Promoting inclusivity through play

Understand and define

The goal of this initial phase was to discover the cultural intelligence topic in general, understand it and define a problem statement to solve.
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For this, we relied on different information gathering methods, like Desk Research, Interviews with experts in the field, Interviews with the target audience and competitor analysis.

We mapped the issues found

As we got further into the research, we found different problem spaces that affect the different cultures that form, nowadays, also UX Studio.

We explored topics related to cultural biases when someone from another country joins the company, when coworkers from other countries visit, in our case, Hungary, when working with international clients, and more. After thorough analysis and prioritisation we found the central problem to solve.

We stated our “How Might We” question

Ideate, decide, prototype and validate

Once we had the problem to solve, a team of designers started to ideate on completely different solutions. We knew we wanted to create any kind of product that would help diverse teams improve their cultural intelligence. The question was how.

In this sprint we came up with 3 different proposals, showing different directions:

Results

For the validation stage, after creating these ideas, we presented them to a fictional stakeholder within our company. This was a crucial step to make the necessary decisions based on the feedback we would get.

We needed to know if any of these directions were viable, and if not, how might we change directions to come up with something that actually worked.

Re-Ideate, decide, prototype and validate

1. We took the third idea presented above to create something new.
2. We kept the gamification aspect to engage people to participate in learning about cultural intelligence, and ditched the screens and the cultural fun facts, to come up with a card game.
3. We ideated again on how we could create a card game that can be played in the office, among coworkers, to cultivate understanding and improving team work.

This time again, we came up with 3 ideas and we also ran quick tests on each to get early feedback from potential users of the game.

The winning idea: Culture Quilt

It is for diverse teams who wish to collaborate more and have a common ground with their teammates. In CultureQuilt:

1. Users can access different introspective questions that encourage cultural exchange among teammates.
2. Every card that is answered, is placed somewhere with its unique design which will eventually form a vibrant quilt.
3. Each time when played, the participating team will create a new pattern.

The final product

We created the final design of the cards, both physical and virtual, and also a website to promote the product.

For this, we created a colorful and fun aesthetic based on UX Studio’s identity.
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By taking simple shapes and turning them into compositions, and adding vibrant colors with a brutalist style, see below the final product.

On the website users can also have a sneak peak of  the game itself. And those who are interested can sign up for early access to the physical or virtual deck format.