Enchanted Engineers
Team & Roles
Sasha Somer - UX Designer & Illustrator
Max Salire - UX Designer & Illustrator
Claire Peckham - UX Designer
Duration
4 weeks
Tools
Figma, After Effects
Enchanted Engineers is a mobile game that aims to inspire young women and gender non-conforming people to pursue their passion in STEM.
The Challenge
In 2020 women still make up less than 40% of the STEM workforce - with only a slight increase in the last 30 years. On the surface level, maybe it seems young women and gender non-conforming individuals just aren’t interested in STEM.
However, research shows it’s not that non-men aren’t interested. In fact, young women tend to perform at higher rates in STEM subjects. The real problem lies with how toxic STEM can be to women and gender non-conforming people, and this starts as early as middle school.
The Problem
A toxic masculine mindset begins to exclude young girls and nonbinary kids from STEM starting in middle school.
The Outcome
We designed a mobile game that encourages girls and nonbinary kids to pursue their interest in STEM, and helps prepare them for the challenges they might experience in the industry by instilling confidence in their abilities.
Research
What is the Gender Imbalance in STEM?
As of 2020, women make up only 34% of the STEM workforce. There aren’t any statistics on how many gender-nonconforming people are working in STEM at this time, unfortunately.
By industry, the smallest field by far is engineering and architecture with women representing under 20% of the overall workforce.
How Can a Game Help?
A study from the American Association of University Women notes that math and science are skills that can be developed rather than inherent traits that you have or don’t have. This is crucial for girls and non-men overcoming the negative stereotypes about STEM being something only men excel at.
Another key study in our research, from NYU, found that video games are particularly good at getting students out of a “performance” mindset, where they are just performing for validation or avoiding embarrassment, and into that crucial “growth” mindset.
“…research shows no innate cognitive biological differences between men and women in math.”
What Type of Game Speaks to Our Audience?
We found that women and gender non-conforming people in our target age bracket, 11-13, tend to prefer casual, single-player, resource-gathering games, set in bright, beautiful worlds with a rich story.
Competitor Analysis
We followed common UI patterns of popular bridge-building and resource gathering games like Bridge Builder, Stardew Valley, and Sun Haven, and took inspiration from their aesthetic (8-bit, bright colors)
User Personas & Task Flows
To ensure we were keeping our users central to our design process, we created three user archetypes based on our research and identified a main task flow for each user.
The Explorer
A casual gamer
Downloads the game initially for the look and storyline
Not familiar with game dynamics, needs clear directions
Task flow: creating an avatar
The Veteran
An experienced gamer
Plays other resource-gathering games like animal crossing
Familiar with game dynamics, wants a game that follows their mental models
Task flow: resource gathering
The Engineer
Interested in STEM
Wants challenging puzzles that clearly explain engineering concepts
Wants access to resources towards a career in STEM
Task flow: bridge-building puzzle
Design Process
Wireframing the Bridge Puzzle
We found most bridge-building games don’t increase in complexity throughout the course of gameplay. We decided to differentiate our game by basing our puzzles on real types of bridges, making them increase in complexity as the gamer leveled up.
I researched different types of bridges and created these wireframes.
Building a Design System
With our wireframes ready, we created a design system to build our task flows with ease and cohesive visual design.
Task Flows
Creating an Avatar
Our avatar creation task flow includes gender-neutral appearance options. Here, players are introduced to the game and allowed to see themselves represented on screen.
My very talented teammate Sasha Somer illustrated this task flow.
Resource Gathering
In this task flow, players are gently walked through how to gather resources (which they will then use to build bridges).
Bridge Building Puzzle
In this task flow players will learn how to assemble different kinds of bridges. This bridge, the truss bridge, represents a medium-difficulty puzzle.
Ah ha! Setting Our Players Up for Success
How Can We Prepare Our Players for Toxic Environments?
As we learned from our research, the biggest impediment for women and nonbinary people in STEM is a toxic work environment. We decided to include an extra task flow to address this issue.
Larry the Lizard was illustrated by my equally talented teammate, Max Salire.
Creating a Safe Space to Practice
In this task flow, a cuddly foe approaches our player and expresses some less-than-welcome criticism (similar to what women might experience in the workplace). The player can then rebut the foe, and stand up for themselves. We hope encountering this behavior in the safe space of a game can provide our players with some skills down the line.
Reflections: Positioning the Game
One remaining issue of Enchanted Engineers was the question of how players would access it. Independently via an app store? Through an education system?
Nothing takes the fun out of a game more than being forced to play it, so we opted out of positioning our game as solely educational and administered through teachers.
Moving forward, we’d like to build out a scholarship program. Enchanted Engineers would partner with like-minded STEM organizations to offer scholarships to players who completed certain levels of gameplay. This would bring our mission to empower girls and nonmen full circle, and hopefully make a big difference in the lives of our players.