Make your own law

ProDemos is an organization based in the political heart of The Hague dedicated to educating citizens, and particularly students, about democracy and the rule of law. To make civic procedures actually interesting to teenagers, they took the education out of the textbook and onto the streets.

The program starts in the classroom, where students draft their own bill proposals. The real action begins when they arrive at the ProDemos Center, splitting into teams for a GPS-guided mobile game. The app leads them through historical political landmarks, requiring them to complete tasks that simulate the reality of the lawmaking process. The journey wraps up with a custom animated film that serves as a debrief, giving them plenty to argue about once they get back to school.

I led the UI/UX design and visual direction, coordinating a dedicated team and collaborating with external stakeholders to create a location-based learning experience. We connected three wildly different contexts into one unbreakable loop, balancing academic goals with rigid organizational and educational constraints. All of this, to keep a bunch of teenagers engaged on a screen while navigating a live city and competing with their own smartphones.

Unleashing groups of students into public spaces demanded a max attention to safety and inclusive game dynamics. Through cooperation, focus groups, and live field testing, I refined the interaction logic to make the experience loud enough to compete with real-world distractions, intuitive enough to require zero training, and secure enough to keep everyone safe. Working with the attention spans of teenagers is always by default a lesson.

• Led UX/UI and visual direction for a GPS-based educational game.
• Designed a connected learning journey linking classroom preparation to on-site interactive play.
• Coordinated a dedicated team and collaborated with external partners.
• Applied iterative research and testing to validate engagement and comprehension.
• Embedded inclusive design principles to ensure accessibility and safety for diverse student groups.
• Applied game mechanics and motivation models to support playful, goal-oriented learning.