From all the personal electronic devices we researched last week, the smartphone – to us – seems the most relevant device of this time. The outcome is backed by data we collected (via a survey), and by extensive online research. The dozens of infographics, papers and statistics we came across online prove that the sales of the smartphones are exploding world wide. To illustrate this claim: in 2020 there’s expected to be 6.5 billion smartphones in the world (and 7.5 billion people). Moreover: the results from our survey revealed something about how valuable the smartphone is to people. From a set of 20 personal electronic devices, our respondents tend to attach the most to their smartphones, and with these results in mind we’ve decided to solely focus on the smartphone during our first sprint.
Top 7 devices according to our survey results
With documents filled with statistics, the step to the actual development of a game needed to be made, but the point was that all of us have more experience as researchers than as game designers. A game expert was called to the stage to advice us, a meeting that turned out to be both interesting and confronting. We brought up some ideas and suggestions, but they didn’t hit the spot with our expert. To develop a game that can function as a research tool, “you MUST know what kind of data you want to get from it”, he justly noted. Ultimately he gave us a push into the right direction; what do people actually think they know about the product life cycle of the smartphone? The gap between what people think, and what’s the reality, could be our data. Our next step was the format of the game, some kind of Trivial game maybe? Monopoly? The answer laid in an old Dutch game, which turned out to be most easily adaptable for our cause: Pim Pam Pet.
The customized spinning wheel and the questions
At the moment of writing we’re trying to ‘hack’ the spinning wheel, and adapt it to make our own smartphone-themed version. Three days before our presentation at Cisco we’re mostly writing and testing quiz questions, every aspect of the product life cycle will play a role in the final version of the game (from mining the raw materials, to the final stage as e-waste). Lastly: are we managing to reach our first sprint goal? Which is: ” to develop a game as a research tool, to engage people to learn about the product cycle of personal electronics.” To answer that question: lets see if besides educational, the game can be fun and engaging to play as well. In the end, only our users can decide about that, and if not: at least we’ve done some very useful research for our coming sprints.