Collaborative Design Practice / Project 1

on
26.09.2025 - 24.10.2025 (Week 1 - Week 5)
Ng Kar Yee / 0367743
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Collaborative Design Practice / Project 1

LECTURES

Week 1⇒ Introduction & Briefing

On our first day, Mr Shamsul gave us a brief introduction on the module and told us what to expect for the current semester. He gave us a brief introduction on the module information booklet and discussed about the weekly lesson plan. We were introduced that the module focuses on collaborating with game studies students, to rebrand selected board game. Besides, assignment, assessment and weightage were also discussed. 

INTRODUCTION

PROJECT 1⇒ EMPATHY MAP & PROBLEM STATEMENT

For our first project, Mr Shamsul introduced Empathy Map and Problem Statement to us where we need to produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of the product or specific features found within the product, to investigate the problem’s solutions generated in the previous task. Prototypes may be shared and tested within your group itself, or on a small group of people externally. The aim of the project is to aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the problems identified.

WEEK 1

After receiving a brief overview of the course from Mr. Shamsul, we proceeded to form our groups in Week 1. My friends and I came together to form a team of six. As the module collabs with the game studies module, we were introduce to two board game ideas created, one is "Sugar High" while the other is "Gluconomy" We decided to chose to work on "Gluconomy" as it caught out interest as well as the design direction was not fix yet therefore leaving a lot of room for creative exploration.

Figure 1.0 Grouping 

To have a better understanding of the game, we spent the rest of the time in class exploring (playing) the board game and the game features. This hands-on session helped us familiarize ourselves with the gameplay structure, components, and potential areas for improvement or expansion, which will be useful for ideation in the upcoming weeks.

Figure 1.1 Board Game Exploring

WEEK 2

During week 2, we began by conducting initial research through convenient sampling as we did not yet have the physical game set in hand. To gain early user insights, we shared visuals and explained the gameplay mechanics to two selected individuals, one from the Biosciences field, to understand its relevance and clarity from an educational standpoint and one from a Design background, to evaluate visual appeal and engagement. Their feedback helped us identify early pain points related to complexity, theme communication, and usability. These insights contributed to our empathy map and helped us begin developing user personas that reflect different types of players such as science learners, casual and professional players.

WEEK 3

In week 3, we arranged a consultation session with the original creators of "Gluconomy" to better understand the origins, goals, and challenges of the game’s current version. They shared their intentions behind merging bioscience with financial literacy and discussed common issues observed during previous playtesting sessions, such as rule complexity and lack of visual coherence. Having previously played the game ourselves in Week 1, we were able to engage in the discussion both as users and designers, which helped us align our redesign direction with both player needs and creator expectations.

Following the consultation and initial research insights, we compiled all the feedback and observations collected from both players and creators. From there, we developed detailed user personas focusing on three key player segments, bioscience learners, who seek educational value; casual players, who prioritize fun and simplicity and professional or competitive players; who prefer depth, strategy, and long-term engagement. Alongside this, we constructed an empathy map to better understand each group’s motivations, frustrations, goals, and emotional journey while interacting with the game. This allowed us to clearly define what each player type values most, helping us set priorities for gameplay clarity, thematic engagement, and accessibility in our redesign process.

WEEK 4

By week 4, with a clearer understanding of the game’s objectives and user pain points, we developed our visual art direction through a refined moodboard. We adopted a playful and educational aesthetic using soft pastel colors, rounded shapes and character-inspired visuals referencing glucose and ATP to make the scientific theme feel friendlier and easier to grasp.

The art direction aimed to simplify complex concepts through visually engaging elements while maintaining clarity in gameplay components. Our chosen color palette focused on approachability and comfort, reducing visual fatigue while promoting harmony and readability across the board, cards, and tokens. 

Figure 1.2 Colour Palette

For typography, we selected a combination of Your Doodle and Naturalist to create a hand-drawn, approachable tone that balances readability with creativity, softening the formal nature of science and making the learning experience feel more human and fun.

Figure 1.3 Chosen Typography

WEEK 5

In Week 5, we consolidated all research findings, user personas, empathy maps and visual direction concepts into a cohesive presentation deck. Our team finalized the presentation flow, assigned speaking roles, and refined the narrative to clearly communicate our problem understanding, player insights, and design direction. We presented our progress, showcasing our research outcomes and proposed creative direction for the redesigned version of "Gluconomy". The feedback received during the presentation will help guide our next phase, where we will begin translating these conceptual directions into early sketches and prototype components.

FINAL CANVA SLIDE PRESENTATION

CDP Moodboard by Winnie Ho


FEEDBACK

WEEK 3

  • The overall concept for mood board and research direction are clear and well aligned

WEEK 5

  • Do more research more on target audience not just assumption
  • Put just related research or example on moodboard
  • Put reference on slide to have a visual not just texts
  • For presentation slide just highlight points so there audiences would listen to presenters
  • Can share between same theme group to see the similarities infos

REFLECTION

Working on researching the empathy map and problem statement for rebranding a board game have been an eye-opening experience that helped me understand how game design goes beyond visuals and involves user psychology, engagement, and educational purpose. Conducting research, building user personas, and meeting the original creators deepened my understanding of player needs and design intent. Developing the art direction has challenged me to translate complex bioscience concepts into something friendly and accessible. Although balancing learning and fun was challenging, working with my team and presenting our progress in Week 5 improved my design thinking and communication skills. Overall, this phase has strengthened my skills in empathy-driven design, collaboration and turning research insights into creative direction.

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