The _____ Camper
A family board game that meets the emotional needs of middle-school boys and their parents.
The _____ CAMPER
The Happy Camper is a family board game that creates opportunities for middle school boys to reflect on their emotions and experiences and to share them with their family. In addition to the physical game, there is a digital platform that coaches parents on how to utilize the game to best build connection and open communication with their sons.
To make the game engaging and fun we centered the game around three things that humans crave - stories, competition, and connection. Each player navigates the board to unlock clues that will help them guess a secret emotion. As players move around the board, they land of tiles that prompt them to share stories and to imagine how other players might react in a particular situation.
Project profile
PROMPT:
To design a product that helps middle school boys identify and process their emotions in healthy and productive ways.
DURATION:
8 months
COLLABORATORS:
Claudio Angrigiani, Mari Andersen + Terry Huang
DELIVERABLES:
Board game, website prototype, business model, presentation
PROCESS:
1-on-1 interviews with boys, parents and experts
Dyad interviews
Focus group
Co-design session
Secondary research
Competitive landscape
Data synthesis + journey mapping
Ideation
Lo-fi prototypes
Paper + digital wireframes
User testing and refinement
Business model
Product video
Presentation
SKILLS:
User research
Data synthesis
Problem framing
Ideation
Prototyping
Pivoting
Design strategy
Storyboarding
Storytelling
Key Insights
one
Relationships are boys’ north star.
two
Boys are willing to talk about their emotions, but they have to be asked. They don’t open up voluntarily
three
Boys need permission to be masculine and emotional beings at the same time.
fOUR
Boys need to see healthy emotional expression and vulnerability before they can do it themselves.
fIVE
To keep sharing, boys need to feel like their thoughts and feelings are valued.
sIX
Emotional Intelligence is a muscle that needs to be flexed.
