The RITEC-8 are the eight dimensions of children’s subjective well-being that make up UNICEF’s RITEC Well-being in Digital Play framework. These are aspects that children around the world have highlighted as being central to their ability to flourish in today’s digital world.
- Many global efforts focus on understanding the risks and harms of digital play for children, which is important and necessary. However, there has been less focus on exploring and maximizing the benefits digital play can offer for children’s rights and well-being. These benefits go beyond simply avoiding harm — they include creating positive value for the players.
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Digital play experiences, such as online gaming and apps, can contribute to children’s well-being when designed in a certain way.
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By using the RITEC Design Toolbox, designers can make sure that they are considering children’s well-being as part of their design process.
The RITEC project
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 project’s primary objective is to develop, with children from around the world, a framework that maps how the design of children’s digital play experiences affects their well-being and provides guidance on how informed design choices can promote positive well-being outcomes.
The project 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.
The RITEC project produced two types of outputs: research reports and a Design Toolbox:
RITEC research reports
Working with 787 children, focusing on those aged 8–12 years, in 18 countries (Albania, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Cyprus, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Taiwan, Tanzania, Tunisia, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the United States), the RITEC team created and defined the “RITEC-8” framework for children’s well-being in digital play.
The eight well-being dimensions of the RITEC-8 framework are:
- Safety and security — Children feel safe and are kept safe while engaging in digital play.
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion — Digital play experiences are designed to represent diverse children and childhoods and serve the access needs of as many different children as possible.
- Autonomy — Children freely choose how to engage with digital play, and experience feelings of agency, choice, and freedom while playing.
- Emotions — Digital play experiences allow children to experience and recognize a range of emotions, and provides opportunities to learn how to regulate them.
- Competence — Digital play experiences contribute positively towards children’s perceptions of their effectiveness, ability, and skills, facilitating a sense of mastery.
- Relationships — Digital play experiences facilitate social connection with others and a sense of belonging.
- Creativity — Digital play experiences encourage children to engage curiously and use their imagination to build, invent, and experiment.
- Identities — Digital play experiences provide children with opportunities to explore, construct, and express facets of themselves and others.
RITEC Design Toolbox (RDT)
The RITEC Design Toolbox takes the findings from the RITEC research and provides designers and businesses with practical tools for incorporating support for children’s well-being into the design process. It includes: a FAQs doc, a business case summary for executives, framework and child-quotes posters for download, and a digital card deck of game design features that impact children’s well-being in digital play.
The role of RITEC in empowering designers
- Responsibility and opportunity in the digital games industry — The digital games industry has both a significant responsibility and a unique opportunity to promote children’s well-being. With digital technology playing an increasingly central role in children’s lives, game designers have the potential to make a meaningful, positive impact on their well-being.
- Evidence-based framework: The foundation of RITEC-8 — The RITEC-8 Framework is built on extensive research, drawing on empirical evidence that explores how digital play contributes to various aspects of children’s well-being. This framework provides designers with a robust foundation for creating impactful digital experiences.
- Designers can influence children’s well-being — The RITEC research has demonstrated that digital play can make measurable, positive contributions to all aspects of children’s well-being as outlined in the RITEC-8 Framework. Designers can shape these outcomes through intentional design choices.
- Recognizing diversity: The role of context — The effects of digital play on children’s well-being are shaped both by the design of the game and by each child’s unique context and needs. Understanding these variables for your specific players is essential for creating designs that have the impact you intend. Key factors influencing this relationship include:
- Age and developmental stage
- Family dynamics, practices, and cultural influences
- Physical differences or disabilities
- Emotional and learning needs
- Neurodiversity
- Life circumstances, such as school experiences
- The limits of a single design approach — No single game can address the needs of all children or guarantee universal outcomes. Designers must focus on identifying what positive play experiences look like for different children and determine the design choices most likely to support those experiences.
- Practical application of the RITEC-8 research: The RITEC Design Toolbox — Design professionals in the gaming industry can leverage the RITEC Design Toolbox (RDT) to:
- Align their products with best practices for children’s well-being.
- Foster inclusivity and safety in digital environments.
- Promote key dimensions that support children’s growth and thriving.
- Achieve business success while maintaining ethical standards in child-centered game design.
- Support the design of gaming environments that aren’t specifically designed for children but may include children as part of their player communities.
Creating digital content that aligns with the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional developmental stages of children at all ages.
Leveraging RITEC to enhance children’s digital play design
The RITEC project provides several benefits and practical tools for design teams:
- Evidence-based framework — A research-backed framework and concepts designed to promote children’s well-being through digital play.
- Shared vocabulary — A common language for design teams to discuss children’s needs, motivations, and well-being goals, as well as the features in games that can support these objectives.
- Interactive card deck — A curated collection of game design features, identified through research, that are proven to enhance well-being in digital play.
- Real-world insights — Quotes and examples from children during their play experiences that provide authentic, relatable insights.
- Visual aids — Printable posters for home or office use, showcasing the framework and examples to inspire and guide design efforts.
- Business case — A high-level overview for decision-makers that highlights the return on investment (ROI) of prioritizing well-being in game design.
- Design guidelines — Detailed recommendations on how to implement the principles of the RITEC-8 framework effectively.
- Digital play drivers — A comprehensive list of factors to help define audience motivations, needs, and desires, ensuring targeted and impactful design choices.
By integrating these resources, design teams can create innovative, inclusive, and ethically sound digital experiences that support children’s holistic growth and development.
Adjusting Game-Design Based on RITEC: Three Examples
Learn how three game companies used the RITEC Framework to adjust their designs to enhance children’s well-being.
What does successful integration look like for design teams?
Successful integration of the RITEC framework and Toolbox within your design team for children’s digital play design can be measured across three dimensions — community, individuals, and groups. To assess if you are moving in the right direction with efforts to get your team on board designing for children’s well-being, look for:
Individual level
- Designers use the RITEC-8 terminology to explain design decisions for features and mechanics.
- Designers refer to children’s quotes and perspectives when considering the pros / cons of gameplay and supporting features.
- Designers understand where to look for guidance when designing new digital play features.
- Designers refer to children’s perspectives and well-being needs in different touchpoints throughout the design cycle, to make sure they are part of the design, perceived by the audience, and improve play
Group level
- Designers seek out others in the team to support children’s well-being throughout the design process (trust and safety, UX, research, marketing, customer support, and development).
- Designers in the team support each other in learning about designing for children’s well-being in digital play with workshops, posters, and case studies.
- The RITEC-8 vocabulary is part of the team lingo.
Community level
- Designers succeed in sharing the business case for designing for children’s well-being in digital play with leadership, clients, and marketing, getting buy-in for these ideas both internally and externally.
- Designers from different organizations share best practices and examples of using the RITEC-8 framework in successful digital play experience, as part of a community of practice.
- Specialized interest groups and influencers, such as design organizations and conferences, awards, or Child Rights organizations, acknowledge the design principles of the team as a positive example of designing for children’s well-being in digital play.
Now what?
To learn more about designing for children, see Age-Appropriate Design!
See how three companies used the RITEC Toolbox to adjust their games and improve children’s well-being in Adjusting Game Design Based on RITEC: Three Examples.
References
- UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight. (2022). Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children. United Nations Children’s Fund.
- UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight. (2024, April). Digital Technology Play and Child Well-Being: Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children. United Nations Children’s Fund.
