The Problem
The citizen science game Eyewire was preparing to add a new set of neurons for players to map. The goal of this non-profit company born of the Seung Lab at Princeton, is to map as many 3d renderings of brain cells for research purposes, and as such works to improve the speed at which this data is generated. So to account for this new premium data, the game expanded and created a new promotion tier for in-game moderators: Mystics. These players would need an adjusted, more powerful interface with added functions, my first deliverable. The second deliverable was a marketing website for the expanded data. My goals were to bring in new players by creating a new and fun experience across these deliverables.
Player Profiles: Scouts Scythes & Mystic Moderators
Before the expansion, the moderators of the full Eyewire data set were called Scythes. They were experts in outlining the cells, and were able to push the target models in which players would be scored based on percent of accuracy. This was coined Reap. Mystics would have exclusive domain over the newest data set which would only be available to higher scoring players, (a Zebra-Fish brain). Because of this additional responsibility and more data to cover, I decided the controls for these users should be simplified and more on brand in an effort to incentivize players to go for promotions with a more enjoyable and user friendly experience.
Here’s an outline of the player to moderator hierarchy
Deliverable A:
New Scythe/Mystic Interface
Scythes have different features and controls and were on the forefront of Neuron Mapping. Though the position was prestigious within the community, it’s interface was outdated and didn’t represent the player’s status. I contributed to this control design, and consistently iterated on this aspect to bring a more vibrant and fun experience to the game and bringing a more science fiction look to the interface.
Architecture
There were two final UI’s to design for. I outlined the respective actions needed as well as the ideal interaction for this.
Process
Demonstrated here are the vast number of ideations on the interface, experimenting with layouts and colors, hover & click states.
*The Toggle Switch
I am very proud of this interaction for a couple reasons. Firstly I hypothesized this would work when switching between two modes instead of using a typical toggle a la Material or Apple. I came to this idea from a simple inspiration: a light switch. Though the team and I had some doubts as to its usability, there were not only no complaints but no comment on the interaction at all, bringing new life to the phrase “good design is invisible”.
Final Design
I went through all these ideations of mine and chose the most on-brand selections. After some staging tests with live player Scythes we had established the most functional and usable interfaces tracking revision times and cubes revised per session (indicating speed & enjoyment). By the finals we implemented an additional “Next” button for Scythes to quickly cycle through cells.
Deliverable B:
Narrative Website
Working with illustrators and the Creative Director I used my design and narrative skills to improve the storytelling both verbally and visually. The website needed to be palatable and fun, many of the user demographics were schools from late elementary all the way to university level. Studying children’s picture books structure and translating the back and forth of image and text into a web interface also gave me the realization there is a little flexibility in motion but also the pacing of the story. My contributions to the narrative and structure of the site earned me a writing credit.
Architecture
This site had 3 distinct page categories each with their own unique design.
Mystic Narrative
Heroes
Science
Being a science oriented game it was also important to highlight the science of the game and what its goals were for new players or for scholarly purposes. I researched and interviewed the team at SeungLab to better understand the direction this site should have: a more academic yet friendly aesthetic. This site in tandem with the Mystic narrative improved SEO for the game relevant to neuroscience.
Development
I developed this entire site in Webflow, to continue my web design practice and to allow the engineering team time to focus on the new scythe interface. I shifted navigation conventions with a subtle hamburger menu and a more directive footer to give focus on the content, and to further the brand style Eyewire had primed for its future.
Check out the full live website here:
Impact
Within the first year since the shipment player base increased from and avg. of 856 players per month to 933, an 8.8785% jump. Because of this the player base was able to complete the Zebrafish data expansion within 2 years, a record time for new data sets.
