SUGAR REMEDI (SUPPORTING DOCUMENT)

GAME OVERVIEW DESIGNED BY MIN OUYANG & YIFEI ZHA

April 2009

To propose a design concept that would truly address a Type II diabetic’s needs and challenges, we started out to look into their everyday life.
What is the impact of the disease on these patients’ life socially, culturally, and cognitively? How do they currently learn about the disease?
What about the treatment and management of the disease? We conducted interviews with both healthcare professionals and Type II diabetics.
The research (details on the last page) revealed that diabetics are receptive to advice and information from their immediate social circles. The
companionship fosters an optimistic attitude toward their situations and encourage the compliance with / commitment to their treatment plans.
Therefore, Sugar Remedi , an educational board game has been created to leverage this companionship. It strives to:
1. Provide a fun and collaborative platform for Type II diabetics to learn, reflect on and share their knowledge and experience;
2. Foster and strengthen collective support from diabetics’ family members, friends, and other communities;
3. Encourages diabetics’ compliance with and commitment to their treatment plans by leveraging communal influence;
4. Communicate the value of the integrative approach to diabetes and resulting complications.

Information Structure Game Structure

Word Selection Sharing True / False Memory

“Prevent It”
Recognition Experience Statements Tasks Performance
“Understand It”
“Risk It” “Sustain It” “Treat It”

“Win It” DiaLingo M-chois True Story Jugemen Recito

(Define and explain (Answer multiple-choice (Share stories and experience) (Determine if a statement (Memorize tasks Pantomime
diabetes terms) questions) is true or false) and facts) (Act out silent clues)

Anagram Match-up Copitivity

Diabetes ABC Self-challenges Unexpected Diet Plans Exercise Medications
(Spell words backwards) (Make pairs / Categorize) (Mimick exercise)
Events Programs
• Causes • Memory tasks • Punishment due to • Treatment regimen Word Puzzle Kryptos
• Symptoms • Difficult postures incompliance • Regular check-ups (Re-arrange letters or fill (Read pictures and select
• Diagnosis • Anguish stories • Award due to out missing letters) correct answers)
• Complications compliance
Fillout
• Emotional • Successful diabetes
(Select correct words to
side-effects management stories fill out blanks)

GAME RULES
SETTING UP
Each player receives two game
pieces including your “blood
sugar” bars and “blood
sugars”.Each of the “blood
sugar” bars contains at least five
blood sugars. Together, they are
symbolic of the excessive blood
sugars present in the body of a
diabetic.
Depending on the number of
players in your party, you can
customize the game board using
color and icon-coded units. As
illustrated, two units can be
connected through the joints.
STARTING
Pick a person to begin the game.
A question of “Win-it” (Self-challenges)
must be answered before starting your
first game piece. No “Win-it” question
is required for starting one’s second
game piece.
Any player can compete for answers to
the questions of “Win-it”. The player
who has the correct answer would
start first. The goal for every player is
to get started earlier than your rivals.
” “W in It”
“Win It
” “W in It”
“WininIt It”
“W in It”
“W
”
“WininIt It”
“W in It”
“W in It”
“W
Place your game pieces on the
board wherever you would like
after answering a “Win-it”
(Self-challenges) question
correctly.
PLAYING
Only one game piece is allowed to move in each
round. For each turn, game pieces can be moved on
the board in any straight-line direction.
A game piece can jump over another located on the
adjacent topical unit (this is called “leap-over”). Other
than that, a game piece can only be moved from one
topical unit to its neighboring units.
In the case of leap-over, attention must be paid to the
following three different situations:
• If both game pieces are yours, there is no
punishment for you or other players
• If one of the game pieces is yours and it is your
SUGAR REMEDI (SUPPORTING DOCUMENT)
DESIGNED BY MIN OUYANG & YIFEI ZHA
April 2009
WINNING
Types of cards to draw are indicated by the colors To win the game, you MUST:
and icons of the topic-specific units on which either • Have covered all the six categories
of your game pieces lands. Cards are drawn by the of cards
player immediately after you and the content must be • AND be the first one to remove all
read aloud. the “excessive” blood sugars on
both bars
To remove one blood sugar from either of your bars, • AND answer correctly another
the required action indicated in the card drawn must “Win-it” question (Self-challenges)
be correctly done. Otherwise, your blood sugars will
stay the same. (For non-patients, you could put
yourself in a patient’s shoes so as to answer ques-
tions on “True Story” cards.)
”
“Win It
”
“WininIt It”
“W
”
“WininIt It”
“W in It”
“W
turn to move, you could “drop” one blood sugar to
the other bar, in other words, the player who owns
the other game piece would suffer from being
taken advantage by you and get another blood
sugar for punishment
• If one of the game pieces is yours and it is not your
turn to move, you would suffer from being taken
advantage and the player can move one blood
sugar from his / her bar to yours. This is your
punishment!
 SUGAR REMEDI (SUPPORTING DOCUMENT)
RESEARCH INSIGHTS DESIGNED BY MIN OUYANG & YIFEI ZHA
April 2009

TRADITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Diabetics are more receptive to advice and
information from their immdediate circles
(family member and friends). The companion-
ship fosters an optimistic attitude toward
their situations and encourage the compliance with /
commitment to their treatment plans. Aware of this,
healthcare professionals have started collaborating with
patients’ immediate circles for leveraging their influence in
order to persuade and motivate patients’ compliance with
their treatment plans.
?
Most diabetics, in particular those newly Useful as it is, Internet is questioned by
diagnosed patients often fail to comply with physicians and patients as to the trust-
their treatment plans consistently because: worthiness and reliability of information
disseminated. The decentralization of
• They are intimidated by piled-up medical visits,
overwhelmed by complex medication schedules, and have a information has also resulted in the issue
difficult time constantly tracking and monitoring their own of findability.
body conditions. And the relationship between actions and
outcomes is difficult to see.
They are unaware of the insidious nature of complications and
deny their conditions without seeing any visible symptom.

ODIC INT EQUENT IN

F PERI ER F FR TE
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Healthcare Family/Friends Diabetics

Professionals

Healthcare professionals remain an important source of information to diabetics when it

comes to authority, credibility, and efficiency. However, they (in particular physicians) are not Traditional Media
always able to have in-depth interactions with their patients due to time constraint resulted
from crammed daily work schedule. DTC advertisements tend to exaggerate
benefits while circumvent risks associ-
There exists a chasm in medical information (e.g. patient conditions, medications, etc) ated with the advertised drugs. This
relayed from one healthcare professional to another. This incompleteness of information is incompleteness adds to the tension
also common in physician-patient interactions because doctors tend to describe issues only between doctors and patients. DTC ads
relevant to their own specialties. also caused the unnecessary anxieties
and fears in patients caused by DTC ads.
Cultural issues (e.g. language, food, religion, taboo, etc) are another hurdle to be overcome
by healthcare professionals. They get in the way of doctor-patient communication and
constraint possibilities of a sound treatment plan.