Background

In summer, 2010, Normative partnered with the Mobile Experience Innovation Center (MEIC) at the Ontario College of Art and Design to undertake a research and product development project. That product became Red Rover: a real-time location-based multiplayer game, developed using applied Design Research and Prototyping Techniques, and designed to investigate the crossroads of human movement and mobile interactions in an urban environment.

Challenge

MEIC was looking for a partner to conduct research and development for an interactive product that would not only develop Canadian expertise in interactive design, but also provide a usable code-base and interaction pattern library that other designers and developers could build off of.

Project Components

The first phase of the project was an extensive Design Research phase to gain understanding about peoples’ interactions with mobile devices. Using ethnographic primary research, we were able to identify patterns in how people use their mobile devices. With these insights, we began testing different types of children’s games to understand which ones might translate to the mobile platform. We settled on Red Rover, a simple game that allowed us to explore location-based data collection, geo fences and other real-world gaming possibilities.

We undertook three rounds of Prototyping, including User-Testing in urban environments, to understand how well our designs were meeting our users’ expectations and desires. This rapid-prototyping helped us to develop and discard various gameplay and interaction designs based on real user feedback.

Over the course of the summer, Normative Labs developed the back end of the Red Rover application to capture a real-time data set of participant movements through a city, an instantly understandable user interface for gameplay, and a marketing site and campaign to help spread the word about Red Rover.

Solution

Red Rover was a great success for both Normative and the MEIC. The insights related to mobile-users’ behaviours and desires enabled us to develop an experience that extends beyond simple check-ins and badges of other location-based games, providing users with a richer experience.