Integro is an integrated data intelligence service
built for teenage gamers to help players optimize
for in-game and out of game well-being, based on
a new system of in-game and out-of-game rewards. 

Type
Service Design,
Speculative Design

Role
Service Design

Duration
8 weeks

Team
5 Service Designers

Alpha is a Moonshot Factory – an innovation facility created by Telefonica in 2016 to build Moonshots: audacious projects on the edge of what is technically possible that will affect 100s of millions of people, have a positive societal impact, and grow into Billion Euro plus businesses. Alpha Health is the first moonshot. Its mission is to deliver breakthrough solutions to address the greatest challenges in the health sector worldwide with a focus on reducing chronic diseases by increasing people's happiness and enabling positive behaviour change.

The Challenge

Happiness & Health in the age of Human Hacking - Designing a service to help people improve and balance the agency they have (or could have) upon their lives so they can be healthier and happier.

Focus on social alienation and isolation on a horizon of 5 to 10 years. How might we empower people to counter their isolation, individualism and digitised lives and reconnect with each other helping build human connections? 
As a group, we decided to explore the area of video gaming.

The Final Concept

An integrated data intelligence service built for teenage gamers to help players optimize for in-game and out of game well-being, based on a new system of in-game and out-of-game rewards. 

The Approach

Firstly, we explored video games today, trends in the gaming industry and possible, probable and plausible future gaming technologies. We took our questions to the digital directors and curators of a video game exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, to doctors and researchers, to game designers, and of course to gamers to explore trends and the effect on gamers.

Doctors and researchers at the NHS Centre for Internet Addiction stressed there’s nothing new about what we fundamentally need to combat teenage loneliness: sleep, physical activity, and social interaction. In the future, it will be just more difficult to access these experiences when games are more dominant with technologies such as virtual reality.

On the one hand some researchers talk about games as “empathy machines”, as well as increasing hand-eye coordination and cognitive reasoning. But, there’s no denying that there are worrying trends: diminished impulse control, a difficulty in navigating game realities and non-game realities, increased aggression, addiction, and isolation.

From all this, it is clear that we need to find a more nuanced response than a ban or time limitation.

The Final Concept

How might we help teenage gamers navigate mixed realities and empower them to lead balanced lives of integrated play? 

Central to Integro’s value is that it is embedded within the game experience of rewards. 

Right now game companies can only access their own users— we propose providing anonymized gamers’ data from across game companies, offering new insight into gamers beyond their host games.
For partners, who are included as recommended activities, or places to use rewards, there will be opportunities for sponsorship and a larger user base.
Players benefit from rewards, but also the positive behaviors Integro encourages are self-reinforcing (when you exercise regularly, you want to exercise), creating a positive feedback loop that keeps players engaged.