Low-fidelity Prototyping for Location-based, Social Games

Low Fidelity Prototyping for Location-based, Social Games

Anne Bowser, Yurong He, Derek Hansen, Dana Rotman, Jenny

Preece

CSCW 2012: Mixed Reality Games Workshop

The PLACE Approach: Prototyping Location, Activities, & Collective

Experience

A scalable approach for prototyping location-based, social games and apps

Why is PLACE needed?

Many apps,few prototypingapproaches

Geocaching: A real-life treasure hunt

Floracaching: Geocaching for citizen scientists

We use PLACE to prototype Floracaching

Find Floracache

s

VisitFloracache

sScan QR Codes

Complete Activities

Earn Badges

Location SocialExperience

Activities Time

Problem Space: Condense and Represent

Small scale session

Scale up

Co-design basics: The mapSign Up

Recruitment, Social sharing, Serendipitous discovery

Co-design basics: The mapChoose Activities

After an introduction, participants choose what they want to do

18

15

20

4

Co-design basics: The map

Elevator

Lounge

Find Floracaches

First a classroom, than a campus wide activity

Co-design basics: The mapVisit Floracaches

Players visit real things

Get feedback, scale up

Start small, scale up, and let the users choose.

Recap

The PLACE Approach: Prototyping Location,

Activities, & Collective Experience

1. Low-fidelity prototypes should not be polished

2. Activities > Interfaces

3. Start small, scale up

4. Testing should be done in the field

5. Respect authentic social experience

PLACE Principles

And thanks to Ryan Gamett, Jocelyn Raphael, and Matthew Reid

Thank you!

Questions?