The video card game is a method that was developed to address a growing need for people of varying skill and experience to participate in video analysis, a method often employed in User Centred Design (UCD) where video footage is analysed to provide insights into contextual, situational and usability issues associated with any new design1.
The cultural shift in design towards more UCD approaches means that rather than an expert team of designers conducting video analysis, we now see a strong emphasis placed on the value of involving end users in addressing usability issues before a design is finalised. This change in attitudes and more active role users play in UCD approaches means that the methods, such as the video card game, must enable experts and lay persons (users) to ‘speak the same language’, which is why the video card game was created!
The video card game is centred around framing video as a ‘design material’, much like we think of colour, line and form as design materials. As interaction designers, we develop experience and receive training throughout our education resulting in a level of skill when analysing interactions, meaning we are trained to analyse video. The video card game makes video-recorded interactions tangible, enabling design teams to quickly analyse a large amount of video material in a relatively short space of time.
Simultaneously, the method allows those without any experience in interaction design or video analysis to contribute their own insights and experiences when addressing a specific usability issue you may be facing.
While there are a variety of uses for the video card game, such as the activity outlined here, we do recommend further reading the paper where the method was first published. Our example activity looks at using the video card game to create themes for tangible interaction but there are many other ways you might think about using this method, such as:
- Familiarising yourself with new interactions;
- Addressing a specific usability issue in a new or revised design;
- Generating themes and new ideas for a project;
- Augmenting the video cards with AR technologies, or perhaps adding an element of tangible interaction to the cards using NFC or RFID technology.
Activity
30-90 mins
2+ peopleBefore you start
The video card game is often used by design teams to address specific usability issues and in these instances the video cards are populated with stills taken from video that focuses on the issue to be addressed. The method can also be used to generate new ideas in the form of ‘themes’, and we’ve chosen to follow this approach in the following activity.
Rather than you, the designer, facilitating the activity with prospective users or a group of research participants, you’ll be working with material that focuses on movements and gesture articulated with the hands. This approach to focusing the card game results in the generation of themes around tangible interaction.
As you become more experienced with the method, we encourage you to think about replacing the provided printable cards and associated video clips with your own materials. These could be taken from video of users interacting with a prototype, related clips focused on specific actions or interactions – the method is very versatile and can be used in a variety of ways. So long as the material you’re working with is video, then the method can be used to help make sense of it!
The following activity requires at least 2 people, but we’ve found this generative approach to using the method is best suited to collaborative projects as you’ll be generating themes and input from others helps to expand on these themes, making them richer. If you don’t have access to more than 2 people, think about discussing your themes with peers, colleagues or perhaps using an organisational method such as Octopus Clustering when you have access to more people.
Activity steps
- Dealing the cards: Choose a set of 10 video clips with your partner that you both find interesting – see here for the clips. Print out 2 sets of cards for each person participating in the card game as well as at least 3 of the theme templates – we’ve found that this activity usually produces 3 strong themes but may lead to more, so print more theme templates at step 4 if you need them. Cut out the cards.
- Reading the cards: In your pair, without talking, watch each of the clips together and write down your ideas, observations and notes directly on to each of the cards. This step forms your initial ‘reading’ of the cards and it’s important that your notes are recorded directly onto the cards as they provide context to your thinking as the activity unfolds.
- Arranging your hand: compare notes with your partner and begin to discuss your observations on each of the video clips. Don’t be afraid to make further notes on your cards if something useful or important arises in discussion. Once you’re both satisfied with your notes, begin to organise your cards into themes. These themes should be focused on commonalities in the way you’ve both interpreted the video clips. Some themes might be more concrete or obvious, focusing on what is easily observable in the video, while other themes might be more abstract and subject to your pair’s own unique interpretation of the video. Not all of the cards will easily fit into themes and you may have a card that fits into multiple themes – this is where your duplicate cards come in handy!
- Collecting and discussing card families: this step will vary depending on how you’ve run the card game so follow the steps relevant to your number of people.
- For groups of 2: Use the provided theme templates to record your themes. We suggest using blue-tac or tape at this stage in case you’d like to revisit and build on the themes. It’s at this step in the activity that you would share your themes with others and they might contribute cards and suggestions on how you might further refine the theme – so think about presenting your themes to a peer or colleague and consider their input. Also think about repeating the activity with a different set of 10 cards and see how those cards might influence your themes. The key to this activity is to keep an open, exploratory attitude!
- For groups greater than 2: Use the provided theme templates to record your themes but do not use glue (yet!) to affix the cards to the templates as they’ll be moving around. Present your themes to the other people in your larger group. Explain the meaning behind each theme, how you’ve interpreted each of the clips and why you’ve chosen specific clips for each theme.
Others might contribute cards from their own set of cards (this is where those duplicates come in handy again!) if they fit into your theme, while themes might expand, collapse, break apart or be removed entirely. Approaching this step with an open mind and attitude of accepting change is important as we expect themes will (and should) change! A ‘strong’ theme is often the result of multiple iterations so you might repeat this step once or twice as needed.
- Once themes are finalised, adhere them using glue to the theme template, fill in any further details and you’re done! These themes might be used to inform further design development, act as a rough model to ideate further from and can even be considered as a form of data to base further research on.
References
- Buur, Jacob, and Astrid Soendergaard. 2000. ‘Video Card Game: An Augmented Environment for User Centred Design Discussions’. In Proceedings of DARE 2000 on Designing Augmented Reality Environments, 63–69. DARE ’00. New York, NY, USA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/354666.354673.