- Role
- Lead Designer
- Scope
- UX/UI design Game design Branding Prototyping
- Team
- Small engineering team, through CodeControl
- Timeline
- Feb 2020 – Jun 2021
- Platform
- Web app
Case study · Internal tool · 2020–21
Bayer
The digital interface for an internal Bayer game, a collaborative web experience used across teams and reused year after year for team-building.
Internal game. The screens use placeholder content.
Problem
Bayer had a detailed game storyline and mechanics for an internal team-building game, and needed a digital interface that worked for every edition of the game.
What I did
I led the design and helped develop the interface with a small engineering team, tailoring it to each edition and to the offline parts of the game.
Result
A web experience used internally across multiple teams and reused year after year for team-building.
Context & problem
Bayer AG is a global healthcare and life sciences company headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany, founded in 1863.
The brief came with a really well thought through game storyline and mechanics. The job was to design and develop the digital interface for it, one that was informative and interactive and in line with Bayer’s initial directions. The design for each edition was tailored to give an intuitive experience that complemented the offline side of the game.
The main challenge was that each edition has its own mechanics, so the interface had to adapt to all of them. It also had to support the game master, with functions like evaluation and scoring, and stay accessible and engaging for players from very different professional backgrounds.
Over three editions, each with 20+ players, the game master needed a chronological, intensive progress dashboard: enough to follow every team’s chain of thought and steps across a session, since part of the game also played out live over internal communication channels or offline discussions. From there, the game master managed progress and stepped in where needed: sometimes withholding a clue, sometimes releasing one.
Scope & my role
I joined through CodeControl to help with all design-related topics, and I led the design.
I owned
- The interface design for each game edition
- Turning tangled storylines and mechanics into familiar game patterns
- The visual design of the game, including its logotype
- Helping develop the interface with a small engineering team
The interface
The game is called Mission Impossible: Red Thread. Players sign in, search the evidence database and unlock evidence by entering codes, while the game master follows everyone’s progress.