Over the past month, we have been collaborating with IFRC Solferino Academy to create a game which draws a new audience to GO Platform. In this article, we explain the motives, process and results of this fun project.
GO’s hidden treasures
Last year’s GO study revealed that there are many people across our network who only use GO for a single purpose, and don’t look any further. They might visit to find out what’s happening about a large-scale crisis, access funding through the DREF, or use the platform to assess their RCRC societies’ preparedness. While on the platform, users don’t have time or encouragement to look around and see the other related data and evidence. They therefore don’t see how that might help them better understand, analyse and prepare for the next emergency. Indeed, most volunteers and staff of National Societies have no responsibility or invitation to engage with the platform in the first place, and so have no idea of how it could help with their specific responsibilities.
In short, we believe that GO has many useful and usable features and data for our network — but how do we make this used?
What are games good for?
Attention is a precious commodity. Attracting attention requires something out of the ordinary. To retain it, something useful.
- We struck on the idea to create a game to reach new users and reveal previously hidden features to those who already use the platform for specific purposes. We play games often enough, but reaching a global audience in four languages across cultures requires a specific skillset. This is where our friends at IFRC Solferino Academy came in.
- In our collaboration with the IFRC Solferino Academy, their first and foremost contribution was creating an interactive and educational game, Climate Legacy: Echoes of Change. This was complemented by three engaging storytelling emails and an enhancement of our social media presence. Their comprehensive input was pivotal in extending our reach to an audience beyond our standard user group.
- The game successfully captured the attention of individuals beyond our usual user base. Thousands explored the game and our GO platform, with 235 players completing the game. Impressively, 33 participants achieved the correct results, demonstrating a high level of engagement and understanding. The diversity of the successful game participants was remarkable, ranging from branch managers and logistics officers to disaster managers and partnership leads, hailing from various corners of the world.
Feedback from participants
| “What a cool game! Really clever way to engage people and get them thinking about preparedness and learning about the information available in the GO Platform!” “I enjoyed going through the GO Platform and realised there is data dating from way back on disasters. I can easily analyse disaster trends for specific countries” “This is the most innovative way I’ve seen that a lot of people could learn about the platform. I have also shared it with my colleagues and they find it super fun!” “I found the game to be quite enjoyable and innovative. It effectively engages players and provides hands-on experience, particularly in teaching how to utilise various features of the GO platform.“ |
The winners will be announced here soon!
We are running a process to verify the eligibility of the entrants as part of the IFRC Network. After which, we will draw for the two winners of the Virtual Reality headset (details on the terms and conditions on the game website). The winners will be announced in early 2024.
In the meantime, the game is still available for you to play. Feel free to explore more by checking out these links!
0 Comments