A design game for families

Abstract

This graduation project has been carried out in the context of the research project ‘Co-Design with Kids: Early acquisition of 21st century skills’ at the TU Delft.
To prepare families with kids for the open-ended challenges of the 21st century, essential skills such as creative thinking, communication, and empathy should be mastered early on. Due to the growing interest in acquainting children with these creative problem-solving skills at a young age, research has been being carried out on design toolkits specifically aimed at children.
The central aim of this graduation project has been to explore the potential of a family-friendly design game—with a fun-factor—that engages kids to learn and practice essential 21st century skills through an open and creative mindset. The examination of literature in the interest of this topic outlined the foundation for a set of design criteria.
In the conceptualisation phase, a selection of game mechanisms has been used to generate a variety of ideas. These ideas were then clustered using a morphological map, resulting in three design directions. Through iterative design cycles, these design directions have been developed to a concept level. Using predefined design criteria, the most promising concept has been selected through a weighted scoring method. This concept has been developed into a paper prototype to evaluate with the target group.
A practice-based research methodology has been employed, through 5 playtesting sessions with families with kids ages 8 and up. Qualitative data has been gathered through several sources, such as interviews, observations, generated ideas, and film footage. In total, 3 prototypes have been evaluated and developed through the ‘Build, Measure, Learn’ loop. The key insights gained through the playtesting sessions with families show a positive relationship between the embedded game elements and a fun-factor. Overall, through a safe game environment with mild competition, a fun gaming experience is evoked through an open and creative attitude.
The insights coming forth from this practice-based study have led to a family-friendly design game for the consumer market. The final design has taken the first steps in making children acquainted with the 21st century skills in a safe and competitive game environment. The findings may be of great interest for other game designers and design education in general. The argument put forth here is that if a game has a fun-factor, players would feel more inclined to play and replay a game. Further research should investigate if repeatedly playing this game increases learning efficiency of the 21st century skills.