iTRACK Board Game took place in Hanken School of Economics

The number of attacks on humanitarian missions has grown in the last years, and the situation of responders in the field is especially dangerous in areas of armed conflict. iTRACK’s main goal is to increase the protection of civil humanitarian missions through tracking technology. iTRACK wants to provide better protection helping people to recognize and avoid threats, while at the same time building technologies to support logistics planning to ensure that aid can be delivered. As such iTRACK leverages monitoring and tracking technology to increase both protection and efficiency!

On the 11th of May, 2017, the iTRACK Board Game was played at Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland. The goal of the game was to elicit user requirements demonstrate how the impact of technology facilitates the work of people on the ground, including the demonstration of the iTRACK tools.

31 participants including project partners, various end user organizations (Finish Red Cross, UNHCR, World Food Program) as well as Hanken School of Economics students participated in the game. iTRACK partners played the role of observers and facilitators, the invited guests played the game as the humanitarian missions in the field.  At the end of the game an evaluation briefing took place. Valuable feedback was gathered from the participants and the observers for further technical development and project research. It will be incorporated in the next version of the game.

The experiment at the Hanken School of Economics showed that the players and teams who chose to use technology proposed by the iTRACK project were more likely to succeed in the game. The briefing and discussions that arose after the game helped a lot with breaking the typical tech scepticism and opening up minds.  

Immediately after the using the Board Game tool a few participants expressed their will to present the game and the scenarios to their colleagues. It was a good sign for iTRACK project, pointing out the success of the iTRACK tools and their relevance for the end-users. You can find more information about the Board Game scenario development and outcomes in dedicated project deliverable, which is available here

Board Game Photo Credit: Prof.dr.ir. Alexander Verbraeck, (TUD)