CANYoU
Challenge: Video gaming is on a fast-track to becoming olympic! In 2021 the IOC surprisingly hosted an eSports event as a pre-event of the Olympic Games in Japan and the 19th Asian Games 2022 in Hangzhou will be the first olympic event in which both eSports and sports athletes can receive gold medals in their disciplines. This inspired us. In cooperation with Mercedes-Benz we gave students participating in the lecture Designing Gamified Systems the challenge to:
Design an innovative game or gamification approach in which sports, gaming, and mobility meet as part of an unforgettable mixed-reality experience for potential visitors of the 2022 Olympic Asian Games in China, Hangzhou.
Three project teams worked on this challenge and developed impressive concepts and prototypes within 2 months which were then presented to executives of Mercedes-Benz AG, Daimler AG and MBition GmbH.
Date: Summer semester 2021
Result:
CANYoU − Spreading the Spirit of the Asian Games 2022 Through AR-Based Minigames Together With Mercedes-Benz
Team: Team UNICORNS: J. van de Logt, Y. Zuber, S. Berzins, J. Rosenberger
Abstract: Designing a gamified experience for the Asian Games 2022 – what could be more innovative to spark interaction and connect people from different backgrounds? Challenged by the project client Mercedes-Benz, a concept for the gamified system CANYoU was designed and brought to life by applying prototyping techniques. Key milestones represented the conceptual game design, the technical development of a mini game and the creation of wireframes for mobile and in-car application. Testing activities conducted at the last stage showed that the group of testers wished for the extension of games beyond the screen of mobile devices. Correspondingly, CANYoU was experienced as a fun game to involve people in sports and connect with each other in real life. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement regarding the AR approach of the game. The UI/UX design of the game is overall perceived as intuitive, however, additional design iterations are required to optimize users’ clicking behavior. In addition, further testing is inevitable as the testing set-up was not always self-explanatory for the users and a stronger emphasis must be put on Asian users to ensure a tailoring to culture-specific needs. Regarding the future of the project, the prototyping may be taken one step further in the form of a downloadable, working application. This would again involve extensive user testing prior to a launch of the app onto the Asian market. To increase the operational efficiency in implementing these steps, the focus should lie on the enhancement of the technical infrastructure for the app development. In the end, a closer collaboration with Mercedes-Benz would as well be favorable to enable a close alignment of the design, scope, and functionality of CANYoU with the expectations of the stakeholder.