Beyond the Edge: Gamifying Design History Through Interactive Prototyping

The Irish & Women’s History Card Prototype

Role

Designer


Project Type

Interactive Design


Client

Everyone


Deliverables

A point-and-click game



Problems

  • I pitched to AIGA the idea of celebrating Women's History Month and Irish-American Heritage for the month of March.

Objectives

  • Raising awareness about underrepresented designers and celebrating the contributions of both groups without overshadowing each other.

Goals

  • If I'm going to talk about design history, I need to show that I can design something visually. So, I made a game.

“Every March, companies pick either Women’s History Month or Irish-American Heritage Month but never both. I’ve always found that very strange? These things happen at the same time. Women can be Irish-Americans. Irish-Americans can be women. Why does everyone act like they can’t walk and chew gum?”

Define

1

  • The goal was simple; to highlight designers from both groups that people have never heard of.

2

  • Started this as an essay and realized writing doesn't show anyone what you can do as a designer.

3

  • To show everyone that these two communities aren't separate conversations. They overlap and they intersect. I made a point-and-click game I built in Figma.

 
Spider map and rough sketch of prototype
 

Research

4

  • Then, I went looking through the archives for Irish designers and forgotten women in design history. I ended up featuring six designers including men and women across both communities.

5

  • These stories needed to be told and I combined them together into one interactive experience. To make something that was fun to engage with and teach people something they don't know.

6

  • The essay didn’t work at all because it couldn’t fit with the AIGA Newsletter. Gamifying design history with trading cards from baseball, Yugioh, tarot, Pokemon, and Snapple bottle caps.

 
Diagram of trading cards and tarot cards
 

Create

7

  • The game opens with a series of moving graphics and text that tells players what they're about to experience. Then they click through to the cards to play the game.

8

  • Each card has the designer’s artwork on the front and facts about them on the back. You flip the cards over to learn about the person.

9

  • Lot of symbolism here. A shamrock for Irish designers, a Venus symbol for women designers, and both symbols together for designers who are both.

 
Screenshot of the game
 

Test

10

  • The game was finished after March 2025 ended so, it never got its public debut. My plan is to debut it for March 2027 with AIGA Boston on their newsletter.

11

  • Between this year and 2027, I will be adding more designers to showcase.

12

  • I wanted to include her and more Irish designers in the project but, I ran out of time. The project isn't done. It's just waiting for its moment to shine.

Nikkia Prim