Severn Trent – Chemical Delivery

Severn Trent approached us to create an engaging and collaborative learning experience around the topic of chemical deliveries.

As a result, we developed a serious game multiplayer application with one player in a Meta Quest and others using Apple iPads.

Together, the team of players work to investigate a chemical delivery, to find what went wrong and to explore and learn about health, safety and the processes involved.

Of those who participated in the experience:

• 75% strongly agreed that they were more likely to use the Chemical Delivery checklist as a result of this experience.
• Gave an average score of 9.4 out of 10 to the question “I’m more likely to be careful with a Chemical Delivery as a result of this experience.
• 100% were able to describe the importance of following the Chemical Delivery checklist.

The challenge

Chemical deliveries are an everyday occurrence at Severn Trent Water (STW), but the effects of getting them wrong can be devastating. If chemicals aren’t processed in the right way the safety or employees, customers and the local environment are at risk.

Severn Trent had put together an eLearning module and checklist to highlight how critical this process is. But mistakes still happened, with steps being missed out and old versions of the checklist in use by some sites.

To see real change, Severn Trent knew it had to go further to impress the importance of getting chemical deliveries right upon its teams.

The solution

We worked with Severn Trent to create a multiplayer serious game that aimed to make the potential consequences feel real for the learners.

Team members take turns in a VR headset to explore a Severn Trent site where a chemical delivery has gone wrong. The rest of the team are using a tablet, following an app version of the Chemical Delivery Checklist. Using this, the team directs the VR player on what they should investigate to find out what went wrong. As the VR player explores, they feed back what they find to the tablet team. As the game progresses, each member will get to try out the VR experience.

We blended interactive CGI elements with segments of CCTV footage of the delivery going wrong, which is unlocked as the game progresses. Using the CCTV footage heightens the sense of realism in the scenario and drives home the impact of getting the chemical delivery process wrong.

The impact

Of those who’ve completed the experience…

• 75% strongly agreed that they were more likely to use the Chemical Delivery checklist as a result of this experience.
• Gave an average score of 9.4 out of 10 to the question “I’m more likely to be careful with a Chemical Delivery as a result of this experience.
• 100% were able to describe the importance of following the Chemical Delivery checklist.

Watch a short clip of the experience below.