Year
2021
Project type
Board Game
Skills
Game Design | Illustration
Introducing Barmeniz: a dynamic and thrilling bar simulation game, with luck and strategy intertwined. Step into the shoes of competing bartenders, master the art of drink preparation, fulfill orders, and emerge victorious. With its lively pace and engaging gameplay, Barmeniz is the perfect fit for a chill evening with friends or a lively party night. This project was a collaborative project with another designer, where we created, designed and produced a full card game.
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Through a thorough analysis of existing route planning apps and user interviews, the research identified that users were looking for more control over their routes and a more personalized approach to route planning.
To achieve this goal, the project had the following objectives:
Design a UI supporting and balancing different types of uses, allowing efficient daily use and full customization.
Provide users with additional data about their routes, improving their experience and giving them more control over their transportation choices.
The process began with a thorough analysis of existing route planning apps (Read more in CA research tab).Then, I conducted user interviews to gain insights into the pain points of the users and the problems of the existing solutions (Read more in Personas & User Flows tab).
The research concluded that most of the existing apps are limited in their ability to customize routes, leaving users with few options to optimize their route according to their preferences.
Daily use:
This is the basic, repetitive use of the app that is intended for everyday usage. It is designed to be efficient and quick, allowing users to quickly access the information they need, such as bus routes, schedules, and arrival times. This type of use is ideal for commuters or people who rely on public transportation on a regular basis, and need a quick way to plan a route.
Advanced use:
This is a more specific and customizable use of the app that allows users to plan and customize their routes. It is intended for users who want to make specific adjustments to their route according to their needs, plan combined routes or explore alternative options. This type of use is ideal for people who want more control over their route planning.
One of the main challenges was designing a user-friendly and intuitive interface that allows advanced route customization.
To solve this challenge, I introduced the route construction interface through a drag and drop function.Drag & drop makes the process of customization more intuitive and user-friendly, as it allows users to visually construct their route, provides users with a sense of control, and enhances the user experience by making the app more interactive and engaging.
Another main challenge was to design an app that caters to both daily uses and advanced uses. The app needs to provide a fast and efficient flow for daily/regular use, and a full customization flow for users who need to create a new route.
One of my approaches to solve this challenge is an initial onboarding stage, where users are asked to set their preferences on certain aspects of route planning. Using this data, the app is able to provide better and more personalized route suggestions, without the need for full customization, resulting in an efficient daily use experience.
The second approach to solve this challenge is the progressive disclosure approach, design that gradually reveals more information and features as needed, in order to prevent users from feeling overwhelmed. This technique can be used to support both novice and expert users, by providing a simple initial interface with advanced options available if needed.
In Yump, when a user searches for a route, they receive top suggested options based on their set preferences, as well as a tabs bar with general filtering options (Best option, fewest transfers, least walking). When a user wishes to further customize their route suggestions, they can select a suggested route and click "Edit". This leads to an advanced editing screen, enables users to easily construct their route by dragging & dropping, and adjusting various options.
One of the pain points I identified in relation to lack of control, is the lack of information provided to users about their routes.By providing users with more information, they can feel more in control of their decisions, and make educated choices when selecting from a few options.Which leads to another challenge - What information should the app provide, and how does it get that data?
Based on my research, I designed a set of features aimed at providing users with more diverse data about the routes.
These features included:
- Social data reports system: Live bus congestion level, Reliability of buses.
- Route live navigation and real-time arrival estimation
Live bus congestion levels
Based on a social report system, encouraging users who got on their bus to send live reports to help others, the app can provide real-time information about how full the bus is at a given time. Information that can help users who dislike very condensed bus environments choose a different route to their destination, or wait for the next bus.
Bus arrival reliability rates
Based on a social report system, encouraging users to send reports if a bus is running late or doesn't arrive at all, the app is able to provide information about how reliable a specific bus line is. Information that can help users choose a route that is more reliable over more efficient, to avoid the chance of the bus not arriving or being late.
that elevates the festival experience, capturing the attention and interest of the participants, while promoting environmental awareness and encouraging better habits, such as recycling and sustainability.
to support the needs of the participants during the festival, enriches their experience, and reinforces the event's eco-friendly approach by reducing printable materials.
To create a memorable experience for kids and their families, I began by developing a compelling theme and storyline for the festival. Drawing inspiration from various online computer games, I created an imaginary narrative centered around the planet of Laksy, together with unique characters I designed to help immerse participants in the story.
As an environmentally-conscious festival, I wanted to ensure that we minimize waste and reduce our ecological footprint as much as possible. With this in mind, I decided to create a mobile app that would serve as the primary point of interaction for participants. By offering features like the ability to purchase food and drinks, access the festival schedule, and get real-time updates on the activities and game progress, we could significantly reduce the need for printed guidance materials and minimize the overall impact. Additionally, I saw an opportunity to create a more immersive experience for the kids, who are often drawn to mobile games and digital interactions. By designing the app with a fun and engaging user interface, with features like points, leaderboard, team progress bar and more, I hoped to enhance their experience and deepen their engagement with the festival.
The main need points the app tackles are:
Onboarding upon arrival and introduction to the festival
Food and drinks purchase
Individual and team game progress tracking
Live guidance through the festival's games
Home page
Leader Board
Login
Onboarding
Food purchase flow
Drinks purchase flow
App Prototype
Festival Posters
Festival snacks & drinks packaging
Made from recyclable ecological plastic and paper.
Festival Flyers
Introduction Cards
Stickers & Visual assets
In the first part of the project, we had to come up with an idea and develop it. The choice of a bar simulation game was inspired by my experience working as a
barista, we felt like it could be a good base for a fun game as many people know and like drinks. The first step was to research about different drinks, recipes and ingredients, meanwhile we also did brainstorm sessions about the mechanics of the game.We decided to draw inspiration from previously successful light games, such as "Point Salad", "Exploding kittens" and more. As we decided on the base of the gameplay mechanic, we created a basic prototype in order to test the game.
There was a challenge in creating an easy game, but one that is not boring or too much based on luck, which is exactly what happened to us in the start.
To solve this issues, we decided to make some changes.
First, we added more strategy to the game, making the gameplay fun in early-game, mid-game and end-game, by introducing 2 types of drinks: POWER-UP drinks and TIPdrinks. POWER-UP drinks are easy to make and require only 1-2 ingredients, but they do not give you tips - which is what decides in the end who wins. Those drinks give the player that has them an ingredient that stays in their hand for the rest of the game, can be used without a limit and does not take up a place in their hand, a strategy making it easier to prepare drinks later in the game. TIP drinks are harder to make and require 4-5 ingredients, but they give you tip coins, which are necessary to win. Following this change, we also introduced a limit on the amount of drinks a player can make, making the decision whether to use the available spots for Power-up drinks or for TIP drinks harder and a main part of the strategy.
The next challenge we were facing was the bar experience, the game was working, but something did not click. We understood that we had to dive deeper in order to make this game feel more like an actual bar simulation, and not just a card game pretending to be. Using existing mechanics we integrated visual elements like an order stand, small cup and mug sculptures and a standing menu. On top of that, we added a few mechanics to make it feel like a "real bar". First, Cups and mugs return dirty after usage, and need to be washed in order to be reused. In addition, "Water" is a card that can appear among the POWER-UP drinks as an order, water glasses are a big struggle for barmen in the real world. Drawing a "Water" card will require the player to prepare it and block him from making any other drinks until he completes it. The player can also choose to "forget" it (just like in the real world), and receive the penalty of -1 to his tips.
After finalizing the mechanics of the game, we continued to the design part.
We wanted to design a game that will stand out from the rest, while most board/card games are very colorful and saturated with detail, we wanted to make something
different. The design language of the game is based on colorful vector based icons, in order to create a clean and minimalistic look. The color palette of the game was
narrowed down to shades of yellow, orange, green - turquoise and brown, to maintain a colorful attractive feel together with aesthetic neatness.
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© 2023 by Heli Markman