I read two news items about violence against women that happened in China recently which made me feel extremely terrified and sad. I keep my eyes on these events for a long time and I notice that violence against women is a serious worldwide problem. Therefore, I want to investigate this topic, do more research and find a solution.

From the survey, the researchers found “violence is connected to rigid gender norms and hegemonic masculinity. It is necessary, therefore, to promote masculinities that value non-violence and gender equality in order to end GBV (gender-based violence)”.

In three of the four famous Chinese novels, Water Margin, Journey to the West, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, most main characters are men, and they are brave, clever and responsible. There are very few female characters, and almost all of them appear in a negative image. Authors have portrayed women as the embodiment of lust, and they appear only to heighten the majesty of the male image. However, children and teenagers must read these novels and which are important parts of examinations.

The government needs to consider effective ways to reduce the cases of gender-based violence to build a safe & stable society.

Children need to have guidance on the correct gender concept to form the idea of gender equity and avoid the possiblity of future gender-based violence.

Society and the family need to provide children with the correct gender education to help them form the idea of gender equity.

After conducting the analysis of other products working on children’s sex education, I found the children's gender education is based on three different forms: illustration books, board games, and apps. They have their own strengths and weaknesses. Most of these products have limited formats which means the users will lose their interest after they finish reading the book or knowing the answers to all the questions. Some of the board games’ mechanics fully depend on the players’ luck so it may cause the players to lose the motivation to get the right answers.

Fun interaction

I want to design an inclusive product that users can have some fun interaction with it and have multiple possibilities to explore with great storytelling and vivid illustration.

Interactive projection space draft

The design of the speaker aims to bring the interactive projection more entertainment and engagement. The players will be instructed to say hi to the speaker to start the game, and the component of KY-038 is a voice sound detection sensor that can detect players’ voices and give responses back. The main character will come up and represent the player in the game. An important thing to clarify is that the character image is automatically generated, so a girl player can get a boy character, and a boy player may get a girl player. The awards they get along the way are random, so a girl player may get a boy character and earn a dress and a football in the meantime. I hope these game mechanisms can really help children build gender equity ideology and believe they can be anyone they want, no matter their gender.

See full interaction

I did research with five people; three of them are my target users, who are children around six to eight years old, and two of them are my peers around 20 years old. I found all of them were satisfied with my illustration and overall interaction, but my questions and answers were designed a bit complicated, so it was hard for children to concentrate on or comprehend my questions and answers. So for the next steps, I will simplify the questions and answers and combine animation to explain these questions and answers to engage the children. Also, I plan to design related apps and board games, making WACA a series of products in which children can learn about gender equity anytime and anywhere with their families and friends.