Design Ignites Change - Projects

Bao Design Lab at the University of Illinois, Chicago

Women in India, especially those who are among lower classes, are not encouraged to make their own decisions. This lack of independence can lead women into making unconfident decisions. Often times, young women who seek independence are led into unfortunate situations like being sex trafficked. This is a group project done by designers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Agency Game was developed for a non-profit organization in India that assists young women who have been trafficked into sex work. The game is designed to help the organization fulfill its mission, teaching women how to acquire the skills needed to obtain a job.

Erica Michie
emichi2@UIC.edu

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February 2, 2011

These are example of questions in the game. Each decision made comes with consequences, but in this game the consequences are determined by chance.

To come up with our final game design we played a variety of games to get inspiration. Our game needed to be educational, but also be fun to play.

The game board changes every time you play to entice players to play multiple times. Also, there is hardly any cleanup involved. People dealing with abuse live in chaos so less time should be spent picking up the game.

Our goal, with this project, is to provide teens and young adults the ability to make confident, independent decisions and to show them that every decision they make comes with consequences. By understanding how to make confident decisions, teens and young adults can establish abusive-free lifestyles.

The Agency game is targeted towards teens and young adults that are in abusive situations, the game asks players questions about hypothetical situations, which provoke them to think about the consequences of their decisions and to promote group discussion. The main goal is to encourage players to make thoughtful decisions.

Agency Game

Bao Design Lab at the University of Illinois, Chicago

Erica Michie

Bao Design Lab at the University of Illinois, Chicago

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