RITEC Design Toolbox
Designing for children’s well-being in digital play
RITEC Design Toolbox
What if the games we design could not only entertain children- but help them thrive?
The RITEC Design Toolbox was built with designers and informed by the voices of 700+ children worldwide. This video introduces the toolbox and shows how it can inspire your team, strengthen your design decisions, and support well-being through play.
The RITEC Design Toolbox (RDT) is intended for design professionals in the online gaming industry who are creating digital play experiences for children. This includes different design professions (product, visual, UX, research, etc.), management levels, and Trust and Safety professionals supporting the design process.
It consists of four components, best explored in the following order:
- FAQs: Answers to all your questions!
- Summary for Executives: A business case for designing for children’s well-being.
- Infographic Posters: The “RITEC-8 Framework” and the “RITEC Play World”.
- Interactive Card Deck: Game design features that our research suggests can promote well-being in digital play (available in desktop and mobile compatible versions).
The RDT Tools
Practical application of RITEC Design Toolbox
Design professionals in the gaming industry can use the RDT to:
- Ensure their products are aligned with best practices for children's well-being.
- Promote inclusivity and safety in digital environments.
- Drive business success while upholding ethical standards in child-focused game design.
For a more in-depth understanding, the full toolbox is available for download, providing a comprehensive guide to designing games and digital experiences that support children’s well-being in a holistic way.
Applying the RDT in your Design Process
To apply the RITEC Design Toolbox (RDT) in your design process, you can follow these steps for integrating child well-being considerations into your digital play projects:
1. Start with the FAQs: Review the FAQs to address initial questions and familiarize yourself with key concepts. This will help you understand how RITEC principles can shape your design decisions for children’s well-being.
2. Consider the Business Case (Executive Summary): If you’re working with stakeholders or decision-makers, the Executive Summary can help communicate the value of designing for children’s well-being. This step can also help you align your design goals with your company’s strategic priorities, showing the broader impact on brand trust and user engagement.
3. Review the Infographic Posters (RITEC-8 Framework and Play World): Study the RITEC-8 Framework to understand the eight dimensions of well-being: safety, diversity, autonomy, emotions, competence, relationships, creativity, and identity. Identify which of these dimensions are most relevant to your project and consider how your design can support them. Explore the children’s quotes about their well-being in digital play and find those inspiring and relevant to the user-experience you are trying to design.
4. Explore the Interactive Card Deck: Use the game design feature cards as practical references. Each card represents a feature or approach shown to support well-being. Consider how these features could fit into your design, and brainstorm ways to incorporate them in your user experience, interaction design, and game mechanics.
5. Incorporate into Prototyping and Testing: As you move into prototyping, keep the RITEC-8 dimensions and selected design features in mind. Conduct user testing with a focus on how well the design promotes these dimensions, especially if testing with children or getting feedback from stakeholders with expertise in child development.
6. Iterate and Refine: Use feedback to refine your design, focusing on adjustments that improve well-being outcomes.
By aligning your design process with RITEC’s focus on well-being, your digital play experience will likely be more inclusive, engaging, and beneficial for children, enhancing both their enjoyment and development in a safe digital environment.
Development of the RITEC Design Toolbox
The RITEC-8 framework was defined and validated based on research involving 787 children, focusing on those aged 8–12 years, in 18 countries (Albania, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Cyprus, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Taiwan, Tanzania, Tunisia, UK, Uruguay, USA). The eight dimensions of the RITEC-8 framework are: safety and security; diversity, equity and inclusion; autonomy; emotions; competence; relationships; creativity; and identities.
The RDT builds on the RITEC research, including the RITEC-8 framework, to create practical tools for design teams. It was designed together with designers from 35 online gaming companies of different sizes, and from 15 countries (Canada, China, Croatia, Finland, Israel, France, Malaysia, Philippines, Serbia, Singapore, Sweden, Tanzania, UK, USA, Vietnam) to align with their needs and challenges.
In the Discovery stage, 30 informant interviews were held, as well as three industry feedback events in collaboration with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Fair Play Alliance. A co-design ideation workshop was conducted in the Definition stage, followed by a prototype feedback round and wording feedback round with 10 design teams in the Development stage.
The creation of the game design features list and categories were developed in collaboration with both academic partners and design support community. The illustrations in the game design features card deck and poster were carefully developed with the research team. They are based on authentic representations of the children who took part in this work and shared their quotes, to provide representation of diverse backgrounds and contexts.
What is RITEC?
The Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) project is a collaboration between UNICEF and The LEGO Group and funded by The LEGO Foundation. The project’s primary objective is to develop, with children from around the world, a framework that maps how the design of children’s digital experiences affects their well-being and provides guidance on how informed design choices can promote positive well-being outcomes.
The project is an international, multi-stakeholder and cross-sectoral collaboration that includes partners from the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University, the CREATE Lab at New York University, the Graduate Center at City University of New York, the University of Sheffield, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center.
More about the RITEC research
The RDT Launch Webinar
The RITEC Design Toolbox (RDT) launch webinar introduces the toolbox's origins, purpose, and practical applications, featuring insights from key partners and real-world designers.
It starts with introductions by UNICEF and the LEGO group, followed by background information about the RITEC-8 research and framework. The webinar then introduces the RDT and its components including: FAQs, Business Case, Infographic Posters, and a Game-design Features Card Deck. This is followed by a panel of design practitioners from Supercell, Sea Monster Games, Toca Boca, and Mojang, who discuss practical applications of the RDT, as well as Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s inspired-by-RITEC work. The webinar concludes with an audience Q&A session.
Introductions
An introduction summary of the RITEC Design toolbox Launch, and the collaborative effort between UNICEF and LEGO to create digital play experiences that prioritize children's well-being.
The RITEC Design Toolbox (RDT)
A summary of the description of the RITEC Design Toolbox at the launch webinar, including: the RITEC-8 framework and The RITEC Design Toolbox (RDT) elements: FAQs, Business Case, Infographic Posters, and Game-design Features Card Deck.
Designers’ Panel
Highlights from the RDT launch webinar practitioners panel: How will you use the RITEC Design toolbox in your work? With representatives from Mojang, Supercell, Sea Monsters entertainment, and Toca Boca.
Next steps
A brief summary of UNICEF and Joan Ganz Cooney Centers’ perspective on their efforts for the next steps for this work.
Watch the full launch webinar video
Acknowledgements
This toolkit was developed by Shuli Gilutz, Programme Officer, Child Rights and Digital Business, and Josianne Galea Baron from the UNICEF Business Engagement and Child Rights team (UNICEF Programme Group). The development of this toolkit deeply benefitted from insights and collaboration from a wide range of stakeholders from industry, civil society and academia. UNICEF would like to acknowledge in particular the contributions of Jon Mason (Jollywise), Lady San Pedro (Mrs. Wordsmith), Luc Delany (K-ID), Chris Lindgren and Petter Karlsson (TocaBoca), Kathryn Hymes (University of Oxford), Nathan Sawatzky (Supercell), Anna Wendelin, Ulrika Silfverstolpe (Mojang), Corinne Brenner (Killer Snails), Tobie Abad (TAKTYL Studios), Kiley Sobel (Duolingo), Tif Gagnon and Maria Janelli (Scratch Foundation), Barbara Leal (Futureplay Games), Stephen Boustred (Ubongo), Kimberly Voll (Thriving in Games Group / Brace Yourself Games), Raul Gutierrez (Tinybop Inc.), Glenn Gillis (Sea Monster, Games for Change Africa), Sabine Witting and Emma Day (Tech Legality), and Sonia Livingstone (Digital Futures for Children, LSE).
An enthusiastic thank you to our project collaborators: Jan L. Plass (New York University), Fiona Scott (University of Sheffield), Daniel Johnson (Queensland University of Technology), Amanda Third (Western Sydney University), Bruce Homer (The Graduate Center, CUNY), Sarah Jacobstein and Michael Preston (Joan Ganz Cooney Center), Christopher Payne, Marie Enemark Olsen, Mathilde Heegaard Bausager, Declan Henesy, Adam Ingle, Elizabeth Milovidov (The LEGO Group), and Lise Borgstrøm Henriksen (The LEGO Foundation).
We would also like to thank UNICEF colleagues for their reviews and contributions: Daniel Kardefelt-Winther; Afrooz Kaviani Johnson; Ida Hyllested; Stacie Finnegan; Jonas Ginge Andersen, Philip Toscano, Adam Cathro, Nicola Dillon.
We are grateful for the financial support from the LEGO Foundation for the development of this toolkit.
Disclaimer
This toolbox is a UNICEF publication. Acknowledgements of company representatives do not imply a company’s approval or endorsement of the toolbox. Any reference made to a specific company does not imply endorsement by UNICEF of the company’s policies and practices. This toolbox has been drafted to engage designers from companies within the digital play ecosystem on the topic of designing digital play for children’s well-being. Quotes and examples from the RITEC research are used solely to highlight potential risks or opportunities for children presented by the online gaming environment. This toolbox is not meant to offer a comprehensive or conclusive view of research or industry practices in any of the areas covered. This toolbox does not articulate, nor does it represent, any official position of UNICEF.