Seattle Theatre Group needs to give away tickets to devoted fans.  How can we provide a delightful experience through gamification, which will allow users to gather points toward free tickets?

This project began as a Give Camp Seattle Hackathon project, with eight developers and one designer.  The stakeholders wanted to build an app that utilizes augmented reality technology and make complimentary tickets more accessible.

SOLUTION

Considerations

How can we provide game challenges and barriers to give away fewer tickets?

What’s important for a great edutainment experience?

What are the gamer’s needs and unmet needs?

Fortnite

Assumptions

Democratic Giveaway

Instead of arbitrarily handing out free tickets, the stakeholders needed a way for devoted fans to invest a bit of time to be able to gain access for free show tickets.
We made the assumption that the experience would not violate any ADA, gambling, or lottery laws. 

One of the stakeholders suggested that the intended audience would be tech savvy and performing arts-interested teenagers and young adults from marginalized communities.

Technology Limitations

Because we had so many developers and only one designer for the initial sprint, we ideated a concept relying heavily on QR and AR technologies.  The assumption was that, with the volunteers' time, this technology would be feasible for STG's budget.

Developers as Designers & Users

Because we had a short amount of time and so many participants, in order to narrow down to a few relevant design concepts, we all white-boarded together using the Design Studio method: each of us sketching key screens and critiquing each other’s ideas.  As team leader, I initiated this as a way to quickly get access to a number of possible solutions as well as user input, assuming most of us had played games on our phones before.

Defining the MVP

PROTOTYPING

As the engineers worked through the code of QR and AR technologies, I iterated on the findings and consensus of the Design Studio exercise, in Sketch.  

Initiate Challenge

An initial onboarding screen immersed the user in a fictional backstory of being selected to return from the future to document Seattle's artistic points of interest.

Map

A map points out the available "missions" where the user has yet to gain points towards a free ticket.

Educational Content

Once the user reaches a point of interest, he is informed of the artwork's provenance and historical context.  Here is also an indication as to whether the user must complete an AR "capture" or scan a QR code.

Once in the correct vicinity, the user is then tasked to locate a nearby STG poster and scan the printed QR code. Alternatively, the user must "capture" a nearby floating STG logo in augmented reality.

Rewards System

When the current task is completed, the user is congratulated and given "emeralds" as points towards a ticket.

Surprise Bonus

A select few locations provide bonus points toward tickets, utilizing gamification psychology principles.

Mission Completed

Once all the required geolocation tasks are completed, the user is presented with a short video from the artist whose performance he has chosen to see.

No more empty seats

After an ambiguous initial stakeholder interview and advocating for the alignment of user-centered design, we came up with a fun and engaging solution that exposed theater fans to more of Seattle's art and culture.  I enjoyed the challenge, as I love art and had been interested in edutainment for some time. 

The project was presented to the Seattle Theatre Group's board and is currently awaiting funding.

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