1. Part I: Brief Summary
This application is a task manager suited for gamers. It will provide users with
useful tools to help them stay organized. The main goal of this program is to reward
users with in-game items for their favorite games, simple for staying organized. There
will be multiple methods of ensuring the users do not cheat. This application was
inspired by other task management applications such as epic win and task XP. Our
idea is unique in that users will be able to not only organize their tasks in a simple way,
but will be rewarded for completing tasks by being benefited in an actual video game.
Instead of receiving items that don’t have any real value, our application integrates with
other video games that many people already play and it adds to their experience in
those games as opposed to trying to make them interested in a game that doesn’t have
any persistence value to the items in it and has no value to the user after they complete
their tasks.
Part II: Competitive Analysis and Inspirations
Sense of Achievement

3. This inspiration board is about achievement. Video games in all aspects have
to give the user some sort of feedback, weather it be by earning a new item or getting
an achievement notice like these to keep them interested in the game. We wanted to
make this app to show our users what they have achieved in a video game by doing a
task they had to handle in real life. For example, Xbox 360 keeps track of achievement
points by notifying the user right away and adding up the total achievement point.
The User is able to access their total achievments points at any time. This property
really inspired us. An example of this would be if Ben, a 20 year old male who is very
disorganized with his schedule forgets due dates of assignments or forgets that he even
has assignments. He is a big video gamer and spends most of his time playing World
of Warcraft on his desktop. He doesn’t get a lot of things done because it’s as if he is
glued to his computer chair. With our app, allowing users to unlock items for their game
of preference, we plan to show our audience (Gamers ages 14 and up) that doing tasks
and staying organized in your real life can actually benefit them in the game world as
well. This app will let the user earn coins for each task that he completes on his task
manager. When he/she has enough coins, they can buy an item for the game that he/
she is playing.
We were inspired by the World of Warcraft achievement panel. We like how
when you accomplish something in WoW, you get a pop-up notification saying what
you earned and how many points you received. From this, we thought up to have
a notification feature where you can go into settings and turn it on/off. This will tell
you how many coins you earned for completing a task. The top right picture shows
what new items you have unlocked. For our app, we would have the notifications tell
you what new items you can buy when you have enough coins to purchase the next
expensive item on the list.
Other Task Managing Apps

4. These are other task managing apps that can help you stay organized but don’t really
give you the feeling of actually earning something for what you have just completed. If
you have a planner, all you would do is write down your tasks. That seems a little boring
but it could be effective for some. Epic WIn and Task Xp are 2 apps that inspired us.
We have found ways in which we can take what was given to us and make an app that
would be similar but better. Task Xp and Epic Win both give experience to your avatar
for completing tasks where in our app, “Life Xp”, gives you coins. In the other apps, you
will feel rewarded by the experience but that doesn’t really do anything for you where in
our app you can buy and unlock items for the game that you play.
Audience- The audience we plan to target is anyone 14 and up, who play video
games, and own a tablet or smart phone. This is a very broad audience range because
there are users of all ages who play video games. This app is made for games who
have persistence meaning a character who develops over the game by added items
and features. This app would be great for games such as World of Warcraft. This is one
of the most popular games on the market and it is rated for teenagers.
An example of a user scenario would be Johnny, who is a big World of Warcraft
fan and player. He has an iPhone and spends most of his time playing WoW instead of
doing work. He like the feeling of achieving all he can get in a game, ending up in him
not being able to get tasks done. Johnny has found out about our app through one of
his other gaming friends. He was told that you can get exotic skins for your armor plus
other miscellaneous items in exchange for getting tasks completed. When he tried it out,
he was excited to see his avatar in WoW have an exciting new look to it, not to mention
he was happy to actually get his tasks done and he now feels organized and feels that
he has achieved a new goal.
Other Genres

6. Understanding the Marketplace- We understand that one game is not for all.
For us to reach our audience, we have to appeal our app in many perspectives. We
will have a general layout of the app in which game companies can buy into our idea,
customize the background and the items in which can be unlocked. This will open up
the app to a wide variety of gamers that would want to use this. According to research,

7. 3 out of 5 people play video games and there are about 449 million Smartphone users
in 2011. With so many people, there will be various different types of of game genres
that people like. This being said, we will include the most played games. There will also
be a forum where users will be able to go to and post ideas of what games we should
add to the app.
Part III: Overview of the application
The initial idea for the project was an application that utilized our real world
actions by combining efficiency and role-playing aspects to provide the user with an
immersive video game experience while helping them manage their every-day life. This
would be a game that was more than just a video game, but one that supplies the user
with a rich virtual and real experience.
The user would control an avatar that progresses through a single-player and
multi-player experience, reminiscent of popular MMOs such as WoW, that will allow
the player to develop their own personal character. The difference is that the user’s
character’s stats and attributes would be based on the user’s real-life actions. By using
a multitude of plugins, our program would be able to reward the user and their avatar
with appropriate stats and rewards. For example, if the user spent 2 hours in the gym,
the downloaded Foursquare GPS plug-in would reward them with strength points based
on the amount of time they spend in the gym.
Eventually our idea changed and grew. Instead of creating our own games
and linking them to the program, we decided to link already existing games. Now all
the bonuses players gain using the program can be applied to their World of Warcraft
character, or a Modern Warfare account. Our plan is to extend this to virtually any and
every game company that is willing to partner with us.
We also simplified the reward scheme. Since this would impact actual games,
we decided to only permit bonuses that provide vanity effects and nothing more. This
meant no stat upgrades. Just clothing and apparel that makes the player’s character
look different.
Each task will now reward the player with tokens based on its difficulty and
length. The plugins will still exist. The app will still utilize a program like foursquare to
ensure the player is studying or exercising as they promised. The tokens can be spent
to buy the previously mentioned vanity items.
This is overall a unique concept. Epic-win provides a similar task management
system, but it ends at the gaining of attributes. There is nothing to apply them to. This
application allows the user to put what they gain to their game avatar. Epic-win also
neglects to provide the user with self control. One simple task can give the user 100
exp or 1000. Our application will designate proper rewards to the appropriate activities,
which will be monitored by plugins. These plugins will be based on popular apps such
as foursquare to improve the quality of the task manager.
There are many additional ideas we can implement.
● Scanning items and bar codes to earn tokens
○ Eating healthy plays a role in life-management. Certain food items, such

8. as V8 drinks or Yoplait yogurt can be scanned to reward the player with
a menial amount of tokens. Soda on the other hand, would provide no
reward.

9. ● Buying game-sponsored toys and posing a virtual-world equivalent of them
(webkins)
○ Webkins are a big industry. People enjoy owning physical items of virtual
media. A player could buy a doll of a WoW critter, and then input a code
that would come with the critter to be rewarded with tokens or an exclusive
item.
● Fight other people’s avatars
● Be rewarded bonus points for things like studying in a library, buying healthy
foods, etc.
● Premium content, such as temporary stat boosts that can be bought via an in-
game shop
● Real life sponsorships and advertisements can lead to additional profit
● GPS tracks position, pedometer tracks mileage, camera scans items
Part IV: Design Rationale
● Principles (From IBM’s list of design principles)
○ Keep it Simple: Navigation; The interface itself is very simple and easy to
navigate. It is never hard for the user to navigate through the basic user
Interface.
○ Bring objects to life through good visual design: We accomplish this
by having large buttons and easily readable text.
○ Optimize the design for the most frequent or important tasks:
○ Design your user interface so that it can be localized for other
geographies without redesigning the interface: We have designed the
application to be applicable with various game companies. Their will be a
general layout that companies will follow in our interface. They layout will
be the same but design will be outfitted for the game that is at play.
○ Provide the ability to redo and undo tasks: By providing visible “back”
and “accept” buttons we can allow the users to proceed on their own
whim, as well as fix previous mistakes.
○ Things that look the same should behave in the same way, and
an action should always produce the same result: Long buttons
containing arrows scroll through lists. Squares with rounded edges with
text send the user to a new page. Even without text, the user will know
what a button does simply by looking at the shape.
○ Easy to identify purpose of actions and identify how it affects you in
the game:
● Design Choices
○ We want people to manage their time completing their tasks orderly
○ We want to make the design simple enough for the common user
○ We made the navigation simple so that the users won’t get lost
● Example support: Epic Win, a similar program utilizes similar features as Life XP.
It uses interactive graphics and easy to read font. In essence, the two programs
are very similar. The difference is that ours gives actual rewards and actually

10. monitors the user. Epic Win is fairly successful. Being private is what restricts
its success. As seen through Epic Win, the audience requires simplicity. It goes
hand in hand with the task management environment. Large, legible buttons and
colorful graphics is what helps to drive Life XP.
Part V: Research Report
Summary:
Each person liked the overall concept of the application. When we asked each
person how they would feel if they were rewarded in a game for “real life” tasks they all
supported and encouraged the idea. For example, one of the interviewees named Dan
Allen thought it was “awesome” and really likes the fact that it is different and unlike
anything he has seen before.
Games that each person likes to play are Battlefield 3, Metal Gear solid, Modern
Warfare, Madden and a variety of strategy, sports and shooting games. When it comes
to getting tasks completed each person was different, but all said that they were in
some way disorganized with their daily tasks. Some critiques of the game included
adding a back button to each page and adding a feature were the user can access any
page at anytime. Each person we interviewed was concerned about the cheating aspect
of the game. We will need to figure out a way to keep track of someones tasks so they
actually complete them instead of just letting them lie about it and simply type it in to the
application. Overall the application was well received.
Materials:
We made a paper prototype to conduct our research. We then wrote out questions on a
piece of paper to ask the users.
Changes:
● We found that users didn’t like to re-log into the app every time they wanted to
work on their different characters in different games. They also did not like the
fact that they could not gain anything in other games if they weren’t logged into
those games.
○ To fix this we changed the way the they logged into the game and how
they accessed each game. Now they log in with a universal account that
they can use to access all of their games just by clicking a button. To allow
them to gain items in each game we added a universal money system
that is persistent throughout all the games. This allows them to spend the
money they earn from completing tasks on any of they games they play.
● They didn’t like that they couldn’t easily access the other pages of the app at any
given time and that they had to go back to the main menu each time.
○ We added a fast navigation bar to the bottom of each page that allows
them to access any tab at any time quickly and easily.

11. Part VI: Technical Plan
● What is necessary to develop this?
○ Smartphone/iPhone or any piece of media that can download apps
○ We need companies to accept our invitation and work on the physical
features of the app.
■ Foursquare would always work with us on GPS location, providing
the user with constant interaction
■ Gyms like Planet Fitness would have barcodes that allow the user
to use their smartphone to scan
■ Turnitin can verify if scanned essays are legitimate essays and not
blocks of random text or stolen media.
■ Game companies will design the app, modifying it by deeming what
users can unlock with their tokens as well as the interface of the
program..
○ We will need a layout of what the app would look llike and a crew of game/
graphic designers and programmers.
■ Javascript coders, a neutral programming language shared
between both Android and iPhone.
■ Graphic Designers that can utilize the assets given by the game
companies to modify the template to their given needs
■ Marketing and PR people to help communicate with the many
companies involved in this project
● Platform
○ Android/iPhone
● Functionality
○ Task Manager
■ Earn rewards in game for tasks completed on application
○ Four Square-Log in to gps locations
○ Navigation is simple to follow when looking at wire frames.
○ Can be used to help game addiction; It can encourage people with game
addictions to go out and complete tasks to earn more unique items for the
game.
● Developers
○ Developers
■ Developers
● Technical Aspect
○ Game Screen
○ Login Screen
○ Main Page
○ Avatar of your game character
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5933815/LifeXP.pdf

12. Research Questions for Design of Prototype
Users:
Michael Shuester- 20 year old male
Dan Allen- 19 year old male
Michael Richard- 20 year old male
Questions asked:
Michael Shuester
What games/genres do you like?
Metal Gear Solid/ Shooters and Battlefield 3
How do you normally manage your tasks?
Normally he just remembers them.
How do you go through out your day with your planned tasks?
He has an intense schedule so he ends up forgetting a lot of assignments.
How do you feel if you don’t complete a task?Feels bad because now his assignments
are going to be late and he’s going to get a lower grade.
Do you own an iPhone or any other smart phone?
Yes, has a blackberry
Do you download apps?
Yes
How would you feel to be rewarded in a game for the completion of a task you
completed in real life?
“That would be awesome! I feel that it would help me get up and do chores more often
because I can earn new things for my games.”
Was this prototype easy to navigate through?
For our generation it is easy to navigate through.
What are your thoughts about the app?
The concept is unique and could help people fight video game addictions.
Dan Allen
What games/genres do you like?
Shooters/sports games
How do you normally manage your tasks?
Does not normally manage his tasks at all
How do you go through out your day with your planned tasks?
He sometimes misses classes and assignments.
How do you feel of you don’t complete a task?
Depends on the task but usually they start to build up. It would be beneficial to be more
organized.
Do you own an iPhone or any other smart phone?
Yes he owns a iPhone
Do you download apps?
Yes

13. How would you feel to be rewarded in a game for the completion of a task you
completed in real life?
Never really thought about that but it would be really “cool” and he would enjoy that.
Was this prototype easy to navigate through?
Yes just needs the option to go to any page at the bottom of each page.
What are your thoughts about the app?
Likes it because it is unlike anything he has seen before.
Michael Richard
What games/genres do you like?
Plays Battlefield 3 and Starcraft 2/Real strategy games and first person shooters
How do you normally manage your tasks?
Uses a pen and a notepad to write down what he needs to do.
How do you go through out your day with your planned tasks?
Completes his task using what he has. It’s a simple system but it works for him.
How do you feel if you don’t complete a task?
Feels upset if it is a major task that he misses.
Do you own an iPhone or any other smart phone?
Does not
Do you download apps?
Nope
How would you feel to be rewarded in a game for the completion of a task you
completed in real life?
“I would love to be able to get some feedback for getting my tasks done quickly.”
Was this prototype easy to navigate through?
It was easy just reminds him of normal interfaces.
What are your thoughts about the app?
Would love to have this for Battlefield. I own the game but can’t make any progress
because his computer is slow and can’t run the game yet. So he can still make progress
in the game without playing it.
Part VII: Challenges
1) Finding a way to make the game fair so users cant cheat.
2) We have to figure out how to assign how many tokens a user earns when completing
a task.
3) How many tasks can they complete each day?
4) Getting stores/gyms have our bar code in possession so people with our app can use
it.
Part VIII: Works Cited
Blizzard, World of Warcraft.
Rexbox & SuperMono, Epic Win
Valve Corporation, Steam

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