Summary: UX and Tabletop Game Design Have a Lot in Common

My love of tabletop games (and games in general) and my passion for UX inspired me to take on this project. I will say up front that this game is not yet completed but well on its way having gone through numerous user-testing sessions (play-testing in the game industry). The Lost Socks is a set collection game about missing socks! Every player starts with 9 socks and is aable to perform a myriad of actions in an effort to score style points on their socks. Players can purchase socks but the prices are based on market or seasonal price and branding investments. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins!

My biggest takeaway so far, is that the setup and design for this project is very similar to the UX design proces. You start with simple paper prototypes and sketches and test those well before moving onto graphical elements. In fact, I would go as far as to say I follow the design process more thoroughly with my own project than I have ever been allowed as an employee of any company. I have conducted at least 5 play-testing sessions with different player types, ages, and number of players and each time I have learned loads of new informatio to help refine the gameplay and design. If you think about it, there are a lot of elements that benefit from principles of good design such as board design, card design, player-mat design, typography, layout, physical placement of elements, player engagement, and so forth.

Then there's the psychology of game play and engagement itself. Many tabletop enthusiasts speak about how they love the tactile feel of a board games, the community involvement, the social interaction that combine to create an enjoyable experience. Many times in design, we talk about empathy and the emotional journey of a user through an experience, but this often gets curtailed in practice as deadlines and budgets come to play. We don't always get to think about the squishy parts of design that make an experience more than functional but delightful.

Project Outcomes

The current itteration of this project can be found over at Two Pips. We are still actively playtesting and developing to find that perfect balance.