Adaptive Adventures
Accessible Boardgaming
senior thesis exhibition project
What is it?
My Senior Exhibition Project, Adaptive Adventures: Accessible Boardgaming, reimagines the card game Boss Monster into a board game optimized for players with ADHD and visual impairments. Through the strategic use of colors, textures, and in-game resources, Adaptive Adventures enhances the gaming experience while maintaining usability, interest, and communication among all players. The purpose of this redesign extends beyond accommodation; it strives to address the stigma surrounding accessibility, emphasize the importance of mechanics and aids over superficial aesthetics, and ultimately create a universally engaging user experience.
In Adaptive Adventures, you play as a monster boss who destroys any heroes who enter your dungeon. Build your dungeon to be as deadly and tempting as possible to attract and destroy heroes. To win, you must be the first to obtain 10 hero souls, but you lose if you obtain 5 wounds!
What’s included?
40 soul tokens, 20 wound tokens, 160 total cards, 8 boss cards, 75 room cards, 31 spell cards, 30 hero cards, 16 epic hero cards, 1 main playing board, 4 player boards, 3 rulebooks, 1 strategy guide, 2 research posters
Objectives
• Use larger cards to increase visibility
• Create uniform icon set, an ADA-approved color palette, and add equitable accommodations
• Add multiple boards with organization features and add Velcro-backed tokens with textured dots for easy identification
• Provide clear instructions with multiple rulebooks with varying amounts of content, a strategy guide, an image description book, and quick-start guides offering varying levels of detail
Methodology
• Tested over 70 color palettes to ensure contrast variable fits ADA standards and has contrast and visibility for blue, red, and green color blindness, while maintaining theme
• Quantitative and qualitative research and data collection
• Identify ethical considerations and any issues that could impact the game function and engagement
Tactile Tokens
For additional tactile and sensory feedback, there are tokens that have velcro backs. These adhere to the board for the most organization, assisting those with visual impairments who have a harder time keeping track of individual items, and for those with ADHD for high sensory feedback.
The red tokens are wounds that damage your character, and the blue tokens are souls, which are points needed to win the game.
Icons and Colors
A new icon system was designed to have a uniform identity, as the original had no full icon system that was consistent and was low contrast. Contrast was made higher and more bold for easier identification.
The color palette is ADA compliant and is high contrast for players with red, blue, and green color blindness. The original cards didn’t have a color differentiation system so it was important to create one. The colors reflect the personality of the game and lend to the theme.
Rulebooks
Three different rulebooks were designed with varying levels of difficulty and amount of content. Level 1 functions as a quick start guide with the most minimal amount of information required to play. Level 3 has the most information and content and serves as a full rulebook.
Additionally, there is a strategy guide and a 90-page full-image gallery.
The strategy guide helps to lower the cognitive load required when learning a new game and can help players to better organize their play style. The full image gallery includes a full description of every card’s layout and image. All are compatible with text-to-speech technology.