Menstrual Monster: A Tangible Interactive Co-educational Game Designed for Teenagers

Xiubo Liang, Jing Zhang, Jiayi Ma, Jiayu Yao, Weijia Lin, Zheliang Zhu, Yingying Ma, Fangtian Ying, Cheng Yao, Leijing Zhou, Preben Hansen, Yijun Zhao, Guanyun Wang

Abstract: Learning menstruation in early adolescence could reduce teenagers’ misunderstanding of it and help them treat menstruation in a proper way. This paper explored a tangible game for teenagers of different genders learning menstruation through collaborative playing. The game included five levels where users play together and learn the cause, products, symptoms of menstruation as well as try to judge some scenarios and listen to audios about menstruation. In our user study, we invited three groups of teenagers ages 11 to 16. Each group contained at least one male and one female, and we let them play the game freely. Teenagers were successfully able to play the game collaboratively, learn menstruation-related knowledge. The results revealed motivation differences related to gender, and after the game, teenagers demonstrated the observable change of the attitude towards menstruation.