Food Trek is a multiplayer game with both vertical and side scrolling elements, meant to model Food Apartheid, in which players must balance their nutrition and budget as they catch foods. More commonly referred to as food deserts, in recent years several scholars have taken to dubbing these locals as having been affected by food apartheid, to reflect the purposeful structuring of food insecure zones. Food insecurity is an issue affecting 23.5 million people in America alone.
UX CASE STUDY · PHYSICAL PROTOTYPE · SOCIAL IMPACT
A multiplayer walk up and play game that teaches players about food insecurity—modeling the factors that create food deserts and affect those who live within them.
ROLE
Lead Game Designer | Interaction Designer | User Researcher
PROJECT DURATION
10 Weeks
TEAM SIZE
4 Members
94%
of Players (n=31) understood Food Trek
94%
of Players found the experience impactful
80%
of Players (n=31) visited website
CASE STUDY PROCESS
From a social condition to a shared play experience.
A guided path through the decisions that transformed food apartheid research into a walk-up multiplayer game, embodied controls, and an experience built to prompt conversation.
01 / FRAMING
Food apartheid, not personal failure
02 / GAME SYSTEM
Make inequality felt through play
03 / EMBODIED PLAY
Controllers that made access physical
IDEATION
Constraints
Walk-up and play games should require minimal or no set up by players. The experience should not require extensive instructions and players should be readily able to understand controls, concepts, and goals. The game experience should also be able to conclude in ~10 mins.
01
Novel Input Controllers
At least one input controller must incorporate an Adafruit CPX unit running novel code for input
02
Multiplayer
Players should be able to play at the same time or ‘simultaneous multiplayer’ as opposed to ‘asynchronous multiplayer’
03
AI-Assisted Coding
As a team we were to use, and extensively document our interactions with AI tools to help code our game in JavaScript
IDEATION
My team pitched game concepts based around different social impact causes or needs. After exploring concepts we used the dot voting method to affinitize and select potential social impact causes after multiple rounds of down-selection.
ONE SYSTEM
The Biases Within all of Us
MANY ENTRY POINTS
The Realities of Food Deserts
Light-ly Biased
Players must work together and use clues and exploration to match a “bias” description card with an illustrated scenario card.
Gamified search-and-match process promotes players' ability to recognize internal biases
Metaphorical representation of cards hidden on the screen signifies that biases are 'hidden' in plain sight
Collaborative nature of game in hopes to normalize conversations on bias
Metaphorically and literally “shining a light” on bias
Priority Tug-O-War
Players use one of three controllers to balance health, time, and money. Challenging the notion that poor health and eating habits signify character flaws.
Aimed at addressing the stigma around nutrition insecurity
We debated on the objective based on the potential implications on players if the experience was competitive vs collaborative
We struggled to highlight many of the inequalities and factors that contribute to food deserts
IDEATION
At this stage we conducted concept evaluations and continued desk research to focus on the impact and takeaway message we hoped to impart on players.
01 /
Food Apartheid
As opposed to naturally occurring deserts experts have begun to label 'Food Deserts' as 'Food Apartheid' helping to depict their intentional and systemic nature.
02 /
Redlining
The loss of nutritious food access perpetuated by major chain supermarkets deliberately pulling store locations out of inner-city or low-income neighborhoods.
03 /
Local Connection
Seattle's own food deserts were an opportunity for our game to feature different local neighborhoods; to the delight of many of our players.
ITERATION
Our
Priority Tug-o-War
Focused on the controllers and trying to capture the ‘fun’ element. Players felt a low depth or connection to nutrition insecurity possibly due to lacking a sense of gameplay narrative
Falling Foods
While constructing storyboards I was reminded of an old flash game where the goal was to collect artifacts that fell from the sky. After a few attempts I set out to do a mock-up using Figma for rapid prototyping. I Incorporated a plate controller motif and generated a Seattle backdrop, character, and food sprites using DALL-E.
We explored different forms of physical controllers, initially experimenting with a spinning plate to dictate the on screen character's movement direction. Ultimately, we selected two controllers that emphasized the physical aspect of moving a character from left to right, playing with more simple motions of bodily shuffle and bodily tilt as our main mechanisms of gameplay.
Foot Pad Controller
A low-fidelity controller designed to look like a road, featuring two elevated buttons on each side of the pathway. Players shuffle from side to side, pressing the buttons to navigate the avatar left or right. The physical movement is meant to simulate the physical labor of acquiring nutritious foods WoZ Setup: Cables were taped to the undersides of the buttons and extended to the TV to give the appearance of functionality.
Balance Board Controller
A wooden balance board designed for players to sit and control by placing their feet on it. Shifting weight left or right moves the avatar in those directions on the screen. The tilt function of the Balance Board offers an opportunity to explore a more fluid method of input and the seated setup is more accessible WoZ Setup: A CPX, connected to a battery pack, was secured underneath the balance board to simulate activation and input
ITERATION
We decided to simplify the interface by eliminating the time bar and introducing a dynamic nutrition bar to encourage active player engagement. By designing the game as a comparative experience each player engages independently while playing simultaneously; encouraging discussions and a deeper understanding of the disparities between each neighborhood for both players.
CONCEPT ITERATION
Concept Evaluation
To test the initial concept of our game in addition to the feasibility between our two low-fidelity controller concepts we conducted Wizard of Oz (WoZ) testing. I served as the primary interviewer during this round of testing.
1
Most participants felt the balance board controller was 'easier' and may be more accessible for those who cannot stand for long periods
6
All participants preferred the foot pad controller and felt it greater embodied our message around nutrition insecurity
1
Debugged code, including food all falling at once during round start or character sprites not turning directionally when players move
REFINED CONCEPT
Players take turns playing each round before switching to the other. This sequence allows players to observe and understand the differences between the two game environments. The aim of this side-by-side multiplayer setup is to promote dialogue between players by having them transition between a nutrition-abundant and nutrition-scarce neighborhood, but keeping the overall game mechanics the same.
Food Abundant
Players have a large budget and healthier food options are more prevalent throughout the round; mirroring the access to healthy food options found in abundant areas.
Foot pedals are mounted just outside of shoulder width, giving the player more access to the controls and decreasing the effort of acquiring food.
Food Apartheid
Players have a much smaller budget in addition to having low rates of moderately healthy foods and no high nutrition foods. Modeling the external difficulty of both staying nutritious and maintaining a budget in food inaccessible areas.
Pedals are mounted much further apart forcing the user to work harder to acquire food.
We explored different forms of physical controllers, initially experimenting with a spinning plate to dictate the on screen character's movement direction. Ultimately, we selected two controllers that emphasized the physical aspect of moving a character from left to right, playing with more simple motions of bodily shuffle and bodily tilt as our main mechanisms of gameplay.
Controller Onboarding
Due to our platforms having slightly varied setups for the controller mounting we integrated the onboarding into the controls for navigating the onboarding screens.
Grounding Players
To encourage players to start considering food availability in each area before jumping into the gameplay experience we provided a legend and map during onboarding User Feedback: Our first map had pins that were identical besides color and lacked a legend so players struggled to identify the disparity in available choices
To help reinforce and support our experience we created a few methods to ground players both physically and geographically.To model the difference in how difficult it is to attain the right food choices in food insecure areas we mounted the pedals at different distances for each experienceWe created a border for each play area that modeled the Seattle skyline, this was meant to help ground our users' experience from the moment they stepped up onto the platform
Mid-Fidelity Controllers and Frame
We integrated a small balloon to provide a fluid feel and enable a more nuanced tactile feedback when the pedal is pressed
We also encased the play area within a city-frame constructed from foam core in order to ground players in the city of Seattle
Hi-Fidelity Controllers and Frame
4 CPX units were used, each connected to a button embedded in a foot pedal via soldered conductive wire. A long press resulted in continuous movement, while a short press initiated a single step.
We explored different forms of physical controllers, initially experimenting with a spinning plate to dictate the on screen character's movement direction. Ultimately, we selected two controllers that emphasized the physical aspect of moving a character from left to right, playing with more simple motions of bodily shuffle and bodily tilt as our main mechanisms of gameplay.
Usability Testing
After we built the controllers and coded the full game we conducted Usability Testing ahead of our public showcase to evaluate:
Do players understood the onboarding, mechanics, and message?
How effectively does our game modeled Food Apartheid?
Measuring Impact
To provide a deeper impact without overloading players with text in-game, we created an external site for Food Trek. The site has information, resources, and organizations for players. We are also able to track the websites' metrics and provide updated information on food apartheid.
Informing Players
By creating a companion site for Food Trek, users can not only take away a memento of their experience but are connected to the resources in their area they can make use of. Exemplifies how Food Trek can be a model to help combat local food insecurity in varying areas
STYLE GUIDE
Theme
My inspiration for the aesthetic was a 90's arcade feel. Reminiscent of a 16/32-bit game. I wanted players of all ages to be engaged and able to comprehend both the gameplay and narrative elements.
Setting
When creating the backdrops I made guidelines to prevent negative or stereotypical depictions of food insecure areas. I kept a log of dialogue trees in order to make a cohesive art style.
Sprites & Graphics
Using DALL-E, I prompted for hundreds of different sprite sheets. A combination of Figma and Photoshop were used to isolate, combine, and edit sprite sheets into walking animations and final game sprites
REFLECTION
Over the course of bringing Food Trek to life we encountered many challenges. Aside from the code one of the more intricate challenges was imparting an understanding of the underlying variables that contribute to nutrition insecurity, to a diverse audience, while maintaining the games aesthetic and simple controls. Given the chance to make a Version 2.0 I would:
