UNICEF unveils design toolkit for digital creators

19 NOVEMBER 2024 – UNICEF unveils the RITEC Design Toolbox—free comprehensive resources with practical advice and information for the gaming industry to design digital play experiences with children’s well-being in mind. On the heels of recent UNICEF-led research indicating that video games can contribute to and support the well-being of children if designed well, the RITEC Design Toolbox is now available for use by designers and other professionals supporting the design process. 

The Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) project is a collaboration between UNICEF and the LEGO Group and is funded by the LEGO Foundation. The new RITEC Design Toolbox (RDT) contains free resources and provides practical tools for design teams including:

• An interactive card deck of game design features that can help promote well-being in digital play.
• Printable posters for the home/office displaying the framework and visual examples of the guidance.
• Quotes and examples from children captured during play experiences. 
• A shared vocabulary for game designers to discuss both children’s needs and desires, as well as online gaming features to promote well-being. 
• A summary for executives highlighting the business case of designing for well-being.

RITEC research led by UNICEF with more than 750 children from 18 countries, mainly ages 8-12, explored how children experience or evaluate their digital play experiences and to what extent their life and current situation are positive and desirable versus negative and undesirable. The RITEC-8 framework presents eight dimensions of children’s subjective well-being that digital games have the potential to contribute to: autonomy, competence, emotions, relationships, creativity, identities, safety and security and diversity, equity and inclusion.

The RITEC Design Toolbox was co-created with online gaming design teams from around the world to support their design of digital play experiences for children for well-being outcomes, based on the RITEC research.  It includes a list of relevant game-design features, examples from apps and games, supporting design principles and digital play drivers. It is a practical set of tools for game design teams, to apply the RITEC research ideas when designing for children’s well-being in digital play.

Ida Hyllested, UNICEF Senior Advisor on Child Rights and Business said: “The research led by UNICEF shows that digital play experiences can support children’s well-being, if they are designed right. The RITEC Design Toolbox can make it easier for game designers to implement the findings of this research into their work and to design play experiences that place children’s well-being at the centre.” 

Anna Rafferty, Senior Vice President of Digital Consumer Engagement, the LEGO Group said: “While the online world offers endless possibilities for children, we understand that it can also raise concerns for parents. In an era where children are increasingly engaging with digital technologies, the need for robust guidelines to support their well-being has never been more important. We know that the digital games industry is grappling with the challenges of understanding how best to design digital technology so that it fosters children’s well-being. We remain committed to creating safe and enriching digital environments for children and are pleased that the RITEC Design Toolbox is freely available to everyone. We’re calling on gaming companies and businesses to make this a priority when creating digital play experiences.” 

RITEC is an international, multi-stakeholder and cross-sectoral collaboration that includes partners from the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University, the CREATE Lab at New York University, the Graduate Center at City University of New York, the University of Sheffield, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. 

UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, product or service.