Tactiles
Experience Design/ Game Design/ Accessible Design
Ahmedabad, India
Duration:
3 Months
Team:
Aashay shah
My Role:
I played a key role in Tactiles by conducting primary and secondary research to understand the needs of visually impaired players. I contributed to the game ideation process, ensuring accessible mechanics and inclusive gameplay. Additionally, I designed the visual and tactile elements, creating a user-friendly and engaging board game experience.
Overview
A visually impaired person is one who suffers from severe reduction in vision that cannot be corrected through any conventional means. Vision impairment means that a person's eyesight cannot be corrected to a “normal” level. Vision impairment may be caused by a loss of visual acuity, where the eye does not see objects as clearly as usual. Losing your eyesight can be frightening, and many people try to ignore or cover up the problem.
How can we design an inclusive and engaging board game that is exclusively tailored to the needs of visually impaired individuals, fostering accessibility, playability, and social interaction?
Problem
Modern board and card games create significant accessibility barriers for the blind and visually impaired (BLV) community, relying heavily on visual elements like color, text, and images. These designs often exclude BLV players by being incompatible with assistive technologies, having inaccessible rulebooks, and requiring constant reliance on others. This leads to gaming abandonment, unfair play, and a lack of inclusive experiences, highlighting the need for board games exclusively designed to cater to BLV players' needs.
Solution
Tactiles is an inclusive board game designed specifically for the visually impaired, replacing visual cues with tactile, auditory, and spatial elements like raised patterns and braille. The game simplifies rules, ensures intuitive gameplay, and promotes transportability for ease of use without assistance. By fostering autonomy, teamwork, and social interaction, Tactiles provides an engaging and empowering experience, addressing the accessibility gaps in traditional board game design.
Positioning Statement
Tactiles is an innovative board game exclusively designed for the visually impaired, offering an accessible, tactile, and inclusive gaming experience. By integrating braille, raised patterns, and intuitive gameplay, Tactiles breaks barriers in traditional game design, fostering autonomy, teamwork, and social connection for players of all abilities.
Insights from the users
Empathy in Design
As part of my research on accessible design, I participated in the Vision in the Dark program at the Blind People's Association in Ahmedabad, India. This immersive experience simulated the challenges faced by the visually impaired through a series of interactive compartments, including a temple, village, garden, and more. Each space utilized tactile and auditory cues, highlighting how the blind navigate their world with resilience and creativity.
Redefining Limitations
The visually impaired don’t see their condition as a limitation, but rather face challenges due to societal misconceptions and lack of inclusivity.
Multi-Sensory Design
Tactile and audio feedback are critical for creating accessible and
inclusive spaces.
Empathy in Design
Understanding accessibility requires stepping into the shoes of those we design for, challenging assumptions about their needs.
Fostering Independence
Accessible design should prioritize independence and dignity, ensuring users feel empowered, not dependent.
With the blind,
actuality is tactuality
Introducing Tactiles
Tactiles is designed to provide an inclusive and accessible gaming experience for visually impaired players. The game incorporates tactile elements, such as raised patterns and textures on the board and chips, ensuring players can navigate the game without visual cues. The rules are simplified and rely on multi-sensory engagement, allowing players to focus on strategy rather than deciphering complex instructions.
By incorporating a fixed central hexagon and intuitive mechanics, Tactiles eliminates unnecessary complexity while maintaining a competitive edge. The use of cards like Jacks and Queens, with clearly identifiable tactile markers, ensures equal participation and enhances strategic gameplay. This thoughtful design empowers players with independence, removes barriers to participation, and promotes an enjoyable and accessible gaming experience for all.
Learnings
Designing Tactiles reinforced the importance of accessibility in game design, highlighting that inclusive experiences should be designed for the visually impaired rather than merely adapted for them. I learned that accessibility isn’t just about removing barriers but also about enhancing engagement, independence, and strategy without compromising the fun of the game. The process also deepened my understanding of multi-sensory design, showing how tactile elements, structured rules, and intuitive mechanics can create an immersive and equitable experience. Most importantly, Tactiles emphasized that true inclusivity is about designing with the community, not just for them.
Wider Implication 1
The principles of Tactiles can be applied to redesign mainstream games with accessibility at their core, ensuring equal participation for all.
Wider Implication 2
Future iterations of Tactiles can explore incorporating AI or audio feedback systems for enhanced gameplay, such as real-time guidance, turn tracking, and immersive soundscapes.
Wider Implication 3
The tactile and multi-sensory design approach can be adapted for other fields like education, product design, and interactive learning tools for the visually impaired.
The Gameplay
Tactiles is an abstract strategy board game designed to ensure an accessible and engaging gaming experience. The center hexagon is fixed and serves as a neutral chip that can be used by both players. The game revolves around creating a sequence of connected chips on the board, with players strategically placing their chips to achieve this objective.
The game begins with the player who distributes the cards, followed by Player One placing their chip on the board, and then the second player. Each player is dealt 5 playing cards, selected randomly from a deck of 10. Among these, there are 2 Jacks and 2 Queens with special abilities: the Jack card allows a player to remove an opponent's chip, while the Queen card removes an opponent's chip and lets the player place one of their own. These mechanics add an extra layer of strategy to the gameplay, making it dynamic and competitive.
Challenges
Understanding the unique perspectives of the visually impaired community and redefining accessibility were initial challenges. Limited references in inclusive design and balancing simplicity with engagement required careful iteration and user-focused testing to create an empowering experience.
Redefining Accessibility
Realizing that what is perceived as a disability by sighted individuals may not align with how the visually impaired view their capabilities.
Understanding User Needs
Overcoming assumptions to deeply understand the preferences and gaming habits of the visually impaired community.
Balancing Simplicity and Challenge
Ensuring the game remains engaging while being accessible and easy to understand.
Testing and Iteration
Difficulty in gathering consistent user feedback due to varying levels of experience with games among the visually impaired.
Competitive Study
There are a series of tabletop games available for the visually impaired. However the question arises if all these games are inclusive. There are several games abroad which have a braille version of them. Almost 95 percent of these games are not inclusive
Famous board and card games like monopoly and UNO to name a few have a braille version. However the visually impaired face a lot of difficulties while playing these. There are other boardgames which are not at all inclusive and thus the blind have to make their own versions to play the same.
