Sketching and Prototyping - Data Driven Design - page 59

A good contrast to this was a project I did for Act It! The primary difference was that
Act It! was a project for a gaming startup that hadn't yet created its brand. When creating
products for an entirely new company, you are playing a key role in the branding process.
What this company had was a concept based on the long-time party game: charades. As
with the traditional game, this one began with words. Two players would take turns act-
ing out scenes. Each scene was supposed to help the actor's partner guess the word that
was being acted out. The actor would be given three random words. These words would be
ranked one-through-three, with three being the most difficult. One-to-three coins would be
awarded for each correct answer, the reward corresponding with the word's rank.
The actor performs, then the guesser views the scene without pauses in a video. The
guesser has blank spaces whose number equals the number of letters in the word. The
guesser is provided with a selection of scrambled letters. These include all the letters in the
word, plus a few extras. The guesser's goal is to identify the correct letters in the correct or-
der, spelling the word. A correct guess earns a coin. The players then use the coins they've
accumulated to buy Oscar-like statuettes. A player can use a statuette to buy correct letters
in subsequent rounds.
I felt that the product needed a cohesive metaphor tying it to acting and the film world.
It was about that time that I saw the movie, The Artist . Though it was a current release, The
Artist was a silent movie filmed mostly in black-and-white. Set in the 1920s, the plot in-
volved a veteran star of silent films that couldn't adjust to the coming of sound. Throughout
the film there were scenes of old-time movie premieres, and interior shots of the lavish
theatres of the era. The movie inspired me to design a visual based around a classic movie
palace from Hollywood's Golden Age.
This was a case when the visual idea preceded user experience. This was an entirely
new brand, which meant the project was a key part of a work-in-progress. The actual work-
ings of the game itself were set. The Oscar-like statuettes already displayed a Hollywood
theme. My understanding of the brand and its tone would help define user interactions and
experiences.
Once I had the ideas for the visual style, I started to work on my connection with and
knowledge of the audience. Several Pew Internet & American Life Project studies on the
web gave me statistics and analysis concerning aspects of social gaming. One that was
particularly helpful was “The Future of Gamification” by Janna Anderson and Lee Rain-
ie. This study examined gamification trends, including their effects on growing audiences,
and the expansion of their appeal beyond the boundaries of simple recreation. This helped