Tools

Skills

Project Management
User Research
User Testing
Prototyping

Timeline

5 Weeks
Jan – Feb 2023

Roles

Anna Wang – Design
Amelia Haake – Design

Product Photos

Project Brief

The Problem

  • Nutrition education curriculums in the US are inaccurate and ineffective when it comes to developing healthy eating habits that last
  • Children grow up developing bad eating habits that lead to a variety of health complications later in life

Project Goals

  • Create a classroom learning aid for elementary school nutrition curriculums
  • Bridge the information gap in existing nutrition curriculums
  • Develop an engaging, meaningful, and lasting educational experience for the child

User Personas

Research

Understanding the User

Part 1: Peer Survey

Who? 

  • 24 college students at RISD and Brown University

How? 

  • Participants answered short questionaire about the nutrition education they received during childhood and how well they've retained it

Part 2: Educator Survey

Who? 

  • 4 elementary school educators at Potowmack Elementary School

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How?

  • Answered short questions about how they teach standardized curriculums and facilitate classroom activities

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What did we learn? 

  • Teachers are required to teach standardized curriculums and they have little control over the curriculum
  • Students prefer hands-on learning and group activities to lectures and worksheets

Market Research

We looked at elementary curricular programs that target the same audience as our project. Kelso’s Choices (anti-bullying) and DARE (drug prevention) both employ character storytelling and gamification to appeal to kids and increase retention

We then conducted further research into US nutrition education programs. We knew our product would need to align with the existing curriculum while also addressing user needs.

To inspire our product content, we looked into how countries outside North America go about nutrition education

The Process

Ideation

In the beginning of the project, the only criteria for our project was that it must be a toy designed for children. To narrow the focus, we first decided on a problem to address - childhood obesity. We then brainstormed different solutions for childhood obesity that could come in the form of a toy, settling on tabletop games in the end. To accommodate larger class sizes we decided to make several games that could be played as a set.

Revising the Food Groups

We revised the food grouping system of MyPlate to be more factually accurate while still being compatible with the MyPlate teaching curriculum

LoFi Prototyping

Using paper and pen, we created playable lo fi prototypes of each game to test the mechanics and get a feel for what the components would need to look like

Designing the Game Mechanics

We utilized existing games as reference when developing our games’ rules and interactions

Designing the Components

Using Illustrator, Figma, and Procreate, we designed all the game components for print

Game 1: Food Frenzy

Game 2: Persona Palooza

Game 3: Mix n' Match

Game 4: Stop n' Swap

Manufacturing + Assembly

Due to time constraints, we were not able to send our designs to a manufacturer. We printed and assembled all components, selecting materials and processes to mimic manufactured games. We printed the designs on matte vinyl and laser cut the board components

User Testing

Who? 

  • 15 children age 5-14
  • They attend a weekly after-school STEAM camp at the Providence Public Library, we took over one of their sessions

How? 

  • Children had 2 hours of loosely facilitated play with all 4 games

What did we learn?

  • Kids were much smarter than we expected, we adjusted mechanics many times to keep kids engaged
  • Each game has a slightly different target age group - some games are better for older kids, others for younger kids
  • Children were very competitive with each other, they made their own rules to foster competition in the games
  • Diversity in food and eating depictions is very important

Problems + Proposed Solutions

Problem 1: Simplified nutrition facts were sometimes misleading

Problem 2: Difficult to organize/keep track of components

Problem 3: Two of the kids couldn't read

Problem 4: Some of the kids didn't see foods from their culture represented in the cards we made

Proposed Implementation Plan

Numi’s Nutrition Guide is a suite of 4 tabletop games meant for play in an elementary classroom setting

  • We designed each game for 4-6 players so that an entire class could split into groups and play at the same time
  • Instructions for each game are provided so that the facilitator can easily explain each game’s rules and instructions
  • Each game comes in its own packaging to keep components organized when not in use
  • Games align with USDA MyPlate and Harvard Healthy Eating Plate
  • Expansion packs allow facilitators to customize each game's food and eating depictions to be representative of their class's demographics

Reflection

This was my first deep dive in working on a project with multiple rounds of user research, testing, and iteration. In addition to enriching my product design experience, I strengthened my skills in business and networking. During this project we: