Research Progress Journal

Introduction

This is my research progress journal for the RKL3029MP Research & Development in Digital Media (CW1 & CW2) in order to communicate the results of research in the field of study covered by the journal and to keep the track of the progress and development for this research phase.

The goal of the project is to discover and produce a solution to the problem that present gaming productions are not efficiently educational, particularly current football games, which are more concerned with enjoyment than with education and learning. This project will provide a free web-based platform that will allow all gamers and football enthusiasts to play matches and training games while teaching them how to become a footballer and what training and information are essential to develop their general football skills and to improve their knowledge about football.

Below are the logs of each phase of this project's research reported and written weekly from 28th of July 2021 to 15h of November 2021.



28 July 2021

Brainstorming & Research

The goal of this subject which is the Research and Development in Digital Media, is to improve my abilities to research and develop theoretical, conceptual and professional challenges that support digital media practise in a specific research field. So, in order to build up skills in this area, I was required to create an initial audio-visual research presentation based on the knowledge and abilities you gained during this semester and carry forward my findings and research to the next semester for final development.

To initiate this project, I have done a research and came up with three ideas/problems which could be covered up and resolved through a digital media practice:

Ideas

  • GAMING - Games are expensive, stressful and not educational.
  • STUDYING - Time consuming and too costly.
  • HEALTH - Exercise not easy to do at home, healthy food not delicious & cooking takes time.

After coming up with this ideas, I conducted more research on these ideas and we had a discussion in the class regarding these issues for choosing one topic for my final project. With the help of my lecturer, I have chosen teh first idea which is about "Gaming".

Next, I needed to deconstructing the problem using open-ended questions of 5W1H method.

Deconstructing the problem using open-ended questions (5W1H method)

Here is a mind-map to generate the important questions to be asked when analysing the problem:

Mindmap

5W1H

  • What - Current football gaming products are not much educational, plus they cause stress (when playing online) and are expensive
  • Where - On gaming platforms (around the world)
  • Who - Gamers / Football Fans (especially young people such as students)
  • When - Playing games (playing online games)
  • Why - People prefer entertainment. Education usually takes effort and is not rewarding.

5xWHYs

General Questions for 5xWHYs

  • Why games are not educational? - People prefer entertainment. Education usually takes effort and is not rewarding.
  • Why are there not much educational games? - Developers mostly concentrate on entertainment than education.
  • Why is gaming too expensive? - Consoles and games are expensive, games are costly too.
  • Why is gaming stressful? - Online gaming is sometimes too competitive, too many games per day, in-game rewards are important.

Findings and Answers

Why aren't there More Educational Games
https://www.quora.com/Why-arent-there-more-educational-video-games

Expensive?
Price for playing on console costs more than $500 - https://superjumpmagazine.com/the-price-we-pay-for-gaming-a9431bb5fc92

Why Playing on Expensive Consoles/PCs
Better graphics, better controls, longer levels etc. - https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/reasons-console-gaming-better-pc-gaming

The Beneficial or Harmful Effects of Computer Game Stress on Cognitive Functions of Players
Too competitive - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6037427/

Study Finds Video Games Don't Improve Learning
https://www.educationworld.com/a_news/study-finds-video-games-dont-improve-learning-1938718432

Why are games not educational?

  • Because people prefer entertainment.
  • Why 2? Because education and learning takes effort.
  • Why 3? Because it requires thinking and exercise.
  • Why 4? Because our brain needs to understand things which are usually not fun.
  • Why 5? Fun and joy are more interesting and usually rewarding.
  • Why 6? Rewards are sweet and give us a better feeling.

So, people prefer entertainment rather than education because learning is usually taking effort to digest and it is not rewarding. Therefore, developers are making games focused on entertainment and not on education. A game that could bring learning while providing entertainment and fun for the users and educate them while letting them have fun and gain rewards could be an appropriate solution to this problem.



1 Aug 2021

Competitive Research & Analysis

To research the competition in the football gaming industry and analyse my competitors I have done competitive research and listed the major football games in the current market. This part is a crucial part of the project as it helps me to position my game product in the market (Johnson, 2019) and spot the differences that my product needs to have in order to add more value to itself than the competitors.

There are many football video games in the market available on different platforms such as game consoles (Playstation, Xbox & NS) and mobile devices (Smartphones & tablets). Since my my product is a web-based game and it can be played on desktop computers/consoles and mobile devices, my focus will be on major competitor games that are available on PC/Consoles and mobiles:

  • EA Sports FIFA (PC / Consoles)
  • eFootball (PC / Consoles)
  • Mini Football (Mobile)
  • Top Eleven (Mobile)

EA Sports FIFA

FIFA is a football video game franchise created and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports name each year. It is ranked one of the best and popular video-games. This game has manager and player modes. FIFA features over 10 game modes (FIFA 22 Game Modes, 2021) which are mostly focused on entertainment including player & team creations, player career, club management & online competitions.

However EA Sports FIFA game does containsome passive learning content, it is mainly concentrating on entertainment.

eFootball

eFootball is a series of football simulation games produced by Japanese game developer Konami since 1995. It is considered as the second most popular football game on PC and consoles after the EA Sports FIFA game. The latest instalment of the game has only two game modes at the soft launch (eFootball 2022 Review in Progress: Only two game modes available at soft launch, 2021) and similar to FIFA game, eFootball is also offering team creation, team management and single/multiplayer competitions for entertainment purposes.

Mini Football

Mini Football is a mobile only football game that allows you to create your player and your team and play games to improve your footballer and your club. This is quite similar to my product, however, Mini Football game is also for entertainment only and there are not much learning content featured in this game.

Top Eleven

Top Eleven is a mobile football manager simulation created by Nordeus. This game allows you to create your football club and manage it. Top Eleven has no gameplay, but it features basic managerial content regarding football that you may be able to learn from it. These contents are just limited to basic tactics and formations.



2 August 2021

Research Method: Interview and Survey (Preparartion)

To conduct interviews for my research, I need to define my target audience, prepare relevant questions and plan my interview.

Type of my interviews would be informal and conversational. They would take 30 mins to 1 hour (open-ended). My interview questions are meant to find out my interviewees behaviors, opinions and values, feelings, knowledge, sensory and their background, in order to help me regarding my project’s problem.

I’m also considering that my questions to be as neutral as possible, they should be worded clearly, to be making them think about the question, and to be asked in the way that the answer to be honest.

My interviews will be recorded either as video/audio files and/or as text document files and they will be done preferably in English language but will be in interviewees’ languages if they prefer to do so.

Here are the general questions I have prepared for my interviews based on my researches:

  • Why are games not educational? Why are football games not educational?
  • What can you learn from a game while playing (football)?
  • Do you think the current football games can teach you something about football?
  • Which part of a football game could be educational?
  • Which achievement would attract people more in gaming? 1. In-game rewards - 2. Learning from context
  • Do you find playing games relaxing or stressful, (why - elaboration, examples?)
  • Do you find online gaming competitions stressful and (why?)
  • How much money do you spend on gaming per year? (range rate)
Here are resources found as research:
  • https://legal.konami.com/kde/pes2021survey/en-gb/
  • https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/fansurvey01
  • https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/M9RJML7
  • https://help.ea.com/en/csat/site-survey/
  • https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/M9RJML7

After reading more about strategies for qualitative interviews (Harvard, 2021), doing more researches and talking to my lecturer & receiving feedback from here, I have formed and modified them into 11 questions as follows:

Interview Questions (Video/Audio calls / Text document)

  • Can you please introduce yourself and tell us how long you have been into football gaming?
  • Which football game(s) is/are you favourite?
  • Can you elaborate why this game is your favourite?
  • Which part of this game is more interesting for you?
  • What can you learn from this game? / Which part of a football game could be educational?
  • Do you think the current football games can teach you something about football?
  • Which achievement would attract people more in gaming?
    1. In-game rewards
    2. Learning from context
  • Does playing games has any impact or side effect mentally or physically for you? Do you find it relaxing/stressful etc.? Why do you think it is so?
  • How do you find online football gaming?
  • How much money do you usually spend on gaming on average per year?

As for the questionnaires and online survey questions, I have prepared the following questions - to be posted on online football communities.

  • Location [country list]
  • Age range [13-24, 25-32, 32-45, 45 or higher]
  • Gaming platform [PS, XB, PC, Mobile, Web]
  • Favourite Football Game [FIFA, PES, Others]
  • Favorite Game Mode [Quick Match, Career / management, Tournament, FUT/myClub]
  • Gaming mode (online multiplayer / offline single player)
  • How much you can learn from playing games [1-10]
  • Purpose of playing [Entertainment - Education - Both]
  • What is more attractive in gaming? [Competition, rewards, educational content]
  • Which part of the game is more educational for you [In-game info, Game content, Management content, Gameplay]
  • Do you play football in real life? [yes - no]
  • Can football gaming improve your real life football playing performance [1-10]


7 August 2021

Questionnaire

In order to make the project product user centred and research regarding my project’s problem, I made an online survey form using the Google Forms and distributed the link in some football gaming communities such as FIFPlay.com (as my primary audience pool). This form is available here: https://forms.gle/VuEeddrHRry4JyU68

After having the online survey for 3 weeks, here is the latest result so far - 370 users participated. Here is a summary of answers to the most important questions:







Analyzing the answers, my target audience are mostly young males aged 13-18 and 19-24 which shows that mostly are teenagers and Gen-Z. These users are usually compassionate and cooperative and are considered to be at their educational stage which is a good point for my project product. This matter could be also challenging for me as my product should be able to communicate with them tailored to their behaviour while considering the other target group’s personalities (aged 25 to 45).

To examine the answers for the Favourite game mode; Career Mode has received the most answers (44.5%), followed by Club Creation FUT (33%) and Pro Clubs (16%). This is quite promising since my product will provide a so-called career mode where you can grow your footballer, improve their skills/knowledge and become a star. As for Club Creation mode, my game will also cover this feature where you create your football club and as your player grows up you make your club stronger as well.

By going through the result for “Main Purpose of Playing Games”, I can see that Entertainment is the first one as it was expected. But the number of answers to “Learning about Football” (44%) was a bit surprising for me as I thought this could be lower. 44% is a good number and it shows that learning could be an important part of gaming. This could be also observed in the next chart where it shows the answers to “How much can you learn from football gaming?”. As you can see, 60% of participants rated 5 as the highest for this question.

To analyse the last chart which is about which part of the game could be educational, participants believe that management content in the current football games could be more educational. This follows by the gameplay and in-game content. This is significant information to be considered in my project. The margin between these three answers are quite tight which means in fact I should take these three points into consideration and provide these three parts with educational content.



9 August 2021

Ideation - User Research & Experience

To create personas, user stories, user scenarios and user flows, I have interviewed four people who are gamers and play football games on computer and mobile devices. The interview contents are available in my private folder and cannot be shared here as they are confidential.

After interviewing these people I have made their key insights, Jobs to be Done and "How Might We". Here are the results:

Key insights

  • PERSON 1 (MOUSA)
    Mousa wants to play football games because it’s motivational and he can learn new things, but it makes him sometimes upset since controls are difficult and he loses.
  • PERSON 2 (ALI)
    Ali likes gaming because it helps him to enjoy his life more, but it makes him frustrated when the poor gameplay causes him to not achieve his goals.
  • PERSON 3 (DANNY)
    Danny likes playing games, but it makes him upset when he plays alone and has pressure to win the game.

In order to write interviewee's key insights, I have considered their problems (frustration) and identified the possible opportunities that can turn their issues to a goal. This matter needed more user research and observation during the interview. As the interviews were not face to face and the only option I had was to do it online, it was a bit challenging to observe their behaviour and feelings. Some interviewees were also talking about more than one problem which I found it a considerable and helpful for my research, however my key insight writing is concentrated on one and main problem since multiple problem in key insights will create issues later when I write other parts of the content (Namaky, 2020).

JTBD

Moving on to JOBS TO BE DONE, Identified and described what my game helps the user to achieve. So, for each person, I provided a brief that possibly would be able to move away from the current solution and establish a fresh frame of reference for a future solution that is different. This was considered based on my user research, interviews and extra chats I had with them.

I have used the "When ... (situation), I want to ... motivation or forces), so I can ..." framework to reframe the connection between a user their problem by phrasing the need as a job that the user wants to get done (Productboard, 2021), and here is the result:

  • MOUSA
    When I have to work, I want to play games before, so I get motivation.
    I want to play games so I can achieve in-game goals so I get motivated in my life.
  • ALI
    When I need to learn something new, I prefer to learn it through entertainment, so it becomes easier for me to learn.
    I want to play games, so I can learn about football
  • DANNY
    When I play games alone it gets frustrating as there is pressure to win, but it’s fun when playing with friends.
    I want to play games with friends in co-op mode and progress as a team.

User Stories

So compiling up the JTBD allowed me to progress further and write their user-stories and make it simple to express the objective, as well as the direction in which the development should go.

  • MOUSA
    As a digital marketer I am looking for a game that motivates me for my work and I can learn something new from it.

  • ALI As a creative director, I like games that make my life more enjoyable and achieve goals that I cannot achieve in real life.

  • DANNY
    • I like playing games in cooperative mode, progressing with my friends to rewards & achievements and also learning about teamwork & tactics.

How Might We ...?

Next, I reframed the problem and prepared it for ideation using the HMW approach, which is based on research and prior knowledge and below is the development including the questions anf their answers:



16 August 2021

Personas, User Stories and User Flows

After analysing the ideations, user research and collected data from users, I made their persona based on insights about their life, archetypal representations of user groups that explain and illustrate their behaviour, values, and needs. These personas are based on my user research and realistic data to guarantee that my personas are accurate representations of my users and that my stakeholders are on board with the process. Here are these persona along with their stories and flows:

User Persona 1



User Persona 2



User Persona 3



24 August 2021

User Flow & Information Architecture

I made a path travelled by users on my product/game website to perform to make a user flow and to prepare my prototyping. In fact, this flow contains all the tasks needed regarding all 3 user stories with having the results and comments in mind that received from the survey. This user flow guides users through a series of actions that lead to a conclusion and my product's final action which is playing and learning.

To help users for finding information and completion of tasks, I created an Information Architecture map. This also had helped me understand how the pieces fit together to create the larger image (Usability, 2021) especially for my prototyping.



7 August 2021

Proposal

I developed my proposal presentation slides deck using what I learnt in the lectures for project proposal and presented it to my lecturers, classmates and two other academics as guests who helped me with comments on my proposal. My goal was to write a proposal that had a clear project title, purpose, and goal, as well as a description of the problem statement and its context, including case studies and pertinent insights (Uow.edu.au 2021).

Because my project will build a user-centred product, the user experience component of my study is crucial. As a result, my User Flow and final Information Architecture are intended to cover the stories, ambitions, and needs of all three interviewees (as well as other survey participants). The video of my online presentation, including the post-presentation comments and Q&A, is available below.

Presentation

Feedback & Comments

Here is a summary of the most important questions asked and comments given after my proposal:

  • References & sources should be from journals and reliable case studies (scholar & academic research sites etc)
  • Rewards parts need to be more clear on user scenarios
  • Question regarding items & rewards management
  • Challenging / Frustration part for Persona 3 (Danny) - Should be more clear where he does not want to 'get involved with toxic community'
  • Question about how to build your game such that people will want to come back and play it again (Player & club maintenance and progress which you need to login regularly, take care of them and claim daily rewards etc.)
  • Question: why mobile is important and is mentioned in project description - A: mostly gamers are using their mobile devices to play games since it's alway with them and comfortable to use (Walk, 2017).
  • Question: Why developing such as game since you have done something similar for your diploma project - A: My diploma project was focused on football refereeing and not playing the game instead judging football games - more towards to how to become a referee, but this project is about how to become a football player and developing your knowledge and skills regarding playing football with not just learning shallow & basic information, but also in-depth learning on tactics, formations, physical and mental attributes etc.
  • Target audience - it would be better to have primary and secondary TA - secondary as for people who do not know much about football, but still want to play and enjoy the game.


8 August 2021

Prototype Planning & Gantt Chart

For further planning and starting the prototyping phase, I used the data visualisation tool of Gantt charts to manage and plan my project. This will help me to plot all tasks, assignments, phases, and milestones against my project schedule which is for 8 weeks from now on. The charts here in a Gantt char twill assist me in tracking the progression of work items after kickoff, monitoring tasks and any deviations from the timeline (Ku, 2021).

With the help of Gantt chart planning, I am now able to manage complex tasks and information that I was not able to handle before having a Gantt chart. It has also helped me to foresee my project's requirements.

At this stage, I have divided my project into the following phases:

Project Conception and Initiation [Week 1 to 7]
  • Research
  • Ideation
  • Discussion
  • Project Initiation & Planning
  • Proposal Preparation
  • Proposal Rehearsal
  • Proposal Presentation
  • Feedback Compilation & Analysis
Prototyping 1 [Week 8 to 10]
  • UX Modification & Preparations
  • Sketching
  • Development
  • Testing
  • Refine & Modifications
  • Alpha Testing
  • Usability Report (Analysis Compilation)
  • Finalisation
Prototyping 2 [Week 10 to 15]
  • Feedback Analysis of P1
  • Sketching & Design
  • Development
  • Testing
  • Refine & Modifications
  • Beta Testing
  • Finalisation
Presentation [Week 15 to 17]
  • Presentation Slide Deck
  • Rehearsal
  • Presentation
  • Feedback & Compilation & Analysis

The prototyping phase starts from week 8 and will be end in week 15. Week 15 is the finalisation phase. I have asked my lecturer to have a rehearsal in week 16 which she agreed to. After the rehearsal, final changes and amendments will be applied to the final presentation (Prototype 2 and report) and the presentation will happen in week 17.



13 August 2021

Revision on Information Architecture

After taking the Usability Planning lecture in week 08 and analysing my current project's information architecture based on what I have learned about usability and reconsidering the analysis of user feedback, I have modified my information architecture as follows:

The revision includes the main sections where MATCH and TRAINING tabs are now available as in main menu instead of having them under PLAY menu. This will make my game more useful to make the main content more visible as well as making them more findable in almost all sections as the main navigation will be available everywhere (Usability 2021).

Additionally, I have added the "REFEREE MODE" to this project. This mode will have the referee game I created for my diploma project (CNMT program). The reason adding this feature to this project is to make product more valuable since this feature will add more educational content to the game.



14 August 2021

Usability Test & Planning

In order to plan the usability test for my product, I need to have the record of the decisions made about what to test, how to test, which resources are required for testing. Here are the test goals and users type that I am going to have for my prototype testings:

Test Goals

  • Do users get the purpose of project (educational)
  • Is the UI functional / How it can be improved
    - Easy navigation
    - Simple / quick access
  • Is the game content educational / entertaining
    - How and where needs to be educational
  • Is the gameplay enjoyable
  • How is the design
    - Can relate to football fans
    - Usability
    - Attractive

Persons / Users

  • Users from the industry
    - Gamers with deeper knowledge
    - Use mobile / desktop
    - UX knowledge
  • Users from the community
    - Gamers with common & basic knowledge
    - Use mobile / desktop / console


14 August 2021

Wireframes - Sketching

To express and explore the ideas that emerge from the initial concept and ideas that I wish to pursue further during user interface design (Lepore, 2010) I started sketching the wireframes to kick off the Prototype 1 phase. Considering the revision I made on Info Architecture, I needed to manage my menus (top navigation) simple and user-centered. Here are sketches for the main sections of my game:

Next, I will be converting my sketches to wireframes (low-fidelity) prototype using an UX design tool such as Adobe XD or Invision.



20 August 2021

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

In order to demonstrate how elements on my game should be arranged out and how the UI navigation should work I need to use a prototyping tool such as Adobe XD / InVision Studio. Too many colours or graphics can make it difficult for the reader to concentrate on the layout and navigational components in the wire-framing phase. To reach my goal of showing a simple visual representation of the skeleton, I have minimised and reduced the usage of colour in my wireframe as it is a low-fidelity presentation of my product (Why Wireframes Are Important in the Design Process., 2017).

So here is my first low-fidelity draft done in Adobe XD.

To prepare my wireframe prototype for usability test, I need to make it live with an URI. Adobe XD has some limitation to do so, this means I have to use another prototyping tool such as InVision Studio. This tool provides online sharing which is useful for me since I need to share the URL with my targeted users. Here are my wireframes converted and linked in InVision Studio.

The prototype is now ready for sharing. Next, I will be sending out the URI with the survey form to my targeted users for alpha testing.



29 September 2021

Usability Report

To learn how real users interact with my product and make adjustments as a result to my prototype at this stage (Usability testing, 2020), I made my protype 1 live at this URL and provided a survey form (here) as post-test questions for my users. I chose 5 users who are a football fan and a gamer for this prototyping phase - 3 of them are the interviewees from my earlier research phase. All of them have tested the game prototype and filled out the question form. Below is the result:





After going through the result and analysing it, my focus was primarily on my findings and recommendations that are differentiated by levels of severity (Affairs, 2021). After analysing my collected data, I read through the notes and added a description of each of the problems. I also have called two of my users (using voice-call) to make sure that I totally understand their comments and feedback and tried to go even deeper to discuss more about their experience during the test and compiled the usability test report as follows:

Summarise

Most of the users found the clarity and obviousness of the project's purpose clear. As for the navigations, most of the rated Simple and clear, however one user did not find it clear. Thai should be considered and optimised in prototype 2. The content structure and design in prototype 1 rated efficient, but according to a verbal comment from a user, they were not very clear with the hierarchy of the content design which should be modified by applying appropriate font size, colour or placement in the next prototype as well as in the final product. Regarding a comment made for mobile screens, the technology used in the final product should be responsive to all screens including large and small displays.



7 October 2021

Branding

Branding is vital since it not only creates a lasting impression on users/consumers, but it also informs them about what to expect from my product and what my product (game) actually offers (Danu, 2015). This means that I need to come up with a name that kind of describe my project's purpose and be memorable for them at the same time.

Brainstorming

To start off with branding name idea, I have done a brainstorming. Brainstorming enabled to think freely to solve problems and develop unique ideas, provided different viewpoints, and opened the door to out-of-the-box inventions while also saving time by balancing generating time vs reading time ((Paulus and Nijstad, 2019)). Belos is my brainstorming mind-map I drew to come up with a brand name for my product.

So, after this brainstorming session, shortlisted my suggestions/names, knocked out problematic names, keep name that relates more to my product’s purpose (by putting myself in user's shoes), checked the availability, customer-tested my final short-listed names and made the final decision.

My two final shortlisted were:

  • Footballtainment - Football + Education and Entertainment
  • Footballizer - Football + ize (forming verbs) which means, make or become > "-er / -izer" which is forming agent nouns corresponding to verbs ending in "-ize"

As for the final decision, I invited six of my contacts (all gamers and football fans), to vote for one of them, and the result was four votes for Footballizer and two votes for Footballtainment, resulting in the name "Footballizer" being chosen.

Logo Design

To design a logo for my game, I did a research and studied that my logo needs to grab attention and makes a strong first impression on my audience while it is representing my product's objective. My logo will be the foundation of my product's brand identity and it should be memorable (7 Reasons Why a Logo is Important to Your Business | Tailor Brands, 2019). It also should separate my product from competitors and foster brand loyalty.

Below is the progress of designing the logo from the logotype and the symbol to the whole logo image.


And here is the concept of each elements used in the logo:

The main concept of this logo design is to have a football badge of honour that represents the progress of development, the journey and the transformation (similar to a comet outgassing) that a footballer needs to go through for becoming a football star - as my game will help users to create their avatar, develop their skills while playing games and learning about football at the same time.



13 October 2021

Prototyping II

To proceed to the next stage, I need to start working on the project before deciding on the final design. I already have a lo-fi prototype that has been tried and found to be satisfactory. I am ready to take your lo-fi concept to the next level and I would like to present my concept to a non-technical audience.

All these mean that I need to start working and make the high-fidelity prototype ready (from my learning & findings on prototyping) to be sent out to the testers.

Below are the screens I prepared for my hi-fi prototyping. I have used InVision Studio prototyping app to build my prototype.

The shared prototype can be found here.

Next, I need to prepare my questionnaire based on my previous research and learnings, and send them to my tester list together with the URI of my hi-fi prototype.



18 October 2021

Usability Test 2

Following the first usability test and finalising the high-fidelity prototype, I have modified the usability plan based on the needs for the second usability test. Below are the changes and modifications that include tests on design, nav system, functionality representation and UX:

An online survey form with 13 questions and one open field for feedback is also provided to be sent to my users list which consists of people from the market and the industry - In order to provide a wider range of testers, this questionnaire will be sent to some normal users from the market (people with less technical knowledge and experience), so the actual product can be design more user-centred.



26 October 2021

Business Modelling Canvas

I utilised the business model canvas template to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot my business model. This tool allowed me to recognise the income sources of my product. It also showed me how to develop a clear route for product's innovation strategy. After studying more on Business Model Canvas, it helped me to bring innovation from the stage of in-theory to the stage of planning and strategising (Hammer, 2016).

In terms of analysing and recognising the source of revenue for my products, I reviewed the potential income opportunities of my product as a F2P web-game and came up with the following model canvas draft which focuses on selling advertising space and in-game content (Flunger, Mladenow and Strauss, 2017):

After having the draft revised and analysed, below is the final compiled Business Modelling Canvas of my product:



4 November 2021

Usability Report 2

16 people participated in the usability testing 2 which was running for 12 days. Below is the result of the test:

By analysing the report and findings, below is the final report for the Test 2:

Summarize

The majority of users said the project's objective was clear and obvious. They also evaluated the navigation system as simple and clear. 68% of them prefer Icon & Text as navigation while 18% of them indicated that Icons only would work better for them. The content structure and design were found by all of them clear and uncomplicated. The entertainment was the most favourite part of the product. The educational content was the most attractive part by 5 users. Match mode voted by 10 people while the learning and training content types voted by 3 each. These should be considered when creating the actual product which means the majority rather entertainment even when they are learning. The general rating for design was rated 4 & 5 and all believe that this type of style would relate to football. The actual game should be in a dark mode theme as most of the testers voted for it. Laptop/desktop and mobile devices have both received 6 votes followed by 4 votes for consoles. This means the product should be responsive to all devices and screen sizes.



8 November 2021

Pitching Rehearsal

Preparing for the pitching presentation, I have done a rehearsal in the week 16's class. This rehearsal was very useful for me as it allowed me to practice different parts before I deliver the final presentation in the week 17. The comments given after my presentation have also given me an opportunity to develop my presentation skills and identify areas I need to improve before I go the main and final presentation. Below is the list of these comments and areas I need to improve:

  • Emphasising the marketing part of attracting users
  • Emphasising the tagline (slogan: Play. Learn. Grow.) in a separate slide
  • No need to get through the Timeline (Brief explanation only)
  • Highlighting the learning part as a strength/advantage of the project (comparing to competitors)
  • Demo video should be explaining itself (especially for the final product presentation)

Click on the above image to watch the recorded video of this rehearsal.



12 November 2021

Final Presentation

The final presentation took place on Friday 12th of November 2021 at 9.30am on MS Teams online. I went as the second presenter and my presentation took 30 minutes, plus 12 minutes for comments and Q&As. Below is the record video of this presentation:

During the feedback & questions session, I have received some constructive comments from our guest lecturer Mr Faiz who was invited to our presentation for commenting. These feedback were about the following topics:

  • The coverage level of educational content (Basic to advance).
  • Suggestion for having management ability.
  • Realtime (on-line) instructions & guide for users.
  • Having creative ideas for education content to take it to the next level.

I found these comments very productive and will consider them in the next phase of my project which is the implementation and execution of my product.



16 November 2021

Next Step & Development Timeline

By having the presentation done I can already plan the next step of my projects which is the development and producing the product. Here is the Gantt Chart of the Research and Development phase that is completed as planned.

Here is the planned timeline for the next sem starting from January 2022:

The first 6 week starting from January are planned for DESIGN phase, including:

  • Layout Design
  • UX Design
  • Game Design

As of week 7, the DEVELOPMENT phase will start which will engage the tasks such as:

  • GFX to Codes
  • UX Development
  • Coding / Programing

From week 12 to 14, the CONTENT CREATION part shall be started. This part will provide:

  • Articles
  • Guides
  • Instructional Visuals / Videos

And finally, in week 15, the TESTING will take place to finalize the product. This task features:

  • Bug Fixing
  • Beta Testing
  • Finalizing

References

  • Harvard.edu. Sociology.fas.harvard.edu. 2021. [online] Available at: https://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/files/sociology/files/interview_strategies.pdf [Accessed 15 August 2021].

  • Namaky, K., 2020. How to Write a Key Insight [Creative Brief Series] - GURULOCITY Brand Management Institute. [online] GURULOCITY Brand Management Institute. Available at: https://gurulocity.com/write-key-insight [Accessed 6 September 2021].

  • Productboard. 2021. What is the Jobs-to-be-Done Framework? | Productboard. [online] Available at: https://www.productboard.com/glossary/jobs-to-be-done-framework [Accessed 6 September 2021].

  • Usability.gov. 2021. Information Architecture Basics | Usability.gov. [online] Available at: https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/information-architecture.html [Accessed 6 September 2021].

  • Usability 2021. User Experience Basics | Usability.gov. [online] Available at: https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/user-experience.html [Accessed 6 September 2021].

  • Uow.edu.au. 2021. Project proposal - University of Wollongong – UOW. [online] Available at: https://www.uow.edu.au/student/learning-co-op/assessments/project-proposal [Accessed 9 September 2021].

  • Walk, J., 2017. Why Mobile Games are Getting Popular Nowadays?. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@johnniewalk1/why-mobile-games-are-getting-popular-nowadays-47ea1748a4de [Accessed 9 September 2021].

  • Ku, P., 2018. 5 Advantages of Using Gantt Charts in Project Management. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/hygger-io/5-advantages-of-using-gantt-charts-in-project-management-9ed5a6f21466 [Accessed 17 September 2021].

  • Lepore, T., 2010. Sketches and Wireframes and Prototypes! Oh My! Creating Your Own Magical Wizard Experience :: UXmatters. [online] Uxmatters.com. Available at: https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/05/sketches-and-wireframes-and-prototypes-oh-my-creating-your-own-magical-wizard-experience.php [Accessed 17 September 2021].

  • Medium. 2017. Why Wireframes Are Important in the Design Process. [online] Available at: https://protoio.medium.com/why-wireframes-are-important-in-the-design-process-de4e773e611 [Accessed 24 September 2021].

  • Optimizely. 2020. Usability Testing. [online] Available at: https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/usability-testing [Accessed 30 September 2021].

  • Affairs, A., 2021. Reporting Usability Test Results | Usability.gov. [online] Usability.gov. Available at: https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/reporting-usability-test-results.html [Accessed 30 September 2021].

  • Dandu, R., 2015. What Is Branding and Why Is It Important for Your Business?. [online] Brandingmag. Available at: https://www.brandingmag.com/2015/10/14/what-is-branding-and-why-is-it-important-for-your-business [Accessed 9 October 2021].

  • Paulus, P. and Nijstad, B., 2019. The Oxford handbook of group creativity and innovation.

  • Tailor Brands. 2019. 7 Reasons Why a Logo is Important to Your Business | Tailor Brands. [online] Available at: https://www.tailorbrands.com/logo-maker/why-a-logo-is-important [Accessed 10 October 2021].

  • Realsport101.com. 2021. eFootball 2022 Review in Progress: Only two game modes available at soft launch. [online] Available at: https://realsport101.com/pes/efootball-2022-review-gameplay-game-modes-features [Accessed 10 November 2021].

  • FIFPlay. 2021. FIFA 22 Game Modes. [online] Available at: https://www.fifplay.com/fifa-22-game-modes [Accessed 1 August 2021].

  • Flunger, R., Mladenow, A. and Strauss, C., 2017. The free-to-play business model. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications & Services,.

  • Johnson, J., 2019. How to Conduct Competitive Research for Your Business. [online] https://www.uschamber.com/co. Available at: https://www.uschamber.com/co/start/strategy/how-to-conduct-competitive-research [Accessed 1 August 2021].

  • Hemmer, M., 2016. Why a Business Model Canvas is Important to Organisational Innovation. [online] Blog.onefire.com. Available at: https://blog.onefire.com/why-a-business-model-canvas-is-important-to-organizational-innovation [Accessed 28 October 2021].

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