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Comic Con Treasure Hunt

The goal of the project was to explore how events can become more interactive and engaging for GenZ through gamification and digitalization. How to transform traditional events into an active, game-like journey that encourages exploration, participation and engagement.

The solution is a challenge-based game for Comic-Con attendees. The game combines the excitement of completing challenges with the thrill of a storyline-based experience, guided by a mascot. It encourages both individual and team participation, offering a dynamic way for attendees to engage with the event.

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Tutorial Prototype Paper Prototype
Double Diamond

Process

This project follows the Double Diamond methodology: Discover, define, develop & deliver. The focus was to understand how to make a gamified digital experience for GenZ

01

Discover

In the discover phase, my focus was understanding Gen Z's behaviour and motivations for attending Comic Con.

Tis is the main reserch question:

How can we make event activations interactive and fun for GenZ with the help of digitalization using gamification?

To better understand their needs, pain points and opportunities when engaging with this event-based experience, these insights were gathered through interviews and a survey with the target users. I conducted a literature study on what reward system could motivate Gen Z to participate since rewards was going to be part of the solution.

02

Define

In the define phase, the research was transformed into actionable insights. The insights were translated into two personas that represents two types of comic con attendees:

  • ✦ One persona is primarily motivated by cosplay and social interaction, seeking more opportunities to connect with others through engaging and personalized experiences.
  • ✦ The other persona focuses more on competitive play and prefers to meet people through games, using games and challenges as a comfortable way to step out of their comfort zone.

"How Might We" questions were created to guide the ideation process and developed an empathy map based on the insights gathered from the discover phase to understand user's thoughts and emotions. This helped to ensure that the solution would align with user motivations.

Empathy Map
03

Develop

During the development phase, multiple concepts were explored and iterated upon before converging the ideas into one final concept. I then created a proof of concept that would demonstrate how the idea would be realized. This was tested with the target audience, who responded positively.

To visualize the concept, I developed a paper prototype that demonstrated the design and user flow, which was tested with the target audience at a comic book store. This helped validate the design, usability and the overall experience. Based on the feedback and suggestions received, I iterated on the design and developed a prototype.

Paper Prototype
04

Deliver

The prototype was tested at the Comic Con with the target audience, allowing for more feedback and sugggestions. To analyze the responses, they were divided into three key themes using an affinity map. Based on these insights, the prototype was further refined and improved upon.

Lastly, an advice report was created, summarizing the findings and suggested actionable recommendations

Tutorial Prototype
Key Findings