Games designers: information and guidance

(1) The ongoing work of the RITEC project means that a range of collaborators within the children’s digital game industry, led by UNICEF's Child's Rights and Digital Business team, is already translating the findings of this study and its sibling studies into guidance for the design of digital games. It will be important that games designers, including but not limited to those designing specifically for children, attend to this guidance, in order to better support children’s well-being in relation to their digital play. In the meantime, 14 principles of good digital play design to support children's subjective well-being, based on the findings of the present study in particular, are presented in Table 13 of the full Research Report. 

(2) Two 'essential principles' of digital game design for children are: diversity, equity and inclusion and safety and security. Digital play design supportive of children’s well-being must always represent, and support equitable play for, diverse children and childhoods. Digital play must also be, and feel, safe and secure. 

(3) Beyond this, a range of twelve further 'optional principles' can be followed to support different aspects of children’s well-being. For example, design features that promote children’s autonomy and enable them to make authentic choices and decisions about their digital play were important in the present study. All 14 principles can be found at the bottom of this page. More detailed guidance on these principles can be found in Table 13 of the full Research Report. 

(4) Whilst these principles are important for children’s well-being, it is vital to acknowledge that children are different and that design features which may be supportive of well-being for one child may not be for another. In this sense, designers of digital games for children must consider the principle that no single digital game or play experience can support all aspects of all children’s well-being. Rather, the production of multiple and diverse digital games and play experiences should be encouraged. Here, it will be useful to designers to consider the 'digital play drivers' identified and discussed in the full Research Report and in summary on the relevant page of this mini-site.

(5) Children made insightful comments about digital play products that could have informed the design of such products, particularly for users with different digital play drivers and specific needs. Where possible, the industry should do more to engage children in the design of digital games and play experiences. This should include both extended observations of children’s play and talking to children about their experiences. Diverse and innovative methods can be used in research of this nature, including those inspired by some of the methods used in this study.  

(6) Children’s play is now often characterised as 'post-digital', occurring seamlessly across analogue and digital domains. In this context, more products could be developed that innovate in the hybrid play space. Children’s digital play practices frequently connect with existing deep interests and activities and were often extended into further non-digital play or activity. Children also engaged in meaningful hybrid play beyond digital games, such as combining geocaching with a family walk, emphasising possible future directions in this space.  

(7) Finally, the study’s findings suggest a clear need for more digital games and products designed for intergenerational and family play. The study highlights a significant appetite for digital games that family members of vastly different ages can share together. In some cases, this desire to play together meant younger or older family members playing games that were originally designed for children older or younger than themselves. Meanwhile, Grandparents were sometimes enabled to participate more meaningfully when digital play took place on more accessible devices, such as tablets with bigger screens. There are clear benefits associated with intergenerational and family digital co-play, including positive emotional experiences, family togetherness and bilateral support of digital skills development. The cases presented suggest that the games industry could be doing more to provide families with a range of digital games explicitly designed to support the diverse intergenerational needs of different members of the family within digital co-play, by creating games that are likely to capture the interests of young and old whilst being appropriate for the youngest players and by creating digital play experiences accessible for older players that are relatively inexpensive to use. Intergenerational play in the project is summarised on the relevant page of this mini-site and discussed in detail in the full Research Report.