Weldo

We clustered our notes, built an empathy map, and narrowed to a smaller set of needs and emotions.

• Training is rushed

  It's mostly peer-led and informal.

• PPE is uncomfortable

  Heat, fogging and sweat lead to avoidance.

• Learning is painful early on

  Severe eye irritation, burning and difficulty sleeping.

• Injuries are normalised

  "You get used to it."

• Language is a barrier

  Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Urdu, Arabic and Bihari.

• Attitudes differ

  Senior welders felt protected by their years of experience and played down the risk. Others put speed and income first.

• Chronic vision damage

  Including cataracts.

• Permanent hearing loss

  Noise-induced, and it does not come back.

• COPD

  Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, from years of fumes.

• Chronic dermatitis

  With a higher risk of skin cancer.

Many ideas leaned on AR and VR or on graphic posters. We set those aside because they wouldn't change behaviour the way play could.

For the film we chose the family story over a single welder's story, because emotional messages tend to persuade more in cultures where decisions are tied to family.

1. 1

   Welders split into small teams and play together.

2. 2

   Everyone starts wearing four props: blurred glasses, ear muffs, a mask and a rash sleeve. Each simulates damage to vision, hearing, lungs or skin.

3. 3

   Teams roll a die and move along the board.

4. 4

   Landing on a PPE square lets the team take off the matching prop, so the benefit of the gear is felt straight away.

5. 5

   The first team to land exactly on square 25 finishes the game. Roll too high and you stay put until you roll the number you need.

6. 6

   A facilitator guides a discussion after the game.

Each icon matches one prop, one to one, so there is nothing to memorise. The helmet takes off the glasses, the headphones the ear muffs, the mask the mask, the gloves the rash sleeve.

• 

  Blurred glasses

  Vision damage

• 

  Ear muffs

  Hearing loss

• 

  Mask

  Lung problems

• 

  Rash sleeve

  Skin irritation

x2

x2 squares let 2 teammates take that prop off at once. We added them after our first tests, when players finished with too many props still on.

• Cooperative

  Decisions and outcomes are shared, which reinforces teamwork and collective safety.

• Immediate feedback

  Comfort or discomfort right away builds awareness and safer habits.

• Learning by doing

  People learn through active participation and their own experience, then reflection, then a change in behaviour.

• Fume black

  #000000

  Fumes and smoke

• Warning red

  #FF0000

  Danger and hazards

• Steel grey

  #D9D9D9

  The welding environment

• Safety green

  #08F7C6

  Safety

Black and red are pure values on purpose: they match the high-contrast safety signage welders already see on site, and they stay readable on a printed mat under workshop light.

We mapped the rules and player moves on a whiteboard, then tested a low-fidelity digital board in teams. Players still finished with too many props, so we added multiplier squares: two players remove props at once.

A certified LEGO Serious Play facilitator who also works in gamification advised us to ground the game in learning theory, choose a name and brand, and test with the target group. With tasks piling up, I suggested splitting the team into research, design and prototyping groups.

The props and the floor board are the physical interface, so we prototyped them in real materials and kept changing them until they behaved as intended. The mask took two tries. The physical board uses interlocking play mats, so it can be laid out in different sizes on site.

We wrote and shot a multilingual awareness film about a welder and his family, showing how one moment of neglect can affect life beyond the workshop. Music, colour, pacing and silence kept it grounded.

Best with sound on. This is the English version. The film was also dubbed in Telugu, Arabic, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi: the language groups most of the welders belong to, and Arabic because the project is based in the UAE.

1. Friction point

   Stickers started to peel

   Fix

   Use professionally printed matte or laminated stickers.

2. Friction point

   Accessibility: The glasses didn't work for welders who already wear prescription glasses

   Fix

   Use clip-on lenses that fit over their own glasses.

3. Friction point

   The mats didn't join properly because of inaccurate cuts

   Fix

   Use custom-cut foam or a single foldable board.

4. Friction point

   The game ended abruptly

   Fix

   Add a short closing round where teams reflect before the session ends.