Decisions such as offering visual feedback when a piece was put in the right place \u2013 through an animation and the increase of the country\u2019s name \u2013 demanded long discussions, brainstorming evenings, and user testing.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery creative process also involves detours from the initial route, or secondary roads that prove to be closed, or too difficult to take\u201d, says Mircea Dr\u0103goi, Director,\u00a0Design at Lateral. \u201cIn moments like this, the key is the team\u2019s good organization, flexibility, and an ability to give up on certain ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n In order to carry on with an app that\u2019s so complex and resource-consuming, creative teams have to say no to certain ideas that may seem attractive at first, but are too difficult to implement. For example, at some point in the process, the Lateral team gave up the idea of additional characters that would pop-up on the screen and congratulate the player, even if most of the animations were already done, and integrated in the puzzle. But they realized the app would become visually cluttered, the tablet\u2019s processor would be overused and the user experience wouldn\u2019t warrant the effort involved.<\/p>\n \u201cVery few things can bring a bigger satisfaction than seeing your work published, your app downloaded by tens of thousands of people – having it played by children and adults alike\u201d, says Mircea. \u201cFor Map the World, we had double the reward: not only we had the chance to work on a fun project, but it was also very meaningful: the game’s essence is the educational value: teaching children geography in a fun and engaging way.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of a series dedicated to the supporters who help make the conference possible. We thank them for their contribution.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most of Lateral\u2019s products are born from a real need to solve a problem. Such was the case with the iOS game Map the World. Two years ago, Chris Loughlin, CEO of Travelzoo, one of Lateral\u2019s longtime clients and a global Internet media company that publishes travel and entertainment deals, was flying with his five-year-old … Continue reading Supporter stories: Inside Lateral’s creative process<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[35,38],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1604"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2965,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604\/revisions\/2965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"1K1v9NL7jmzfj3v7yTPGfDjItcNlO6ZTSLB5Jk17HVk\"](\"http:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/1K1v9NL7jmzfj3v7yTPGfDjItcNlO6ZTSLB5Jk17HVk.jpg\")
<\/a>Next, the team dealt with the usual challenges related to user experience: what size should the puzzle pieces have, as a kid’s fingermark is different than an adult\u2019s? Should the pieces be made of the states\u2019 outlines or, on the contrary, should the maps have classic jigsaw puzzle pieces? Should they have different colors for marking borders?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thepowerofstorytelling.org\/edition-2018\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/unnamed.png\")
When Travelzoo and other Lateral employees tested the game, one of the important decisions was to have an actress record the feedback messages, as well as the continents and countries\u2019 names, which was done in a recordings studio in the US. The game was then tested again, on a larger audience. The latest version can be played against the clock, and the time shared on social networks. After the final touches were made, it was published in US and UK Apple AppStores and had a TV and online marketing campaign.<\/p>\n