Dubit designs, builds and researches apps for children's emotional wellbeing and health. For Embers the Dragon, an app supporting children's emotional wellbeing and school readiness, Dubit's role covered app design and development, and co-design and research. In the Embers the Dragon programme, 75% of families scored above clinical thresholds for concern around parental anxiety and child resilience before using it, and 2% after.
Embers the Dragon is an interactive world of stories, mini-games and parent tools. It teaches skills such as problem-solving, perseverance and creativity, and gives parents personalised behavioural plans. Dubit created it through design summits and prototyping sessions with children, caregivers and parents. That work draws on two of Dubit's teams: Research runs co-design and impact studies, and Apps builds web and mobile apps.
Dubit has also made virtual reality (VR) content for hospitals. Dubit Health's VR content was used on wards and in children's hospitals to alleviate boredom and address behavioural difficulties. One game, Hush, was built to be relaxing and calming: keeping motionless and focusing on a plant attracted butterflies. It was used to keep the patient still and for rehabilitation.
Who has built digital tools with the NHS for children?
Dubit built a mixed-reality play kit for the NHS to help children prepare for an MRI scan without a general anaesthetic. The kit was featured on an episode of the children's TV show "Operation Ouch". Dubit designed it with the NHS and academics from Sheffield University and Glasgow School of Art.
Dubit also created Bestlife for the NHS, as part of the Born in Bradford programme. The app motivates children and families to be more active through quests, daily goals and real world rewards.
How do you prepare a child for an MRI scan without anaesthetic?
Dubit's answer, in the MRI play kit it built for the NHS, was to let the child rehearse the scan through play before the appointment. The kit used three types of play. In physical play, children assembled MRI scanners from cardboard, decorated them and scanned toys. AR play taught them about the job of a radiographer, and VR play explored the journey of having an MRI scan from hospital entry to completion.
The family built the cardboard MRI together and put the child's teddy inside for a "scan". That co-play encouraged conversation about the appointment and familiarity with the machine. Parents slotted a phone running the MRI App into the cardboard MRI, and the child placed the teddy on the belt. Clicking "MRI.me" recreated the flashing lights and noises of a real MRI. The app then showed a scan of the teddy, unharmed.
A cardboard VR viewer came with two modes. "Play Stay Still" games used the phone's accelerometer to reward the child for keeping still, so they could practise for the real scan. "MRI Journey" let the child and parent walk through the hospital experience from start to finish, meeting the people and seeing the steps involved. The family could re-run it at any time.
The aim was to reduce trauma for families and potentially save the NHS money, through fewer dropouts and less use of anaesthetic to calm patients. Dubit ran in-school workshops to understand children's attitudes to having an MRI, and researched with children during development, including unboxing and using the kit. It also researched children scheduled for an MRI before and after their scan, to determine whether the kit helped them.
Has an app measurably increased children's physical activity?
Dubit reports that children using Bestlife increased their physical activity by an average of 70 minutes per week. Dubit built the free app for the NHS, for the Born in Bradford: Age of Wonder research project, to motivate children and families to be more active through quests, daily goals and real-world rewards.
Bestlife was built to incentivise and encourage 11 to 17 year olds to exercise. Dubit applied Fogg's behavioural model to its process and discussion guides. It visited students in schools to learn about their health and wellbeing thoughts, preferences and the opportunities to incentivise them through digital. Co-creation sessions with Dubit's game designers and researchers then produced paper prototypes of the app, which Dubit's studio developed. Dubit's role covered app design and development, co-design and research in school focus groups, and behaviour change science, partnering with clinicians to embed evidence-based psychological models.
Does a children's wellbeing app actually change clinical outcomes?
In the Embers the Dragon programme, 75% of families scored above clinical thresholds for concern around parental anxiety and child resilience before using it. After using it, 2% did.
Clinical trials of Embers the Dragon report a different measure: increased parental confidence and reduced emotional challenges among children after 24 weeks.
