Hue & Me:
A Board Game
DESIGN 1 | Fall 2023
Overview
Designed a board game for Stanford Students to connect with each other through deeper conversations and personal discussions.
Players draw cards and answer questions associated with six different emotions.
MATERIALS: Markers, highlighters, poster board, index cards, post-it notes, tape.
TIMELINE: 2 weeks
Components
1 playing board
1 card bank / discard pile board
60 “hue” cards
6 emotions (“hues”), 10 cards each
anger, joy, hope, nostalgia, sadness, fear
3 “modifier” cards per player
memory, curiosity, dissent
1 paper 6-sided die
6 game pieces
How to Play
0. Enter the game with an open mind.
1. Select a player to start. Roll the die and move the game piece the corresponding number of spaces forward on the board.
2. The player will land on a square of a specific color, which corresponds to the color of the card they should draw.
3. Draw the appropriate “hue” card and answer the prompt it contains.
4. The player may use their modifier cards before or after answering the prompt.
5. Repeat this process with all players, until a player reaches the end of the game board.
DESIGN PROCESS
I. Needfinding
Identifying the problem space
Problem
Stanford students (particularly freshmen) often have difficulty engaging in deeper conversations with their peers because these interactions are oftentimes awkward or uncomfortable to initiate.
User Needs
As time passes, students tend to become closed off to people outside of their friend groups, which limits their willingness to connect with new people.
For college students, the most common means of socialization (classes, parties, networking events, etc.) can often be superficial in nature.
Challenge
How might we increase the accessibility of safe spaces that encourage the development of deeper conversations and relationships year-round?
Statistics
College students who report feeling lonely are over 4 times more likely to experience severe psychological distress.
28.4% of students report feeling isolated from others, 23.1% report feelings of being left out, and 21% report lacking companionship.
User Research
i. Community Interviews
Interviewed 4 students across 4 different living situations at Stanford (frosh, sophomore, fraternity, EVGR).
Created three “personas” that summarize the various needs of students across campus.
ii. Creating Personas
iii. Generating HMWs
Generated “How Might We” questions (HMWs) targeted towards finding solutions to specific student needs.
Personas
Feedback fathered from the community is summarized below, distilled down into three main examples, or “personas.”
II. Ideation + Prototyping
i. Writing Prompts
To start, I thought about which emotions I most commonly speak to my close friends and family about.
Which emotions are most difficult to discuss? Which emotions should we share with people more often, rather than keeping them bottled inside of us?
In the process of writing the 60 prompts for the “hue” cards, I thought about what I wanted to know the most, and what I’ve been wanting to share, but never had the chance to.
Building a playable game
Sadness,
Happiness,
Anger,
Fear,
Hope,
Nostalgia.
6 emotions,
10 cards each.
ii. Physical Building
All components were made by hand.
Game board & card bank are hand-drawn and colored to match the backs of the “hue” cards (made from post-it notes and index cards cut into square cards).
Game pieces are tiny origami cranes – symbolic of hope, longevity, and good fortune in Japanese culture.
6-sided die is also made of paper (half to match the style of the game board, and half because I couldn’t find an actual die to use…)
iii. Testing
Tested the game with a group of 5 Stanford freshmen.
III. Final Presentation
Pitching the game!
Presented my game to students & staff at the Stanford d.school.
