Content Media Design Apps Online

One of the leading design methods we teach at my college is “Design Thinking Methods”. This is a method of design that started at IDEO and has become a standard in the industry. Working in a classroom with students on paper prototypes is an essential step in teaching design thinking. Currently, with the corona pandemic, it is hard to do this in a classroom together. I have been looking for alternative solutions and found a few good online tools to share with you. Please note that I teach Game Design and Interactive Media, and therefore most of these tools are directed towards these studies. However, most of these tools can also be used for other studies that use “Design Thinking” as well.In my previous post, I highlighted several tools for teachers to simulate a virtual classroom. From online whiteboards to video chat tools. This post is more for student projects.

Design Thinking Templates

There are a few sites that have ready-made templates for teams to collaborate on. Templates for customer journeys, mind maps, flowcharts, swot analysis, etc. are essential tools in the “Define” phase.

Miro

Miro is a handy site filled with lots of templates to help in the “Design thinking process” Mindmaps, customer journeys, flowcharts can all be found here on Miro. You and your “team” or students can collaborate online at the same time with these charts.
https://miro.com/app/

Moqups

From Design, Planning, and Prototyping, Moqups has tools and templates for all of them. Whether you want to collaborate on a graph, wireframes for an app or plan the next design sprint, this site has tools to do them all in one place. An excellent tool for online project collaboration from start to testing phase.
https://moqups.com/

Origami Studio

Origami is a visual studio app for prototyping, wireframes, UX designs and more. The node-based design allows for a lot of customization and programming. There are lots of examples of different types of projects which you can view and tinker with, saving a lot of time in design. The app can be previewed directly on iPhone and Android devices. This is not an online tool and must be downloaded to use.
https://origami.design/

Fluidui (online prototyping app)

This site offers online wireframing and prototyping for both android and ios devices. Easily use drag and drop interface to quickly mockup your app and test the user flow on a phone directly. Another great site for testing UX and wireframes.
https://www.fluidui.com/features

Online Game Prototyping

Typically we would make these “paper prototype games” in our Gamelab. The game lab is filled with paper, dice, board game components, lego, and more. All handy tools in rapidly prototyping different games to test different mechanics. The following sites are great for designing and testing “paper prototypes” of games online.

Tabletopia

This app started as a kickstart project, to bring the world of tabletop games online. There is a vast library of tabletop games from both licensed games, as well as independent designers. The ability to easily “set up” a tabletop game and then have people playtest the game is fantastic. Tabletopia is designed for a wide variety of devices from tablets to PC, making it very easy for testers to play on their native devices at home. Once designed, players can publish these games to the public to play. Designing the game is as easy as drag and drop in 3D space.
https://tabletopia.com/

Roll20.net (Role-playing Online Simulator)

Are you into Dungeons & Dragons, or other types of RPGs? Roll20.net is a great site where you and your friends can use ready-made character sheets, maps, miniatures, dice and anything else you may need to play RPGs online. There is even a jukebox with music you can set the mood with. An excellent site made by RPG fans to play together online. 
https://roll20.net/welcome

Twine

Non-linear storytelling or “Choose your own adventure” type games can be puzzles to make themselves. Twine is an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories. It is rather simple to use once you know a couple of text commands. The final projects can be published to HTML and shared with testers.
https://twinery.org/

Itch.io tools

The independent Game Jam Site Itch.io is a fantastic resource for tools and apps for designing games. From character generators, unity scripts, asset builders, there are a lot of resources for the independent/student game designers. Have a look, because there are too many to list right here, but I will highlight one.
https://itch.io/tools

GB Studio — GameBoy console Designer

One of the many tools found on Itch.io. This tool lets you easily design a simple Gameboy game. At the moment there are only 4 colors, but it requires no coding. Just simple dropdown menus let you design your 90’s retro Gameboy game. It is great for testing and prototyping simple game designs.
https://chrismaltby.itch.io/gb-studio

Blippar (AR Author)

If you are looking for an easy to use tool for making Augmented Reality projects, Blippar is really good. It is pricey for a license, but if you are fast they have free accounts for the corona crisis for students and teachers. You can make very dynamic projects and immediately test them using the Blippar app.
https://www.blippar.com/

Canva

Making cards, posters, game assets, thumbnails and more. Canva is a great site with lots of template sizes for the majority of online media formats. You don’t need to worry if you got the Instagram post size right. Just use the Canva template. Make a template for your class or group and everyone can make more versions and copies to make your online design pop and be unified. 
https://www.canva.com/

For teachers, there is an entire training series available here.

Easypano — 360 Panorama Studio Online

360 Virtual tour software is an excellent way to test your spatial designs. From escape rooms to haunted tours, 360 panoramas linked to each other can be used to test how well the design is working. 
https://www.easypano.com/

User Testing

A number of the sites above can be used for user tests, such as Tabletopia. The following sites are designed specifically for user testing. The nice features which both of these sites offer are the ability to record both the testers and their screens at the same time. This is essential for gathering good prototype test results. There is not a lot of difference between the features they both provide, mainly the price.

Lookback IO

Lookback starts at $49 a month for a single user and rises from there.
https://lookback.io/

Loop11

Loop11 starts at $69 a month and goes up from there.
https://www.loop11.com/

What do you think?

I hope you have found these tools to be helpful additions in your teacher’s armory. Please let me know what your experiences are using these tools in the class, or any other tips you may have for distance learning.