Teaching Accessible Design Through Critical Making and Board Games

Adam Strantz, Miami University

Lens: Cognitive

CandyLand

candyland board. Many colorful square paths exist on the board across a candy-filled kingdom
Figure 5: Candyland board

Candyland is a game for young children where they work their way across a colorful candy kingdom board. As this game is aimed at young children, this student looked for ways to make the rules easier for children to understand and remember.

Airplane Chess

the board and pieces of Airplane Chess. Colorful round tiles with airplanes on them sit on a board
Figure 6: The board and pieces of Airplane Chess

Due in part to its visually complex nature, Airplane Chess also requires significant cognitive load in order to keep track of pieces and the player's score. This student sought to reduce the amount of information each player needs to remember while playing.

Dixit

An orange cat looms over a ball of water with a fish floating in it
Figure 7: Dixit card of a cat looming over a freestanding orb of water with a fish in it

A whimsicial game of storytelling, Dixit provides cards with imaginative and surreal scenes (see Figure 7) from which players try to guess the storyteller's card. As you don't want everyone to guess your card, Dixit requires a high level of abstract thinking and wordplay. Due to this, and the surreal images on the cards, this student sought to find ways for players overwhelmed by open-ended nature of the gameplay to still participate.

What Do You Meme?

white game cover with the words What do you Meme? in large font.
Figure 8: Cover of the game What Do You Meme?

What do you Meme? is a party game of matching text to images. The student noted that although labeled as a party game, the rulebook was often difficult to decipher and this could cause issues while teaching others how to play the game.

Lens: Visual

View Student Examples
The visual lens includes all elements of visual design including sizing and spacing issues, color/contrast issues, and colorblindness.

Lens: Cognitive

View Student Examples
The cognitive lens includes elements of game design relating to complexity, memorization, understanding of rules, and overall density of text on game materials.

Lens: Physical

View Student Examples
The physical lens covers issues relating to interacting with the game through touch, bodily movement, and fine-motor skills. The ability to move, interact with game pieces, and physically do what is required by the game is analyzed.

Lens: Emotional

View Student Examples
The emotional lens looks at the game from the perspective of how players feel while playing the game. This may involve feelings of frustration, joy and sadness in winning and losing, or "feel bad" moments in gaming where one player is excluded from play.