game design | smriti

Adventures of Mahishmati Kingdom

Game for evaluating self-confidence in school children suffering from Dental Fluorosis

Overview

This project was a part of our 2-weeks long workshop, when we were taken to the village of Tungatadhinne, Chikabalapur, India - where Fluoride is abundantly found in groundwater. As a part of our workshop, we had to explore the Fluoride condition in the village, effects it has on the people and also understand the work of INREM(an NGO), which is working around similar issues in the area.

Our group decided to look into the Dental Fluorosis- which is currently affecting almost everyone residing in the village.

Timeline:

2 weeks

My role:

UX Research, Concept development and

game design

Tools used:

Photoshop, Illustrator

Problem

Dental fluorosis is an ailment in the form of a line present on the teeth. Since this is a visible ailment, it creates a stigma around it and has psychosocial consequences on people due to this condition. The adolescents and especially the children (who are suffering) face discrimination from those who do not suffer from Dental Fluorosis, resulting in low self-esteem and confidence.

Understanding Dental Fluorosis

In order to get a full understanding of the condition and the gravity of the situation, we did secondary research on Dental Fluorosis, along with the user study.

What is Dental Fluorosis?

Dental Fluorosis is one of the kinds of Fluorosis, which is a crippling disease caused by the excess deposition of fluorides in the body through drinking water/food products/industrial pollutants over a long period of time. Intaking excess fluoride, mostly through drinking-water can severely affect teeth, bones and cognitive growth.

Black stains on teeth

Dental Fluorosis

16/27

Skeletal fluorosis

Non-skeletal fluorosis

Dental fluorosis

16/23 districts in Karanataka & 16/27 districts suffer from Dental Fluorosis

Low

Bad diet

Kinds of Fluorosis

Tobacco

Drugs

Fluoride Level

High

What aggravates it?

Fluoride concentration

greater than 1.5 ppm is unsafe

Fluoride is present
in excessive amount in ground water

Children below 8 years old have more tendency to get Dental Fluoride

Dental fluorosis if left untreated can eventually lead to skeletal fluorosis

Field observation

Village

We went to the Village of Tungadhine and a school nearby which is badly affected by Fluorosis.to study the impacts fluorosis has in their daily lives.

Students

Primary Research

Interviews

Interviews were conducted with INGREM Fieldworkers to get insights on the current situation and also had a talk with 4 villagers while strolling around the village.

Villagers

Social

workers

Insights

Following insights were gained on the context of dental Fluorosis and the effects it has on Kids & Adolescent:

Kids

They tend to smile less due to embarrassment

The cases of teasing and bullying the kids with dental fluorosis have increased in the schools

Less social acceptance

Self-confidence goes down so does the grades

Most likely to drop out of school

Adolescent

People feel less confident to pursue a career/ new job opportunity

Using cosmetic dental surgery to deal with dental fluorosis

Rejections from marriage proposals

The surgery is expensive

Chosen User Group

The kids, especially the ones attending school, face larger discrimination and teasing, which can result in them developing low self-esteem and confidence eventually.

Adults

Kids

Adolescent

If so, how do we measure self-confidence in kids to see the difference?

Does Dental Fluorosis really affect the self-confidence of kids in school settings?

Solution

Rubrics

Within the given context, the purpose of our project was to try and understand whether dental fluorosis (especially the visible aspects of the condition) was affecting the overall confidence of a child. In what ways does it affect their overall growth?

To do this, confidence has to be categorized and understood in terms of different metrics. These metrics will help us to understand the behavior of school children within a certain setting.

Sense of security

A level of sureness in decisions taken and the outcomes based on that

Need to Belonging

Sense of self-esteem

Taking initiative in situations, especially in group situations.

Ability to make decisions and take risks

Interact and make decisions within a group setting

Ability to collaborate with their peers comfortably

Feeling comfortable when in different environments

Game- way to obtain Rubrics

To obtain the rubric and collect data, our team designed a roleplaying game to serve as a toolkit.

The advantage of creating a game was that since the target group was school children, this would allow the participants to feel comfortable while simultaneously allowing us to capture the required metrics.

Game Features

The storyline should have an underlying mission that has the involvement of all the participants.

The decision-making scenarios contribute to the mission and progressing the storyline.

This mission needs to be completed to end the game

A storyline of Fictional environment with characters to be roleplayed by participants with scenes which involve decisions to be made by the character

Game checklist

Character props based on characters in the story (6 players)
Board with sections for placing the game currency (peanuts)
A toy (something which makes a sound and can be held in one hand) to be used by the player who has to act in a situation (decision prop)
Scenario cards for the game master to conduct the game
Rubric sheet to note down the metrics at each event
One person assigned note down observations during the gameplay (required to debrief later). They may even choose to take supporting pictures/videos.

How to Play?

Marking on the rubric

The team consists of 6 players
3 boys, 3 girls (or according to the sex ratio in the class)
1-2 players need to have some level of dental fluorosis.

Assigning Roles

Setting up the story

Handling tricky situations

Selecting Participants.

Tally-up all the metrics for each player
The score of +/- X indicates low confidence
Compare scores of players with and without dental fluorosis
Replay the game after an intervention to see if there is any difference

Ask the players to sit around the board next to a character box.
Handover the characters props
Distribute the character introduction cards and each character readout / enact their introductions

The set-up needs to mention the location (real/imagined)
Mention relationships between the character
Mention the secondary characters (sheep/cow)

The game master would make situations or character actions as humorous as possible to hold the attention of the players
Use local movies/story references to help characters make decisions

Evaluation

Keeping the qualifications of the rubric in mind, mark the participant’s character “+1” under the respective quality
This marking can be given to the acting player themselves or to other players based on their participation

Reflection

Learnings from the field interaction:

During the gameplay with the actual participants, there was a lag in the game due to the requirement of a translator.
Choices made by the kids were possibly influenced by the tone of the translator and the presence of the game facilitators

Improvements based on feedback

The events in the story should be kept short and simple so as to keep things moving forward.
Allow the participants to make choices of their own accord rather than having fixed choices. The metric then would be allotted on the kind of choice.
Make the game more collaborative. In this case, if the choices were open to the participants, they could decide to team up and make decisions.

Timeline:

My role:

Tools used:

PREVIOUS

NEXT