The adventure to yourself

Abstract

This thesis aims to help teenagers, aged 14-16, feel confident to express their thought and feelings. By doing so, we aim to create an environment in which teenagers can seek help. Where they can learn how to cope with uncertainties before they turn into bigger and long lasting mental health issues. The thesis does not aim to solve the problem of mental illnesses nor be a solution that prevents it. It aims to create an environment where this changes just enough to move in the right direction and offers a space for solutions with bigger changes.
The thesis starts with research. The research phase consists of literature, interviews with people who work with teenagers and a workshop with teenagers themselves. Four cornerstones are selected from the research to build the design upon. These cornerstones are: the tool will help teenagers discover their talents, give them control, show teens they are not the only ones and use gaming to increase motivation. Based on these corner stones the tool is designed through ideation, first testing, development and prototype testing, phase. The tool consists of three elements: a game, amulet and application. The first test consists of 23 teenagers in three sessions in which the assumptions and first ideas are tested. The prototype testing is done during 8 sessions of 6 teenagers. The 48 teens played the game. 42 Interacted with the amulet and 15 offered feedback on the application as well. The teenagers show excitement in discovering their talents through a game. They like the fun and social aspect and the fact that they did not have to assign talents to themselves. However, they experienced that the initial size of the amulet as too big. In the next iteration the size is reduced. Furthermore, the application is given more attention and function. The teenagers express that simply having an object to touch was too abstract. The teenagers also express a need for practicality and understandability. The designed tool helps teenagers discover their talents through a story based game. The game is played with six teenagers and facilitated by a teacher. The teenagers explore these talents over the next week. Through touching the amulet when the teens use their talents, it functions as a non-intrusive cognitive offloading. Later, the app will send a notification and ask them to explain more about the activity during which they used their talents. The app provides guidance in exploring those moments. It breaks the moments up in smaller pieces. It also covers moments in which teens cannot use their talents. After a week, the teenager can use the application and data they stored during a conversation with their mentor. I chose to ask feedback from more teenagers during a short session rather than testing the tool over a week. This is the proposed next step of the project alongside development of the app and working together with experts on the story and questions of the game. The test should be validated to start the implementation phase.