Scaling DEI training through a eductech product
Context
BetterSG is a tech for good volunteering group in Singapore
In 2021, the group set out to make DEI and interfaith dialogue more accessible by creating a digital solution that could scale across institutions for Singapore.
The solution space carried real risk: cultural misrepresentation, ethical potholes, and a limited financial runway.
I served as Co-Project Lead and Design Lead, owning both product direction and the management of the design and art team.
Team building
Designing for volunteer-driven execution
The Challenge
A remote team of volunteers
The team was 100% unpaid volunteers with inconsistent availability and high churn risk. Delivery stability was not guaranteed.
The SOLUTIOn
A digital hub
My co-Project Lead and I built asynchronous operating infrastructure that allowed remote contributors to plug in and out without destabilizing progress.
For design, I introduced spec documentation and best practices to maintain cohesion despite distributed execution.
A sample page of the Notion system we built. Each team had their own sections, and onboarding had its own page to ensure new comers could self-serve
I documented processes and guidelines on Google Slides so that (1) illustrators could easily access the visual reference they needed, (2) multiple team members could contribute and access the information.
Team building
Establishing ethical governance in a high-risk domain
The product is a visual novel where users play through characters from different ethnic and social backgrounds. While powerful, this was a format vulnerable to cultural misrepresentation and social backlash.
As Co-Project lead, I formalized research as a governing function, recruiting professional researchers and facilitators as decision authorities over narrative content.
This decision proved astute. When a prominent religious group attempted to block the project, our documented methodology protected the organization from reputational damage.
Leading with Design
Leading with design methodology
One of the unique skills I bought to the leadership role as a designer was how I handled team disagreements on what should be done.
During such disagreements, I would employ my design training to redirect team members back to our project goals. Does Method A help promote empathy? What about Method B? How do they compare? Can we test this?
Often, these reminders and probing helped team members re-align and agree on how to proceed.
Leading with Design
Leading with prototypes
At various critical points of the project, team members would have divergent ideas and no shared consensus. Progress stalled.
I used prototyping to break indecision, align the team in a single direction to regain project momentum, including securing $50,000 in seed funding.
The first prototype was built to help the team visualise the game and pitch for seed money. It communicates the game idea so clearly, the final gameplay mechanics does not differ largely.
After winning seed money, the team had to work out game details. I organised and conducted mixed in-person and remote brainstorming sessions to iron out the details of the game.
As we neared production, once again there were various opposing ideas. I led 3 junior UX to build a playtest prototype. We effectively built the first chapter of the game in Figma. It has 250+ frames.
Lilian, our researcher (now a UX designer at GovTech), conducting playtesting with a participant. I guided junior researchers like her to organise playtesting sessions and report the data to the team.
Design leadership
Upholding design quality under constraints
Budget and engineering capacity were limited throughout development.
I defined an art direction executable by emerging designers while maintaining visual cohesion and perceived quality. This helped us balance cost efficiency with perceived quality.
As design lead, I also ensured cross-surface consistency and quaity across brand identity, product UI, marketing, and social channels.
A stylescape from our branding work. I worked with the talented May Chiang to create the logo and identity design.
Impact
We first released with a MVP on July 2021 and finished all 6 planned characters in 2023.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and we received press coverage in multiple meda channels. We were also a nominee for Best Innovation and Best Storytelling at Level Up KL 2022, an indie game award for game developers in Southeast Asia.
20,000+
Playthroughs
1,000+
New players per month
10%
Referral rates from current players
15+
Schools and coporates adopted our solution
We were also very successful in our goal of making DEI training more widely available to educators. In 2022, we obtained a rare backing from the Ministry of Education that allowed teachers to use our game for teaching in classrooms.
As of the start of 2023, we were adopted by teachers from 10+ schools, and have been voluntarily adopted by 6 organisations for sensitivity training.
