Roadset

Despite the millions spent on road safety awareness programs, road trauma remains the leading cause of death among young Aussies - particularly those in their early teens. Hospitalisations grow year on year, while our smartphone obsession has led to a distraction epidemic on Aussie roads. ARSF knew the way they had been talking to teens wasn't working - and that the time had come to rethink their approach. They approached us with a challenge: design an experience that teens would actually connect with, and transform their topline vision into a thoughtfully-designed digital solution with the potential to change behaviour and save lives.

Our research uncovered a powerful insight: teens learn differently to adults. Their brains are wired towards the positive: they're forever seeking the dopamine hit they get from feelings of reward and pleasure. It's why they're easily distracted, hate being preached to and are addicted to their smartphones. So, we designed a solution that embraced these behaviours and psychological drivers instead of overlooking them. We involved teens in our design process, swapping scaremongering, passive learning and preaching for a narrative-driven approach, relatable characters and conversational tone-of-voice. And we created immersive interactions that gamified the experience and empowered them to learn independently.

In just 6 months, over 40% of Australian secondary schools signed up to Roadset. Overwhelmingly positive feedback from teachers and students has led to ARSF submitting a new funding application to the Deputy PM's office to expand the concept to other age groups. We measured the program's impact by comparing the results of our user entry and exit surveys. When asked to assess their knowledge of road safety topics on a scale of 0-10, students' self-ratings increased from 5.2 beforehand to 7.1 upon completion. Similarly, students' understanding of their responsibilities as road users improved significantly, jumping from 4 to 8/10.

From the outset, we approached the challenge from a position of empathy, placing the user at the heart of our design. We used research and design sprints to identify the principles that would shape our thinking, then validated it through a user testing group comprised of the target audience. The experience delivers ten learning modules via a mix of humorous animated sequences (featuring lovable characters co-designed by our user testing group) and gamified interactions that use familiar digital behaviours such as swiping, drag-and-drop, sliders and text-messaging to communicate key learnings. We used UX best practice, short feedback loops and positive reinforcement to keep those all-important dopamine hits coming and end-of-module quizzes to improve knowledge retention. To ensure content was age-appropriate and curriculum-aligned, Roadset was designed in close consultation with secondary school teachers and road safety experts. As such, modules focused on everything from being a pedestrian, cycling and rideables through to the effects of drugs and alcohol and becoming a driver. Our user exit survey validated our approach and design decisions: on average, users rated the app 4.5 out of 5 across a number of criteria including appropriateness to their year level, ease-of-use and overall impression.