Diabeatit
Overview
Diabeatit is a group that aims to improve dietary habits of kids by building a tablet game to educate them on the causes and effects of Type 2 Diabetes. This project was sponsored by UCSD Global TIES, an impactful non-profit organization based in UC San Diego. I had the opportunity to work as a UX Designer with the organization for over a year.
In total, I collaborated with 30+ different designers, researchers, and developers throughout my time. More specifically, much of my time was focused on planning and conducting usability tests and surveys, pushing for design consistency, and brainstorming ways to promote self-efficacy; the belief in one’s self to produce results.
The application
A tablet game where kids interact with foods flying across the room. Based on the food they grab, they’ll acquire either healthy points(+) or glucose points(-).
My Role: Interaction Designer, Game Designer, User Researcher
Clients
Clients I worked with were UCSD Global TIES and the UCSD School of Medicine.
Global TIES provided our budget while clients from the UCSD School of Medicine provided SMEs. Including MD/PhD students Anupam Garg and Vidya Mahavadi, along with Charlie Goldberg, a clinical professor. Our mission was to further public medical knowledge and health awareness. In addition to providing the team with health expertise when needed, they were also responsible for finding hospitals to host our application in their patient waiting rooms, where it may be presented to users.
Key Research Questions
To what degree of knowledge do kids currently have of Diabetes?
How can we make the application fun, but still educational?
How can we improve the usability of the existing application?
User Research
User interviews & Surveys
We asked kids questions about their preferred learning environments, exposure to diabetes, and knowledge about the disease and gained rich insights that would be important for the game’s development.
In summary, after surveying 87 kids, we found:
Out of 87 kids, 58.6% knew someone with Diabetes while 35.6% didn’t know anyone. This data would come in handy when creating the game’s plot.
Other Findings
Knowledge on the side effects of diabetes was lacking
Long term health issues associated with Diabetes was also lacking
Persona
Name: Zac
Age: 10 years old
Technology: Uses his iPad a lot at home
Motivations to use the product: Wants to be healthier to be better at sports and loves when learning is fun.
Background:
A lot of his learning is through applications and games
He enjoys learning at school when there’s some sort of play aspect
He doesn’t know much about healthy eating
Desk Research: Learning Behavioral Change Theory
Self-drawn portraits were utilized to create relatable characters in the game.
Focused research on understanding how to spark behavior change in kids. Learned that a feeling of self-efficacy has to be in play; giving users the confidence that they can change a behavior. One of the ways we incorporated this into the game, was through the creation of a young character with a relatable lifestyle that kids can play as and make decisions for.
Desk Research: Self-Efficacy through Plot Writing
My team and I white boarded different plot ideas, analogies, and diabetes facts. We determined that to further promote self-efficacy, and help players relate to the character as much as possible.
To promote a relation with the story, we wanted to engage kids by using a storyline that fit the kids we interviewed and surveyed. The plot would be as follows:
Kid has empty lunch box
He has to pack his own lunch in the morning because guardian left for an appointment
Kid goes to the fridge to pack his lunch, but isn’t sure which foods to pack
Game start
Style Guide
To help streamline design workflows for future teams and provide design consistency, my team and I created a style guide backed by research on color palettes for learning environments.
Usability Testing
My team and I facilitated multiple usability tests with kids at an elementary school in East San Diego. We gathered rich insights on different aspects of the game like: the information presented, the customizable character, gameplay, and UI.
We found that the kids not only liked playing the game, but they also learned about Diabetes 2 side-effects in the process. In summary:
They were very engaged with the feature of customizing their own character.
The plot made them think about their own lives and how the character related to them.
Sometimes elements on the screen moved too quickly for them to interact with. Making the game too difficult at times.
Observing usability testing session while kids play the app.
Then I presented our findings and design recommendations to stakeholders and received buy-in to include our recommendations into the team’s backlog.
Summary of Impact:
Incorporated health-education principles backed by research that will result in the following:
improve kids’ dietary habits
give kids the confidence that eating healthy is easy
Created features and deliverables that will inform future teams and enhance user experience of application:
Implemented customizable characters
Implemented a relatable plot for kids
Created a style guide
Produced a persona based on real user research
Closing Thoughts & Next Steps
If I had more time on the team, I would've over watched the development of my design recommendations and style guide. Although I successfully handed over deliverables, I believe ensuring that they are implemented correctly is still the researcher/designer’s responsibility.
Working with Diabeatit was one of the last things I did as an undergraduate at UC San Diego. I loved having the chance to work on a health-focused game, and truly make a positive impact on people’s lives. I also learned a lot more about myself, my work interests, the usefulness of desk research, and some of the difficulties of working on a health-focused app.