Murder at the Doll House
My Role
Product Designer
UI Designer
Product Designer
UI Designer
Tools
Figma
Miro
Ilustrator
Figma
Miro
Ilustrator
Team Size
4
4
Duration
6 weeks
6 weeks
Overview
Murder at the Doll House is an an interactive, narrative-based Augmented Reality game on a mobile device for visually impaired people. We were inspired by noir and mystery genres. We looked at board games like Mafia, Clue, Who’s the murderer (Chinese game show), and Papa Sangre (mobile game). Besides, our goal is to design an immersive experience that can be shared with friends, from anywhere.
Problem
“How might we design a mobile AR game for people with visual impairment?”
Solution
Our team decided to design a mobile app that provides users play in a single or multiplayer mode at a safe and well-known place of their preference. Also, It will provide an engaging experience combining storytelling, background music, sounds, haptic feedback, and a high probability of plot twists.
Design Process
Background Research
Why is our project important?
Game plays an essential role in people’s life. However, most of the games in industry do not con-sider the inclusive design, and the situation is worse for augmented reality game. It is hard for visually impaired people to !nd one game that satis!ed their needs. Our project would love to let users have the empowerment feeling by playing game, since it is very accessible for visually impaired people, but also welcome to the typically sighted players. We hope they could enjoy the process of solving the mystery and the experience of augmented reality technique together, and this is the happiness for both users and designers.
Target Users:
• The primary users: visually impaired adults between the ages of 18 and 65
• Interested in technology and games
• Includes typically sighted people
Research Insights:
• Rich audio and sound can be a good guide for visually impaired users in games.
• Warnings for visual impaired people that only play at safe and well-known place.
• Training mode helps players familiarize themselves with the flow of the entire story before starting the game.
• An attractive storyline can increase the realism of the game and give players a better
immersive experience.
• Social features of our game, such as multiplayer modes, only allows users play with friends but meet new friends in games. It creates a better connection platform between players.
• Haptic feedback to avoid audio overload while provide signals for persons who cannot see.
User Interview
Our team conducted user interviews with blind people through online Zoom calls, which helped us identify their motivations, needs, and pain points. Things we want to know through interviews include but are not limited to:
• Normal day routine for people with visual impairment
• Things to do in their free time to relax
• Do they like playing games? What kind of games?
• Difficulties to overcome while playing game
Persona
We conducted interviews with our main client for the project, as well as other visually impaired users:
Ideation
Game Rules
1. Can be played by 4-6 players
2. There is always one detective and one killer
3. All characters assigned at random
4. The objective of the game is to catch the killer
5. Players will look for clues and then vote on who they suspect
6. If an innocent player is voted at the end, they lose and the killer wins
2. There is always one detective and one killer
3. All characters assigned at random
4. The objective of the game is to catch the killer
5. Players will look for clues and then vote on who they suspect
6. If an innocent player is voted at the end, they lose and the killer wins
Character Setting
Game Scene Design
Dollhouse is a stationary game format, the story content can be replaced with the development of the game, and the clues need to be explored by the player to obtain.
Players are able to interact with each other, not only with the presetted dialogues that driving the story, but also has the voice chat function to add a layer of roleplay, cooperation and deception.
Players are able to interact with each other, not only with the presetted dialogues that driving the story, but also has the voice chat function to add a layer of roleplay, cooperation and deception.
User Flow
User Journey Map
Sketches
Accessible Design
To emphasize our consideration for the convenienceof the visually group , we not onlyadded accessible deisgn in the process ofplaying games, but also made changes inthe settings:
• Font size setting fot amblyopia users
• Contrast for color blind and amblyopia users
• Audio settings to adjust with enviornment
• Haptic feedback to aviod risks
• Font size setting fot amblyopia users
• Contrast for color blind and amblyopia users
• Audio settings to adjust with enviornment
• Haptic feedback to aviod risks
Scope & Scalability
This "dollhouse" style AR game can be adapted to a wide range of people. AR generated cube house does not limit the player's playground, as long as it can guarantee the safety of the place can enter the game. The multi-player mode will also be a novel social experience. The inclusion of voice narration also takes care of people with poor eyesight.
In addition, this form of AR gaming has the potential to be used in many different scenarios. The content can change, while the game dynamics remain the same. For example, the game takes on an educational meaning when the toy house becomes an educational museum tour and the clues become artwork. Or, in a brand marketing campaign, the clues become different products of the brand and the story can tell the journey and story of the brand/company, a great way to promote.
Final Deliverables
