How to create products users love: applying Emotional Design and UX heuristics in real projects
Jonathan Felipe de Oliveira | Mar 27, 2026
Summary
- The Change the Game Challenge by Google Play invites girls aged 15 to 21 in elementary school to create more inclusive mobile games, with prizes including a visit to Google's São Paulo office, online courses, and collaboration with Google's partners.
- A Game Design Canvas was created for the challenge and presented in a workshop facilitated through GDG community member Barbara Cabral, with examples translating Candy Crush Saga and The Sims into the canvas format.
- The canvas includes building blocks like character, world, learning journey, goal, obstacles, mechanics, and resources and powers, emphasizing the player's learning journey alongside core game elements.
- The approach applies product thinking by focusing on what players can do with the game rather than what the game does for them, encouraging the use of storytelling to develop meaningful games.
Change the Game Challenge is an initiative brought by Google Play to inspire teens to build a more inclusive future for mobile gaming. The challenge was made available to girls between 15 and 21 years old attending elementary school. The prizes include get to know Google’s office in São Paulo, have access to online courses and work with Google’s partners. Isn’t that amazing?
Having said that, I wanted so much to contribute to this project!
In the end, I came up with a pretty good solution for a better understanding of game mechanics and goals, applying product thinking and storytelling techniques. I called the Game Design Canvas.
Game Design Canvas Workshop
Thanks to Barbara Cabral, GDG community member, I was able to facilitate a workshop talking about the project and about the Game Design Canvas I created especially for this challenge. The result you can check below:
Since this challenge was for girls between 15 and 21 years old, I thought it was very important, besides the parts of a game that makes the game what it is (goals, resources, and powers, mechanics), to focus on the Learning Journey: will the player be able to develop analytical skills or maybe think about different strategies? We often think that games bring no learning at all but we might end up finding that every game does bring a learning opportunity after all.
During the workshop I also presented two games translated into the canvas (thanks to Lucas Popenke, our iOS Cupcaker – you rock, Lucas!) that you can check below:
Candy Crush Saga Game Design Canvas
The Sims Game Design Canvas
About the Game Design Canvas
The Game Design Canvas contains building blocks to create a game – and not necessarily all of them will be populated. It is just a fun and visual way to help consider all the key aspects of a game – the product thinking way – considering the player first (character, in what world will be in, learning journey), job to be done next (goal and how to overcome obstacles) and finally the output required to make it happens (mechanics and resources and powers related to it).
Here at Cheesecake Labs, we believe that in order to create the utmost value with a product (in this case, a game), we must think about what you can do with the game much more than what the game can do for you — it sounds the same, but they are completely different approaches.
The Sims is not providing you the ability to play a game — it is making it possible to live the life you perhaps wanted in the real world, plus knowing how it will turn out after some time.
I hope that this mindset inspires you to research further about Product Thinking and empower you to build more meaningful games and consequently, products.
The power of stories
When creating a game, no idea should be put away until they’re sure about which story they would develop for their game. The girls were able to consider several opportunities and stories to be written based on the canvas and how the building blocks were structured.
I hope you can use the canvas to generate insights in your endeavors.
FAQ
What is the Change the Game Challenge?
Change the Game Challenge is an initiative brought by Google Play to inspire teens to build a more inclusive future for mobile gaming. It was made available to girls between 15 and 21 years old attending elementary school. The prizes include getting to know Google's office in São Paulo, having access to online courses, and working with Google's partners.
What is the Game Design Canvas?
The Game Design Canvas is a solution created for the Change the Game Challenge to help with a better understanding of game mechanics and goals, applying product thinking and storytelling techniques. It contains building blocks to create a game (not necessarily all of them populated), offering a fun and visual way to consider key aspects of a game by thinking of the player first (character, world, learning journey), the job to be done next (goal and how to overcome obstacles), and finally the output required to make it happen (mechanics, resources, and powers).
Why was the Learning Journey included in the canvas?
Since the challenge was for girls between 15 and 21 years old, it was considered important to focus on the Learning Journey beyond the elements that make a game what it is (goals, resources and powers, mechanics). This includes whether the player will develop analytical skills or think about different strategies, recognizing that every game can bring a learning opportunity.
Which games were used as examples translated into the canvas?
Two games were presented translated into the canvas during the workshop: Candy Crush Saga and The Sims.
What product thinking approach is applied to game design?
The approach focuses on what you can do with the game much more than what the game can do for you. For example, The Sims is not providing the ability to play a game — it is making it possible to live the life you perhaps wanted in the real world, plus knowing how it will turn out after some time. The aim is to build more meaningful games and products.
About the author.
