UX/UI & Board Games, Ep. 7: Watch Someone Misunderstand Your Work

In "The Crew: Mission Deep Sea" you and your team are completing missions in silence.

No table talk. No rescue monologues. Just tiny signals.

You think your hint is crystal clear.

Then someone plays a card that blows the whole mission apart.

It is funny later. During the mission, not so much.

That is exactly what early user testing feels like.

You built a flow that made perfect sense in your head.

Then you watched someone click every wrong button like it was a timed challenge.

You did not correct them. You observed. You took notes. You learned.

What should we take from that?

🫣 Miscommunication is normal, design should account for it

🧠 People bring their own logic and mental models

🎯 Clarity is more than instruction, it is patterns and feedback

🔍 The moment of hesitation is the signal you need

🔁 When it fails, the team learns together and fixes the next version

Make your testing count

Set a clear mission, what question are we answering today, then stay quiet while they try, no hints, no guiding.

Note the exact stumble, where it started, what they tried next and ask short follow ups, what did you expect to happen, what were you looking for.

Fix the friction, then run the mission again.

Test early. Test often.

If the mission explodes, good. You just found the bug.