Board game helps young people manage work-life balance

Lucy Jones, as part of her work experience with LifeLab, has written this blog about a new board game for young people.    

Lucy interviewed Cara Black, a PhD student at the University of Southampton, to find out how and why she developed the game ‘Lemonade... when life gives you lemons’.

The game, based on reality, shares key life lessons in a fun way. It encourages young people to consider balance in their life, promoting healthy living and attitudes towards their future.

Cara worked with Craig Hutton, Mary Barker, Vanissa Wanick, Adam Watts and Kathryn Woods-Townsend to make the game. This project was funded by the University of Southampton along with the NIHR ARC Wessex.

Enjoyable education

Cara says the heart of the game is enjoyable education. She says it teaches young people core messages around work-life balance and collaboration, in an exciting and captivating way. It also makes space for conversations about this.

Young people play as partners, which creates different playstyles. It shows them how leaning on those around you can help you achieve your goals.

Wellness and Money tokens act as the currency in the game, helping players move past obstacles. Increasingly difficult Obstacle cards help teach resilience. These show that while hardships in life are unavoidable, they are not impossible to overcome.

Players also can choose a Risk or an Opportunity card. This illustrates the split between adventure and comfort that they may experience in real life.

Overall, Lemonade encompasses hard life lessons, light-heartedly. It leaves room for young people to start to think about and apply these lessons to their own lives.

“The idea of the board game is to mimic reality as much as possible,” explains Cara, “to give young people a less intimidating way to think about their future.”

Creating the design

Cara says that when people are well supported in aspirations, they are more likely to achieve them. The game therefore seeks to empower young people to consider their future aspirations.

The developers took inspiration from a scenario forecasting tool called Plausible Futures. This was designed by Craig Hutton at the University of Southampton, and adapted by the LifeLab team to support young people work out their priorities and aspirations for the future.

The choices they face in the game are between working and earning money to overcome life’s challenges and looking after their health and wellbeing.

The team worked with graphic designer Kristina Tsenova and game developers to create Lemonade. Cara says Kristina was very helpful during this process, creating some incredible designs for Lemonade.

Tested by school students

The team have tested multiple versions of the game in schools around the UK. Taking on students’ feedback, they have now improved the dynamics and design.

Cara found the response was very positive, as the young people enjoyed the game and engaged with it.

They also understood the core messages quicker than she expected. She says this included that “their aspirations and goals are important, and that it is good to balance what you already have.”

She also hopes that the collaboration element of the game will stand out to young people, due to its uniqueness and importance in everyday life.

This testing demonstrated the effectiveness of Lemonade in encouraging young people to consider the necessity of balance throughout life and the importance of their aspirations.

Playing the game at your school

Cara says the team would now like to reach as many schools as possible. They aim to share it with at least 40 schools, to promote aspiration among young people.

 The game is designed to be played during PSHE lessons. It facilitates conversations and engagement about the future motivations young people may have.

Please email lifelab@soton.ac.uk if you are a teacher at a school in the Southampton area interested in borrowing the Lemonade board game to play with your students.