Working on a treasure hunt app sounds fun. I like the challenge of designing more than just an app: it's also an experience.
Problem statement:
The player needs a way to start a treasure hunt without preparation and at any time, in their current location, and without having to rely on wifi or spend any money because they want to have an uncomplicated, spontaneous and qualitative game experience
A competitive analysis led me to put my attention on my main competitor: Geocaching. I’ve been using their website since the early 2000s and really enjoyed the idea of exploration and the excitement of looking for a treasure behind a rock or a bush. But there was something that seemed to be always missing:
To find out what potential users would expect from this app, I sent off a survey and then conducted some interviews to go more into detail.
Here are the keys insights from the research:
The research helped me creating 3 personas:
Then, I drew the user journeys of Medha and Claude and wrote down some opportunities for the app.
Some of the first wireframes (low- and mid-fidelity):
Now it's time to get back to my research notes to redefine what are the objectives of the game:
How does the game work?
With a high-fidelity prototype ready, it’s now time to test it on real users!
What are the goals of the usability test?
What is the methodology?
What are the main errors?
-Suggested change: The code and the (rephrased) instructions will be moved to the same screen, and users will be able to add the letters on the code grid one by one. Some additional guidance will be offered for the users that are completely lost about this task.
-Evidence: 4 participants couldn’t solve the code and were very frustrated
-Suggested change: Rephrase instructions, and split them into different steps. Simplify them.
-Evidence: 100% of the participants were misled by the instructions in Clue 2.
-Suggested change: Redefine a basic hunt skeleton with consistent steps that will be repeated for each clue.
-Evidence: participants that aren’t used to play games need to know where they are situated in the game and what they are expected to do exactly since the whole experience is new to them which leads them to feel lost and overwhelmed and not being able to play.
-Suggested change: Ask a question instead “Did you decrypt the code?” / “Did you arrive at the next location already?” and a “Yes” button
-Evidence: 50% of the participants weren’t sure what this button was about (solve the code? found the monument?) and when to click it
-Suggested change: Search bar bigger/brighter. When typing, "Berlin 10559" should be at a different font/size than 'type in city/postcode"
-Evidence: 50% of participants didn’t see the search bar immediately and were looking at the side menu to look for a hunt
Some frames of the revised prototype:
After a bunch of big surprises during the usability testing, it is time to polish the prototype and define some design guidelines.
• The evolution of the hunt description and the user profile:
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