Northumberland County – Gamifying Road Safety Education for Improved Learning Retention

01. OVERVIEW

The Northumberland County Council is the local government council of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England and my team of UX Designers worked with one of the council-women to explore potential educational plans and interactive learning activities to teach road safety for children.

PROBLEM: Child pedestrian accident rates were elevated + there was no standard in-school education about road safety for kids in the county

GOALS: Deliver research and prototyped interactive learning activities that would inform future official road safety education plans and activities for children in Northumberland County

RESULTS:

Provided interactive learning activities to reinforce road safety lessons

Successfully informed future plans for official county road safety educational program

ROLE

UX Design Consultant working with a team of designers
Exploring interactive educational activities for children

TIMELINE

5 Days
May 2022

DELIVERABLES

Research Insights
Educational Plan Overview
Figma Prototypes of 3 Interactive Learning Activities

Constraints

Due to ethical constraints and extreme time limitations, we were unable to interview or test with our users (local kids) and instead relied on published research about childhood education, road safety, and in-house evaluations of our designs. We were also provided some child pedestrian and road safety statistics that had been gathered by the council-woman.

02. RESEARCH

Gamification & Reinforcement Assists Children’s Learning

Comparison of two research topics: on the left, Road Safety Research with points about pedestrian accidents, children's decision making, and early safety education; on the right, Education & Gamification Research with points about immediate feedback, reinforcement, and cross-subject connections.

Key research points from published articles and statistics collected by the local council-woman.

Determining A Base Educational Plan

Based on published research and local pedestrian accident data, we determined that the educational program should cover both primary and secondary school, for students aged 5-12. We also planned each year to connect in some way with learning topics from each school year’s curriculum to aid student’s connection to road safety learning.

A detailed educational plan for primary school students from year 1 to year 7, outlining age-appropriate activities and lessons for each grade level.

Year-by-year road safety education for ages 5-12.

03. IDEATION + PROTOTYPING

Creating & Testing Interactive Gamified Learning Experiences

The team selected 3 years to develop prototyped gamified interactive activities to aid student’s learning and reiterate topics covered in the road safety lessons. Due to extreme time constraints and ethical limitations, we ran informal in-house evaluations to assess our designs.

A digital infographic comprising five sections about educational games and activities for children, featuring traffic sounds, crossing decisions, safety protocols, and vehicle speed calculations, with annotations criticizing user interface design, textual descriptions, visuals, and animal imagery.

In-house evaluation results for initial prototypes of year 1, 4, and 5 gamified activities

Based on the evaluations, the team made key improvements to the UI, visual design, and simplified the wording for all screens.

04. FINAL DESIGNS

The initial designs were refined and tailored to better suit young student’s learning experiences with simple text, clear instructions, and fun, brightly colored visual designs.

Screenshot of educational traffic safety games and tools for children, including guessing traffic sounds, a walk to school game, and a traffic speed calculator.

Final prototyped learning activities for year 1, 4, & 5.

05. RESULTS + LEARNINGS

Final In-House Evaluation Shows Improvements Made To Gamified Learning Experiences

An educational infographic with three sections showing different learning activities and assessments related to traffic sounds and safety for young students. The first section features a game titled "Guess the Traffic Sound - Year 1" with buttons labeled Ambulance, Fire Truck, Police Car, Crosswalk Signal, and a Play Sound button. The second section is titled "My Walk To School Game - Year 4" and includes cards with scenarios and feedback about crossing streets and making choices. The third section, "Traffic Speed Calculator - Year 5," illustrates a tool for calculating vehicle speed based on distance and time, with clear instructions, a completed example, and visual aids.

Annotated designs showing key changes made from initial to final prototypes.

Overall Results