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

22.9.2025 - 24.10.2025 || Week 1 - Week 5
Yong Zhen Xing || 0359473
Design Collaborative Practice || Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Empathy Map & Problem Statement

---

Contents

1. Instructions

2. Task 1 : Empathy Map & Problem Statement
        Final Outcome

3. Feedback

4. Reflection

---

Instructions

---

Task 1 : Empathy Map & Problem Statement

For our task 1, we needed to have a empathy map alongside a problem statement as part of our planning for our board game redesign. To do that, we first need to identify our user personas as that would dictate what people should be expect in a board game and whether the current version of the selected board game looked interesting enough to further develop. Throughout our progression of this project, our expected final outcome is to produce a full board game that showcases good visual and physical design alongside have a good user experience.

For our first week, we were briefed on what to expect and what we are going to do for the module. We also needed to find members to be grouped up with. After selecting our group members, we were then given 2 different board games from past students to look into and decide which to make into a proper board game. The 2 board games were called 'Sugar High' and 'Gluconomy'.

After discussing among group members, we decided on 'Gluconomy'. Just as a reference we also took pictures of the game pieces and rules which can be seen below.

fig 1.1, The Rulebook For 'Gluconomy' (26/9/2025)

fig 1.2, Game Tokens (26/9/2025)

fig 1.3, Game Cards [Power Cards & ATP Cash] (26/9/2025)

fig 1.4, Game Board (26/9/2025)

Gluconomy Gameplay/Concept :

To be as concise as possible about how the game plays, it is a combination of strategy and luck to win the game. Players need to manage their currency and cash wisely through placing their glucose token on certain areas of the board to have it potentially increase or decrease. The first person to convert 18 of their glucose token to ATP (cash), they win.

Discussion : 
In the first class that we have, we as a group looked through the instructions to understand the game properly. We also passed around the game for other group members to look at. As we were short on time, only a group managed to play the game. My group just watched them play to get an idea on how the game would play. 

Afterwards, we discussed on what kind of idea and designs we could go for. While we did not really know at the time, we decided to just work on it through our Miro board over the week.

We were to, do a bit of documentation, looks into more colour palettes and references, as well as have some logo sketches. I decided to work on a logo sketch for the game. Below shows one design that I made.

First I looked into cartoony fonts in DaFont and found the font below. As it was a board game, I wanted to ensure that the font I chose has a playful aesthetic.

fig 2.1, Original Font Selection 'Kalufira' (7/10/2025)

Using that font, I then changed it to match the title more. For the design, I focused more on the word 'economy'. I altered the combination of 'L' and 'U' and added an up arrow to show like an economic graph. The letter 'O' also has been changed to give a more playful look to it. Lastly the letter 'C' and 'Y' has been altered to indicate the some of the currency symbols such as Euros and Yen. While euros is the letter 'E', I feel as if it works in this concept.

fig 2.2, Font Edit (7/10/2025)

I then experimented a bit more with the layout and design of the logo. I then tested the design with some colour scheme from our moodboard as well as my own. 

fig 2.3, B&W Logo Design (7/10/2025)

fig 2.4, Colour Experimenting (7/10/2025)

fig 2.5, Design File (7/10/2025)

Below shows our moodboard progress for week 1 and 2.

fig 2.6, Week 1 & 2 Miro Board (10/10/2025)

After receiving feedback we continuously worked on our theme and idea. Below shows the moodboard for week 3. For the upcoming week, we needed to find 3 user personas and also work on the slides. Because of that reason, we came up with several questions to interview people which can be seen below.

fig 3.1, Week 4 Miro Board (17/10/2025)

Questions For Interview :

Background

1. Have you played any forms of board game?

2. What kind of board games do you usually play/are interested in?

3. What’s your favorite board game of all time?

4. What if we made a game related to Bioscience, would you be interested to learn/play?

Questions About The Game

1. Do you understand what the instruction of the game is?

2. Do you think the designs of the game helps you understand the game?

3. Would you think having better design will attract you or more players to play the games?

Closing Question

1. Do you prefer a more strategic or luck base board game?

2. Do you think this board game can educate children?

3. What makes you come back for a board game?

After coming up with the questions, we then worked on finding people to interview as well as finishing the presentation slides. Our time schedule was also tight because we were all busy with our other work, but we basically had 2 days to finish the interviews as well as the slides. Fig 1.4 shows the final presentation slides.

Final Outcome 

Empathy Map Presentation Slides :

fig 4.1, Final Empathy Map Presentation Slides (24/10/2025)

Back to Top ↑

---

Feedback

Week 1 : No feedback.

Week 2 : No class.

Week 3 : Work on discovering your colour palettes. The research is a good start for board game design. Do not work on design just yet. 

Week 4 : The idea and theme is good but keep working on it for now, For the full board game, it doesn't need to be a full board but must at the very least cover everything about it.

Week 5 (After Presentation) : The target audience can be finalized from aged 18-21. Since you have done the 3 interview from different players, this would be good to utilize their thoughts and opinions of board games to the fullest. When redesigning your game, "Gluconomy", you would need find a balance between the bioscience part as well as the economy part. Make sure it isn't leaning to one side only. The next goal in the project will be deciding on your art direction and then beginning on the designing aspect. 

Back to Top ↑

---

Reflection

This first task has been quite a strange and funny one as the entire class were working on the design aspect immediately rather than focusing on the empathy map or finding users personas for 4 weeks. So we all were too far ahead of what we were supposed to actually do. That being said, my reflection will be based on what we did for 5 weeks. In the first week of learning and understanding the given board game, it was pretty interesting to see what past year students could come up with while making it the game educational in the process. As someone slowly discovering and playing board games such as Ticket To Ride, Fantastic Factories, Citadels and Elder Sign, it was kind of a breath of fresh air to see a game that is more education related. While we also didn't play the game, just from reading the rulebook of the game, I can tell that it is likely a fun game. Working on the logo design was also very fun and enjoyable. Since I have went to board game cafes, I know that it is extremely important to have a striking logo so that people have interest in playing your game. Personally, I think my logo design gives a very simple yet playful idea on what the game will be about. Although it is not even with the bioscience and economy distribution, I plan to work on evening out both sides of the idea. As it's just a draft/idea for now, and we finally have a theme selected, I hope to come up with a more interesting logo design as we continue to progress. Lastly, as for the interview and slides, we as a group try to think on what kind of question we could ask to players/users just from looking at the "Gluconomy" rulebook. As we couldn't change the gameplay, we made sure the question were more related to the design, understanding their preference, as well as replayability. After gathering their input, we then put everything into a slide and finally present it. My part of the presentation was also terrible, therefore if there's another one coming up, I hope to be more ready next time.

Back to Top ↑

---

My Other Design Collaborative Practice Work:

Task 1 : Empathy Map & Problem Statement (Current)

Task 2 : Ideate New Solution

Task 3 : Prototyping & Testing

Final Project : Final Presentation