Background

My brother and I created a board game company, Defined Mind, in order to produce games that were fun but had an educational element to them as well.

The problem

Create a unique word game that is interesting, fun to play, and develops language skills.

Defining the Users

We identified a couple different personas to design for – (1) educators and parents, who would want to use the product to help kids develop language skills, and (2) word game enthusiasts who would want a new game to add to their collection.

Wordwright | Defined Mind

Product Designer [role]
Sketch, Adobe Illustrator [tools]

Design Process

We brainstormed ideas for a word game and eventually landed on a game of building words using parts. Because we both have a background in digital development, we originally started with an app idea and built out a simple prototype.

Wireframe for App App Prototype

Unfortunately, it wasn’t very fun. So we decided to move to a paper prototype. We printed out all the word parts in our database and tried to come up with a fun way to combine them into words using some existing card games as a jumping off point. We quickly determined that we had way too many word parts to make a playable card game. So we started whittling down our list into parts that could be used in multiple words and combined multiple ways, ultimately coming up with a way to make the game competitive and fun.

Word parts printed on paper Edited word part database Paper prototype

Having the basic idea in hand now, we wanted to test with real users. We split duties with my brother taking on the writing and marketing while I tackled the visual design. I came up with a few options for logos and card layouts. (Our original version wasn't even called Wordwright.) After a few passes, I settled on a design that was based on drafting and architecture – the idea of building words – so I used a graph paper background and sketchy feel. I chose an easily readable font for our cards, and a layout that incorporated the information we wanted (the word part, variations, and definition) in a way that was still readable and easy to use. The final design led to a change in the name of the product: Wordwright, word builder.

Alternate logo and card designs Wordwright logo Wordwright final design

We printed prototypes and tested them with users recruited mainly off of Reddit, who comprised both personas we had identified – educators and board game players – as well as playtesting it ourselves with friends and family members.

Mailing out prototypes for user testing Playtesting a game

I created additional assets to use in our Kickstarter campaign that incorporated the same draft/sketch feel.

Kickstarter assets Kickstarter assets - game illustration Kickstarter assets

Results

We successfully funded our project on Kickstarter by 300% of our goal, allowing us to print the game and send it to our backers. We were selected for the Tabletop Indie Game Showcase at Pax South in our first year and have demoed the game at other shows. To date, we’ve sold over 4,000 copies of Wordwright.

Final design Final product
PAX South customers Kids playing Wordwright People playing Wordwright at a game fair