New Normal @ Actee
By Ida Bjørnsbo & Leif Sørensen
Sometimes we need to comply with the voices of the world….
What's New?
Actee has always been a great tool with a lot of focus and depth in data, facilitation styles and a complete overview, in the end, no doubt about it!
But, let me ask you this, if I woke you up in the middle of the night and demanded to know one of the names of the Actee game platform, you’d probably be blank right? Heck, if I asked you between 9 – 17 on a weekday I’d still be impressed!
Now you have been thinking about the names for a while, really twisting your brain to find at least one! And then you say something like “oooooh wait I know! It’s the circle game!” (indeed, it is) or you would mention the game with the two companies coming together (the ITC game) or the game about the dreams and details approach to organisation development.
All of the answers above are understandable and correct and are a sufficient way of mentioning a game so we understand what you mean. But since we are aiming to change the world through game-based learning, we need our names to be clearer and more intuitive for communicating our mission to the world.
Kill Your Darlings!
This means that we will be jumping on the ‘kill your darlings’ train that we all are slowly boarding. The pandemic has really thought us that we need to be much more cut-throat in our decision-making processes. If our “darling” is obstructing the overall purpose, then it has to go.
We have been killing a lot of darlings lately….
One of the more evident ones, being a shift in the gameboard names so that they manage to explain and understand the game board. Previously we have been connecting tools and names by models and theories etc. Now there is no connection between any specific gameboard or tool with any theory or model, lifting the veil and allowing you to let your creativity run away with you without being obstructed by having to utilize a certain board or theory.
An Example
You design a short game on the barometer gameboard targeting the teamwork culture of your organisation. In this game, you like to use the theory of teamwork called “The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team” by Lencioni. As a reinforcement activity, you’d like to create a quiz as a short pre-activity for participants at the Monday morning meeting in the development team using the same theory. This will provide you with some tangible data on the model, which can be used in supporting the development team as they move along the phases of teamwork development.
When you build the quiz, you simply choose the same theory you added into your game and mark your options with the respected area of the theory. Now you have two great games on two different platforms using the same theory.
New Name Changes
Going back to changing names – the gameboards are no longer determined by theory, they are used according to the purpose of your learning session or activity.
We hope you find the names more intuitive, playful, and easy to remember.
Moreover, we have coded the games with a colour allowing you to segment games faster by knowing the colour and board. You will even be able to segment games by the board, the time it takes to play, theme, description, theory, usage and more.
Therefore, the new names of our tools and games are as follows:
We chose to make the new names represent the tool itself to increase usability – even for completely new users. This means that when you design a game, the name of the game itself will indicate the layout of the platform. These changes will foster more creativity and innovation, as there no longer is the barriers of the game or tools’ implied usage.
New Homepage Layout
The new Actee homepage has had a colour update! As we know, applying bold colours has benefits within learning, so to truly reflect our mission of making learning easier and more fun, our website is now full of all the colours of the rainbow.
The colours however also represent a key to understanding and navigating on the new homepage. Each of the different game types/ tools has been appointed a certain colour, meaning that the website will be more intuitive and faster to work in.
The colours are as follows:
Barometer – Red
Cycle – Purple
Bubbles – Turquoise
Cards – Blue
Quiz – Pink
The Website Tool Box
We at Actee believe that the Toolbox is one of the most important parts of our website – This I how you demonstrate what Actee is to your clients or even to yourself….
Therefore, we also wanted to give it a thorough polish!
Where the old website toolbox was difficult to navigate in if you had no prior knowledge of Actee, this new toolbox is split into tiles creating a detailed and intuitive overview of the Actee tools. This way you can click into the tile you need and find all features, tips and tricks on one page.
To further increase usability – especially for newcomers – all the tool tiles are pictures of the gameboard or platform. This ensures that while you get used to the name changes, you can still (with ease) navigate our website from the pictures, while you let the names sink in…
NO MORE FRUSTRATIONS ON SEEKING INFO – NOW YOUR TIME IS SPENT RIGHT!
So, What Is Still The Same?
Well, basically most other things… A few of the buttons have been altered and the places of them, but the information is still there, now it’s just easier to find it!
Certifications are still the same fun, enriching and engaging events as they always have been. Read about the certifications and sign up for er certification here – or maybe you are interested in our new concept of re-certifications?
The login procedure is the same simple set-up as before.
Testing a game is now done directly on the page, so if you would like to demo a game, you should get your clients to go to a game page.
The main Actee language will continually be English, but on top of that, our whole new homepage has also been translated to German! And if that wasn’t enough, all the test games are also in German now!
We hope you find this article useful when you are getting situated and navigating our new website. Hopefully, you will find it fully intuitive, well-functioning and inspiring. But just remember that if you in any possible way get stuck, lost or confused, our supporters are never more than one phone call, email or chat message away!
See The New Website
We LOVE to interact with you, which is why we have a yearly partner day of fun, sparring and workshops where we all get to know the products, uses and needs better.
Our Partners
Each year we host the world leadership e-games championship where the whole world competes in leadership e-games. First on a national level and then the national winners challenge each other in the international finale.
Play The 2021 Championship
We are eager to engage our Actee'vists and often create fun and challenging events and campaigns on the Actee tools. As for the contests, as long as you are within the chosen tool, your imagination is the limit. So keep an eye on SoMe for upcoming events and challenges.
Stay Current
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