As a designer interested in working in interactive and UX design post-grad, I wanted to create a project for my capstone that showcased my ability to design accounting for both strong visual principles of design as well as comprehensive back-end strategy. My project is an educational board game that teaches players about the geography and different regions of the United States by having players capture national parks on a 3D elevation map of the country to win the game. I chose this as my project because I wanted environmentalism to be the focus of my project and education as my means of addressing the issue. I felt the most effective way to educate on environmentalism would be to gamify the experience through an exciting, visually appealing board game where learning was a byproduct of playing the game. Players battle across a grid-based map of the continental U.S. with the goal of claiming every national park. Each time a player claims a park, they get a card with an illustration of an iconic scene along with a brief description of the park. Whether it be consciously or subconsciously, the game and accompanying visuals are the means of raising awareness of the beauty and importance of the nature all around us.
