Between the months of April to June 2020, there were 284 unintentional fentanyl overdoses in Alberta. This is an increase of 100% from January to March 2020.
— Alberta COVID-19 Opioid Response Surveillance Report Q2 2020
Naloxone Kit Card Game
CATEGORY
Information design/print design
ACADEMIC PROJECT
Roger Smith Scholarship Grant Project
YEAR
2020-2021
Nicknamed the “silent epidemic” opioid abuse continues to be a growing problem in Alberta, and fatality numbers continue to rise. Recognizing previous success that game implementation has had in the medical field, I studied and developed a similar strategy for Naloxone kit training over a period of four months. This project was part of a scholarship and provided me the opportunity to tackle this issue by fulfilling a need for interactive Naloxone Kit training.
Leading up to the outcome of the project was months of research and discovery that involved literature reviews, case studies, in-depth interviews, play-testing, and prototyping.
Current Naloxone Kit distributed in Alberta, Canada.
As a response to the opioid crisis that has been unfolding in Alberta and across Canada, Naloxone kits were developed by medical professionals for community members as a way to reduce overdose fatalities.
Overview of project
Methodology
Interviews
The most substantial part of the research done for this project was interviewing sixteen individuals with varying backgrounds in medicine, pharmacy, design, and workplace experience. These took place over video or phone call or in-person conversations.
Data from the interviews was gathered in spreads sheets and two major themes were identified from the findings after analysis. These major themes were used to inform the design and direction of the final outcome of the project. The major themes were: confusion surrounding injection technicality and anxiety with administration.
Data sets from interviews
User Personas
Participant feedback showed that opioid usage spreads across several demographics and is not targeted to one specific user group. With this in mind, I made user personas to address what sort of individuals could benefit from an interactive training game.
Game Ideation
Play-testing
Three rounds of play-testing
Play-testing is a vital step to any game development, and I was able to test my prototype several times with my family as a user group and the academic technologist design team working in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry (University of Alberta). Each round of play-testing yielded valuable feedback that I was able to improve my game upon.
Version 2 of Game Prototype
This prototype was the completed for the last round of play-testing.
Research Poster for project completion
Version 3 of Game Prototype
Currently
Currently this project is still being developed and has been added to a University of Alberta Research project title “Design to Save Lives.” This project focuses of Communication Design and its vital role in public health, particularly in harm reduction. In my role as Research Assistance, I worked with a design team to create a toolkit for the public to better understand Naloxone Kits. This card game has been added to the toolkit as a fun way to test knowledge and gain practical experience using the elements from the kit.
This prototype was the completed for the last round of play-testing.
Designed in conjunction with Yiwen (Joyce) Zhou, Lena Wood and supervision by Gillian Harvey and Aidan Rowe.