Improving Student’s Mental Health with a Stress-Busting Board Game— UX Case Study
My First Board Game: From Concept to Reality
Imagine revisiting college life, navigating through assignments, exams, relationship intricacies, budgeting, and the perpetual weight of expectations.
Stress becomes a common companion on this academic journey.
It was during those moments that the idea sparked — a mission to revolutionize the college experience.
- In collaboration with my teammates, we developed a unique physical board game within a tight two-week timeframe.
- Our primary focus was crafting an original and authentic game tailored to promote mental awareness among college students aged 18 to 24.
Let Me Introduce My Board Game :
MINDTRIX — Your feelings Are Valid!
I’m showcasing my design solution at the start of the case study to establish a clear context, to delve into the design process with a heightened understanding of the end goal.
- This board game is a mirror to complexities that a student go through in his college life. The goal of the game is to find a path to mental clarity and resilience. However, your path is laden with obstacles and scenarios represent as emotional and mental stressor. By choosing your moves you can reach a state of balance.
2. This game can be played between 3 to 4 players. Age 16+
- Each player will be allocated 6 tokens and 2 power cards in the start of the game.
2. To achieve victory, align five of your tokens vertically in a row. The game concludes when a player achieves this objective.
- You can strategically use the 6th token to block your opponent.
3. The red layer is the starting point of the game.
- Begin by placing your token anywhere on the red layer. Each player, in turn, will place their token on the red layer.
- Once all players have placed their three tokens on the red layer, they can start advancing and introduce their remaining tokens one by one.
- Movement of the token: One step at a time. Direction: left, right, forward & backward. (No diagonal movement)
4. When landing on the Happy emoji (green color), draw the Happy card, read aloud the scenario, affirmation, and activity, and perform the specified activity.
- Similarly, for the Sad emoji represented in red color, draw the Sad card, read it aloud, and complete the activity. Failure to complete the activity results in missing the next turn.
5. Players can use power cards anytime in the game but not after they’ve accomplished the vertical alignment.
There are 4 power cards.:
- Swap: Exchange positions with an opponent.
- +2 Move: Gain the ability to move one token two steps or two token one step each.
- Start your journey again: choose one token of the next player and reset its position to the starting red layer.
- Miss your turn: The card allows the player to skip the next turn.
6. Here are examples of how Happy and Sad cards appear: each includes a scenario, an affirmation, and an activity for you to perform.
7. Here is a brief video illustrating the gameplay.
- This board game acts as mind boosters, aiding users in dealing with a variety of stress triggers.
- It encourages introverts to talk, prompts shy individuals to interact, and brings a smile to a person dealing with depression by providing a destressing experience and reducing anxiousness levels.
🟠 Let’s delve into the core problem that inspired the design of this physical game.
- The board game seeks to address mental health challenges, specifically depression, anxiety, and smartphone addiction among college students.
2. College students face challenges in expressing their feelings, often struggling to comprehend and articulate their emotions, leading to feelings of low mood or anxiety.
3. Various factors, such as parental and peer pressure, financial issues, relationship problems, and past trauma, act as stress triggers, impacting students’ mental well-being.
4. Additionally, engagement in harmful behaviors like gambling, alcohol, and drugs can escalate mental health issues, even leading to suicidal thoughts.
- Given the crucial stage of life, it’s imperative for students to understand, seek help, and develop awareness to cope with challenges effectively.
5. Recognizing that engagement is a key factor, we’ve designed a game to address these stressors.
6. The Board games can be a powerful tool to raise awareness, foster empathy, and provide a supportive environment for discussing mental health. They can also serve as a means of relaxation and stress reduction.
- We’ve designed a game that incorporates happy and sad emoji cards representing real college-life scenarios, coupled with positive affirmations to empower and uplift players.
- Quick stress-busting activities are integrated, fostering a sense of well-being.
- The strategic alignment of tokens in a vertical row, along with the use of power cards, promotes collaborative team efforts and ensures a fun and engaging experience, providing a holistic solution to alleviate stress for university students.
🟢Navigating from Identifying College Stressors to Designing a Stress-Relieving Board Game
📌Set of Important Decisions that I’ve Taken while designing the Board game: MINDTRIX
🔶Here is why we changed the design of the board, 4 times.
1. Initial Design: Angular Hexagonal Structure
- Introduced an angular hexagonal structure with nodes and sections.
- Mechanism remained consistent.
- Paper Prototype: Conducted playtesting to observe player behavior and collect feedback.
2. Feedback Insights
- Multiple playtests revealed the game’s fun nature but lacked the essential element of creating mental awareness.
- Revised Design: Added sad and happy emoji nodes to represent different emotional states.
3. Addressing Cognitive Load
- Feedback highlighted cognitive load issues during gameplay.
- Users found the angular shape stressful, impacting focus.
- Design Shift: Changed the board shape from angular to soft, rounded circles.
4. Choosing Rounded Shapes
- Research indicated angular shapes contribute to tension, not suitable for mental health contexts.
- Opted for soft, rounded shapes, settling on a circular board design.
🔶 The Reason behind choosing these specific colors.
- The selected color palette, including calming blues, soothing greens, energizing yellows, and emotionally impactful reds, is designed to maintain user engagement through its psychological impact. Calming colors can reduce stress and anxiety, creating a relaxed atmosphere for players.
- Soothing greens and blues can enhance focus and concentration, while energizing yellows add vibrancy.
- The emotionally impactful reds can evoke excitement and stimulate interest.
- This thoughtful combination aims to create a visually appealing and emotionally engaging experience, contributing to sustained interest and immersion throughout the board game.
🔶How did my two team members and I arrive at the ultimate design for the board’s final look?
- The logo and name, “MINDTRIX,” have been thoughtfully selected & crafted to symbolize techniques for maintaining mental stability.
- The central placement of the Yin Yang symbol strongly signifies the pursuit of balance.
- The background graphics echo a college theme, preserving the essence of college life within the board game.
🔶Why I decided to add affirmation in the sad and happy cards?
- I found the significance of affirmation through our research. Incorporating affirmations in the cards serves as a powerful psychological tool, fostering positive thinking and reinforcing a player’s self-esteem.
- These positive messages contribute to emotional well-being by countering negative thoughts and promoting a more uplifting atmosphere during gameplay.
- Ultimately, affirmations play a vital role in creating a game environment that not only entertains but also positively influences the player’s mental state.
🔷Future Scope of the project.
- Expand the target age group beyond college students.
- Looking ahead, the future scope of the game extends beyond its current manifestation. We envision conceptualizing modules that address various societal challenges, including but not limited to HIV, suicide prevention, and more. The game is poised to become a versatile tool for initiating essential conversations around sensitive topics, fostering empathy, and contributing to positive social change.
- Foster communication, stress release, and open conversation for a more diverse audience.
- Enhance the game’s impact and utility for a wider demographic seeking mental well-being benefits.
🟢Learnings
1. Main Challenges:
- Managing time effectively under tight deadlines.
- Thinking creatively and designing mechanics that seamlessly incorporate awareness.
2. Key Insights Gained:
- Importance of task prioritization and time management.
- Stress booster activities and the significance of work-life balance.
- Team spirit and enhanced empathy for creating a user-centric experience.
3. Overcoming Barriers:
- Addressed procrastination by improving time management skills.
- Adapted to tight schedules and learned to work efficiently under pressure.
4.Learnings about Myself:
- Enhanced understanding of the significance of empathetic design.
- Dealing with a sensitive subject like mental health highlighted the importance of thoughtful design.
- Recognized the importance of reasons behind designing any product.
5. Skills Enhancement:
- Increased proficiency in product design.
- Boosted confidence in thinking like a product designer.
- Leveraged and refined UX design and problem solving skills.
6. Future Impact
- Enhanced product and UX design skills for future projects.
- Improved ability to navigate tight schedules and handle pressure.
- Deepened understanding of the significance of empathetic and thoughtful design.
Dear readers,
Your feedback is invaluable in refining this UX case study. Please share your insights in the comments section. If you have suggestions for improvement or specific areas you’d like me to elaborate on, I’m eager to hear them.
You can also connect me through –
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priti-naidu-053654150
Gmail: pritidnaidu@gmail.com
