The Game of You is a curated box of personalized puzzles for the immersive experience lover. Our graduate capstone is to pitch, run and grow a start-up. The self-assigned problem I chose was "How might we harness data to personalize of physical products and immersive experiences at scale?"
2021 - 2022
Solo Project
I conducted user research, crafted multiple design interations, and produced physical and digital prototypes for playtests. I focused on refining UX for a quick and easy check-out process as well as designing a unique luxury physical product.
Scaling personalized gift
experiences & celebrating
relationships
They've been dating for 5 years, which means 5 years of gifts for every birthday, anniversary, holiday and even just cause.
Jane doesn't just want to give another gift - she wants something that will celebrate their relationship.
Gift-giving is hard.
In our most significant relationships, we are bound to hit a rut.
How can we make the most special people in our life feel special through the years?
“The Game of You” is a quick and easy way to buy a bespoke experience gift.
All the gifter has to do is answer a quick, five-question quiz to personalize an escape-room-in-a-box for their loved one.
The product is encased in a custom engraved wooden box that contains four puzzles celebrating their relationship.
Each item takes the gifter’s reflections on their relationship and translates it into a puzzle that comes with a keepsake.
This product began with my curiosity into the new field of immersive media products.
What makes these products tick? I did a deep dive into multiple sources to discover.
1. Customers are 80% more likely to purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences.
2. There is a market of people who use unique experiences as a way to strengthen their relationships.
3. There is an underserved market of people who desire special experiences when celebrating milestone events.
Intention
I was focused on building a highly personalized game and then making it a product that can scale. I designed a game for the members of my aesthetics class. The game contained a linear series of puzzles the 5 play testers had to work together to solve using information we had learnt in class.
Insights
All the play testers mentioned they hadn't experienced a product like this ever before. I was recommended to remove the linearity of puzzles, to make the puzzles simpler, and to add a reward at the end.
Improvements
In order to create something that could scale easily, I made a PDF download for an escape room that was personalized using information submitted through a google form. The puzzles were non-linear and solving all of them would help unlock a reward.
Insights
This version received positive reviews on blogs and was played by 70 customers. I liked the ease at which I could personalize each product through automation, but this product wasn't as impactful as a physical gift.
I designed 16 puzzles from which 4 are put into each box. Solving all puzzles helps unlock a message from the gifter. I also designed a 5-question quiz to gain information that helps personalize the puzzles.
By automating the personalization process, it takes just 15 minutes to personalize each box. There are currently 1,820 possible puzzle combinations, and each box is truly one-of-a-kind.
The second part of our capstone involved fleshing out these concepts into businesses. I started by making a website MVP to get feedback. I was pleasantly surprised that those giving me feedback were interested in purchasing the product! I did a round of sales for valentines day and did further A/B testing on the product, learning a lot.
Hypothesis
I wanted to gauge customer demand for cardboard boxes vs. wooden ones. I also wanted to test the optimal puzzle complexity.
Insights
I learnt that customers would be willing to pay a premium in order to get high quality materials in this product. I also received interest from multiple parties who wished to join me in working on this.
I also fleshed out the company strategy and purpose statements, creating helpful documentation like a pitch deck, GTC strategy, conducting competitor analysis, and having a constantly updating Business Model Canvas.
This is one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on because it is such a customer-centric product. I was constantly collecting feedback on it & thoroughly enjoyed the process of developing a beloved, novel product.