Reflections on the Well-Being by Design Fellowship
With the support of the Well-Being by Design Fellowship, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the Youth Design Team, and my fellow fellows, I’ve gained invaluable insights—not only about designing for children’s well-being, but also about honoring my own. I’ve learned to trust the voices of the children and teens who interact with our digital experiences. Their perspectives are not just helpful, they are essential. They know what resonates, what engages, and what helps them feel seen, accomplished, and empowered.
Throughout the fellowship, we explored powerful frameworks for designing media with children’s needs at the center. The RITEC framework stood out as a key tool for ensuring media supports young users' well-being. We also engaged deeply with the Playful by Design toolkit, an inspiring card-based resource for creating rights-respecting digital experiences, and the Youth Voice Playbook, which provided practical strategies for meaningful co-design with kids. These tools emphasized one crucial message: children's perspectives should guide every step of the design process.
Other impactful resources we explored included:
We also had the privilege of learning from outstanding speakers and past fellows, including Grace from Snowbright. Their work showed how youth input directly shaped innovative, child-centered media. Their stories were both enlightening and encouraging, and I’m excited to see how my own cohort of fellows continues this tradition of thoughtful, impactful design.
During my time in the fellowship, I focused on revising BioDive, our virtual and digital hybrid learning experience originally released in 2020. In BioDive, students take on the role of marine biologists researching venomous marine snails, investigating biotic and abiotic factors in their ecosystem, and identifying environmental issues.
Our goal in revisiting BioDive was to enhance student well-being, autonomy, and identity within the experience. We began by analyzing the original narrative page by page, then rewrote the storyline to better position students as scientists. We reordered activities to emphasize the importance of their role, the significance of marine snails, and their relationship with Dr. Mande Holford, a real-life marine chemical biologist and our in-game mentor. We also created new video content featuring Dr. Holford, who now welcomes students to the mission and congratulates them upon completion.
We then playtested this new version with middle schoolers and the Youth Design Team. Their feedback was incredibly specific and transformative. Small tweaks, like adding quick-travel options in the digital science journal, providing immediate feedback on multiple-choice questions, and improving controls for WebVR activities, resulted in a much smoother and more engaging user experience. These seemingly minor adjustments made a major impact.
Thanks to this fellowship, I’ve gained so much, more than can be fully captured in a single blog post. I’m deeply grateful to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the Youth Design Team, my peers in the fellowship, and our incredible guest speakers for making this such a rich and rewarding journey. It’s been a joy to collaborate with so many passionate individuals dedicated to uplifting young people through thoughtful design.
The revised version of BioDive is now live. I invite you to check it out, and if you’re interested in a guided tour or would like to learn more, feel free to reach out: noelle@killersnails.com