Optimizing the flow in an educative escape room about the Cold War

This thesis will explore how to optimize the flow in an escape room. By designing an educative escape room about the Cold War for Dutch students from the 3 HAVO / VWO curriculum, the optimal design will be explored. First, state of the art research is conducted on flow theory, decision making and group dynamics. Despite flow being a widely researched field, group flow has been neglected. Especially the effect of pressure and stress that an escape room brings has not been researched. After extensive brainstorm sessions and the ideation of storyline and scenario, puzzle ideas were generated. Through puzzle design this thesis will research different aspects of flow and the effect on the user experience. Relevant aspects of flow are implemented in several escape room puzzles. Iterations of puzzles were made after user tests. Based on flow questionnaires and observations during the user tests, puzzles are evaluated. Finally, a conclusion is drawn on the optimal way to facilitate flow into educative puzzles. Characteristics that were greatly appreciated by participants are collaboration and interaction during puzzles, this has been shown to facilitate flow. Additionally, puzzles where the challenge-skill balance was optimized worked best according to participants.