Social prescribing is the practice of connecting medical patients to non-clinical, holistic services aimed to improve their overall well-being. It is a relatively new concept that has been adopted by the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Britain’s National Health Service is implementing a pilot project that seeks to facilitate meaningful conversations between palliative care patients and their loved ones regarding their final wishes through a game. The tool, originally created in the form of a physical card game, will be reconstructed in a digital format with gamification elements to enhance the user experience. This study will document the application’s design and development process from wireframing to final software compilation. The results from user testing will measure the efficacy of digital gamification in social prescribing and the potential for expansion into other themes. The outcome of this research will further the digitization of social prescribing tools and other areas of health care.
Ever since he was a young boy, Julian has always been passionate about the intersection between computing and creativity. This passion manifested into a career in web design and development in finance for 6 years. Having worn many hats, he has picked up skill sets in digital design, development, and project management.
The goal of this MRP was to produce an alpha version of a card game tailored towards palliative care patients in the United Kingdom. Using the design sprint methodology, the project went from wireframe, prototype, and alpha in two months. Below are some screen shots as to the progression from beginning to end to give an idea of the process.
After scrapping my initial idea of VR and 3D cameras, I took a deep dive into the Unity game engine instead which yielded rewarding experiences into game development. Since COVID has taken its toll on the world, having an app that addresses a portion of the suffering produced by the virus has been daunting.