We have received our first test print from our regular printer and it seem that the outcome was quite disappointing. The card quality was not what we have anticipated and the alignment for each card was very off.
Called the printer to seek clarification and apparently their reason is that the print quantity is too small (we order 50 boxes) and they could not ensure that the design for each card to be aligned center.
Nonetheless, we feel that the printer has no experience in card game printing and it would be a risk to go with them if we are going to retail. Thus, we began to look for other printer that has the expertise meet the demand and quality.
We are narrowed down to 2 printer. Print Ninja and Make Playing Cards.
Print Ninja
We bought some sample from Print Ninja and we are very surprised with the quality and the options that we can have. This really make us excited on what we can do with it.
Make Playing Cards
They do not have an option to purchase the print samples but we be printing a few boxes to check out their quality.
User Testing
We have compiled a name list of user who are willing to help us to test the game. These testers are from Singapore and the USA, with the background of parents and IT educator. Hopefully we can have more insights to refine the game further.
What we are working on now — the Onboarding Experience
While we are researching on some of the card game that are designed for the children to learn coding, we learnt that getting the users to start playing as soon as they open up the box without been confused by the instructions, is one of our design challenge now.
One of the review from one the gamer mentioned that he had a hard time reading the instruction and understanding the concept while attending the kids at the same time. Especially when his kids has a short attention span.
Q: How might we improve the onboarding experience where the gamers can start to play the game within 10~15 minutes?
Few things to consider :
- Paperless instruction manual — to save the cost of printing and reduce paper consumption
- Online instruction manual for easier maintenance and localisation
- Interactive media to engage the user
- Option to print if required
We be testing some of the instruction design for the upcoming user testing. Till then, we will update everyone when we have some insights.
This is a self initiated project by Refruit, a design agency from Singapore & Myanmar. If you are keen to follow the progress of this project or you have any feedbacks, do join our Facebook group. We would like to hear from you.
