Stefan Hansen ← All work

The Newsletter Puzzle Construction and development — internal communications 2026

The clock only runs while you're looking at it.

A monthly word-search puzzle shipped with the company newsletter, with a live leaderboard and a small prize. The clock counts time spent on the puzzle rather than time elapsed, so being busy cannot cost you the win.

Solving: words dragged out of the grid, ticked off the list, timer running.

Role

Concept · Product direction · Brand and visual design · Interface design · Build direction

Client

Nelson Construction & Development

The problem

A company newsletter is a broadcast: it goes out, most of it goes unread, and nothing in this month's edition gives anyone a reason to open the next one. Behind that sits a second problem: site teams, accounting and the development side have almost nothing to talk to each other about that is not a project.

This month's game: the prize, the word count, who won and how many people finished.
This month's game: the prize, the word count, who won and how many people finished.

A game is a reason to open the email

A word search, once a month, linked from the newsletter: twenty words in a twenty-by-twenty grid, hidden in all eight directions including backwards. The fastest solve wins a small prize. It costs almost nothing to run and gives people in different parts of the company something to talk about that is not a project.

The rule that makes it fair: the timer only runs while the puzzle is open.
The rule that makes it fair: the timer only runs while the puzzle is open.

The clock only runs while you are looking at it

If the timer started when you opened the link, whoever happened to be free when the newsletter arrived would win every month. So it counts attention rather than elapsed time. Switch to your work and it stops; come back on a different device and it picks up where you left it.

Being busy therefore costs nothing: a grid solved in short bursts between other work scores the same as one solved at a desk. The interface says so before you start.

The board: a 20×20 grid, the word list beside it, and a timer that counts only attention.
The board: a 20×20 grid, the word list beside it, and a timer that counts only attention.

The rest of it

  • Nobody loses a half-finished grid. Progress saves continuously, so a partly-solved grid is picked up where it was left on whatever device is to hand.
  • The leaderboard is company-wide. It shows who has finished and ranks by total solving time.
  • A new month is a row, not a release. Each month's game is a single record with the puzzle inside it — title, prize, release date, grid — so a new one takes minutes and needs nobody technical.

What changed

  • The newsletter has a reason to be opened. Something in it belongs to the reader rather than to the company, on a reliable monthly cadence.
  • Being busy stopped being a disqualification. The competition is open to people whose day is not their own.
  • Nothing is lost between sittings. Progress follows you across devices.
  • The next edition costs minutes. A month is a record, not a release.
  • People in different parts of the company have something to say to each other.

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