Cheddarbowl

In real life, poor financial decisions lead to financial losses. In the virtual world, one can afford to make financial risks & learn from them. Cheddar Bowl is a virtual simulation-based learning experience allowing students to respond to unforeseeable circumstances to gain valuable behavioral skills as a way to better understand the impact to their personal financial decision-making.


How might we impact learning & financial behavioral change for students ages 16-22?

How might we create an engaging way for students to connect the importance of individual decisions to their long-term impact?

Overview

Life is full of decisions. The lessons we learn from those decisions drive our behavior. Both internal & external forces work against what we may financially plan for. World of Cheddar, LLC set out to investigate how to impact learning & financial behavioral change for students, ages 16-22.

Content Writing


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The Cheddar Bowl team surveyed over 200 representatives of the targeted demographic about their financial history to develop character storylines for a money management simulation. The following recurring concepts were addressed from the survey responses:

Each player is assigned a character & their character’s profile is intended to guide their decision-making process during gameplay. The following featured character, Paola, was written with high financial & emotional stress fueled by a shopping addiction.

risk

loans

investment

debt

credit

entrepreneurship

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Character Profile
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E-Comics

Decisions guide the direction behind the e-Comic’s visual & interactive storyline, mapping the short & long-term outcomes of those decisions that further impact players’ scores. The comic included above was a snippet of Paola's decision map & shown below is a shortened version of the same map.

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Decision Maps

As in real life, unplanned circumstances occur that may impact our wallet. To account for this, random events were designed as notifications to evoke monetary & emotional stress and relief so players could observe how they impact their character’s scores & badges.

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Random Events

User Testing

A series of usability sessions were organized to review the user flow in relation to players’ decision-making process to aid in the fourth-stage prototype game simulation. Six 1-hour usability sessions were each comprised of three sections:

Solo Gameplay

Analyze the player’s independent exploratory learning to determine user’s initial reaction to the game elements

Task-Based Play

Orient the user with the interface & occasionally prompt them on their actions, thoughts & questions

Exit Questionnaire

Assess player’s relationship with their character, content & technical issues, interface design, & reward system

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Session Facilitation

Findings from the usability testing indicated the need for more visible feedback of the scores. Players were unaware of which decisions triggered the individual score meter fluctuations & by how much. With the animation, users can immediately recognize the changes made following time advancement.

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Before
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After
Progress
The fill and numerical values of the meters reveal scores before & after
Visibility
Shifts in scale & orientation of the meters exaggerate which were affected by which decision(s)
Access
Net worth included assembles the correlation between players’ net worth & their score meters
Transparency
Immediate changes in scores shows what the system does & what the user is able to see
Previous work
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