Tender | Educational Gaming Service

Relationship Goals

EdTech

SaaS

B2B

Tender is a nationwide charity that harnesses the power of drama to educate children and young people about healthy relationships. Working with a wide variety of organisations from primary schools to global businesses, Tender promote respect and equality and prevent domestic abuse and sexual violence.

My Role

Product Design Lead, Project Manager

Design and development of a game-based resource to help neurodiverse teens practise healthy relationships.

Platforms

Game - Web, mobile, tablet (iOS, Android)
CMS - Strapi
Schools App - Responsive web application

Game

Learner Platform

What I Did

Led the creation of an educational game and learner management platform for Tender and partner schools.
Co-designed and tested every aspect of the game, ensuring it aligned objectives, with user needs and preferences.
Led a multidisciplinary team of subject matter experts, workshop facilitators, illustrators, script writers, and developers.

Co-Design

Deep-dive focus groups

Myself and Tender initially conducted discussions with a diverse group of young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), their caregivers, and teachers. The aim was to unearth underlying challenges and aspirations unique to neurodivergent learners.

Defining the target audience

An outcome of these discussions was to focus on game based learning, with an emphasis on students with mild to moderate learning difficulties who were attending special educational schools.

A cross-disciplinary team

I engaged with a wide range of subject matter experts and workshop facilitators to ensure a fun and inclusive approach to the design of the co-design sessions.

Co-design workshops

We ran a series of immersive workshops across three specialist schools, actively involving students in the creative process of designing a game through a series of carefully designed activities.

Image showcasing output from the co-design sessions in schools.

Insight and analysis

We meticulously analysed qualitative and quantitative data captured during the co-design sessions to construct a foundational understanding that would guide the entire project, from narrative themes, characters, game mechanics, and visual style, to accessibility features, teacher requirements and game configuration settings.

Game Design

Feedback loops

I established a feedback loop with project stakeholders, Tenders Youth Advisory Board and partner schools to ensure continuous refinement and inclusion of a diverse range of perspectives. The wider team played a pivotal part in assessing the concepts that we presented.

Design documentation

We crafted an extensive Game Design Document (GDD) that detailed every aspect of the game concept including game mechanics, core loops, narrative arcs, character development, user interfaces, and learning outcomes.

Concept development

I worked with some talented scriptwriters to develop a game concept based on the outputs from the co-design sessions. We fleshed out the characters and created a narrative driven game that enables players to “rehearse” for real-life scenarios, allowing them to make choices in a safe environment. The script was written in such a way that the game could be made appropriate for different age ranges.

Level design

The game has five levels and three mini-levels, each of which explores a different topic about relationships. These topics increase in their complexity and maturity as the game progresses, covering empathy, personal space, online safety, peer pressure and consent. The levels in the game can be configured via the learner management platform to meet an individual learners needs.

Relationship health and romance

The player's choices determine the health of the relationship and romance score that they have with each character. Choices are linked to one of the learning outcomes for each level. This means that adults can effectively support young people with Relationships Education. They can see what topics they understand, or find challenging and may need additional support with.

Dating characters

Whether a character will go on a date is dependent on the Relationship and Romance score with the player. The Relationship and Romance scores are balanced to reflect the outcome of the player choices during the game. The dating levels focus on building young people's understanding of romantic or intimate relationships and include: Asking someone out on a date, going on a date, and breaking up with someone. Dating can be turned off via the learner management platform if it is inappropriate for the student.

Tournaments

At the end of each level the player participates in a tournament round. Tournaments test their knowledge and understanding of the learning outcomes through a series of fun interactive activities. Reports on the learning outcomes achieved are available for teachers.

UX Prototypes

Prototyping core game loops

The design team developed an initial low-fidelity interactive prototype of the game in Fungus, employing rapid prototyping methodologies to quickly test and iterate on core mechanics and narrative arcs with young people.

Play-testing

We tested the prototype across a number of different specialist schools, with a variety of students that represented a wide range of educational needs. This enabled us to observe usability issues, test engagement, and assess learning efficacy.

Functional prototype

We crafted a fully operational prototype of the game's initial level and conducted extensive play-testing in schools. Our ongoing assessment focused on measuring engagement, educational effectiveness, and the game's user-friendliness.

Piloting

We developed a streamlined backend system allowing for the creation of accounts for both schools and students. This facilitated the pilot of the game across a broader range of schools, enabling teachers and workshop facilitators to independently use the game and provide feedback. Subsequent interviews provided valuable insights for product refinement and enhancements.

Character Design

Character depth and diversity

The goal was to create characters that not only resonated with the players but also aided in the storytelling and educational aspects of the game. We focused on creating characters that were not only diverse but also rich in depth, ensuring that they were relatable and inclusive for the target audience.

Expressing emotions

We designed in-game characters capable of exhibiting a wide range of emotions with clarity, particularly catering to neurodiverse young people on the autistic spectrum.

Clear emotional cues

This involved designing detailed facial expressions that were easily interpretable, avoiding subtleties that could be challenging to interpret. This approach was vital in fostering an inclusive game environment, that allowed players to learn how emotions are conveyed.

Character testing

We conducted focused testing sessions to gauge the effectiveness of character designs. These sessions allowed users to interact with character facial expressions, providing valuable feedback on their interpretability and relatability.

UI Design

Minimising cognitive overload

I meticulously crafted the game's user interface to be intuitive and accessible for neurodiverse young people. The UI design prioritised simplicity, incorporating clear visual cues, minimal animations and sound effects, along with consistent navigational elements. This approach was essential to reduce cognitive overload, catering specifically to our intended neurodiverse audience.

Accessibility

I emphasised making the game accessible for all users, incorporating features such as voice over, with text read by professional actors, to factor visual impairments, or low levels of literacy. Students are able to personalise the play experience via a settings panel.

Narrative Design

Briefing and guidelines

I established clear guidelines and objectives for the scriptwriters, ensuring alignment with the educational goals, and target audience needs.

Collaboration

We utilised collaborative tools such as Miro to enable real-time feedback and script revisions, whilst maintaining adherence to game engine mechanics and integration protocols that we established with the technical leads.

CMS integration

We leveraged a cutting-edge headless CMS (Strapi) for agile content management and game configuration, enabling digital assets, including scripts, voice recordings, scenes, characters, scoring, as well as gameplay logic to be modified in real-time by a non-technical team.

Custom export and import tools

We designed a specialised tool embedded within the CMS, to optimise the script export and audio import process for voice over recording. This tool efficiently transformed game scripts into formats that were meticulously tailored for clarity, with each line tagged with a unique identifier for the sound engineers to use during production. With such a huge volume of dialogue this approach reduced errors, and minimised testing.

Additional Features

Mini-games and tournaments

I incorporated mini-games to reinforce core learning outcomes, using gamification techniques to assess student’s comprehension and track their progress. We created a variety of game types that could be setup and published via the content management system.

In game support

Throughout the game players are supported by Shay and Mr Hill. Friendly and supportive grown-ups that explain how to play the game and highlight important concepts in Relationships Education, like consent. Shay checks-in with players to ensure that they are comfortable when taking next steps with other characters. Players are supported when dating or ending relationships.

Avatar builder

Students can create their own character using a highly customisable Avatar Builder. The Avatar Builder enables them to choose from a wide range of facial features, skin tones, hairstyles and outfits. The avatar is displayed alongside the choices that the player is making in the game.

Schools Platform

MVP to full product evolution

I designed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of the learning management platform for initial testing, followed by a fully-featured version for broader school implementation. We employed an agile methodology, continuously integrating user feedback to enhance and evolve the product.

Learner management

The system enables Tender and partner schools to efficiently setup and manage workshops, track student progress, and customise the game sessions to meet different learners needs. Analytics and reports are available for individual students, workshops, and schools.

Outcomes and Key Learning

Educational relevance

Successfully delivered an engaging and effective educational tool, specifically tailored for the learning styles and needs of neurodiverse students in specialist school settings.

Expanding Tenders services

Enabled Tender to expand their educational services, reaching SEND students with a high-quality, learner appropriate, engaging and accessible digital toolkit.

Quantifiable learning outcomes

Provided educators with advanced tools for tracking and evaluating individual student progress and achievement of educational goals.

Empathetic approach in design

The project underscored the importance of a user-centred, empathetic approach in design, particularly when addressing specialised needs. It highlighted the critical role of continuous iteration and stakeholder feedback in creating a product that is not just functional but deeply resonant with its audience.

Educational Gaming Service for Neurodiverse Teens.