Stardew Valley Notes
Bringing in a familiar, versatile organization tool
Category
Game Design
Personal Project
Timeline
3 Day sprint
Role
UX Designer
Team
Independent
SETTING THE STAGE
What is Stardew Valley?
Stardew Valley is a farming simulation game where players inherit and manage a neglected farm, cultivating crops, raising animals, and participating in various activities like mining and fishing. The game's open-ended nature allows players to set their own goals and priorities, fostering creativity and freedom in gameplay. The charming pixel art style, relaxing soundtrack, and engaging relationships with the town's characters contribute to its appeal. Stardew Valley is celebrated for its relaxing and immersive experience as players transform their farm and explore the secrets of the valley.
Use tools to farm, collect items, explore the dungeons, and keep up your energy
Grow your own farm by planting crops, taking care of animals, and foraging
Get to know the villagers in the town and build relationships with them
How might Stardew Valley help ADHD users feel more relaxed going through their day-to-day tasks, while maintaining delight in the gameplay?
SOLUTION
Stardew Valley Notes
The game’s version of a notes app, designed for players to choose how to organize their game play, be it taking freeform notes, creating to-do lists, or setting goals
Due to its portable design, I decided to focus on the nintendo switch version of Stardew Valley for this case study.
RESEARCH
Users with ADHD were Not Finding the Game Relaxing
As I was perusing forums to identify a problem space within Stardew Valley, I noticed a specific demographic of individuals who often felt overwhelmed by the gaming experience and did not seem to obtain the “cozy” aspect of the game: users with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
I noticed the following common pain points from users…
Creating a personalized structure and game objectives
Players mentioned having to choose a main area of the game to focus on so they don’t get distracted (ex., building relationships with townspeople, crop planting, quests, completing community bundles, etc)
No built-in section to track in-game progress
As a coping strategy, players have mentioned using an external notebook or sheets of paper to organize their gameplay and keep track of important dates.
Identifying User Organizational Strategies
While browsing reddit forums as secondary research, I came across a pattern of organizational strategies that users manually created for themselves outside of the game. Out of 10 total responses, I found the three most common strategies:
Taking Notes
Making a List
What Organizing Tools are Competitors Providing?
Setting goals
I then explored the indie game space to determine if there were common notes or organizing strategies seen in other games:
Conclusion: there are no freeform organizing tool built into indie game competitors
“With so much to do in the game, it’s hard for me to keep track” (Female, 25)
While Stardew Valley’s freeform structure is intended to allow players to “choose their own adventure,” ADHD users may find the abundance of choice overwhelming.
Too much to do
Exploring writing apps as an alternative
iOS Notes App
a simple, clean interface with basic text editing and folders to organize notes with
Given that there is no established note-taking feature in the indie game market, I looked into notes and organizing tools available on mobile devices to weigh their pros and cons
Evernote
a note-taking and task-management app with notes stored in virtual “notebooks” that can be tagged, annotated, edited, searched, and exported
While these apps are only available on mobile interfaces, they both provided insight into what is appealing within a notes app, such as:
a clean, simple interface
templates and customization options for users
IDEATION
Generating organization ideas
Based on common organization techniques for users with ADHD and insights from the competitive analysis, I generated a few ideas that meet the criteria for my users:
Notes
a familiar, versatile tool to record observations, organize tasks, or jot down thoughts
Focus of the Day
a daily prompt for users to jump-start their session with specific goal-setting
Final Choice: Notes Section
Why:
To-Do List
an organizer's familiar friend - provides structure and gratification from the check-mark
Features:
tabs for easy navigation of sections
icons to indicate automatic layout suggestions for more structure
The con is easier to solve: by adding in templates (ex., bullet points, to-do lists, goal outlines), users who need more structure will find a blank notes document easier to user
Versatility: the notes section can incorporate a to-do list and goals to set, while the other two ideas were more limiting
DESIGN
User Case: complete this season’s community bundle
Steps:
User logs in and checks the season + what they haven’t completed for the bundle
Focus on one area: planting crops
Open notes section and type out crops to buy
Key
To demonstrate the Notes section in action, I examined a user case in which the player aims to collect all crops to complete a seasonal collection in the game’s community bundle. Here, the user can take note of which crops they need to buy in case they forget.
FINAL SOLUTION
Stardew Valley Notes
Narrow down daily tasks and focus area
User chooses a part of the game to focus on and take notes of
Organizing Templates
User can use tools such as bullet points, to-do lists, and a goal template to organize their notes however they want
Integration with “Journal” section
The original journal section is changed to a tab that the user can switch to - there’s no extra learnability involved
