About Us
A prompt card game designed to foster social connection and culture-sharing between international and domestic high school students.
Sponsor: MHCI+D x The Northwest School
Domain: Education, Cultural exchange
My role: Lead UX Researcher | Team: Product Manager, UX Designer, UX Researcher
Skills: Generative research, ideation, prototyping, evaluative research
Timeline: October 2022 - PresentTL;DR
Problem space
There is a palpable social division between domestic and international students at The Northwest School, an international high school in Seattle.
My contributions
I contributed as a Lead UX Researcher in the team. Starting with our exploratory phase, I designed the research study plan and applied several methods such as contextual inquiries and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and users.
Moreover, I had an active role in the end-to-end product design process from ideation to design, persuading the team to push a new direction after conceiving the product was not fulfilling our goal.
Finally, I led our evaluative research process through rapid iterative testing and evaluation to define the characteristics of the final product.
Outcome
The game About Us is a card game intended to serve as an ice-breaker activity in high school classrooms, promoting social connections and cultural exchange between domestic and international students. The game contains a variety of prompts related to subjects such as family, food, and community, presented through different types of cards like discuss, doodle, action, and wildcard. These prompts range from lighthearted to deeper topics, allowing students to find similarities and celebrate differences while encouraging integration.
Originally a class project, About Us will now be utilized as an educational resource at The Northwest School.
Design challenge
How might we help The Northwest School integrate domestic & international students through meaningful interactions that build connection & cultural understanding?
Design process
To gain a better understanding of the problem space, we began our discovery process by performing exploratory and generative research, which involved conducting user and stakeholder interviews as well as contextual inquiries. After narrowing down the scope of the problem, we used the insights gathered during our research to generate ideas for design solutions that effectively addressed the design challenge.
After finalizing the design concept, we proceeded to create a prototype and evaluated it using the rapid iterative testing and evaluation method. By using this fast prototyping technique, we were able to incorporate design iterations in between testing sessions and continuously gather feedback from users.
Our final solution is currently being tested by students at The Northwest School and is being refined with the support of educational professional.
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Context
The prompt
As part of our Ideation Studio class in my master’s of Human Computer Interaction and Design, we were given a task to tackle a design challenge related to the overarching topic of "immigration". Our team decided to concentrate on the situation of foreign students enrolled in the Northwest School, an international high school located in Seattle.
Struggles of international students
Immigrant students experience unique struggles. Acculturation challenges include difficult adjustment periods after entering a new land, pressure to assimilate culturally, racially, and socially, stereotypes facing international students, and native-born hostility towards international students and international communities.
The Northwest School
The Northwest School is an approximately 450-student private middle and high school (14-18 y/0 students) located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Approximately 10% of the student body are from outside the United States.
Initial assumptions
We visited The Northwest School seeking to research and understand the experiences and social interactions of international students in an American high school in Seattle, and identify potential challenges. Before our visit, our team shared initial assumptions about the experience of international students.
We hypothesized that international students may be vulnerable to bullying and would benefit from a reporting system to communicate their concerns to their teachers.
Research
Study objectives
Upon our initial assumption, our study research questions included:
What are the needs and challenges of international students at The Northwest School?
How is The Northwest School supporting international students?
Secondary research
The difficulties of English comprehension, anxiety over the physical environment, and lack of friends coalesce to create unsettling experiences for these students as newcomers.
Acculturation challenges include difficult adjustment periods after entering a new land, pressure to assimilate culturally, racially, and socially, stereotypes facing international students, and native-born hostility towards international students and international communities.
When international students feel unvalued, unaccepted, and ill-fitted to their new community, they alternatively will increase their identification with other non-U.S. citizens, as they share a collective experience such as being treated as an outsider or foreigner.
Method selection
In order to gain better understanding of the problem space and our users, we opted to employ the following methods:
Secondary research: Given our limited knowledge in the problem space and with the population, secondary research is helpful to understand several characteristics and needs of our users drawn from larger pools of data, as well as to continue to build on existing knowledge.
Stakeholder interviews: Gave me insight into the students’ ecosystem and helped me understand The Northwest School’s perspective on the experience of international students, as well as learning what, if any, support was being provided.
Contextual inquiries: Involved observing and interviewing users in their natural setting, and this would allow me to gain a holistic understanding of the high school experience of international students at The Northwest School. We could learn about their social dynamics, and everyday lives at the school.
User interviews: Allowed me to build upon the information gathered from the contextual inquiries and generate a more personalized and nuanced understanding of students’ individual experiences through open-ended questions and probing.
Generative research
Stakeholder interviews
We initiated contact with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Team and School Counselor. After talking to them, we learnt the value of also interviewing the Director of Boarding School, Director of Global Affairs, and Student Resident Advisors given their relationship with international students.
We gained perspective on the challenges they both perceived and were communicated by international students at The Northwest School.
Contextual inquiries
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The cafeteria represents one of the few informal shared spaces that international and domestic students share everyday at the Northwest School.
Despite the cafeteria being an unregulated area where students can choose to sit wherever they please, and lunch time a social moment, we observed a distinct separation between domestic and international students, with international students seated separately from domestic students.
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Consequently, we opted to visit the student dorms because this is the place where international students live and spend most, if not all of their time outside of high school. Some of the key things we learnt include:
international students are paired with roommates from a different country to incentivize cultural exchange.
International students consider the dorms a safe space where they share different activities and spaces with fellow international students. Students spend time together in the different common areas. Some of them are delimited by gender.
Moreover, they have other key actors such as resident student advisor and the director of boarding school who provide constant support to any of their needs. International students spend most of their time outside of class in the dorms. Domestic students are not allowed to enter the dorms.
User interviews
To gain first hand information about the experiences of international students at The Northwest School, we interviewed three student resident advisors.
We selected these participants given that they are international students themselves and serve as mentors, resources, and role models for other international dorm residents. Their primary role is to ensure student safety and well-being, foster community, and create a positive living and learning environment.
I designed a semi-structured interview centering around the following themes:
Life as an international student
Role and relationships as a Student Resident Advisor
Support system at The Northwest School
Synthesis & Analysis
I categorized a large volume of notes taken from a diverse array of stakeholders we interviewed to make sense of our interview data. The three biggest themes that came up were:
Needs and challenges of international students
Current initiatives to support international students
International student support system at the NWS.
I kept track of which notes were from which interview by color-coding sticky notes. General themes began to emerge from the information we derived from the interviews.
After the affinitization process was done, we were able to glean which topics came up the most often, which informed what aspects of the international student experience we wanted to focus on. After evaluating the themes based on feasibility, relevance to students, and impact.
Discoveries
After thorough research and discussion, we concluded that the main challenge relied on helping The Northwest School integrate domestic & international students through meaningful conversations to build connections and cultural understanding.
Insights
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International students feel as if their culture is not represented adequately, considering its shared from a very “American” perspective. Moreover, cultural differences play a role in limiting the socialization between international and domestic students.
“Sometimes even the School will arrange activities like camping without considering that’s not very common in other countries.” - Director of Boarding School
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Although international students appreciate the efforts coming from the NWS, such as the Buddy Families program and support for cultural festivals, they want domestic students to take more initiative to connect with them.
“Not a lot [of domestic students reach out to international students]. There is not an organized way for domestic students to reach out.” - Director of Global Studies
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Opportunities for students to bond over common interests and activities support the integration of international and domestic students by creating avenues for conversation, memories, and connection.
“The thing that works best for connecting with domestic students is shared interests and activities” - Student Resident Advisor #3
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There is a need for sustained and standardized structures to connect domestic and international students. Current initiatives are limited in number and only help students with the first steps of integration but don’t follow up to make sure international students are fully integrated
“The NWS school does a great job of setting us up to connect with domestic students, but that’s it.” - Student Resident Advisor #1
Our design challenge
How might we help The Northwest School integrate domestic & international students through meaningful interactions that build connection & cultural understanding?
Iterations
Having a better understanding of our design challenge based on our research findings, we outlined 4 design principles to use as design guardrails moving forward.
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Based on what we learnt from our research, international students feel that integration initiatives from the NWS tend to be transactional.
Thus, a solution will empower the NWS to create lasting structures and take a long-term view of the complexities of integrating domestic and international students.
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Our scope encompasses high school students pertaining to a specific age group and psychological development phase were they’re forming identities.
Thus, a solution will excite students and inspire curiosity, easing social barriers and enabling students to enthusiastically engage with each other.
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Our research informed the desire of international students to share about their culture and heritage.
Thus, a solution will leverage cultural diversity as a way to foster empathy and mutual respect to create meaningful connections between international and domestic students.
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International and domestic students belong to a larger community at the NWS.
Thus, a solution will support international and domestic students to develop a shared sense of belonging and identity within the NWS.
Design Principles
Design opportunities
Considering the problem space and our target audience, high school students, as well as our design principles, we identified the desired and undesired outcomes of our design solution.
Each team member generated over 30 ideas (120+ total) in response to our design challenge and grounded in our research findings. We affinitized our ideas across our Design Principles.
Ideation and down-selection
We began by down-selecting ideas based on this criteria:
Design Challenge Relevance: How relevant is this solution candidate to our design challenge?
Design Principles Intersect: Does this solution candidate align with all four of our design principles
Feasibility: How feasible is this solution candidate given our team’s skillset, 6-week timeline, and lack of financial resources?
We then narrowed candidates and clustered them into groups based on a shared core concept. We continued down selecting ideas until we identified the top 3 candidates. We thoroughly discussed the ideas through the lenses of desirability, feasibility viability. We also combined pieces of other ideas together to round out a few concepts.
We narrowed into 3 design candidates developing a storyboard and identifying the desired outcomes for each
Top three idea candidates
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A grouping platform that allows NWS staff to mix international and domestic students into groups based on their shared intercultural interests and schedule bi-monthly hangouts for the respective groups.
Desired outcomeThis candidate enables international students to further integrate with domestic students through social activities. Although these activities are based on students’ shared interests, they also facilitate a space for potential new interest exploration. These spaces seek to showcase cultural diversity, create student engagement and enable opportunities for deeper social interaction by learning and enjoying aspects of different cultures.
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A housing system that mixes domestic and international students into houses in order to engage in competitive intercultural activities with other houses.
Desired outcome
Through engaging in team competitions, students develop a shared sense of pride, house spirit, and belonging with their “house” as well as the school community at large.
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A prompted group chat to facilitate intercultural discussion through online chats and monthly in-person hangouts.
Desired outcome
This candidate gives students a space to communicate before and after hangouts, which helps students ease into the monthly in-person hangout as well as continue their dialogue after hanging out. It also creates an accessible way for introverted students to engage socially and build up rapport prior to in-person hangouts.
The team decided collectively to move forward with candidate #1.
Reflection and further iteration
“Never stick to an idea too strongly”
A new direction
Despite having carefully selected and reconsidered three strong candidates out of a pool of over 120 ideas, I remained skeptical about their potential to effectively address our design challenge. I had doubts about whether students truly required a new platform, its practicality, and most importantly, whether a digital platform would truly facilitate cultural understanding and social connection among them.
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I zoomed out and started thinking about the context of the challenge beyond The Northwest School. Domestic and international student integration is a problem that occurs to high school students across many different socioeconomic backgrounds across the United States. Although our research was based on the context of The Northwest School, I had a thought about whether we wanted to base our solution on a specific scope that could potentially just work with privileged or private schools with the resources to fund software development, or thinking about an initiative that would be inclusive and potentially reach more students.
I acknowledge we can’t force social connections. Nonetheless, I believe we could definitely help break the ice and have students learn from each other, which could eventually lead to genuine connections and friendships. Leveraging our research findings and picking on my own past experiences as a highschooler, I began to think about interactive forms to achieve that. When thinking about children, I knew our solution had to be fun and engaging for our target audience.
A new concept
After sharing these thoughts with my teammates and getting consensus on the need for a shift to a more engaging and playful solution, we began ideating once again. Building upon each other's ideas, we created About Us.
The concept consisted of a card game played between domestic and international students that explores different aspects of culture, family, personal interests, aspirations and dreams, giving students the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations, learn about each other and connect over different topic areas. We hypothesized that this would represent a more interactive and fluid way for students to engage in conversations and learn about each other.
Scope of our solution
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Teachers would have to form these groups, but after that, the burden of breaking the ice and participating is “shared” between students (not unidirectional as it currently feels like).
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This could also support the integration between domestic students only or between international students only if they play this game in the dorm just between international students.
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This initiative could be expanded to schools with different demographics / either public or private. It could also be applied to different age groups
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This new concept aligns with our four design principles.
Creating the game
Our objective was clear:
We needed a solution that would cater to different personalities between international and domestic students, while fostering social connection and meaningful understanding.
Competitive Analysis
Given the path we wanted to continue to build upon in the card game territory, I conducted a competitive analysis with other existing games in the market. Some of this included light-hearted games such as What Do You Meme, and Cards Against Humanity, while others inspired connections like We’re Not Really Strangers or Let’s Get Closer.
I analyzed the different game dynamics, audience, play time, number of players, as well as the graphic and physical design of the cards; highlighting the features we were interested in.
Based on the elements we prioritized, we decided on the following four types of prompt cards:
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Discuss the prompt verbally.
These cards could facilitate deeper sharing.
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Sketch the prompt.
These cards provide levity and humor.
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Act out the prompt.
These cards can provide engagement.
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As a group, complete a in a time-sensitive prompt.
The collaborative and time-sensitive nature of wildcards can give students a sense of teamwork and enhance the feeling of togetherness.
Additional elements such as a glass hour, paper, and pencils could account for the interactivity of the game.
Prototype & Evaluate
In the following section, we will elaborate on the prototyping and evaluative process we followed for About Us.
We created a low-fidelity representation of our game to get some initial feedback on it.
Set of instructions: Facilitator’s manual
Types of cards: Discuss, Doodle, Action, Wildcard
Tools: Hourglass, paper, pencils
Paper prototyping
Evaluative Research
We needed clarity on the things we wanted to learn before even creating our paper prototype. During our initial testing phase, we focused on the “Role” the game would play, as well as the “Implementation” of the game itself.
Research questions
Role
Connecting Through Culture-sharing
Do prompts facilitate a range of discussion about cultural themes and experiences?
Student Engagement
Will students feel excited to play this game? Are students actively listening to each other?
Are there signs of awkwardness like hesitation, silence, nervous laughter?
Balance Between Individual Expression and Common Interests
Is there a good balance between lighthearted and deep questions? How do they affect the flow of the game?
What value do individual and group contributions add to the game
Implementation
Ease of Understanding
Can students play the game with ease?
Is there a clear sequence of how the game is played?
Game specs
How long does it take to play the game?
How many players can play the game at the same time?
Do they need extra tools to play the game?
Rapid Iterative Testing Evaluation
In order to answer the aforementioned questions, we employed the Rapid Iterative Testing Evaluation (RITE) Prototyping method. I considered this was the best methodology for our product, as we would be able to iterate the design based on the feedback we were receiving from participants in a fast way.
Collecting user feedback
Besides from observation and note-taking as we saw how users played the game, once the session was over:
We provided participants with an ‘evaluation sheet’: Describe their experience and rate the game’s success in terms of culture sharing, entertainment, community learning.
We conducted an informal open discussion where participants shared the things they enjoyed the most, the ones that generated awkwardness, and overall suggestions for improvement.
Findings
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This finding invalidates the assumption we made that led to trying to leverage common interests, which was a key part of our design challenge.
“Sharing food is like sharing the thing you’re most proud of from your culture that you want other people to know about...”
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For example, extroverts vs. introverts, strangers vs. people who know each other well already; freshmen vs. seniors.
“It was a little too much talking. Action-based is better.”
“What if it wasn’t a card game but something else that separated topics with longer discussion for each?”
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“Completion might not be the goal...the time crunch and having the stack of cards in front of you can make you rush.”
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We observed that the groups we gave a more hands-on facilitation style didn’t need to refer to the instructions throughout the game, but the group that received briefer facilitation needed to refer to the instructions throughout the game.
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We observed that the group of 6 shared brief, rote answers, while the groups of 3 and 4 weren’t afraid to expand beyond the cards and have organic exchange.
“I didn’t wanted to make my responses too long, as I knew there were still other players waiting to share.”
About Us
Based on continuous user feedback and iterations, we designed About Us, an in-class prompt card game facilitated by teachers for students to play in groups. Our game is designed to foster social connection and culture-sharing between international and domestic high school students.
The decision to create a game for students was motivated by significant research findings that highlight the role of shared activities in fostering interaction and connection among students. About Us is designed to facilitate interaction among students who are not familiar with each other, helping them break the ice in a fun and engaging way. The physical card game format was chosen to provide a visually pleasing, tactile experience that can enhance the sense of connection among players during in-person interactions.
Additionally, we enhanced the experience by including the following value proposition:
Design features
In-class activity
One of the key moments where international and domestic students share and it gives teachers the opportunity to intentionally form diverse groups of students instead of students attending the same event or activity but autonomously making the decision to stay hanging out with their friends.
The facilitator, who could be a teacher, counselor, or a DEI team representative, plays a crucial role in creating a safe and inclusive environment for the game. They help ease the process of starting the game by creating diverse groups that mix international and domestic students, explaining the instructions clearly, and ensuring that everyone understands them. To assist the facilitator, we developed a manual with step-by-step instructions to ensure successful gameplay.
Moderated by a facilitator
We specifically implemented the four card types (action, discuss, doodle, and wildcard) because another main design criteria was engagement, based on the understanding that our audience of high school students want something fun, that isn’t going to feel forced but will be more like a break that they can look forward to in the midst of schoolwork. There’s a type of card for every personality, balancing the needs of more introverted and extroverted students.
Different types of cards
During our generative research, we interviewed participants who expressed a desire for cultural understanding and integration among students. To facilitate learning from one another, we designed prompts that centered around topics such as family, food, and community. The goal was to encourage cultural conversations among students and promote integration. Incorporating prompts that elicit such conversations was an important criteria in the design process.
Diverse set of prompts
Video
Check out our concept video!
Student project turned into business idea
After presenting About Us to The Northwest School’s principal, DEI and international affairs team, we got a positive response and interest in integrating About Us as an educational resource to foster connection between domestic and international students.
Next steps
Attend mentoring sessions with expert card designers to get feedback on our game and process.
Interview domestic high school students at The Northwest School to get their perspective on their relationship with international students.
Conduct ideation workshop through participatory design with education professionals at The Northwest School (teaching staff, DEI team, counselors, director of boarding school, director of global education) to brainstorm new prompts that can elicit conversation and overall improvement of the game.
Integrate feedback and iterate prompts based on recommendations.
Visit The Northwest School and play the game in the natural setting (a classroom), evaluating engagement and response across international and domestic students of different ages, gathering feedback, and continue iterating in the design.
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At the outset of the project, we held certain assumptions about the challenges faced by international students. However, by remaining open-minded during our research, we were able to challenge these assumptions and identify the actual problem that needed to be addressed.
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Despite generating over 120 ideas collectively and selecting a promising candidate, we ultimately chose to take a completely different direction. By critically assessing our design in the context of user needs, we were able to generate a superior solution.
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I particularly enjoyed the use of the rapid iterative testing and evaluation method throughout our testing sessions. This approach allowed us to learn from each round of testing, refine our design, and continue to improve the user experience based on feedback.
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All of our design choices were informed by thorough research. By meticulously pairing our findings with each stage of development, we were able to create a product that was well-received by our target audience. The Northwest School has even expressed interest in using it as an educational tool for their students.
