Trailblazer Hero
Interactive experience design for an educational AAPI card game
Trailblazer Heroes is an educational card game that introduces AAPI role models to young audiences through storytelling and play.
To support its promotion at STEAMNASIUM, I designed an interactive web experience that allows users to create their own hero cards and engage with the product in a more immediate, personal way.
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Timeline
Feb, 2025 - Apr, 2025
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The Team
2 UX Designers, 1 Graphic Designer, 2 Game Designers
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Role
I Designed a customized hero card generator that enables users to create personalized cards in seconds, turning passive viewers into active participants.
STEAMNASIUM is a K–12 exhibition where visitors explore multiple booths in a fast-paced, walk-through setting. In this context, it was difficult to communicate a content-heavy educational game within a short attention span.
Visitors interacting briefly with exhibition booths in a high-traffic environment
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Low engagement in browsing scenarios
Visitors quickly pass by, making it hard to capture attention or explain gameplay.
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Complex content, limited time
The game relies on storytelling and historical context, which cannot be easily conveyed on the spot.
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Lack of interactive entry point
Without hands-on interaction, users remain passive and disengaged.
How might we turn a passive, walk-through experience into an engaging, hands-on interaction for young visitors?
To address low engagement in exhibition settings, I designed a customized hero card generator that transforms product introduction into a quick, hands-on experience.
From Viewing to Participation
During STEAMNASIUM, Students create their own hero cards by imagining their identities and defining simple traits, turning abstract storytelling into a tangible, playful interaction that sparks immediate interest in the game.
Guiding young visitors through the hero card creation experience
Designed for Instant Engagement
The experience is intentionally lightweight and intuitive, allowing users to complete the interaction within seconds, making it effective in short-attention, walk-through contexts. We gathered more than 50 cards within a short exhibition timeframe.
Personalized hero cards created by users in real time
60%+
visitors participated by creating their own hero cards.
50+
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teachers reached out in one week to adopt the game as a classroom learning tool.
Designing for attention, not information
In fast-paced environments, engagement matters more than explanation—interaction can communicate more effectively than content.Turning users into participants
Shifting from passive browsing to active creation significantly increases emotional connection and product understanding.Prototyping for real-world contexts
Designing for physical environments requires simplicity, speed, and immediate feedback to fit real user behavior.
With the project team at STEAMNASIUM (second from left)