Implementing Design Principles to Improve Scientific Communication and Modeling Via Game Board Development

Abstract

While the disciplines of science and visual communication are often relegated to their own fields, interdisciplinary collaboration can result in modeling tools with a higher standard for public engagement. For modeling tools to be effective in the public sphere, visual communication principles need to be more thoroughly integrated into the initial stages of development. To resolve this missed opportunity, this article presents three visual communication principles—visual hierarchy, color accessibility, and informational constraints—and presents one modeling tool, in the form of an educational board game, as a case study to understand the significance of their application. The board game at hand, Satellite Tycoon, is a modeling device used to evaluate the balance between market penetration and space sustainability in a publicly accessible format. Through an iterative set of play tests, visual communication principles function as variables to improve the model’s effectiveness. In practice, the application of design principles to Satellite Tycoon led to numerous visual changes that emphasize essential game features, clarify the relationship between game pieces, and remove extraneous information. Collectively, these communicative changes improved ease of adoption and reduced playtime, making the modeling tool accessible to a wider public while maintaining informational complexity. Such successes in the interdisciplinary collaboration between science and visual communication can act as a precedent for continuing interdisciplinary collaborations.