visit the project: www.openthelist.com

Graduation project 2013

I am looking for partners for this project. Do you want to get involved in any way? Please contact me. I’m specifically looking for people with knowlegde in:

• Programming: PHP, MySQL, Javascript, app development.
• Social media (Facebook) integration.
• Bussiness opportunities, development deals, promotion

Taken from the website:

The List is a platform where you can gather small challenges on a List that bring you closer to a bigger goal. Do the challenges in real life and improve yourself. But you’re not alone! Everyone can join your List and add new challenges to it, just as you can join other Lists and surprise people with new challenges.

Every time you get a new challenge, it’s a bit more difficult than the previous one. Just like in a game. Because we know how difficult each challenge actually is.

Mission

I want to turn life into one big multiplayer game. I want to make daily life more playful and play more meaningful. I want to help people grow personally and socially, in a playful way.

Principles of The List

Anyone can create a List of challenges on any topic. When someone joins a List, they see only four challenges at a time so they focus only on achievable things. When you did a challenge in real life you click the “I did this!” button and a next challenge becomes available.

When you join an exsisting List, we present you with two challenges of that List and ask you if that would be hard or easy for you to do. That way we can determine your starting skill level and start you off with challenges that are both realistic and not to boring for you.

For every four finished challenges you get a Joker. You can use those to skip challenges.

You can leave a comment about your experience when you finished a challenge. Social interaction is the first thing that will be expanded in the future.

You can view all the challenges you accomplished and redo them if you want. Practice makes perfect.

The site is aimed at smartphone use for easy accessability during your daily life. An actual app is very high on the wishlist.

You can add challenges to any List that you or someone else made. That way there is always room for development: when you reach the end of a List, you can simply add new challenges that other people can do too.

Development of the project

This project started out as a game for singles to find true love. By giving them challenges to do in their own daily life I wanted to encourage them to break social barriers and become more assertive. I spoke with a psychologist and read a lot about social development, self improvement, flirting and social anxiety. One way therapists help people overcome their fears is by exposure therapy: actually doing what you are afraid of. One small step at a time.

Challenges

There are quite a few challenges I took on with this project and I haven’t tackled them all. That’s why this project isn’t finished yet.

1. I do not control the situation the game is played in.
   Nor do I want to. The game has to be flexible enough so anyone can play the game in their daily life. This is achieved by making the platform crowdsourced. So anyone can create a List ideal for their situation. Players are encouraged to create challenges that apply to other people as well. The player can also skip challenges that do not apply to their situation.
2. Every players skill level is very different.
   This is solved by the test that defines the players starting level when they join a List.
3. I am not present during the playing or even testing.
   In the backend I gather as much data as I can about the players. During testing I work with quality interviews and questionnaires before and afterwards.