Crisis scenario
The COVID-19 pandemic has a big impact on our everyday life and social distancing is essential to stop the chain of infection. Our social life is very restricted, but especially children need social contacts for a healthy development.

Project
Octoball is a playful design approach regarding the social distancing in nursery schools, kindergardens, etc. Especially for children it’s hard to keep distance because they can’t understand its importance during the coronavirus pandemic. If you want the children to become familiar with these distancing rules, you need a playful solution. Playing is the most natural and effective way to learn new things. So I wanted to create a game in which the distance is helpful and makes it easier to play.
I got the idea of a game of skill where the children have to balance a ball together. Every player take a rope which is attached on a platform and the ball lies on it. When I tried the prototype, I noticed that the gaming device can be used as a catapult. It’s a lot more fun for kids when there’s more action while playing and the game can be played even after the crisis. So there are two teams with a maximum of four players each. When one team uses the gaming device to throw the ball, the other team uses its basket to catch it. You can easily switch between throwing and catching by turning the device. I called the game Octoball because of the eight ropes that make it look like an octopus.
With Octoball I want to strengthen social cohesion at nursery schools. For kids it’s important to play together and learn from each other even when there’s a crisis situation.