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Overview

This project documents my experience leading the Game & App design team of the MRO Lab from KLM Engineering & Maintenance. As the design team, we were responsible for creating a working prototype of a gamified onboarding process during the organization's reorganization.

Goal

After the pandemic of 2020, KLM E&M experienced a rough period with a decreasing employee count and inconsistent onboarding processes. The board of directors noticed how young employees and new hires struggle with a lack of information and guidance while getting onboarded.

To provide a clear and steady start to new employees, the organization decided to use gamification to create an engaging and informative onboarding process. It was our responsibility to uncover, design, and turn this aspiration into a working prototype.

Process

For this project, I switched between the following roles:

Software engineer
Design Researcher
Overall team lead

Together I worked with two graphic designers and two developers, as we formed a team of five.

The design process followed a double diamond method. This required me to delve deep into who the stakeholders are, understanding the expectations and needs of the eventual users, and defining requirements and constraints. To acquire insights and data, I made use of interviews, generative design sessions, and game engine research.

screenshot of brainwriting session — Brainwriting session with multidisciplinary team exploring onboarding concepts

We converged our insights and research and started ideating using storyboards, lo-fi mockups, and several design thinking tools, like "Crazy 8s" and "Personas". The process resulted in several concepts for how we can turn the onboarding process into a gamified experience.

screenshot of ideation board — Concept direction combining game mechanics and onboarding scenarios

To translate onboarding procedures into a structured experience, I mapped key processes into interaction flows within the game.

flowchart diagram of klm id process — Translating onboarding procedures into interactive gameplay steps

Once the overall story and idea had formed, the team was ready to design game assets, choose game engines and software frameworks, to create prototypes that could be tested by interns and employees of the organization.

flowchart diagram of gameplay logic — Game flow integrating onboarding tasks into a playable system

Results

screenshot of prototype gameplay — Playable prototype of the onboarding experience tested with interns

The projects produced:

A large library of game assets for developers to use
A large code base to develop a playable game
A workable prototype for interns to test play
Design rules and guidelines for the next designers
An extensive report for future decisions to consider

My design process and report clarified for HR what new employees can expect and how to maintain an engaging onboarding experience. The board of directors got to see their business taking shape, as there was a working prototype tested by interns. And finally, for the successors of the design team, I provided clear and extensive documentation to help further realize and develop this aspiration.

Reflection

As this was my graduation project, I gained experience in leadership and taking ownership. Most importantly I learned how to bridge business, designers, and developers through co-design and design thinking.

The main challenge was translating the needs of the business and users into actionable requirements for the design team. This was particularly difficult in a fast-paced, large organization like KLM E&M. This required me to stay resilient, transparent, and determined to work together with a diverse target group and a multidisciplinary team.