‘They didn’t make it home’ - designing for unfairness in right 2 roam

70% of women overall and 97% of women in the 18-24 bracket in the UK have experienced sexual harassment in public (UN Women UK, 2021). One in two women feel unsafe walking alone after dark in a quiet street near their home as well as in a busy public place, and four out of five women feel unsafe walking alone after dark in a park or other open space (ONS, 2022). It is these frightening statistics, alongside the seemingly daily senseless acts of violence against women walking home, that led us to create Right 2 Roam (R2R).

R2R is an original tabletop boardgame for 2-4 players that aims to draw attention to the injustice and inequality of personal safety in public space. It achieves this by mirroring these imbalances in power through its game system (Bogost, 2007).

This paper will discuss the design of the game system of R2R, focusing on the features that reflect the news stories and personal experiences we encountered in our research. This includes the design of the spaces on the board (which symbolise varying degrees of perceived safety in the real world), the inequity of access to different routes (such as shortcuts or buses), and how we designed the dice and cards to highlight the inequity of walking home.

We will conclude with a reflection on the game’s application in various contexts (16 Days of Activism, Dundee Women’s Festival), playtesting with diverse demographics and the emerging themes and future design directions following the uses of the game in workshop settings. This enables us to reflect on how our board game design can be used to prompt discussion and enable civic engagement, contributing to wider discussions around safety and access to public space.

References:
Bogost, Ian (2007), Persuasive games: The expressive power of videogames, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

ONS (2022) Perceptions of personal safety and experiences of harassment Great Britain: 16 February to 13 March 2022, based on the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN). Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/perceptionsofpersonalsafetyandexperiencesofharassmentgreatbritain/16februaryto13march2022. Last accessed: 22 March 2024.

UN Women UK (2021) Prevalence and reporting of sexual harassment in UK public spaces, published by: APPG for UN Women. Available at: https://www.unwomenuk.org/appg-unwomen/. Last accessed: 22 March 2024.