Desiged a Digital Experience that Builds Understanding Through Play

Design an engaging, accessible interactive digital tool that turns abstract policy data into a lived experience, helping people grasp how Universal Credit is falling short, and motivating them to act (sharing, petition signing, etc.).

Client

Trussell

Role

Lead UX Designer

Year

2024

Timeline

3 month

Since early 2023, the Guarantee Our Essentials campaign has been working to highlight how Universal Credit’s low rates are pushing people toward food insecurity and to accessing food banks.

Trussel needed an engaging, digital tool to show people the scale of the problem in their everyday lives, not just in statistics.

Outcome

The game invites users to try to build a weekly shopping basket under the Universal Credit rate (£91/week for a single adult). Users need to make choices to decide what they can, and cannot afford. By making trade-offs, users are faced with the pressure many endure daily. At the end, they receive a personalised receipt showing what essentials were sacrificed, and are encouraged to share it on social media, and asked to support the campaign by signing the petition.

Challenge

Creating a lightbulb moment

Previous research showed that when people learn how low the basic rate of Universal Credit is, it often creates a ‘lightbulb moment’ that increases support for the campaign. In earlier activations, the charity developed an exercise where participants totalled their essential costs and were then shown that the Universal Credit rate was only £85 per week. This activity proved effective at bringing the issue to life, and the challenge was to translate that impact into a digital experience.

The charity has primarily used deeper engagement actions such as petitions and ‘Write to Your MP’ asks to drive the campaign’s impact. However, to grow support, the team recognised the need for an digital variant with lighter-touch actions that introduce the issue and engage new audiences.

Ideation

Led a cross-functional team to align on the core idea

Started with a co-creation session to align on the format and mechanics best suited for the campaign’s goals.

We evaluated different approaches competitors used for their engagement games and brainstormed campaign ideas. This led us to choosing the ‘shopping basket’ mechanic, a concept where users have to decide which essentials they are buying for the week from their Universal Credit allowance.

Workshop to define the core idea

Ideation

Defined the game mechanics

I created storyboards that mapped out the users’ experience from start to finish. This helped the team align on the narrative, emotional beats, and how the interaction would lead into a campaign action.

Storyboard

Design

Fine tuning the details

Built basic screen sketches to test the number of screens, layout of essential versus non-essential items, the logic of checkout under Universal Credit rate, and how the constraint would be revealed to the user. Also, adjusted for the change in Universal Credit rate mid-project from £85 to £91 and made sure mechanics stayed coherent.

Workshop to define the details

design

Created polished UI

The final game flow:

Introduction screen: sets context for the game.
Activity screen: users add essentials to their basket but must stay under £91.
Checkout screen: generates a personalised ‘receipt’ highlighting unaffordable items, with sharing options and a clear petition call-to-action.