With graduation quickly approaching, Stephanie Owens works late in the basement of Hayes Hall surrounded by scraps of paper and eraser-less pencils.
Owens, a fourth-year in industrial design, is working on her senior thesis — developing a video game that will help children eat better.
The idea originated more than a year ago, but this quarter, she finally had the chance to focus on it.
“The inspiration is this Pokemon pedometer I had when I was really little,” Owens said. “That was exciting to me, to take care of something. I would go around and walk with it.”
This isn’t the typical thesis project for students in industrial design, which generally focuses on durable goods.
“Stephanie’s project represents new opportunities that her major and the field of industrial design can address as we look to the future,” said Jim Arnold, her professor this quarter, in an e-mail.
Owens said she intends to design the product for a classroom setting.
“I didn’t want to develop something necessarily that would help children who were obese lose weight, but rather prevent that from happening in the first place,” Owens said.
The target group is kids ages 8 to 11.
“That’s what I had found was the best age to intervene to get these habits to really stick,” Owens said.
She has a framework for the five main components she wants the game to have.
First, kids will set up their character. The game will then keep track of how that character progresses, Owens said.
Children will carry a small device even when they are not playing the game to keep track of their activity. This will affect their character in the game.
She said there will be a nurse’s station to provide tips to people struggling with the game, which will have levels that each teach a different lesson.
Owens spoke to a school nurse, Adriana Castellanos, who shared a few important lessons for kids, including learning to read nutrition facts, knowing what a serving size looks like and planning a day’s meals according to what the body needs.
There will also be an area that allows kids to compete with their friends or classmates. Those who have taken better care of their character and have been more active will be more likely to win the competitions.
“That’s another way to keep them interested,” Owens said. “I don’t want them to get bored.”
There will also be a tutorial section to help people set up the game and get familiar with the goals and activities, she said.
Owens used surveys and focus groups to gather feedback from nutritionists, doctors, parents and children.
Owens will visit the Columbus Montessori Education Center twice to get feedback from the fourth and fifth grade classes there. The education center focuses on the teaching philosophies of Mario Montessori, an Italian physician, and accepts children starting at 6 months old up to the eighth grade.
“I’m kind of scared and excited about that because I don’t know what they’re going to say,” Owens said.
Owens had hoped to submit the project to the Apps for Healthy Kids competition, part of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” Campaign, but it won’t be completed in time. The competition awards those who create fun and engaging software and games that encourage children to make more nutritious food choices and be more physically active, according to the program’s website.
“I’m still keeping the healthy apps as part of the project because that was such a huge inspiration,” Owens said. “I think it also kind of validates that there’s a need for something like this.”
The campaign aims to lower childhood obesity in the U.S. from 20 percent in 2010 to 5 percent by 2030, according to The Washington Post.
Owens’ project will not be functional by its due date in three weeks, but that wasn’t a requirement for the thesis. She will have a video loop of what the game would look like and a model of the device.
“Basically … I’m missing the programming skills,” she said. “It’s going to look like someone programmed it, but you couldn’t actually go click on it and play it.”
Despite the lack of programming skills, Arnold said he is impressed with Owens’ creativity.
“Her interest in animation and character design are coming into play here, and I believe she will propose a truly useful, compelling, innovative design,” he said.
Owens has also remained positive despite the short timeline.
“Turning it into reality would be great, since that was my initial project goal,” she said. “I knew there was a good chance I would not find someone in so short a time, but it’s OK. Doing all the work myself means I do not have to rely on someone else for results.”
Owens, the oldest of her four siblings, said she has always had an interest in working with children.
“I guess the idea was doing a toy that gets kids active because I’m really interested in toy design,” she said. “I’ve always had a personal interest in animation and video games, too.”
Her many interests are making her post-graduation outlook murky.
“I would love to work in 3-D animation, also probably freelance illustration, like children’s books,” she said. “Long-term, I’m thinking about coming back to school for animation.”
The senior thesis projects will be on display at the OSU Urban Arts Space downtown from June 8 to 11. It will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Admission will be free.
