onward together

Web Story/Game
Onward Together
Objective
Onward Together is an experimental create-your-own-adventure story with a multiplayer aspect. It was created as part of an honors thesis on using interaction design to improve the viewer's retention of the story. The goal of the thesis was to develop a series of design principles for interaction design that should, based on research, improve memory, and create a resulting website based on and informed by these principles.
Website
Repository
Work
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Web Design
Code
Illustration
Awards
AIGA Flux Show UI/UX, 2021
Student Silver ADDY (Local), 2021
Student ADDY Judge's Choice (Local), 2021
Honors Thesis



Concept
The first question that arose during the research phase of this project was "what digital experiences are memorable already?" Of the options, one of the most interesting ones was video games. Many people could recall the stories from video games they loved vividly, and games often leave a lasting impression of the player long after the game is over.
However, video games are memorable for a great number of reasons - be it the required input of the player to continue, the multiplayer gameplay, or the way the experience is as variable as the person playing it. By thinking through different games and their best features, a better set of strategies for designing this story could be developed.

Design Principles
There are six primary strategies employed in this website to make the experience more memorable. The story itself is designed to be rather unremarkable. By keeping the subject of the story familiar, any positive reaction from the audience can be attributed to the interaction design rather than the story itself.

Final Design
Onward Together launched online on February 20, 2020 and passed the honors thesis defense process March 5, 2020. While the data collected through this project is not strictly empirical, many users who played reacted positively, and the average session duration was 4 minutes, 16 seconds, suggesting that users were engaged enough to complete the story, and found the experience memorable enough to discuss it with others. Based on the initial response from this creative thesis, it seems that further investigation into the potential for UI/UX design to help with retention could prove to be quite valuable.