When UX dad meets board games for kids
Great kids’ board games are tangible UX journeys. Using Nielsen’s principles, they teach control, learning & social joy through play.
Ke Lyu
Ke Lyu

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25 min read
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6 days ago
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An Illustration of my kid with board game elements as a cover photo
As a father of a 5-year-old boy, I deeply understand the importance of productive/creative pleasure for children. It’s not the passive stimulation from cartoons, but the vibration he feels when his little hand pushes the wooden snail shell across the table in the board game Rouleboule l’Escargot; it’s the confident smile on his face when he answers a question card correctly in Journey to the West Encyclopedia; it’s also the thoughtful concentration as he clutches colorful travel tickets in My First Journey: Discover China, studying the best route on the map. The time spent with my child is thus filled with joy found in one exquisitely designed, colorful box of children’s board games after another.

Time and again, picking up scattered pieces, explaining the rules over and over, and witnessing those moments of growth from clumsy attempts to slightly strategic thinking, I’ve come to realize that excellent children’s board games are essentially tangible user experience journeys. They, too, are interactions between people and a system (rules, components). Players need to understand complex rules, process information, make decisions, and derive fun, challenge, and social satisfaction from it. And within this, I’ve glimpsed the vivid application of Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics.

Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics are important reference standards in user experience design and a tool that has become second nature to me in my daily work. Yet, seeing this framework come to life vividly on the small tabletop has been a fascinating cross-disciplinary experience. Therefore, I want to combine my personal experiences as a father playing alongside my child with the perspective of a UX designer to discuss, based on these 10 heuristics, the UX design wisdom hidden within children’s board games. What exactly is it that allows little kids to pick up these games so easily and enjoy them?