For the design challenge, we delved deep into the literature of the  psychopathology of the target group who we aim to build an intervention for. Together with my team we each read 1 or 2 literature articles about the cause, development and prevention of co-rumination among youngsters. These insights brought light to better understand the current situation. With these insights we prepared field research questions to ask health professionals, interview teachers and young girls between the age of 10 – 14 years (see figure 1).

Within the collaboration I’ve created a solid plan on behalf of my team, by selecting the specific tasks and frameworks within Design thinking. Reason why the Design Thinking method is more suitable for this project rather than the Double Diamond, is in the wording of the process, such as “Empathise” instead of “Discovery” phase. Working in a interdisciplinary team with social workers and health professionals demands different approach of language jargon. We aimed a more in depth approach for the Empathise phase since it’s the most crucial part to develop a well thought intervention.

The Empathise phase includes:

1. Desk research
   1. Literature study 
   2. Similar app intervention analysis
2. Field research
   1. Interviews with stakeholders. (Planned a interview with Daniella Butrus to speak with the Director of Youth Care and Board Member, L.Kop.)
   2. Visiting secondary school (Through my own initiative we got to visit Wolfert College VO Rotterdam, on-site interview with the care coordinator).
3. UX workshop
   Giving a presentation about “introduction User Experience design” to peers.

Some tasks were done by other teammates which we later on combined our insights, to expand our research and see possible pitfalls and opportunities for the next sprint. For more in depth insights, see Design Rational Paper (in Dutch).

After gathering insights from interviews with experts, teachers, care coordinators, parents, and our primary stakeholders—the target audience of young girls aged 12-14 years → we created an Empathy Map to highlight key quotes from the interviews with the girls. This helped us gain a clearer view of their perceptual world. We then developed two main personas to represent our target audience’s different behaviors:

1. Sara who actively and unconsciously co-ruminates.
2. Fleur, who passively co-ruminates (absorbing it).

Based on the Empathy Map and the two persona profiles, my team and I have visualised the journey of Fleur’s experience, as someone who passively contributes to co-rumination within her friendship duo with Sara. This is based on a actual journal from one of the interviewed girls. While filling in this framework, we made notes on possible changes throughout Fleur’s day that could help to cope with difficult emotion.

During the ideate phase my team and I made different stages into developing a suitable approach for our users. In our first concept we brainstormed on different game ideas that includes all students during the E-learning intervention. For our first ideation we made 3 different games in which we divided our collaboration into 3 groups to do this experiment. Daniella & Khadija made a animal based character similar to a tamagotchi which the user can take care of. Maartje and Nikki made a roulette game that the user can spin while the teacher project a case and the students answer questions that they have spun in groups, to answer about the particular case. Tycho and I made a prototype of a roleplay game, in which the student can decide what to answer based on the multiple choice questions. This will showcase the different approaches of situations and overall experience based on the specific scenario. The students get to see how the response could effect the scene and the character development.

After testing all 3 games we decided to continue with the roulette game in combination with the roleplay game. We started by creating a LO-FI prototype and during this process I came up with a theme for the E-learning, based on storytelling approach we can share information about the space with 2 fictional characters. Since classrooms are very diverse, we focussed on creating a theme that interest both girls and boys to follow through the E-learning program. We spoke several students and teachers about the concept. During this process, I’ve created 3 moodboard of possible style direction for the new application. The most voted style is implemented in the final prototype design.

Our second iteration took place after pitching the concept at the Immersive Tech Week (ITW) in Rotterdam. We presented our new idea of creating a digital journal in a form of an app for youngster to use after classes. This way students can share by voting and writing on how their day went. Besides this app, teachers still present information about the cause of co-rumination and share information to practice on recognising co-rumination, how to prevent and  regulate emotions. After speaking with multiple professionals, we found possible iteration directions for the concept. Something to note was definitely the fact that ethical questions on who will have access to the vulnerable information of the journal of those students? How does gathering those data help youngsters. Will the application offer other solutions and/ or support in case of suicidal tendencies?

This helped us to work through a improved version of the prototype, in which the E-learning, gamifiction and intervention all in one – offers a solution for teachers to follow and give a 10 week program for students that will be taken place during mentoring hour. Mentoring hour is usually once or twice a week here in the Netherlands. Most secondary schools don’t offer a particular program. This prototype solution would be a great fit to include during those hours.

The E-learning 10-week program consist the following content for each session:

1. Animated video
2. Dialogue with the class
3. Interactive game in groups
4. Journal (homework)