Online Offline : game about social media
Online Offline, a game about social media developed for families.
What?
Online Offline is a digital-hybrid tabletop game for families about the dangers of social media. This game is designed to start conversations between parents and children about the social media and to give them an updating education on social media (and its dangers). The game was developed following rigorous user research. The website for Online Offline including how to play can be found at www.impactgames.co.uk.
My role in this team is the Chief Experience Officer, I am involved in making sure the game meets the needs of the users as well as this I maintain the communication channels for our customers. This role involved executing desk research as well as executing focus groups and play-testing sessions, then synthesising the findings into design improvements.
Why?
We design games that are impact driven, hoping to address big problems through education and play. With this game we are tackling the problem of social-media and the dangers it poses to young people. From our research with families we defined three key problems that could be addressed through our game.
1.Parents want to have conversations with their kids about their social media habits but they find it hard to initiate them. They instead resort to control measures which can exasperate the problem.
2. Parents have a very unique opportunity to educate their kids about the internet, however they often don’t feel tech savvy enough or up to date with the current trends themselves. In fact both the kids and the parents need educating.
3.Despite social media being one of the biggest concern of parents, classroom lesson don't seem to be up to date enough to educate children on the current trends and platforms. In addition to this, children don't engage well with education in the classroom.
Our game acts as a conversation starter surrounding social media topics, furthermore it educates children in a non-didactic way through play therefore in a more engaging way.
How?
The development of the game was based on user-research findings. Our process involved numerous in-context interviews with kids, parents, psychologist and teach, as well as testing of different game prototypes.