Context
- IUPUI (Indianapolis, IN)
- Lead Designer
Case
Problem: We were looking for ways to engage students on topics related to Informatics outside the classroom. We wanted to create a serious game that embedded course topics for networks and security.
Process:
- Led brainstorming session with co-designer.
- Created design brief, documenting project requirements.
- Sketched basic game interface to provide foundation for team’s graphic designer.
- Supervised the work of the team’s programmer to ensure experience was meaningful, pleasurable, and usable.
- Wrote and programmed in-game manual into finished product.
Solution: We inverted the relationship between administrator and play. Here the player’s job was to look for vulnerabilities in the network and infect the entire network to win the game.
A few strategies that tied well into course concepts:
- Hubs do the most damage to the network as its effects are felt throughout each of their connections.
- The most vulnerable areas were the areas furthest away from where administrators attention was.
- The most effective strategy was divide and conquer—a tried-and-true algorithm students need to know.
Network nightmares game based on Angry Birds model with network admins that try to heal viruses.
Outcomes: Game was developed and shared with students in the course we taught in. The game was also accepted into a game design festival at FDG 2013 in Chania, Greece.
Details
Dates of Project: Jan 2011-Jan 2012
UX Methods Used: Sketching, Task Flow, Requirements, Priorization
My Roles: Design, Research, Writing, Programming
