For class, we had to redesign a board game. Traditionally in the class, our teacher required everyone to redesign Scrabble, though this year he allowed a variety of games we could remake. But, since I already had my mind thinking of Scrabble ideas, I chose to stick with the classic, deciding to make it into a dyslexic Scrabble board (affectionately dubbed Scrabdle).

Since I’m dyslexic myself, I’ve always hated the game Scrabble. Spelling was never my strength in school, so why would I subject myself to the torture in the name of having fun?

I started with the game board. I simplified the traditional design by eliminating words where I could, replacing them with large numbers with strong contrast. I also used a dyslexic-friendly typeface called OpenDyslexic for the text.

Next I had to create the tiles themselves. After initial searches online, I realized custom Scrabble tiles were basically nonexistent. No one would make you special tiles: just send you specific letters if you wanted to spell your name in crafts, or something. So instead, I decided to design and laser cut my own.

I wanted to show non-dyslexic players how a dyslexic may read words in everyday life, so I created them so they could alter and change spellings of words by rotating (“b” becomes “q,” “d” becomes “p,” “m” becomes “w,” and “z” becomes “n”). And some letter tiles were mirrored, uppercase, or lowercase. For the blanks, I printed the official dyslexia symbol on each, created by the dyslexic community to raise awareness.

I wanted the game to be its own packaging, so I designed it to have a drawer to hold all of its contents in. After sketching out initial designs, my mom helped me cut the right pieces so I could stain and glue them together to make the drawer. For the inside dividers, I cut up a cardboard box and wrapped it in blue felt. I used a canvas bag to hold my tiles, stained old Scrabble racks, and set to work on the scoreboard book, which was printed, glued together for the spine, perforated, and glued to two cardboard pieces wrapped in canvas.

Since dyslexics have trouble reading large amounts of small text, I designed the game instruction booklet to value pictures over words in order to avoid long paragraphs of text.

The game also includes an essay of mine adapted from Dr. Ronald D. Davis’s book, The Gift of Dyslexia, a book that largely influenced my childhood development and perspective on dyslexia, and the illustrations are adapted from a short video animation I created inspired by the same work.

For final delivery, I wrapped the entire game into a wrap, to make it appear as if it could be sold on the shelves.

Overall, this project was really fun to make and taught me a lot about bringing my imaginations into the physical world. I did attempt to submit the project design to Hasbro, but I didn’t make it past their bot team. #sadness. I may try again in the future or, if Hasbro happens to stumble across this post, I’d really really like to get a conversation with you all….

This game brings awareness to a condition that affects 5-10% of the world, and shows that dyslexics are not inferior or at a disadvantage in our world, but merely learn and operate differently than the norm. It praises them and makes them feel included, while helping family and friends understand the condition.

I got an A- on this project.

To see how I created this piece, check out my process video below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhN6ANkNHa0&w=560&h=315]