Realms at Your Fingertips
"How might we improve collaboration efficiency & world building experience through better information architecture"
How the story begin?
"In the summer of 2023, I was helping one of my friends to prepare their TRPG stage setting. During this period, I had the opportunity to observe the complete creative process of other creators for a long time, and I realized that story creation is personalized and stylized. For people who want their narration powerful or have desire to change/improve. I can't help but think: What kind of schemes can help creators share design and ideas across teammates, making sure the designs are seen, and encourage collaboration."
Why it’s so hard to solve the problem?
This field is challenging for many reasons:
First, creation is a private and personal process. Even after a long period of observation and research, there are still many creative modes and types that I do not understand. Second, Individuality and diversity are the characteristics of creators. When an individual spends a lot of time in the field of creativity, it is difficult for one to communicate and express at the same time.
If the obstructions could be removed by the power of designers, this worth trying! But before we moving to the development stage, we need to have a clearer view of the real situation, which is also known as "Define the question" or "Research Questions":
First, what are the essential functions & features are required for an ideal world-building tool? Second, How others build their worlds from 0 to 1? What pain points and challenges they have encountered? Third, What world-building solutions already exist? What're their advantages and disadvantages?
First, creation is a private and personal process. Even after a long period of observation and research, there are still many creative modes and types that I do not understand. Second, Individuality and diversity are the characteristics of creators. When an individual spends a lot of time in the field of creativity, it is difficult for one to communicate and express at the same time.
If the obstructions could be removed by the power of designers, this worth trying! But before we moving to the development stage, we need to have a clearer view of the real situation, which is also known as "Define the question" or "Research Questions":
First, what are the essential functions & features are required for an ideal world-building tool? Second, How others build their worlds from 0 to 1? What pain points and challenges they have encountered? Third, What world-building solutions already exist? What're their advantages and disadvantages?
KEY FACTS
As one of the "SENSE INTENT" design methods in Vijay Kumar's 101 Design Methods, "KEY FACTS" is ideal for gathering key information to anchor the rationale for an intent statement.
Brief bullet points outlining the steps I took according to “KEY FACTS” design method:
STEP 1: Define the general topic.
Narrow down topics, users, benefits
Narrow down topics, users, benefits
STEP 2: Identify sources of credible information about the topic.
Market statistics, Creator observations
Market statistics, Creator observations
STEP 3: Cast a wide net and conduct research.
GDC, Documentaries
GDC, Documentaries
STEP 4: Organize information by type.
Information processing strategies, essentials, elements, insights, and relationships
Information processing strategies, essentials, elements, insights, and relationships
STEP 5: Summarize the Key Facts into a coherent rationale.
"To identify creators’ difficulty & pain points, we need a meticulous observe of the creation process."
PERSONA "The Director"
"The Director" is sophisticated in different ways of cooperation, including short-term to 5 years long project, with groups scale ranging from 2 to 20.
He is approaching to lead a large-scale, interdisciplinary project that will involve a team of 15 individuals. This project spans five months and is focused on creating an immersive cultural festival celebrating the diversity of a region. The director is excited about the creative potential of this project, given their expertise in stage design and scenario creation.
He is approaching to lead a large-scale, interdisciplinary project that will involve a team of 15 individuals. This project spans five months and is focused on creating an immersive cultural festival celebrating the diversity of a region. The director is excited about the creative potential of this project, given their expertise in stage design and scenario creation.
What’s he good at?
He is skilled in controlling the general scenarios, and he is good at putting structuralism method in stage design to maximize the potential of the participants. Unwilling to set goals for creators, he encourages all collaborators to design their own position and target.
What’s getting in his way?
He had to spent a great amount of time archiving or documenting information. He also had a hard time when trying to sort out space or geography related things. The tools could help him with repetitive works, summarize information in a visualized way and share his design flow with his co-creators. He will be the Superior Admin of his own world; any co-creator's post need to be examined and reviewed by him. A map with ability to show dynamic things will also be useful for visualization.
OBSERVED RESULTS
Here I take Director’s scenes user journey as an example, showing what we get from the early stage of observation.
Scene 1: project initiation - assembling the team
Scene 1: project initiation - assembling the team
Bright spots: excitement about the creative potential, expertise in stage design.
Pain spots: time spent archiving and documenting information.
This moment matters because: setting the right tone for the project is crucial.
Measurement: measure the time spent on archiving and documentation to identify improvements.
Scene 2: planning the project
Bright spots: skill in controlling general scenarios.
Pain spots: difficulty sorting out space and geography-related aspects.
This moment matters because: project planning is the foundation for success.
Measurement: track the time and challenges faced while sorting out space and geography.
Scene 3: Collaborative Design Phase
Bright Spots: Encouraging collaborators to design their own positions and targets.
Pain Spots: Balancing diverse creative inputs and ensuring coherence.
This Moment Matters Because: It sets the collaborative tone and direction.
Measurement: Measure the number of new generated design inputs and their alignment with the project's goals.
Scene 4: Tool Utilization
Bright Spots: Using the world-building tool to streamline repetitive work, summarize information visually, and facilitate collaboration.
Pain Spots: Potential learning curve for the new tool.
This Moment Matters Because: Efficiency and collaboration are enhanced through tool usage.
Measurement: Emotion and track the time saved through tool usage and user satisfaction.
Scene 5: Collaboration and Review
Bright Spots: Director as the Superior Admin reviewing collaborators' contributions.
Pain Spots: Balancing autonomy with the need for directorial review.
This Moment Matters Because: Quality control and alignment with the project vision are essential.
Measurement: Feelings of the time taken for directorial review and feedback.
Scene 6: Visualization and Mapping
Bright Spots: Using a map with dynamic features for visualization.
Pain Spots: Ensuring the map accurately represents the project's spatial aspects.
This Moment Matters Because: It aids in creating an immersive cultural festival.
Measurement: Assess the accuracy and effectiveness of the map's visualization.
"Upon meticulous observation of personas' diverse needs in world-building, a comprehensive competitive analysis was conducted to glean valuable insights and distill best practices, ensuring the synthesis of user-centric features and optimal design elements in crafting the World-building experience."
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
1. Mapping Tool (Inkarnate):
Advantages:
User-Friendly: Known for its ease of use and user-friendly interface, making it accessible to a wide range of users.
Rich Visuals resources : Offers a wide variety of map design options and assets, allowing for the creation of visually appealing maps even for beginners.
Disadvantages:
Limited Collaboration: Inkarnate is primarily a mapping tool and lacks robust collaboration features, which may be essential for group projects.
Narrow Focus: It is primarily focused on map creation and may lack comprehensive world-building features.
2. Collaboration Documents (Google Docs and Tencent Docs):
Advantages:
Real-Time Collaboration: Both offer crosse-devices & real-time collaboration, making it easy for teams to work together from different locations.
Version Control: They provide version history and document recovery features.
Disadvantages:
Limited World-Building Features: Not specifically designed for world-building and lack features for organizing complex media content or relationships.
Privacy Concerns: Tencent Docs may raise privacy concerns for some users due to its association with Tencent.
3. World Building Tool (World Anvil):
Advantages:
Comprehensive World-Building Features: Born for world-building and offers extensive features for creating detailed settings, characters, and plots.
Collaboration Tools: It includes collaborative features for co-creating and sharing worlds with other community members.
Accessibility: Quick effective menu.
Disadvantages:
Complexity: Richness of features result in a steeper learning curve for new users.
Pricing: Some advanced features require a paid subscription, which can be a drawback for budget-conscious users.
4. Campaign Management Tool (Scabard):
Advantages:
Focused on Campaign Management: Designed specifically for managing TRPG campaigns, differentiated roles, making it well-suited for this niche.
Character and Plot Tracking: It excels in tracking characters and plots within the context of campaigns.
NO ADS!
Disadvantages:
Too Focused: Its focus on RPG campaigns may limit its broader world-building utility.
Complexity: Users unfamiliar with tabletop RPGs may find its features less intuitive, bad mobile UI fitness.
5. Group Work Software (Notion):
Advantages:
Versatility: Notion is highly versatile, allowing users to create custom databases, wikis, and collaborative workspaces for various purposes.
Ease of Use: It offers a user-friendly interface and a wide range of templates for different use cases.
Disadvantages:
Requires Setup: Notion may require more initial setup to tailor it to specific world-building needs.
Pricing: Some advanced features may require a paid subscription.
6. World Building App (Legendkeeper):
Advantages:
Rich World-Building Features: Designed for comprehensive world-building with features like maps, timelines, and linked articles.
Ease of Use: Dark mode with nice mobile UI fitness.
Disadvantages:
Limited Collaboration: It may lack robust real-time collaboration features, making it less suitable for group work.
Pricing: Some advanced features may require a paid subscription, relatively short free trial period.
"Following the extensive competitive analysis of prominent world-building tools, secondary research further enriched our understanding, enabling a comprehensive synthesis of key facts and insights to inform the rationale behind our innovative approach.
Secondary Research Findings
Focus: The use of space and architecture in video games, and how it can enhance world-building in cognitive ways.
The speech emphasizes how architecture can create authentic and immersive experiences. My world-building tool should enable users to infuse authenticity into their virtual worlds. This could involve providing a range of architectural elements, materials, and design principles that help users create immersive and believable settings.
The speech highlights that architectural design can tell stories without the need for words. Consider incorporating features into my tool that allow users to weave narratives through the environment. This might include the ability to add clues, foreshadowing elements, and design details that enrich the storytelling within the virtual world.
Unique impressive architectures in video games have the power to evoke emotions in players, creating memorable and valuable scenes. Those architectural cues can make virtual spaces easily recognizable and meaningful. My tool can include design elements that help users create distinctive and remarkable scenes or locations within their worlds.
Focus: the advantages of using concise, visually appealing one-page designs in the gaming industry as a more effective alternative to traditional one.
The speech underscores the significance of visual aids in conveying complex ideas efficiently. I could prioritize visual elements, such as maps, diagrams, and infographics, to enhance users' ability to communicate and understand intricate world-building concepts. For example, I could offer an intuitive hexagon map builder that simplifies the representation of complex fantasy worlds or settings.
The speech emphasizes the challenges and benefits of collaboration in the gaming industry. My tool can draw inspiration from these ideas by incorporating features that facilitate team collaboration, such as real-time editing and comment tracking, ensuring that world-building projects progress smoothly.
The speech highlights how one-page designs help designers quickly identify and address complex problems by visually representing relationships and concepts. My world-building tool can incorporate features that enable users to create visual problem-solving aids, like flowcharts or relationship diagrams, to enhance their ability to resolve intricate world-building challenges. For instance, users could map out complex political structures in their fantasy realms, helping them understand and refine their worlds more effectively.
Focus: the importance of creating authentic and immersive worlds through the careful integration of geography, cartography, cultural representations, and logical consistency.
The speech underscores the significance of geography and cartography in shaping game worlds. My world-building tool could incorporate robust mapping features, allowing users to view detailed and realistic landscape layers that enhance the overall gaming experience. For instance, I can offer tools for terrain generation, climate mapping, and the placement of significant geographic features.
Logical consistency is vital for creating believable game worlds. My tool could assist users in maintaining logical consistency by offering features that allow them to set and enforce rules within their world. I might provide a rule-checking function to offer an option for designers to see what geological phenomenon would happen in a certain area with higher probability. This might bring the elements in the world adhere to consistent principles, but this part is more for aesthetic design direction or logical stylization.
Potential issues that may arise from hidden or controversial content within games. My tool could incorporate content review and sensitivity-checking mechanisms, identifying elements that might be deemed offensive or problematic while the draft is saved. For instance, the tool could have a built-in “auto review” feature that scans for culturally sensitive symbols or language, ensuring admins are aware of such content and can make informed decisions about its inclusion.
Brandon Sanderson discusses the importance of worldbuilding in science fiction and fantasy writing. He emphasizes the role of tension in stories, and shares examples of how to effectively worldbuilding using character flaws and limitations, magic costs, and sensorium.
He also discusses the importance of worldbuilding and explains how worldbuilding can be used to enhance the story, characters, and plot. He also discusses the dangers of worldbuilder's disease and how to avoid it. I collected many insights from his lectures:
Keep it simple and focus on the best ideas.
Before adding, extend the existing ones.
Character-centered narrative, driven by purpose.
Have the most effective and concise conversations.
Abstract and concrete pyramids:“When a concept is passed, abstract ideas always feel very similar (Sanderson).”
Pay attention to "show and tell", show is enough, and use as few words as possible.
Keep it simple and focus on the best ideas.
Before adding, extend the existing ones.
Character-centered narrative, driven by purpose.
Have the most effective and concise conversations.
Abstract and concrete pyramids:“When a concept is passed, abstract ideas always feel very similar (Sanderson).”
Pay attention to "show and tell", show is enough, and use as few words as possible.
For large or abstract things, use concrete examples to illustrate them.
Focus on the character's motivations and be specific if necessary.
The motivations articulated by deep characters are usually secondary or pseudo-motivations.
Dynamic character goals change as the plot progresses.
The main purpose, or core purpose, is the last bullet a character has left for himself.
Focus on the character's motivations and be specific if necessary.
The motivations articulated by deep characters are usually secondary or pseudo-motivations.
Dynamic character goals change as the plot progresses.
The main purpose, or core purpose, is the last bullet a character has left for himself.
IDEATION (TRPG Prototyping)
After the research above, I learned how difficult it is to decide to be a creator and work hard at it. I feel the world might not ready for creators. But that is fine, I am not a “world changer” either. As an interaction designer, I just want to return the joy of creation back to the creators. So, I started designing a playful way for prototyping, allowing easily started creation and attractive user testing. With the help of "Role-Play Ideation" and "SWOT Analysis" from Kumar's Design Methods, I feel confident and passionate.
Based on the information I gained from the previous researches, I found the basic functions that a world building tool should maintain and summarize them into 7 anthropopathic roles as the following ones:
The Tabletop Role-Playing Game (TRPG) prototype initiates with a pivotal decision, granting users the option to assume the roles of either a traveler or a designer. The user testing mechanism is designed to be asynchronous, facilitating interaction among participants across different time zones through the TRPG prototype. Narrative progression in the TRPG is centered around characters, and the designer's decisions in character assignment result in dynamic, frequency-based reports, enhancing user immersion and engagement with the storytelling experience.
For participants who decided to be designer first, they will be given a rich geography information, add no more than 3 new elements to the existing roles. They will be encourages to give detailed design for each character, adding possible condition, event, or challenges too! At the end of this project, we have 7 users submitted their designed town and 5 of them was tested by other participants who played as travelers. All designers have created unique towns in creative ways, and the following graphic assets show how they have made it through architecture, topography, heraldry, creatures, and more.
For participants who decided to be traveler first, they need to design their character with 6 skill points, one primary goal and one secondary goal. But there are always more than one way to achieve their goal. And enjoy ones journey is more important! They will be encouraged to give as much detailed design for one's character as needed, like adding possible equipment, facility, or pets too! They will also have a "listener" on their side to help them to get out of trouble.
During their journey, I will be their game host and using AI as an assistant. Inspired by SWOT analysis model, I designed an AI responding matrix. Like the following graph shows, this trained AI model will analyze the player's actions, facts, and background information I've relayed to determine how the relevant NPC will react. This model responds quickly and naturally. In the meantime, it also brings a lot of drama to the experience of the participants! At the end of this project, 12 participants have been in this fantasy world. Merchant, warrior, adventurer, speculator, knight, scholar... All kinds of characters.
During their journey, I will be their game host and using AI as an assistant. Inspired by SWOT analysis model, I designed an AI responding matrix. Like the following graph shows, this trained AI model will analyze the player's actions, facts, and background information I've relayed to determine how the relevant NPC will react. This model responds quickly and naturally. In the meantime, it also brings a lot of drama to the experience of the participants! At the end of this project, 12 participants have been in this fantasy world. Merchant, warrior, adventurer, speculator, knight, scholar... All kinds of characters.
Side story:
Scenario: Player D trying to convince the guard Senia to join his team.
This flintlock pistol, by its nature, is a compact and discreet weapon, and the version you're wielding is crafted by the Andos Workshop. This particular type, similar to the ones used by the Shampic foot knights, is one of the contemporary's most advanced firearms.
With a subtle movement, you turn around and, in a burst of deafening gunfire, there's no exposure of the firearm itself. Only splinters of sparks ascending into the heavens betray the bullets' path. A prolonged wail cleaves through the glass-like sky, etching an unknown galaxy in Senia's mind. Her eyes widen in an instant, and she gazes at the swirling dust clouds around you. Though no shrieks or gasps escape her lips, her hands grasp tightly onto your arm.
“Hells above! I thought you shot the sun crashing down," a startled Senia murmurs as she regains her composure. Then, with an expression of an apprentice admiring a master, she studies you closely, her face filled with overwhelming excitement. "My apologies your grace, I didn't realize you were an arcanist."
As TRPG game is highly based on text, one round could last from hours to days, just like how their charaters experienced in the virtual world! This integration has added a unique and engaging layer to the tool, potentially making it more immersive and user-friendly for both newcomers and experienced world-builders. However, it's essential to acknowledge that I'm still in the initial stages of the design process (the first diamond of the double diamond), and the final assessment of strengths and weaknesses can only be made once the project progresses further.
The most significant obstacle encountered so far has been the complexity of finding the best solution for the project's ultimate design. This is a multifaceted challenge, and to overcome it, I have adopted a strategy of continuous research and prototyping. By maintaining an agile and iterative approach, I aim to evolve the design gradually, refining it based on user feedback and the changing landscape of world-building needs. After finding prototyping can be creative and enjoyable, I'm more excited about my potential.
IDEATION (Mobile app prototyping)
"Informed by the insights garnered from the TRPG prototype, which provided valuable context on integrating world-building into storytelling, I conducted a thorough analysis of existing tools, identifying common functionalities and gaps. Leveraging this analysis and understanding the elements that contribute to powerful storytelling, I moved to the development of the information architecture, strategically reorganizing core elements based on the TRPG process results to ensure an intuitive and immersive design for the world-building tool."
Through a meticulous process of eight tests and subsequent iterative refinements, the designed prototype has achieved a level of proficiency where adept users can effortlessly navigate and access the majority of entries within the system with a mere three clicks or fewer. Key testing insights includes:Users are talented designers by birth. Color can be cultural related and distractive. Limitation push one to the edge of comfort zone.
This refined accessibility not only streamlines the user experience but also underscores the efficiency and intuitiveness embedded in the information architecture. By minimizing the interaction steps required, the prototype not only caters to user preferences for swift navigation but also enhances overall usability, embodying a design ethos focused on optimizing the user journey with subtlety and finesse.
Next steps
This iterative process will focus on enhancing user experience, information architecture, overall usability, and data storage. Additionally, efforts will be directed towards incorporating advanced search functionalities and version control features to streamline collaboration among co-creators.
Further development will address the scalability of the tool, ensuring it efficiently handles a growing database while maintaining optimal performance. Collaborative sessions with potential users and stakeholders will be organized to gather insights for the continuous improvement of the tool.
