Close Enough
A social card game to discover different languages in mad-libs style.
Product designer and researcher leading the design and research of the game, ebook, recipe book, and website.
My Role
Conducting interviews, low and high-fidelity prototyping, language outreach, recipe collection, content writing, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, iterating on designs, manufacturing partnerships, marketing.
Responsibilities
Adults and children 13+ who are interested in card games, languages exchanges and/or competitive social games.
Target Audience
Background
Close Enough is a language card game that aims to capture all of the world’s written languages and spread them across the globe through fun and games, where they can live on forever and perhaps even find new communities. The goal is to have fun, laugh everyday and bring people together, and languages are a powerful form of expression that can do just that! The risk of a language being forgotten and fading from the world is something that we must all work together to overcome.
Problem
Several spoken languages are becoming extinct and forgotten, even amongst their descendants. With the world mostly speaking one of the top 20 languages, other languages face the risk of fading from global cultures. Close Enough aims to slow down the decline of these languages by introducing them to new communities.
Game Design
Key Challenges
The cards must have a unique and personal appearance that allows for their transitions to be hidden without disturbing gameplay.
Find quality and humorous sentences and sayings used in everyday conversations in different languages.
Cost and labor efficient manufacturing and assembly of product.
Develop a fun design and collection of scenarios, sentences and sayings that will spark the interest of gamers, families, language enthusiasts and more while also teaching them about the sound, appearance, and culture of different languages.
The Goal
Ideation
Game
Close Enough is a language card game made up of three types of cards: scenarios, sayings and sentences. A scenario card is drawn from the middle and read out loud at the beginning of each round. Players respond with one of their sentence or saying cards that they think will make sense in the given scenario. Sentences and sayings are in different languages with their translations hidden by custom “translation sleeves.” The translations are revealed after everyone has played a card. There’s no need to know or understand all (or any) of the languages to play. In fact, most of the time, no one knows what they’re saying until it’s too late and that’s the best part!
Some of the cards include cognates, making it easier to guess what a sentence may mean. The game includes 35 languages with some commonly spoken languages, a few rarer languages and even a few endangered languages. All sentences and sayings are given by or checked by native speakers. Earn points by playing the card that best fits the scenario or comes close enough. The player with the least amount of points at the end is the chef and prepares the included recipe for everyone to enjoy.
Recipes, Ebook & Merch
Each game box comes with a randomly selected recipe from one of the languages/cultures included in the game. The full recipes can also be found online on the Close Enough site or in an ebook format. There are a total of 105 recipes, highlighting 3 dishes from each of the 35 languages included in the game.
Encouraging language discovery and learning across the world is something that is critical to Close Enough’s mission. For those who feel the spark and want to take the dive into learning new languages, an e-book is also available. It’s titled Essential “Non-Essential” Phrases From Around the World. The “Non-Essential” e-book is a parody of the countless language textbooks and phrasebooks that teach the same phrases over and over again. In this book, readers learn how to tackle the same / similar situations covered in textbooks while using phrases one would dare say are… “non-essential.” Aside from essential “non-essential” phrases, the book also dives into topics like culture and lifestyle and rather than one language, languages from all (habitable) continents are covered!
Enamel pin designs
Prototype
Sleeves were prepared for each sentence and saying card by placing a sticker on the bottom half of the sleeve to cover the bottom half of the cards placed inside. The stickers were 2 inches in height to hide texts of various lengths.
This design proved to be more sustainable than the average playing card since the sleeves protect the cards from damage, giving them a longer lifetime.
Saying, scenario, and sentence cards were separated into different colors by their category. Sentences are blue, sayings are green, and scenarios are red. The color scheme was decided based on the most popular flag colors around the world.
Based on customer feedback, the recipe collection was also made into a physical book for separate purchase.
Player Testing
I tested the game design through a gameplay session with five people. Each person was given a rule book and told the rules verbally before the session began.
During the session, each player took turns playing as per the rules. By the end of the game, players determined the winner and chef (least amount of points).
Players clearly understood the rules and the gameplay continued without disruption or outside interference. Translation reveals were not time consuming and some players noted that they enjoyed the concept because it was unique.
The same test was repeated with other players, but was not recorded.
Findings
Serving Size
Serving size of the recipe should be listed so the chef prepares enough for the whole group.
Global Scenarios
Scenarios should be available in different languages to make the game more accessible to a wider audience.
Local Data
More explanation for some sayings, like how and when they are used by natives can be useful for those that want to learn along with the game.
Website Design
Key Challenges
Building an email list.
A minimal landing page design that captures the essence of the game.
Design an attention grabbing landing page to build an email list and introduce Close Enough’s premise, rules and other products.
The Goal
Ideation
I used the quick ideas ideation technique to come up with multiple solutions in 10 minutes. I then selected the ones I liked most and refined them to meet the project goals.
For a minimal look, I wanted the main focus of the hero image to be the game box with a call to action.
To keep the site dynamic I decide to include small animations and brand imagery throughout the pages.
Low Fidelity Designs
From the ideation exercise, I decided to highlight the game experience by focusing on ways to allow visitors to enjoy the game and its components before its official release.
Rather than a one page landing page, I included several pages dedicated to the different parts of Close Enough’s mission and the game components.
To introduce the concept of the game, I decided to make a printable version with 5 out of the 35 languages for users who want to print and test out the game before committing to a purchase. The cards can be printed and cut out around the included guidelines and folded to hide the translations.
User Testing
Most users who visited the page, downloaded the printable preview of the game before coming back to sign up for the email list, confirming the effectiveness of including the preview.
Most users also revealed that they were most curious about the recipes and company. Most site visits were for the preview game, about page and recipes page.
High Fidelity Designs
Based on the survey results, I focused on the appearance of the most visited pages and included links that routed users back to the email sign up page.
Accessibility Considerations
All colors follow WCAG standards.
Clear labels and navigation for screen readers online.
Impact
Players expressed excitement in trying out the game with friends and family from different cultures as well with language learning courses. Along with this excitement, many languages that were not in the mainstream became visible to new communities.
What I Learned
This project involved a physical product and website component along with merchandise and book designs for a humanitarian cause. To tackle the task, I started by breaking down the project into its goals and message. I began ideating through user surveys and allowed the emotion behind the game to come out in the designs themselves. I started with the design of the cards and building prototypes that were easily and quickly playable. From there I moved on to the box, rules and various merchandise before compiling them into the website design.
This project taught me the importance of separating ideas and working in a step by step approach and finding ways to naturally form connections between designs.
Tools used: Adobe XD, Photoshop, Figma, Illustrator, Procreate.
Next Steps
Scenarios and translations should be translated to different languages other than English.
Increase social media presence for organic marketing and outreach to communities.
Release of ebook and recipe book as separate products.
Thank You
Thank you for your interest in my work on Close Enough. For more details or questions on the project or to get in touch regarding your own project, please feel free to contact me using the link below.