Train for Science
The TRAIN4Science App is a questionnaire that appears as a game: An unstoppable train rolls forward. It stops only to allow the players to respond. To continue the journey, the players connects the right tracks and leads the train to the answer. The scientific approach researches the question, why we know one thing but do another. The Humboldt University Berlin, for which we designed the app together with our friends Players Journey, deals with this.
Humboldt Universität Berlin
Train for Science
2022
The clear design language focuses the gaze on that essentials. A clear, facing typography makes it easier to read longer text. Each of the three game sections take place in different landscapes that are individually designed and show variety and surprises. The game was tested with several scenarios and age groups. The feedback was included into the development to match the needs of the target audience of school children at the age of 12.
Not only the topic of sustainability can be played with the app. By outsourcing all text elements to an external database, new areas can be explored by new research teams. The game will be available for free to the public on Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. The further development of the game will contain explanatory videos and audios for younger children.
The four game worlds landscape, city, mountains and desert promote variety and increase the fun of the questionnaire. In each world there are living creatures or things that have to be circumnavigated to answer the question. Explanations and repetitive routes can be skipped. This allows players to find their own pace.
Have a look at the Instagram channel of the project to see where new testing events will happen:
Instagram TRAIN4Science
Or see another example of our participatory projects with young audiences:
Pottfiction
