek for game information, providing safety and security tools, and having a defined code of conduct for users. Special events, such as tournaments and sponsorships, could also be included to keep users engaged.

Take a look at the survey here

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Define: User Persona

The 'Define' stage of product development is critical in determining the features of a product. Its main objective is to understand the problem the product aims to solve and establish the requirements and expectations of its target audience. To achieve this, I create a user persona and empathy map to gain a deep understanding of the target users, their needs, motivations, and frustrations. This information is then used to determine the features and functionality of the product that will best meet the needs and expectations of the target audience.

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Define: Empathy Map

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User Flow

The user flow diagram of the board game meetup app illustrates the essential stages that a user must go through to book an event. The diagram visually depicts the user's journey, starting from discovering the app, exploring available events, selecting an event, creating an event, and ultimately, confirming an RSVP for the chosen event.

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Key Features

Based on the user flow diagram, incorporating these features into the board game meetup app could help users easily find and register for events, increase their confidence in participating by matching them with appropriate skill level events, and provide helpful location-based information to make attending events easier.

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Design system

Design system is crucial for HYPE, a Board Game Meet Up App, as it can help create a consistent and intuitive user interface that makes it easy for users to find and register for events. By incorporating a design system, HYPE can provide a shared language and framework for designers and developers to work together more efficiently and effectively.

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Low-fidelity Wireframes

The low-fidelity wireframes for the HYPE app outline the basic stages of booking an event in a simple format. This means that the wireframes are intentionally rough and lack detail, but they still provide a clear and basic representation of the user flow and interface elements.

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High-fidelity Wireframes

High-fidelity wireframes for the board game meetup app provide a more detailed and refined version.
It enables refining and perfecting the app's user experience by showcasing design elements.

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Final Prototype

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