Promoting therapy adherence in children with sickle cell disease
Sickle Cycle is a game that teaches children with sickle cell disease to better understand their bodies and illness, and how best to care for them.
The game zooms in on their bodies, where the action takes place within the blood vessels.
Their mission: assisting the blood cells with the right choices — drinking enough water, avoiding the cold, and taking their medication on time.
Learning to make healthy choices
The game visualizes the effect of those choices — the blood cells don’t clump together and swim on gleefully — and what happens if they should not follow their lifestyle rules.
Through play, children learn to make the choices necessary to win the game and live a healthy life.
How does a game promote therapy adherence in children with sickle cell disease?
The game creates a safe play environment where children can play with choices.
What happens inside my body when I drink lots of water, or when I don’t drink a single sip? What if I just don’t wanna take that medication?
And what exactly do I need to do to give my blood cells a helping hand and win the game?
By letting children take the controls themselves, they experience the effects of the lifestyle rules they must follow due to their chronic condition.
The game doesn’t merely impose the rules on them from above, but helps kids understand for themselves why these are so important for their bodies. It encourages them to follow their therapy better; not because they have to, but out of self-care.
drink plenty of water
medication
enough rest
protect against cold
prevent stress
The steps to developing
an therapy adherence game
Bringing together the team
The workgroup consists of 6-8 participants of the most important stakeholders.
This means the project team, the end users and, potentially, externals such as ethicists and healthcare professionals.
Game Ready Workshop
Together with the team of stakeholders, we
- define our goals and design criteria
- come up with ideas
- draft the first prototype
in a day-long creative workshop.
Development & testing
A prototype becomes a MVP, shaped by choices made with the whole team.
Development is an iterative process: we build, test and apply our learnings to the next round.
Implementation
The finished product is implemented and ready for use.
We provide training to ensure long-term use and enjoyment of the product.
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