One hour per day of study in your chosen field is all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you’ll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do.
- Earl Nightingale
Well its week four and I am staring at a blank page in terms of the actual project. Overwhelmed to say the least, but feeling more positive than last week. I have decided on a new strategy to ensure the full scope of work is completed on time using what I decided last week. This involves using the templates I created in week 1 creating all 12 posts in advance, as I already have templates made for this so I am spending time to fill in everything I can in advance with what I already know before the content is released.
Then I can go back to revisit as the content is released. I plan to have the first 6 reflective entries fully completed by reading week and the additional six part way completed. Then spend one day on each challenge activity and reflection (which will build up to the final project).
It may seem a bit disjointed to jump back and fourth between topics but so far, this way of working has me ahead and I am much less stressed about things as the posts are taking much less time to create and adding my topic notes directly into the post each week is helping me to easily reflect on main points of the topics. I think I have a slight advantage due to doing this as my day job too so it makes it easier to understand quickly. Things I need to do over the coming weeks:
- Use a traffic light system for tasks.
- Complete as much as possible of the 12 posts using current knowledge.
- Focus on project brief and challenge activities in reading week.
- Go back and add references to posts.
- Edit notes as its currently a brain dump
What is gamification?
The use of game thinking and game mechanics in non game contexts to engage users in solving problems and increase users self contribution. It is sometimes over used. The goal is to change peoples behaviour or make it more fun and engaging for users to interact with or use a product. It is a user-centred approach, which strives for creating products highly responding to the user’s needs. Following this method designers constantly search for new techniques to improve user experience, which depends on various aspects, including emotions.
Users expect a product to be simple and enjoyable in use, so the idea to add a ‘fun’ element to the UX came naturally. But how do we make the product fun and enjoyable in use? The technique called gamification was created to solve the problem.
Personal problems
- Self improvement
- Motivation
- Learning
- Societal encouraging positive actions
- Systemic – connect more data, direct user behaviour teach something
Game thinking and mechanics
Games are created when the UX process is intentionally subverted
- Obscure heuristic – Intentionally obscured/incorrect like puzzles.
- Skill checks – functions are purposefully difficult or reliant on learning skills.
- Unpredictable inputs/outputs – expectations or results of user input are unpredictable.
- Unprodictable discoverability – reward for taking risks in discoverability encouraging trial and error.
- Rewards – action and progress are visualised as tangible prizes, badges as rewards.
Goal driven motivation containing game elements not focused on the game itself, not adding superficial elements to a products. Not a gam
Why gamify and why does it work?
User goals:
- Map progress – showing people where they are in long term tasks.
- Reinforces good behaviour – incentivising good behaviour or disincentivising bad behaviour
- Provides achievement – catalogue and present achievements earning good reputation within a network to be seen as a leader
Business goals:
- Change users habits – use structure of gamification to reward loyalty and interaction.
- Drives interest – makes customers more interested in the business.
- Motivation – to return to product on a regular basis.
You have to provide user value and business value in a balanced way for it to work. If you are forced to play it is no longer a game.
Why are they compelling?
Humans are motivated by internal and external factors, but intrinsic motivation will nearly always trump extrinsic motivation. Leveraging natural human desires, socialising, learning, mastery, completion, achievement, status and self expression.
Intrinsic motivation:
- Autonomy
- Belonging
- Curiosity
- Learning
- Mastery
- Meaning
Extrinsic motivation:
- Badges
- Competition
- Failure
- Punishment
- Money
- Rewards
SAPS model
- Status – people get a sense of satisfaction, must be visible to other players/users.
- Access – unlock new features and opportunities.
- Power – earn a rank and have power over other individuals.
- Stuff – tangible rewards or giveaways.
Designing gamified experience
Know your audience to determine what you are gamifying, map out the journey and pick the right rewards, like a design thinking process. What are motivations, what is meaningful, what keeps them following through and what kind of community do they prefer.
Determine what you want to gamify
- Onboarding process
- Interactions
- Behaviour – to a set goal
- Purchases the more you buy the more you earn
Map the journey of the users progression with achievable short term goals and overarching long term goals, picking the right rewards and what users are earning, what ui infrastructure do you need to have in place using SAPS model. Good gamification is invisible, the less obvious the better it works. If a user feels forced into it it is no longer a game.
Nissan leaf example
step counters loyalty card frequent flyer miles
What is sketching?
Sketching is the simplest way to convey meaning quickly and efficiently. Chances are you have sketched before, whether or not you are aware of it. In this lesson, we cover the basics of sketching, how to communicate user interface elements and screens, and how to leverage sketching as a designer.
They can be simple or detailed but rapid is the key, trying to get ideas out quality of the sketch should only be measured by the effect of communication not how pretty it is.
Sketching basics
Every one can do it, How effective it is at communicating is more important, use pen not pencil so sharpies etc. Using different shapes and combining them to create anything all the shapes you will usually ever need are:
- Points – different sizes and placement.
- Lines – length, thickness and intersection.
- Angles – size and acuteness.
- Arcs – size, placement and intersection.
- Spirals – tightness.
- Loops – string of loops, or cluster of stand alone.
- Eyes –
- Triangles
- Rectangles
- Houses
- Clouds
INSERT DIAGRAM
Communicating interfaces
Is a huge part of user experience, some people think UI and UX are interchangeable, but UI solely involves the interaction and relationships between humans and machines while it is a huge part of UX and is reflected in the UX, UI is the interaction between user and machine but UX is focused on solving the problems that will be reflected in the UI.
- Evaluated by how well they communicate
- Made up of elements of the visual alphabet
- Meant to be thrown out
- Help to iterate and refine quickly and cheaply
What is a design studio?
The design studio methodology or ideation session / workshop is a rapid iterative process that is one of the most successful methods in Agile or lean UX. It allows teams of varied individuals to work together to solve design problems. It is about collaboration, iteration and idea creation. Helping you to quickly generate a multitude of design ideas.
The purpose
- Focus design around specific problems
- Rapidly generate many design solutions
- Involve stakeholders and developers in the design process
They have a definite structure, its a method to ideate and is classed as collaborative design and its a way to involve non design people.
- Participants generate ideas quickly.
- Participants come together to show and critique other peoples sketches.
- Based on the groups feedback concepts get further refined.
Who?
Anybody in the project team, external stakeholders, anyone at all diversity is key, anyone who will have a positive impact regardless of job role.
When?
Bridge between research and design phases and the first step in visualising solutions, they can crucially influence the success and direction.
Benefits
Agile encourages communication between stakeholders, users and themselves the better the product will be.
How?
It is a method so there are various ways to do it but a basis to build on is
- Define the problem – set goals before you start, expected outcomes, existing research, agree on deliverables.
- Diverge – generate sketches, wide set of concepts and ideas
- Critique/review – evaluate sketches, timed, identify ways it solves the problem and suggest ideas to improve.
- Discuss – Not the time to defend idea. Not about what you like or don’t like
- Iterate – mash up, stealing encouraged, pull inspiration from all of the ideas, timed.
- Converge/Agree final approach – narrow down to one final solution
idea curve the ebb and flow of ideas dev patniak
What are wireframes?
Wireframes are the skeleton of the page. This skeleton is a two-dimensional depiction of a page’s interface that shows a lot of things:
- Spacing of elements on the page
- How content is prioritised
- What functionalities are available
- How users will interact with the site
Struggling with fitting level of detail to audience, staying true to the level of fidelity. Don’t waste time on making them pretty, use consistent style.
Fidelity
- Spectrum should match level of thinking, they have many different names some of them are:
- Block level sketches – divergent phase
- Detailed wireframes – specific elements, diverge starting to converge.
- High fidelity wireframes – defined, follow a grid, final text styles maybe content, to be used at the end if needed.
Wireframes vs mockups
Mostly black and white with structure and elements. Mockups is the visual design, style colour and content. Mockups change the thinking towards visual design elements and should be separate from wireframes.
Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.
- Margaret J Wheatley
I explored my practice and understanding of gamification, the design studio methodology, sketching, and wire framing. Through my directed learning, self-directed research, and tutor/peer/colleague feedback, I have been able improve my understanding of gamification, design studio methodology, sketching, and wire framing.
I have learned more in depth about gamification while it is the process of using game elements in non-game contexts to engage and motivate users it can sometimes be over used, I am really interested in gamification as it plays on human psychology quite a lot. The design studio methodology is a collaborative approach to design thinking that involves iterative sketching and wire framing. I use this method at work when trying to conceptualise a design. Sketching and wire framing are essential tools for visualising ideas and communicating design concepts and are the bread and butter of UX in my opinion.
One of the obstacles I faced was the tendency to rely heavily on technology when wire framing, using things like figma and XD while at work, which sometimes limited my creativity and I kept getting stuck on ways to wire frame some page layouts . To overcome this obstacle, I decided to practice sketching more often to explore new design ideas before moving to digital wireframing. I now have two massive whiteboards by my desk which I sketch onto and plan things out with sticky notes. I have also identified the need to improve my collaboration skills when using the design studio methodology, working in quite a small creative team and being the only UX designer in the company I often get lost in the process and don’t include colleagues in my process.
I was recently called an “amazing thinker” but I have realised that if no one else knows what I am thinking I cant utilise other peoples skills to achieve the goal we are all working towards so I need to up my communication. To achieve this, I have been communicating more with everyone I work with.
This week has allowed me to examine my practice and understanding of gamification, design studio methodology, sketching, and wire framing. Through this process, I have identified areas where I need to improve my skills and knowledge to enhance my practice. I have identified my strengths and weaknesses in each area and recognised the challenges and obstacles that I have faced in my practice. I have gained insights into how I can overcome these challenges and enhance my skills to improve. I recognise that there is more to learn, especially in areas such as gamification, project management, and user research. Finding the balance between thinking and collaborating.
To enhance my practice, I plan to read more academic literature as usual and case studies related to gamification, design studio methodology, sketching, and wire framing. I also plan to attend more workshops and conferences to learn from experts in the field being a solo UX designer in the company I don’t have anyone to learn from which is why this course is so valuable to me. My goal is to improve my collaboration skills, user research, and project management skills. Also engaging with design communities to learn from their experiences. I have also suggested that for the upcoming website design we have an away day on which I will lead collaboration on synthesising all of my research and findings for sitemap/navigation structure and we will begin wire framing the design and starting to think about look, feel, messaging etc.
Looking ahead, I plan to continue my learning journey. By continually reflecting on my practice and seeking feedback, I hope to evolve as a designer.
Come up with a way to implement gamification that could drive engagement with your core product. Follow the steps below: (diagram)
Based on my ideas from previous weeks and refining and simplifying the product. Gamifying a giving platform could make giving and learning more fun and engaging. This platform could offer features like leaderboards, challenges, and rewards that incentivise donors to give more and get involved in supporting causes they care about.
Use sketching techniques (drawing by hand) to create low-fidelity sketches that communicate different aspects of the design. Sketch the interfaces you see in the challenge activity slides (see above), differentiating between text, image boxes and interactive elements. Give yourself two minutes per interface. Tip: Keep it simple.
Conduct your first design studio for your project:
Look at your research so far and determine the problem to work on [5 minutes]
Sketch six solutions [1 min per solution]
Reflect on your ideas in the context of your research and self-critique [20 minutes]
Iterate on your ideas [1 min per solution]
Reflect and decide on a way forward [10 minutes]
Based on the research the main problem to work on is creating a platform that makes charitable giving more accessible and engaging for individuals, particularly younger generations. The aim is to address issues like lack of trust in charities, limited awareness of social causes, and the perception that donations don’t make a meaningful impact. The platform seeks to provide transparency, accountability, and social impact measurements to ensure donors feel confident that their contributions are making a real difference.
Dig out your user flow from last week.
Using any ideas you may have come up with in your design studio (or not), start wireframing the screens needed to facilitate that flow. They can be just paper sketches for now.
Based on the fact that I am developing an app I feel like going back and recreating a user flow to match with a sign up and login process for what I am developing would be more useful than creating a wireframe based on an already established app.
The app is a donation platform designed specifically for female-identifying donors. It offers a personalised experience that takes into account their giving preferences and styles. Using AI technology to personalise the giving experience for each user, analysing their giving history, social media activity, and other data to identify the causes they care about, the types of giving they prefer, and the organisations they already support.
With a focus on transparency, our platform utilises blockchain-based donation to offer greater accountability in the giving process, creating an immutable record of donations that allows donors to track their contributions and see exactly how their money is being used by the recipient organisations.
It also offers a social network or community that connects other female-identifying donors with one another, as well as with organisations and causes they care about. Donors can collaborate and support causes together through features like giving circles, peer-to-peer fundraising, and volunteer opportunities.
We also provide an educational platform that offers courses, webinars, and other educational materials to help donors become more informed and effective givers including an area that provides real-time information about the impact of donations and helps donors track their giving over time.
RANDOM BRAINSTORM NOTES
The word philanthropy comes from greek so Eleos or Elea – Eleos circle- the goddess of mercy and compassion, who embodies the idea of giving to alleviate suffering and provide comfort to those in need. Logo could be the cornucopia or wings in a circle (giving circle) and olive green for the colour as green is often linked to giving. Bees are female communities beenevolence too punny, Hexigon – organisation honeycomb – foundation – Hivegiving
- What is Gamification? (nd). Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/gamificationLinks to an external site. [Accessed ]
- Cronstedt, J (2017) ‘What Is Gamification, How it Works & How It Can Help Your Business’ [online], Medium, 30 November. Available at: https://medium.com/@jcron_89878/what-is-gamification-how-it-works-how-it-can-help-your-business-19f98f1a9d4eLinks to an external site. [Accessed 12 March 2023]
- Babich, N (2016) ‘Everything You Need to Know About UX Sketching’ [online], UX Planet, 28 September. Available at: https://uxplanet.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-ux-sketching-4ab8e66902eLinks to an external site. [Accessed 12th March 2023]
- William Evans (2011) The Design Studio Method - Todd Zaki Warfel [online video]. Available at: https://vimeo.com/37861987Links to an external site. [Accessed 12 March 2023]
- Lindstrom, J. (2011) ‘Design Studios: The Good, the Bad, and the Science’ [online], UX Booth, 15 November. Available at: https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/design-studios-the-good-the-bad-and-the-science/Links to an external site. [Accessed 12 November 2023]
- M, R. (2016) ‘How to approach wire-framing an app from scratch’ [online], Medium, 15 December. Available at: https://medium.com/flowcap/solve-a-problem-with-tina-chen-a83419b209b5Links to an external site. [Accessed 12 March 2023]
The Design thinking playbook
Lewrick, M., Link, P. and Leifer, L., 2018. The design thinking playbook. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.