Gamifying Boring Corporate Trainings

Gamifying the experience of Cyber Security Training in corporations

In our 'Design Thinking' class we were asked to design an escape room game for the employess to train them on the topic of Cyber Security. 'The Case of Ben Hofer' is an escape room game which focuses on the basic fundamentals of cybersecurity which is the minimum that everybody should atleast be aware of. The game addresses key learning objectives such as strong passwords, practicing VPN (Virtual Private Networks), awareness and prevention towards phishing email atttacks.

Client

University of Brighton - Course Work

Services

Research, Testing, Design Thinking

Industries

Gaming

Date

May 2024

The Solution

From the research we found that people find it difficult to retain the information and different terms that are thrown to them in a short amount of time. To make the learning more memorable we merged the training with engaging storytelling which tends to retain more in the memory.

Instead of throwing different terms to the learner, we took an approach of indirect learning. We put the protagonist into a situation which uses common sensibility of the player to help the protagonist come out of the situation. In the process they will be solving puzzles in the game parrallely learning about Cyber security as well. An example is shown below:

Stakeholder Interviews

Stakeholder Interviews were conducted with the company owners.

Semi-Structured Interviews: Conducted in-depth interviews with key stakeholders to gather qualitative insights regarding their needs and pain points.

Thematic Analysis: Analyzed interview transcripts to identify common themes and key quotes that illustrate stakeholder challenges.

Gamification incorporates game elements into non-game contexts, game-based learning utilises actual games to create immersive and engaging learning experiences. The Octalysis framework by Yu-Kai Chou, outlines the 8 core drives of gamification and how they contribute to an engaging experience.

Octalysis emphasizes “Human-Focused Design” instead of mere functionality, optimizing human motivation and engagement within a system balancing both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of the user.