UX Case Study: Designing an Award-Winning Educational Game

Project Overview

Echo's Journey is an award-winning mobile game designed to raise awareness about ocean pollution among younger generations. As a designer at Innoviral, I played a crucial role in creating an engaging, educational, and entertaining experience.

UX Challenge

How can we make environmental education engaging and memorable for children aged 7-11? The challenge was to design an interactive experience that balances entertainment with impactful learning.

Background & Context

Echo's Journey was conceived as a response to the pressing issue of ocean pollution, a major threat to marine ecosystems and human health. Our team at Innoviral aimed to drive awareness through engaging gameplay.

Problem Statement

Ocean pollution significantly harms marine food chains and is often overlooked. How can we educate and inspire young players to care about environmental issues through gaming?

Proposed Solution

A kid-friendly, story-driven mobile game featuring a robot submarine and a baby turtle battling an evil pollution monster. The game leverages interactive storytelling, adaptive difficulty, and educational mechanics to create a compelling experience.

Key Impact Highlights

  • 🏆 Award-Winning Environmental Education Game Concept

  • 📱 Mobile Gaming for Ocean Pollution Awareness

  • 🌊 Gamification of Environmental Learning

  • 🧒 Designed for Children Ages 7-11

  • 🆓 Free-to-Play Model

My Role

I was responsible for UX research, UI design, Game design, user testing, and gameplay refinement. This experience honed my ability to design engaging, user-centered experiences and collaborate across disciplines.

Key Contributions

Concepting: Developed the narrative framework and user journey.

UX Research: Conducted focus groups after having a playable prototype and translated insights into design improvements.

Wireframing & UI Design: Created low-fidelity prototypes and refined UI elements for accessibility and engagement.

Usability Testing & Iteration: Analyzed player feedback, iterated on mechanics, and improved onboarding.

Level Design: Created engaging and educational levels in Unity Engine 3D.

Music Collaboration: Partnered with a music producer to enhance immersion.

UX Research & Insights

User Research Approach

We conducted focus groups after developing a playable prototype to gather real user feedback. These sessions helped us refine mechanics, adjust difficulty, and improve engagement.

Key Insights

  • 63% of kids aged 2-17 play mobile games in the U.S.

  • Mobile gaming for kids estimated at $2.2bn in 2017

  • Environmental games improve knowledge retention by ~60%

  • Children are active agents of change—interactive learning fosters long-term engagement.

"Children are not just passive recipients of information, but active agents of change. By gamifying environmental education, we transform awareness into actionable understanding." - Innoviral Research Team

Wireframing & UI Design

We started with low-fidelity wireframes to test layouts, accessibility, and user flow before refining final UI elements.

  • Navigation: Intuitive controls suitable for children.

  • Progression System: Adaptive difficulty to maintain engagement.

  • Educational Integration: Interactive tutorials for ocean conservation.

Music Collaboration

We partnered with Tunga Troll, a professional music producer, to create a custom soundtrack that elevates the game's immersive experience. Each track was meticulously designed to:

  • Complement the underwater narrative

  • Enhance emotional engagement

  • Support different game levels and interactions

External Recognition & Impact

Showcased in a Magazine

Innoviral's innovative approach to environmental education has garnered significant attention:

  • Featured on a platform to convey the significance of Innoviral's mission

  • External sources have shown interest in our methodology, conducting interviews to understand how we induce change through gameplay

Our approach is rooted in the belief that children are more easily influenced by interactive experiences. As stated by our team: "Our choice to tackle the problem by using a gamified solution to influence children relies on the fact that actions more easily influence children." - Innoviral

Usability Testing & Iterations

Dialogue Engagement

  • Issue: Players skipped dialogue

  • UX Decision: Added voiceover and animation

  • Outcome: Increased player engagement

Onboarding Experience

  • Issue: Tutorial was too long

  • UX Decision: Streamlined onboarding process

  • Outcome: Reduced player drop-off rate

User Interface

  • Issue: UI elements were too complex

  • UX Decision: Simplified navigation and added tooltips

  • Outcome: Improved overall usability

Key Features & Game Mechanics

  • Boss fights against pollution monsters

  • Rescue missions for sea creatures

  • Adaptive difficulty

  • Educational narrative elements

Technical Deep Dive

Innovative Framework

  • Hero’s Journey concept

  • Adaptive storytelling mechanics

  • Scalable environmental education platform

  • Cost-effective development for future expansions

Development Challenges & Solutions

  • Reaching the Target Audience: To navigate the complexities of engaging young users, we orchestrated a carefully structured 3-hour focus group with children aged 7-11, complemented by usability data from family networks, ensuring rich insights while maintaining ethical standards.

  • Team Collaboration: Implemented specialized group meetings for each discipline followed by team-wide briefings, fostering a structured workflow and improving cross-functional communication in game development.

  • Simplified Prototyping: Prioritized a simplified prototype focusing on core gameplay mechanics, allowing programmers to deliver a functional product for testing within realistic timeframes.

  • GitHub Access Issues: Switched to Unity Collab, managing limited access slots effectively.

Key Design Additions

Puzzle Challenges: We incorporated brain-teasing puzzles to stimulate critical thinking and problem-solving skills. These puzzles were strategically designed to mirror real-world ocean conservation challenges, encouraging players to think critically about environmental solutions while maintaining an engaging gameplay experience.

Hidden Items: Scattered throughout the game world, these collectibles provide a sense of discovery and achievement. Each hidden item represents a piece of ocean conservation knowledge, encouraging players to learn about marine ecosystems while exploring the game's underwater environments.

Helping Sea Creatures: We introduced interactive rescue missions where players save marine animals trapped or endangered by pollution. By helping these creatures, players directly experience the consequences of ocean pollution and learn about marine ecosystem preservation.

Distinct Sub-Environments: We created unique underwater settings for each level, enhancing visual diversity and maintaining player excitement. These environments were meticulously designed to represent different ocean zones, from shallow coral reefs to deep-sea trenches, each presenting unique challenges and educational insights about marine ecosystems.

Expansion Plans

  • Potential port to iOS platform

  • Exploring additional environmental themes using our flexible framework

  • Investigating partnerships with environmental organizations for broader impact

This project not only resulted in an innovative educational game but also provided valuable insights into collaborative game development and the power of games as a medium for social change and environmental education.

Business Expert Award

Echo's Journey won first place in a prestigious competition, beating 60 teams (400 students total) in the serious game category. The award has boosted our credibility, opened networking opportunities, and validated our concept of combining education with engaging gameplay. This positions Echo's Journey as a promising venture in educational gaming for environmental awareness.

Key Factors for Success:

  • Market-driven approach

  • Free-to-play distribution

  • Scalable framework

  • Strong focus on child engagement