Additional Views: View 1 View 2 View 3

Our current iteration supports the use cases of: "What platforms are my favorite characters or franchises on?", "Let me explore games by pictures", and "What other games are similar to this one I like?"

The current design contains 3 components: an interactive Picture Collage, a Dipity Timeline, and a "You Are Here" hierarchy.

Our design will run inside a browser window and use three iFrames for the components. These three elements will react to each other and the goal is for users to be able to start in any of them and not be constrained to text as the means of exploring and browsing. Additionally, the windows should allow users each to find their own best path of engagement based upon what they are already familiar with.

The three elements of our current design (Iteration 3) are:

1. A "You are Here" text display that shows where the user's selected object (a picture) is within the hierarchy of Platform > Franchise > Game > Characters. This view will update as the user plays with the "Picture" Collage in element #2 to provide textual context to what they are viewing.

2. A "Picture Collage" that contains "piles" of screenshots, all of which are selectable elements. This "Picture Collage" also contains four view buttons that modify how the collage is sorted into groups of images: "Group by Platform", "Group by Franchise", "Group by Character", and "Randomize" are the four options. The "Picture Collage" begins as sorted by Platform. This reinforces the context provided by the Dipity timeline and establishes the most cogent framework to begin exploration. Selecting one of the four view buttons will sort the pictures into groupings or "Piles," making the experience more dynamic by providing temporary structures.

When an individual picture is selected, a sidebar next to the picture appears to display textual information about the game (Title, Publication Date, Characters, Platform, and Concepts). A monocline of screenshots of related games sharing 3 or more concepts will also appear below it. This will allow users to tree out and view related games. Selecting one of these from the monocline will refocus the Picture Collage" with respect to the game selected. This allows users who do not know the text behind what they are looking for to explore relationships 'between games via concept' through visual representations only! The four view buttons that sort the "Picture Collage" will enhance this path of exploration by highlighting additional relationships between games such as Platform.

3. A Dipity timeline of Game Console Platforms will appear below the Picture Collage (element #2) and react to the user's selections in element #2, providing a temporal context that situates the selected picture within the evolution of Gaming Platforms over time. The selection of a Platform from this view will adjust the Picture Collage to view by Platform with the selection centralized

Additional Process Shots: Process 1 Process 2 Process 3 Katie Got It

In this iteration we started with an Explorer style selector to allow users to select a Platform, Franchise, or Character from within the hierarchy. This would drive the display of element #2. We realized though, that this would constrain users too much as often times they would arrive with only with a visual impression of what they wanted to explore or only a single game title in their mind.

Then, we wrote out a few use cases and began to see that the most cogent method of navigation would be driven by interaction with screenshots. Users who arrive with a single game title in their mind or only a memory of what the game may want to recover the contexts of Time, Character, Franchise and Platform.

Larger View: Initial Design

We knew we wanted to make all three elements of our design work together and inter-relate, but after putting the design to paper we quickly saw that the "Picture Collage" would be the primary and most alluring means of interacting with the data.

For this iteration we wanted to focus on the interactive "Picture Collage" element. By adding three view buttons, we arrived at a display that users could play with, but also quickly sort/group the "Piles of screenshots" by Platform, Franchise, Character, or Random. We felt that at the beginning of this interaction, users may not be prepared to immerse themselves fully in the explorer style interface (element #1). Reinterpreting this element as a "You are Here" display will provide textual context while the users explore the visual collage in element #2. Further interaction with element #2 will be possible at any time by clicking on any of the images. We think element #2 will be the primary means to engage users, because it mainly uses visual information as opposed to text. We also realized during this iteration that the object "Game" is our base unit of information.

To expand upon this view, we explored how best to display information and related pictures/screenshots when a user selects an item. This sidebar of info will incorporate Title, Publication Date, Characters, Platform, and Concepts. Along with this informational sidebar, we will show a monocline of screenshots/pictures that are related to the selection by concept. This is the KEY feature of display #2 and will allow users to jump between the "piles" by selecting a screenshot/picture related to their current selection. At this point we realized that bringing in Concept is a great way to recommend related titles to the users. While users will not necessarily know the names of the Concepts employed in the games they like, they will be able to browse and navigate by elements they ARE familiar with and then be recommended other titles that contain the same concepts (at least 3 same concepts). This transparency allows us to introduce the idea of Concept as a way to relate games, without requiring that the users bring this information to the table.

In this iteration we also realized that the "random" view for the "Picture Collage" contains the least meaning, but also is the least constraining to the user in terms of browsing games freely. We decided to make the default view group the "Picture Collage" by Platform. This would reinforce the use of the Dipity timeline and forefront the most popular use case of "What platforms are my favorite characters or franchises on". This way we can encourage users to begin on familiar ground and then explore other titles based on their existing knowledge/interests.