Designing games for children that foster thriving can be challenging. This article highlights how game designers applied Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) concepts in practice by adjusting their designs to enhance children’s well-being. These case studies — Kidogoville, BioDive, and VESL — were conducted as part of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Well-Being by Design Fellowship, which supports designers in creating digital environments that promote children’s well-being.
Applying RITEC to existing digital play: Method overview
In this process, design teams reviewed their existing games for children using a RITEC lens. Designers applied both the RITEC-8 framework and the RITEC Design Toolbox to address the unique needs of each game’s audience and the intended player experience. It’s important to note that the RITEC-8 framework is not a checklist — designers are not expected to address every dimension in every game. While Safety and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are considered core dimensions, the relevance of the other dimensions depends on the game’s goals, target audience, and design intent.
Learn about using the RITEC-8 framework to design games that contribute to children’s well-being.
Game designers applied the RITEC framework to evaluate how their existing games support their audience’s well-being. Following an initial RITEC evaluation using the resources above, each designer collaborated with members of a Youth Design Team (YDT) to test their assumptions and find ways to improve their designs. For logistical reasons, this youth consultancy consisted of teenagers (ages 15–18) who were available in the evenings to participate independently. Together with the product teams, they explored how designers can create experiences that are not only more engaging but also more supportive of young people’s overall well-being.
Though the case studies presented here were designed for ages younger than those of the YDT, the team was prepared to consider a younger version of themselves or a child they know (sibling, cousin, etc.) when responding, just as the design teams were coached on how to frame things so the YDT could give valuable feedback (e.g., “imagine when you were in 3rd grade,” “if you had a younger sibling,” “a 5-year-old kid you know,” etc.).
Creating digital content that aligns with the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional developmental stages of children at all ages.
The YDT also received preparation beforehand to build rapport and develop skills for offering constructive feedback. During the sessions, the YDT and designers reviewed the game together and participated in reflective activities that invited input through multiple modalities, including speaking, writing, and chat. These hour-long sessions gave designers valuable insight into children’s perspectives, helping them validate their RITEC-8 analysis and identify concrete design improvements to better support well-being.
Example #1: Kidogoville (Kidogo Productions)
Game
Kidogoville is an interactive edutainment experience for preschoolers and early learners, built on Roblox by Kidogo Productions. Kidogoville offers a colorful and interactive urban landscape that hosts educational content, gamifies learning, and connects players to real-world experiences.
Studio
Kidogo Productions seeks to transform children’s media by centering Black Excellence and Black Joy. The team recognizes that color bias in mainstream media can contribute to low self-esteem among Black children and reinforce a false sense of superiority among non-Black children. The founder experienced this impact personally when her daughter expressed a desire to look like the white characters she saw in popular media.
Evaluation
The Kidogo team presented its design to the YDT using a simple pitch deck. They provided an overview of the problem they aimed to solve (anti-Black bias in children’s edutainment) and the solution they envisioned (Kidogoville). The presentation included visuals of Kidogoville’s digital environment. They then transitioned to a Miro board to ask specific questions (e.g., “Do you have any ideas for the landscape?”).
The YDT responded either verbally or by writing directly on the board (e.g., “Making the background more reactive or movable could help capture the attention of younger kids”).
Multiple participation modes helped everyone feel comfortable contributing.
Learnings
In this session, the Kidogo team gained insights into three key RITEC dimensions: Autonomy, DEI, and Identity. The findings were both expected and surprising — some concepts they were already unsure about, while others highlighted aspects they hadn’t previously recognized as important:
- Their design lacked elements that fully supported autonomy.
- They hadn’t developed a clear approach to creating an inclusive space for non-Black children.
- They had not fully recognized the importance of helping children see themselves reflected in the game, particularly through avatars.
The team learned that:
- Autonomy — Before working with the Youth Design Team (YDT), Kidogo had already envisioned that their players should be able to explore Kidogoville on their own terms, even when accompanied by an adult. However, the design lacked elements that truly encouraged autonomous exploration in an engaging way. The original version featured a 2.5D view of Kidogoville. Players would click on a building name (e.g., wellness center, bookstore, post office), shift to a front-facing view, and then click on the door to enter and engage in activities. While functional, this structure limited freedom of movement and lacked excitement.
During the co-design session, YDT members suggested enabling 3D exploration — allowing kids to freely navigate Kidogoville from the sky to the ground, discovering everything from building murals to flowers swaying in the breeze. This input helped the design team realize that Kidogo Kids should be free to roam without intrusive prompts, directives, algorithms, or social pressures. By fostering curiosity and offering a more immersive, self-directed environment, Kidogo now believes their players will embark on meaningful journeys of self-discovery, ultimately supporting their well-being. - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — Before the YDT session, the product team had already determined that Kidogoville should not be just for a Black audience. However, the design team didn’t have a clear design path for implementing this idea. In this RITEC review, the team asked young people how they could ensure that non-Black children feel comfortable in Kidogoville. The YDT suggested including NPCs of different skin tones within the game. For example, in Kidogoville’s yoga studio there are multiple NPCs. They suggested that one should see a variety of races in that space.
- Identity — During the discussion on creating a truly inclusive environment, the YDT suggested adding customizable avatars, a direct contribution to the Identity dimension of the RITEC framework. This dimension emphasizes the importance of helping children see, express, and explore who they are within digital spaces. The YDT explained that fully customizable avatars would allow children to create authentic representations of their identities within Kidogoville. Through this feature, Kidogo Kids of any race, ethnicity, color, gender, or physical characteristic could see themselves reflected in the game — affirming their sense of self and belonging.
This suggestion marked an a-ha moment for the Kidogo team. What now seems essential had originally been a gap that the YDT helped surface. While implementing this feature in Roblox has proven more challenging than expected due to the limitations of default assets, the Kidogo team is committed to redesigning with inclusion in mind. They are currently working with a 3D modeler to expand avatar customization options, including diverse hair textures, styles, clothing, and accessories — ensuring all children can see themselves represented and valued in the game world.
Takeaways
- Using the RITEC lens has helped the Kidogo team focus its work within a structured framework. The process involves asking questions and observing how the game affects young players’ well-being. Based on these insights, they tinker, experiment, and refine their design, then revisit the players to assess whether the digital experience meets their well-being goals or if further adjustments are needed.
- The RITEC framework has encouraged the Kidogo team to involve children early in the design process. Because kids have extensive experience playing games, their insights are highly valued. While the Youth Design Team (YDT) provided valuable input, the Kidogo team has also held consultations with younger children to better reflect their target audience. The team has been consistently impressed by the children’s creative and often unexpected responses, which have helped reshape and refine the game’s design.
Example #2: VESL
Game
VESL (Virtual Excursions for Science Learning) is a social VR marine science career simulator that invites users to step into the role of a marine biologist on a deep-sea expedition to study ocean food webs. Based on real-world marine expeditions, VESL provides hands-on experience with marine science careers, biological concepts, and the tools and processes used by working scientists.
Studio
The SOJC’s Oregon Reality (OR) Lab is a multidisciplinary teaching and research facility dedicated to exploring, understanding, and building immersive media as an ethical tool for communication innovation. Its mission is to serve as a bridge between higher education, industry, and the community, developing and testing the effects of virtual, augmented, and extended realities as well as their capacity to help solve social, environmental, and business problems.
Evaluation
Based on previous testing and development priorities, VESL already addresses several RITEC dimensions: Identity, Competence, Relationships, and Autonomy. Feedback from the design teams, staff, alumni, and the Youth Design Team helped the Oregon Reality Lab team identify three key opportunities to further improve VESL‘s contribution to well-being.
Learnings
- Identity emerged as a key RITEC dimension in the session with the Youth Design Team. The design team saw this when they showed the YDT the role selection phase of the game. Commentary and feedback centered on the desire for a greater range of choices for character appearance to better reflect their different interests and personalities. One student commented, “Customizable character items as rewards for completing accomplishments? A big part of games for me is to collect items, and I think this could be a great way to do it. A showcase for samples could also be made.”
The screenshot below shows the UI of the current mobile version of VESL, where the player is selecting from one of four roles aboard the ship: Marine Tech, Deck Researcher, Lab Researcher, and Captain. This is the primary way players can modify their self-presentation in the game.
In essence, there are greater opportunities to signal player interest and actions in-game. This informed the team’s redesign strategy: keeping the same number of roles but expanding visual customization to better reflect player identities.
- The Competence dimension of the RITEC framework emerged prominently in the YDT’s feedback, particularly around trying on a STEM career through VR. During the role-selection and onboarding phase of the game, several youths raised questions about the scientific instruments players carry (e.g., “Is there an explanation for what you’re carrying and why?”). This feedback revealed that unclear instructions were limiting their ability to understand and confidently use the tools.
In response, the team made improvements to the onboarding experience to enhance clarity and build player confidence. Updates included starting the journey in a briefing room, adding voice-over narration, and providing clearer descriptions of each role and its responsibilities. These changes offer the foundational context and guidance needed to support meaningful engagement.
The screenshots below reflect the current onboarding approach, which still relies on static, text-based elements. Feedback is now guiding a shift toward more interactive methods to further support players’ sense of competence.
- The YDT appreciated the openness and autonomy afforded by the lack of overt instruction. However, there were aspects that would clearly benefit from increased user control. For example, the game currently does not allow the crew (players) to decide when they are ready to restart the experience. Instead, the game auto-restarts after completion, limiting the time players must talk and debrief after the mission. To encourage their sense of freedom, the ORL team will remove this timed progression, enabling players to return to the ship’s recreational areas. One player noted, “I also like the free range and the lack of instructions…[it] gives a feel of independence.” Such insights enabled the team to reinforce what worked (a sense of freedom and exploration), while retooling signage and instructions throughout the onboarding process to support better autonomy and exploration.
Youth Design Team feedback
Even without direct access to VR, the remote Youth Design Team (YDT) found the participatory process both engaging and valuable. To support meaningful feedback, the Oregon Reality Lab team implemented a multi-step approach:
- They provided the YDT with context and instructions ahead of the session, including an overview of the game, its purpose, and a four-minute video showing a typical multiplayer experience. The video was accompanied by reflection questions (e.g., “What seemed fun?” and “What could be improved?”) and two demographic questions about VR usage and access to the ocean.
Understanding players’ relationships with the ocean was essential. Youth were asked to reflect on their past experiences with the ocean and how those shaped their well-being and identity — an important step in exploring how the game could promote meaningful engagement, personal relevance, and science identity. - The YDT used an interactive Miro board featuring game screenshots arranged by phase, leaving feedback using digital sticky notes. During the live session, the Oregon Reality Lab team played the VR game in real time, sharing their first-person view via Zoom. They paused at each phase to gather feedback and encouraged the YDT to reference RITEC resources (e.g., framework posters).
- The session included guided discussion prompts to examine how each game phase supported — or failed to support — specific well-being outcomes identified in the RITEC framework.
Feedback emphasized making VESL more welcoming, inclusive, and reflective of the full scope of a marine biologist’s work. Specifically, two key outcomes are significantly shaping the future of VESL:
- YDT feedback highlighted that recreational aspects of ocean science are both important and desirable. One YDT member likened the game to The Sims, a simulation that highlights the individuality of each character by representing them as complex beings with professional, personal, social, and recreational dimensions — not with just one role or function.
- Not all students want or are able to use VR. Both the pre-YDT survey and conversations during the session revealed that VR was seldom used or accessible to the YDT. This underscored the broader issue of limited VR access among youth, undermining VESL‘s goal of accessible, identity-shaping STEM learning. To ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Oregon Reality Lab team is expanding access across platforms so users can engage meaningfully, whether they’re in a headset, on a desktop, or using other devices. This is based on several YDT questions during the product review that asked about whether other players on non-VR devices would be able to play with them. As designers increasingly look to immersive media as a tool for engaging youth, it is important to prioritize the DEI dimension of the RITEC framework and ensure equitable access to a game, especially in scenarios where the games are multi-platform.
Takeaways
- Accessible experiential learning — The DEI dimension of the RITEC framework is essential for creating accessible experiential learning in VR environments. VESL illustrates how social virtual worlds can simulate STEM careers in ways that would otherwise be out of reach for many youth. We hope more designers explore this potential and leverage social VR as a tool for informal STEM learning. In social VR, users share a virtual space while navigating diverse real-world conditions, such as noisy homes, limited physical space, or shared devices. To ensure full participation, designers should prioritize flexibility through features like seated-mode options, adjustable audio, and inclusive onboarding processes that accommodate a wide range of user needs and circumstances.
- Identities that lead to pathways to science — To support children in exploring, constructing, and expressing facets of themselves and others, designers should create open-ended digital experiences that invite children to reflect their own identities while encountering and engaging with diverse perspectives. In this case, a first VR expedition in marine science can ignite lasting curiosity. Designers should leverage this momentum by offering follow-up resources, such as real-world crew bios or links to local programs that help them see a viable pathway to their place in the scientific community. This approach introduces characters or scenarios and support materials that showcase a variety of lived experiences, helping children build understanding and empathy. These design choices encourage children to feel confident in who they are while developing respect for others — promoting both self-trust and positive identity development.
Example #3: BioDive
Game
BioDive blends an interactive website and immersive WebVR to guide students, grades 6-9, through the fascinating world of venomous marine snails.
Studio
Killer Snails designs immersive science experiences that empower students to step into the role of scientists, with a mission to foster a lifelong passion for science and deep respect for its role in shaping the future. By blending storytelling, exploration, and real-world challenges, they aim to excite the next generation of scientists and informed decision-makers.
Evaluation
The design team conducted a page-by-page review of the game with fresh eyes, considering which RITEC dimensions best aligned with the user experience they aimed to create. They examined every aspect — from game structure and narrative to previous student feedback.
Learnings
After reviewing the current state of BioDive and reflecting on the RITEC dimensions, the design team agreed they could more effectively support Identity, Competence, and Autonomy throughout the game experience. While supporting all three dimensions had long been a goal, the existing version fell short. The team wanted students to:
- See themselves as scientists, reinforcing that identity as a future possibility.
- Have a better sense of accomplishment and understanding of what they were doing, supporting their competence.
- Feel a sense of autonomy — to be able to complete activities with minimal adult guidance.
Youth Design Team feedback
Knowing the Youth Design Team (YDT) was slightly older than their typical users, the Killer Snails team structured the session around a conversation about identities and what makes someone feel like a scientist.
The design team wanted to understand what had helped the Youth Designers identify as scientists in their own experiences, especially when they were in middle school. One key piece of feedback was a request for more real-world examples of scientists at work. Several Youth Designers agreed that videos and images showing scientists at work helped them visualize what scientific work looks like in practice. This insight proved valuable not only for this project but also for shaping future design efforts.
BioDive design team’s reflections on using RITEC to assess their game
“Hearing from kids directly about what well-being meant to them was transformative. As adults, we often frame children’s well-being around protection, but in our initial interviews, many children asked for much more. They wanted to feel creative and accomplished, to see themselves and share with the wider community, all while being safe and secure in the platforms they use. We learned that kids don’t want to be shielded from the world; they want to explore challenging topics, but within the safety of a secure platform that enables them to do so.”
“The experience transformed the team’s approach to product design and testing with kids. Learning about the RITEC dimensions pushed us to embed well-being into every aspect of our work, and to shift from designing for kids to designing with them. Seeing BioDive through their lens helped us better understand what wasn’t working. We will strive to have kids join us earlier in the design process when creating products in the future.”
“One quote from a child in the RITEC research particularly resonated with us: ‘It’s about exploring people’s creativity to solve everyday problems, also learning about themselves and how they behave when faced with such problems, always remembering to have empathy and respect for others.’ (Brazil) It reflects much of what we aim to achieve in our work: creating experiences that encourage children to think creatively, reflect on themselves, and act with empathy to help build a better future.”
“Well-being is difficult to define; it can look different for everyone. But when we watched students using our revised BioDive, fully engaged in a science lesson, exploring together and supporting one another, it was unmistakable. Their sense of accomplishment and ease was palpable. In that moment, they radiated well-being.”
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the following people for their contributions to this article:
Danny Pimentel (University of Oregon) is an Assistant Professor of Immersive Media Psychology and co-Director of the Oregon Reality Lab at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication.
Noelle Posadas Shang (Killer Snails) is an award-winning interaction designer with over a decade of experience crafting engaging media for children.
Keeana Saxon (Kidogo Productions) is the Founder and CEO of Kidogo Productions, Inc., a digital media company for kids.
Now what?
To learn more about designing for children’s well-being and the development of the RITEC Design Toolbox, see Designing for Children’s Well-Being in Digital Play: The RITEC-8 Framework.
For more information about designing for children at different life stages, see Age-Appropriate Design.
References
- UNICEF. (2024). RITEC Design Toolbox. 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.
