Scrabble, Data, and COVID-19
Do you play scrabble? I do, especially when it’s a phone app.
Pre-Digital Scrabble
Growing up, the game of scrabble consisted of a game board, family, and the aunt who brought a four–inch–thick Merriam–Webster Dictionary.
As we sat around the circular table, I would stare at seven randomly assigned tiles and imagine what words each letter might combine to form. Then, as the tiles sat in their wooden tray, I studied the game board and periodically glanced at the dictionary.
Then it happened, a group of letters stood out as a potential word, “R – O –T –I.” Because I had no idea if roti was a word, I laid the tiles on the board and hoped it was in that massive dictionary. Luck is when opportunity meets ability, and the dictionary described roti as a round soft flat unleavened bread. Sounds delicious.
Scrabble and Data
I enjoy the analytical aspects of scrabble, it’s an exercise in data sensemaking. For example, how might your letters combine with the words and premium squares on the gameboard by applying grammatical rules and pattern recognition to form anagrams?
An Unexpected Development
Why an article on Scrabble, Data, and COVID-19? When COVID-19 happened, social distancing became the norm, and I began playing scrabble via a phone app, which is way more fun than spending money on the dentist. Others may agree.
From Game Table to Handheld
No longer 225 square inches, Scrabble went mobile and removed the limits of a paper game-board. Instead, it facilitates a fast-paced game of analysis to easily rearrange letters while checking word accuracy against the application’s algorithm, a preloaded dictionary.
Collectively, these features enable game board schema interactions, enhanced pattern identification, word derivation, and the ability to play people across the world simultaneously.
Stay in Touch
And while the app provides a fun and analysis-rich environment, it does not replace the enjoyment of sitting around a table with family and friends.
