Many of the subjects that we have to address as communicators are difficult. This is one; it is a case study about a risk-reduction and behavioral-change game, playable, included below, that I built for the U.S. Army. It addresses the dangers and costs associated with the overconsumption of alcohol.

Impact at a Glance:

  • Traffic: 10,000 visitors in the first month, 1,200 daily visitors (sustained), 2:32 average play time
  • Utility: 300-500 additional free rides given to soldiers every month
  • Recognition: Received the Department of the Army Civilian Service Achievement Medal.

The Situation

In the United States, 178,000 people die from the effects of Alcohol in a given year, and the second-highest rate in the nation of female deaths due to excessive alcohol occurs in the State of Alaska.

The U.S. Army in Alaska (This was a task specifically for U.S. Army Alaska, before the 11th Airborne was officially launched wanted to address the number of vehicle-related alcohol incidents occurring off-post. Existing methods weren’t having the desired effect on behaviors, so they wanted a new approach. We came up with one.

Defining the problem

Whenever you’re making a communications strategy, you need to define the issue being addressed. There are several elements that make up the situation of a ‘vehicle-related alcohol incident off-post’:

  • It must occur not on the military base
  • There must be a vehicle involved
  • The person(s) involved must be intoxicated (to a sufficient level that a negative behavioral change, such as loss of judgement, impairment of hand-eye coordination, aggression, inappropriate behavior, etc., occurred)
  • They must not have a safe ride back to their domicile (which, in these specific cases, would be on-base housing) OR
  • They must not be able to contact the free taxi options, possibly due to memory impairment

(There are other factors, but if you remove any of these, the definition either breaks or changes. Sometimes, you need to change the definition that applies, and that will address an issue. In this case, however, it’s better to address the behavior, or provide point-of-need options)

To combat this, I came up with the idea of a web-based game; a simplified walkthrough of a weekend, with in-game consequences for poor choices and resources that can help.

A solution

First, let’s take a look at the game. Here’s a playable demo. Disclaimers: Jargon, military-specific terminology, alcohol use.

HP:
Reasoning:
Perception:
Fun:
$

It uses a number of gamification mechanics, and it also presents resources. It’s designed to be able to use even when intoxicated; the buttons are designed to be thumb-sized, the text loads only a little faster than a reading rate, there is limited motion on screen, and it gives you real phone numbers. When it was live on the U.S. Army Alaska site, the phone numbers were also tap-to-call, reducing interaction cost and eliminating risks from memory gaps.

This is not your typical communications product.

Under the hood

This is an HTML/CSS/JS game, designed specifically to hold the entire JS data set in one HTML file. That’s a clunky way to design your app; it was required by the architecture of the Army’s CMS at the time. On the plus side, it passed code reviews all the way up the chain, which is an incredibly stringent process. There are four layers;

  • The HTML structure
  • CSS to dress it up
  • JS to perform actions when clicked
  • A JS text array that holds the story

The logic is simple, and it’s not very big. The largest assets are the pixel art graphics and the sound effects.

How well it worked

The first month saw about 10,000 unique users. Subsequently, it saw about 1,200 visitors per day, although the numbers varied; higher traffic on the weekends, lower traffic during the week. Personally, I received the Department of the Army Civilian Service Achievement Medal.

The real effect was the impact that it had on Army personnel in Alaska. It didn’t solve the problem of off-post vehicle incidents where alcohol was a causative factor, but it did increase calls to the free ride services that were available by 300-500 per month. That’s equivalent to 2-4.5% of the total soldier population every month; it doesn’t solve the problem, but it’s still a victory.