Collaborative Design Practice - Task 1 : Empathy Map & Problem Statement

22/09/2025 - 26/10/2025  ( Week 1 - Week 5)

Ho Winnie / 0364866 

Collaborative Design Practice / Bachelor's of Design Honors In Creative Media 

Task 1 : Empathy Map & Problem Statement 

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1. Task 1 : Empathy Map & Problem Statement 

2. Feedback 

3. Reflection

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1. Task 1 : Empathy Map & Problem Statement 

Requirements : 

This group project aims for you to collaborate in multi-disciplinary groups to write creative briefs, create designs that fit the user experience of the project outcome and produce the prototypes or mock-ups for user-testing that suits the table-top game.

Progression : 

Understanding The Game -

In this module, we are tasked with designing high-fidelity mockups that include all components of a tabletop game — the cards, game board, packaging, and game manual. Our chosen game is The Gluconomy, an economy-meets-bioscience game originally created by our juniors from the previous semester.

For this redesign, I have teamed up with a group of talented classmates — Lin Si Yan, Chong Hui Yi, Ng Kar Yee, Lew Guo Ying, and Melvin Yung — with me, Winnie, serving as the team leader. Together, we aim to refine the visual and gameplay experience of The Gluconomy, ensuring it becomes more cohesive, engaging, and educational.

Fig 1.1 Team Members

We started by playing the original version of The Gluconomy, which Mr. Shamsul kindly brought to class. Through this hands-on session, we were able to experience the gameplay firsthand and identify several pain points that needed improvement. The main issues we encountered were related to the tokens, game board, and cards — the gameplay often felt cluttered, visually confusing, and disconnected from the scientific theme. This initial playtest gave us valuable insights to begin our Empathy Map and Problem Statement development.

Fig 1.2 Original Assets From The Game 

Empathy Stage - Research 

After identifying the initial issues from our gameplay session, we moved into the Empathize stage to better understand the users and define our design direction. Our group divided the work into clear tasks to ensure everyone contributed effectively:

1. Game Research (Overview of Tabletop Game Types)

• Task: Collected references of similar tabletop games — focusing on board and card games — to study their mechanics, packaging, and visual styles. Me, Yanny and Hui Yi will focus more on the cards ( including power cards, stock market ) while Guo Ying , Kar Yee and Melvin would focus more on the gameboard.

Fig 1.3 Reference For Cards

Fig 1.4 Reference & Research Game Board

2.  Target Audiences 

• Task:  Defining 2–3 target player types such as bioscience students, casual players, and competitive gamers.

• To ensure our direction aligned with the original game’s intent, we even consulted the original creators of The Gluconomy. They confirmed that their primary and initial target audience was indeed bioscience students, as the game was originally designed to help them better understand the process of glucose conversion to ATP in an interactive way. This confirmation helped us refine our personas and focus our redesign towards an audience seeking educational yet enjoyable gameplay.

3. Motivations & Pain Points (User Exploration) - Convenient Sampling

Since we did not have the physical card game on hand, we conducted convenient sampling by sharing visuals and gameplay explanations with two students — one from Biosciences and one from Design. We walked them through the concept, showing images of the game board, cards, and tokens, while explaining how The Gluconomy combines biology and economy. 

This approach allowed us to gather quick feedback on their first impressions, clarity of gameplay, and interest level. From their responses, we were able to understand what aspects appealed to them and what parts needed clearer visuals or stronger thematic connection for our empathy map.

From our empathy activities and convenient sampling, we discovered that both bioscience students and casual players found The Gluconomy concept interesting but identified several areas for improvement.

• Bioscience students appreciated the idea of learning glucose-to-ATP conversion through a game but found the existing visuals and gameplay unclear. They wanted stronger scientific accuracy, better visual storytelling, and a more structured flow to reinforce their learning.

• Casual players, on the other hand, were drawn to the pastel visuals and simple mechanics, but felt disconnected from the biological content. They preferred more intuitive gameplay and fun, relatable elements to keep them engaged.

Overall, players agreed that The Gluconomy has strong educational potential but needs a clearer link between science and play, a cohesive design identity, and better usability to make the experience both educational and enjoyable.

Fig 1.5 Convenient Sampling

3. Project Brief & Problem Statement

Based on these insights, we proceeded to craft our Design Brief and Problem Statement. The empathy findings helped us clearly define the direction of our redesign — focusing on creating a game that effectively bridges scientific learning and enjoyable gameplay.

Design Brief - 

We aim to redesign The Gluconomy — a bioscience and economy-themed tabletop game — into a high-fidelity, cohesive, and educational experience. The new design will feature improved visual identity, packaging, cards, tokens, and game manual, ensuring it reflects the concept of glucose-to-ATP conversion in a fun and approachable way. The goal is to make the game more engaging, scientifically meaningful, and user-friendly for both bioscience students and casual players.

Problem Statement - 

The existing version of The Gluconomy lacks visual cohesion, scientific clarity, and gameplay usability, causing confusion and weak player engagement. Current components such as the board, tokens, and cards feel disconnected from the glucose–energy theme and make it hard for players to stay immersed or learn effectively.

Therefore, our project focuses on revamping the visuals and structure of the game to better connect the bioscience (glucose-to-ATP process) and economic (resource management) elements — creating a balanced, interactive, and educational experience that enhances both understanding and enjoyment.

Empathy Stage - Define 

Concept & Theme Development : Moodboard & Art Direction

After completing our empathy mapping and identifying key pain points, we moved into the Define stage, where we began brainstorming our concept and theme direction for The Gluconomy. Our goal was to reimagine the game in a way that feels more engaging, educational, and character-driven, while maintaining the connection between bioscience and economy.

Concept : 

Our concept is to present The Gluconomy as a character-based educational game that visualizes how glucose converts into ATP through fun and strategic gameplay. Players act as “cells” who must collect, invest, and manage energy resources to stay balanced — similar to how the body maintains its metabolism.

We plan to introduce mascots and food characters to make the learning experience more relatable and visually appealing. Each food character represents different glucose levels — for example, high-glucose foods like candy and grapes increase the “energy market,” while low-glucose foods bring stability or balance.

Fig 1.6 Concept 

Color Palette : 

For our color palette, we chose soft pastel tones to reflect the approachable and educational nature of The Gluconomy. The pastel colors create a friendly, non-intimidating atmosphere that makes complex scientific concepts easier to understand and more enjoyable to interact with.

The palette includes gentle shades of mint green, peach, lavender, and sky blue, which symbolize energy, balance, and clarity — aligning with the game’s theme of glucose and ATP regulation. These colors also help reduce visual clutter, ensuring that the cards, tokens, and game board remain clear and visually cohesive during play.

Overall, the pastel approach enhances the character-driven style of the game, keeping it fun, modern, and accessible to both bioscience students and casual players.

Fig 1.7 Color Palette 

Typography : 

For our typography, we selected two complementary fonts that align with the playful yet educational tone of The Gluconomy.

• Your Doodle Font (Heading):
  This font was chosen for its handwritten, approachable style, giving the game a fun and friendly character. It reflects the casual and creative energy of our design, appealing to both students and casual players while maintaining readability in titles and headings.

• Naturalist Font (Body Text):
  Used for descriptions and gameplay instructions, this font has a soft handwritten flow that complements the doodle-style heading. It keeps the educational content approachable and human, reducing the formal, textbook-like feel often associated with science learning.

Together, these fonts create a cohesive, character-based visual identity that reinforces the game’s lighthearted and accessible theme — blending science with play.

Fig 1.8 Typography

Aligning With Original Creators : 

During this stage, we also had the opportunity to meet with the original creators of The Gluconomy to share our proposed theme and direction. They were thrilled with our idea of introducing a cute, pastel, and character-based design, as it aligned perfectly with their original intentions.

They also expressed excitement about our plan to incorporate more scientific elements and terminology, as the previous version leaned too heavily toward the economic aspect. This feedback validated our approach — confirming that our redesign not only enhances the game visually but also strengthens its educational purpose by restoring balance between science and strategy.

Final Task 1 Submission :

CDP Moodboard by Winnie Ho

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2. Feedback

Week 3 : 

Mr Shamsul is all good to go with our moodboard but he suggested to meet up with the original creators to discuss and understand their opinions. 

Week 4 : 

Good to submit , can start working on lofi prototypes

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3. Reflection

Experience:

Throughout this task, our team gained valuable experience in understanding how to approach a redesign process from both a user and creator perspective. Starting from playing the original version of The Gluconomy to conducting empathy mapping and user analysis, we learned the importance of identifying real pain points through direct engagement. Meeting the original creators also gave us meaningful insight into their design intentions and challenges, helping us shape our direction with greater clarity and respect for the original concept.

Observation:
We observed that many of the design and usability issues stemmed from a lack of visual hierarchy and thematic balance. While the original version had an engaging concept, it was visually cluttered and leaned more toward the economy side, leaving the scientific aspect underrepresented. Players, especially bioscience students, needed clearer visuals, better game flow, and more scientifically meaningful interactions to stay engaged and understand the learning objectives.

Findings:
From these observations, we concluded that the most effective way to improve The Gluconomy was to introduce stronger scientific connections while maintaining its playful tone. Our pastel, character-driven approach successfully bridges this gap — making the game more approachable for casual players while reinforcing biological learning for bioscience students. The creators’ positive feedback confirmed that our direction not only modernizes the visuals but also restores the balance between fun and education, aligning perfectly with the original learning intent.