Scavenger Hunt in Hyde Park
The Vision
Creating a location-based scavenger hunt that encourages people to explore the parks and focus on details they wouldn't have noticed otherwise.User Research
The target audience is people of all ages and abilities.Design Process
Locations
Locations need to be less than 15 minutes away from each other to ensure people won't get bored. Additionally, it makes it easier for people who can't walk a lot at a time.Puzzle Difficulty
The first two riddles, as well as the last one, are multiple-choice questions to help the players get the correct answer while familiarising themselves with the mechanics. It also helps hook the players to the game.Guiding the Players
The trail needs to be designed in such a way that people won't be passing through the same location twice as this would not introduce any new experiences. To help people navigate to the next location faster, there is a Google Map link for each location.Progress
The progress is saved so that players can come back another time to finish the scavenger hunt if they need to. For the same reason, the solutions are not given if the players choose to skip any riddles. Skipping questions is enabled to avoid frustration and also, for safety reasons in case a location is temporarily unreachable.
Technical Decisions
I decided to have the scavenger hunt on a site instead of as a mobile app, because players, especially tourists, don't like having to download apps for every single activity. By not asking them to do this, interaction friction is reduced by decreasing the steps required to access the game.
Mobile-first design is essential in this project as the vast majority of users will play the scavenger hunt on mobile.
Challenges & Solutions
Some of the locations that were to be included initially weren't accessible all week, for example, the art galleries. These had to be replaced with other locations. In addition, the locations that were available only for a limited amount of time had to be removed because they would need to be monitored and replaced when time comes.