Cooper Interstellar
A serious game system for ADHD children from 6 years old.
Starting from the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Agenda 2030, the fourth goal was chosen as a starting point for this thesis project: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life- long learning opportunities for all”.
After analyzing the different opportunities in the wider Italian educa- tion’s field, I chose to focus on the sensitive topic of Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.
The reasons why this topic was chosen are different; firstly, ADHD is the most common neurobehavioral disorder in children, reaching a percentage of 5-7%, and the ADHD trend is constantly increasing from year to year. Furthermore, ADHD has a strong impact on the society, not only from the economic point of view, but mostly from the social one of the users’ lives in different contexts of life. In addition to that, the service design has a new field opportunity since the ADHD market is still focused on product-based design and not on the whole system around the ADHD user.
Task
Master Thesis in Product Service System Design at Politecnico di Milano
The final result is Cooper Interstellar, a coop- erative serious game, that, thanks to the discus- sion and cooperation among parent-kid, help to develop the executive functions, especially the response inhibition, and emotional self-regulation that ADHD children lack.
The target of the game is 6+ years ADHD and the game has specific ADHD game features and implementations as the rules explanation with the visual cards, the turn sequence that divided the turn in sub-actions, the discussion with time and the token economy.
ADHD is a brain disorder that implies inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity as symptoms.
Everybody has 6 EF in their own brain that are mental processes involved in our thoughts and behaviors and the ADHD user can have dysfunctions in some or all of them.
For this project, I focus more on emotional self-regulation and respose inhibition that refer more to the behavioral aspect.
This disorder can be treated by behavioral and psychological therapies with the parents, teachers and the child and at the same time a pharmaceutical treatment can occur.
ADHD is one of the most common neuro behavioral disorders in children reaching a percentage of 5 to 7 percent under 19 and till 4% in adults. The trend is continuously increasing from year to year.
There are some comorbidities related with ADHD as the Conduct disorder and Oppositional defiant disorder.
Does the ADHD involve only the user itself? Of course not. During the research phase held during my eramus period, I understood which the actors are involved with the ADHD user, how and why they are involved.
In order to understand this system, I used some design tools as users journey maps on the ADHD user, on the parents, on the teacher and on the classmates, analysing the problems and positive aspects of ADHD.
I conducted interviews to ADHD experts and all research has been joined with the literature basis and guidelines.
So I designed a serious game that merged the fun with a higher education purpose.
Inside this game category the game is a board game with a system provided by the app and with cooperative dynamics.
In the game, the space storytelling was included since it helps to lower stress and anxiety, to improve concentration and listening skills inspiring curiosity and imagination.
The final result is cooper interstellar, a story of a little astronaut cooper that meets the superpower of cooperation.
Cooper is from 6 years old and from 2 to 4 players with 4 increasing levels of difficulty and an app is needed to play and for the service.
Then the game can start and the goal is to collect all the four objects, rolling the dices and discussing how to move the pawns but being careful since aliens can steal objects, and lose-a-turn and lose-an-object boxes are placed on the path.
Before the launch there will be a social media campaign to raise awareness offering also pre-orders.
The official day launch will be at Planetario civico of Milan where a learning by doing approach and the topic fit with the game.
After launch there will be a prize contest to win planetarium tickets then the continuation of the social media campaign.
The revenues are the selling of games and the merchandising that helps to generate the brand identity.
The game was also testing 3 times In July and august, with 2 ADHD children to test the timing, dynamics and the data collection.
Then I checked and improved the data clasterization in therapist section with the help of a therapist.
A Gantt diagram was delineated for the launch on the market as well as the digital strategy.
Cooper Interstellar is a serious game system for ADHD users form 6 years old that develops executive functions. It is a app-driven cooperative game that involves all the ADHD system, using a space storytelling and the collection of data.
A game system with all these features, especially the data collections, doesn’t exist on the market jet.
• Adobe indesign
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Premiere
• Invision
• Sketch
• Autodesk Inventor
• Desk research
• Field Research
• Interviews
• Focus group
• Personas
• User Journey maps
• Market analysis
• Product Benchmark
• App prototyping
• Product prototyping
• Fast prototyping
• Test sessions
• Business model canvas
• Gantt diagram
So before playing, the parents can find out the game thanks to ADHD groups where a parent trainer does game trials (traials) or they can buy the game online.
Parents rules: The parents can see the video tutorial and rules explanations directly on the app where he previously logged in.
Child rules: In order to explain them to the child catching his attention, the parent can use the 6 visual cards where on the front there is the rule and on the back the action that the child has to do. In fact, while the parent is explaining the rules, the child has to get into/become the astronaut.
The transcription of data is done by the parents using the app, filling the Conner scale that is an ADHD specific tool, adapted for the game, and it refers to the behaviors during the game, moving indicators and typing feedbacks.
Therefore, the therapist analyses the data, logging into her account and selecting the child. Then automatically the objective and subjective data will appear. Moreover, she can also directly chat or see the next therapy session with the user.
These data will be useful materials for planning the next therapy sessions and have a constant tracking of the child.