The Olympic Escape Room is an online game designed in partnership with the Center of Informed Public. It serves as an additional game for the Loki’s Loop Project to teach high school students about misinformation in an engaging and fun format. Like a physical escape room, there is a game host, you can play individually or with a group, and there is a limited amount of time to solve the puzzles. Throughout the gaming experience, students learn different tactics to identify misinformation and become critical information consumers.
6 Months (Jan - Jun 2022)
UX Designer
Justin Bao
Katherine Wardhana
Molly Wu
As we move into an era of increased digital information, we need more skills to identify misinformation. We chose to make our Escape room about the Olympics because the Olympics is an engaging topic that, unfortunately, allows lots of misinformation . Because the Olympics is an appealing topic, the Olympic Committee lacks transparency, and Olympic viewers have difficulty identifying fake news.
Our team conducted market research to better understand our target users and how they can currently interact with disinformation and misinformation. This research helped us better understand our users' behavior and the economic trends, which allowed us to align our business goals with potential user needs.
“TwitterTrails” is a web-based tool that uses an algorithm to analyze the spread of a story and how users react to the story. The algorithm measures how widely the story spreads and how skeptical users are about its validity.
“Who Targets Me?” enables users to create an anonymous profile, collect information about the political and other ads they see and explain why those ads targeted them. The website provides users with statistics on who/what has been targeting them and uses this information to build a political advertising and targeting database.
"ClaimBuster” is a content-focused live fact-checking tool that uses machine learning and AI to identify false and factual information. In addition, the website evaluates information and the authenticity of images.
We wanted to gain valuable insights into our potential user behaviors, preferences, and potential misinformation areas. This information guided our communication strategies, content development, and initiatives aimed at combating misinformation in the context of the Olympics.
Survey results show that most people watch the Olympics and have a general idea of the games. When it comes to identifying the legitimacy of an information a user hears or reads about, cross-checking with different sources is the most popular way to validate the information.
Where do you usually get your news surrounding the Olympics?
How often do you usually check the legitimacy of the Olympics information/news you heard?
If you successfully spot a misinformation, what action(s) do you take afterwards?
We conducted 6 user interviews with either college or high school students. Their overall pain points when identifying misinformation during the Olympics mention that cross-checking articles or videos is time-consuming and, therefore, hard to determine the legitimacy of some sources.
Where do you get your information/news from? Do you have a favorite source? Why is it your favorite source?
In general, when you get a new piece of information, how do you identify if the information is legitimate or not? Walk me through your process
Are you following any news surrounding the Olympics closely? If the answer is yes, where do you get most of your Olympic news from? What topics surrounding the Olympics are you following?
The user personas include a short ‘About’ paragraph about them, goals they have for misinformation, frustrations, their tech literacy, sports knowledge, and favorite news sources.
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We collaborated on an affinity diagram to identify relationships between misinformation and how users consume it. These diagrams enabled the organization of facts, opinions, and issues into taxonomies, to allow us to identify common and recurring issues.
It’s the year 2050 and the country La’Ann is hosting the Winter Olympics! The nation of La'Ann has been waiting for this moment for years and is excited for their star athlete, Molina Bardhana, to take gold in the Women’s Ski Cross event.
During qualifications, Justine Kristoff of Russio placed first with Molina seconds behind into second. Everyone was rooting for Justine as she was the first place contender for the Ski Cross event; however, in the finals, Justine fell! She apparently fell because she had food poisoning... Although, her fall meant that Molina was able to place first and take home the gold!
While Molina is happy about her win, she has been receiving some heat from the media that she food poisoned Justine before the finals. Word got around and even the La’Ann committee are disappointed to hear that Molina cheated. Molina and her coach know that this isn’t true and are trying to clear her name. In 45 minutes, the La’Ann committee will have a meeting to discuss whether to take away Molina’s gold medal. Molina needs to uncover the truth fast and spread the word!
Match the statements with the correct headlines.
This puzzle recreates a common information environment with contradictory headlines. While the headlines are a mix of positive and negative statements about Molina Bardhana, typically the more negative ones stick.
Basic information literacy, confusion, confirmation bias.
Identify the fake images of people who are writing the articles/media in social media (Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook).
This puzzle is usually the most challenging. It demonstrates how sophisticated the technology has become in creating realistic photos.
Vulnerability, third-person effect
Identify the fake audios from people claiming to be in the 2050 La’Ann Olympics governing organization. She has to listen to each voicemail and determine whether the voicemails are real or fake by listening to the words/phrasing being used, the manner in which the voices speak, the requests the callers make, and other factors that can help identify fake voicemails.
This puzzle is usually the most challenging. It demonstrates how sophisticated the technology has become in creating realistic photos.
Vulnerability, third-person effect
It's the year 2050 and the country La’Ann is finally the host of the 2050 Winter Olympics! They have been waiting for this moment for years and are excited for their top athlete, Molina Bardhana, to take gold in the Women’s Ski Cross event. Molina was able to place first and take home the gold! However, there was great controversy about her win, and we are about to uncover the truth about this Olympic...
Password: Gold
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