Design for facilitation: a gamified research tool
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Developing a game based research tool to engage users in deep conversations sharing their life stories about how they plan for their future, near and far and the realities they encounter along the way.
The goal is to create a design tool to create a genuine dialogue to collect and map out users’ needs, desires and challenges.
My role: Design Researcher, Concept and Visual Designer
In several projects, we strived for a deep understanding of adolescent girls’ needs and challenges in their lives. In order to engage younger participants, developing an alternative research method that enables an easy dialogue for participants to follow and comfortably share sensitive topics was essential.
In collaboration with two other designers, we created the GOAL Game tool to facilitate information sharing. The Goal Game can be used in pair or group setting and is adaptable for a variety of subjects for discussion.
54 Participants
Tested with age across 12-60
3 User Cases in different locations
Adaptation for the context of Tanzania and India
While we conduct user research with the tool, we spot an opportunity to tweak this research tool for the councelling purpose. Use the Goal Game as a platform for young girls to resolve questions, scenarios and receive advice on the way for an interactive learning experience.
Eventually, the Goal Game tool was picked up by a girls’ skills development program. An international organization decides to integrate the tool into their life empowerment curriculum and will be implemented in Bihar, eastern India, June 2020.
Read more here.
While we conduct user research with the tool, we spot an opportunity to tweak this research tool for the councelling purpose. Use the Goal Game as a platform for young girls to resolve questions, scenarios and receive advice on the way for an interactive learning experience.
Eventually, the Goal Game tool was picked up by a girls’ skills development program. An international organization decides to integrate the tool into their life empowerment curriculum and will be implemented in Bihar, eastern India, June 2020.
Read more here.
3 User Cases in different locations
Adaptation for the context of Tanzania and India
54 Participants
Age across 12-60
In comparison to a formal interview format, the game is much engaging and fun for participants to share information.
- Facilitate participants sharing their approach to goal-setting and how existing element in his/her life affect this pathway and how they can ideally dealt through storytelling.
- Make the session more fun, engaging and not personal for participants to share information.
- Can be adapted to various research subjects to suit the area of focus e.g. map any targeted user’ daily goals, challenges, workarounds.
- Tanzanian version
- Tanzanian version
- Indian version
“This is so informative and fun to play. We just need some training in factual advices then we’re able to provide knowledge to girls accordingly.”
– quoted the Tanzanian peer leader/counsellor
“It is in fact easy after played once. And the gaming structure was really easy to get girls to share their stories freely.”
– quoted the Indian facilitator
“For me, it’s fun to be part of the discussion. Once you started the game, you just want to keep continuing it until the end. I learnt so much from other girls’ answers well.”
– quoted an adolescent girl from prototyping session
Want to know more?
Drop me a line. I’m always happy to meet new people and chat over coffee!
hello.fangyi@gmail.com