Designing a persuasive game for children's safety awareness
Alahäivälä, Tuomas (2017)
2017
Informaatiotutkimuksen ja interaktiivisen median tutkinto-ohjelma - Degree Programme in Information Studies and Interactive Media
Viestintätieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Communication Sciences
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2017-07-31
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201708112256
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201708112256
Tiivistelmä
Children encounter many dangers at home and in their surroundings during their daily lives. Safety education before the school age is important for the children to form safe behaviors already early in their live, but a persistent problem for reaching young populations has been the lack of engaging materials. Hence, there is a need for developing engaging, interactive materials, such as games, to help children adapt necessary safety behaviors effectively.
The purpose of this study is, through constructive research, to examine 1) how can a persuasive game be designed to increase children's safety awareness in their early childhood, and 2) which good practices and guidelines can be derived from the design process.
In collaboration with Tukes, the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency and Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, a mobile game was developed with the agenda of increasing children's safety awareness. Action Design Research (ADR) methodology is used to describe the design process, containing four phases: Problem Formulation, Building, Intervention and Evaluation, Reflection and Learning, and Formalization of Learning. As the theoretical background, the concept of procedural rhetoric and the prior research knowledge on children 's user-centered interaction design were adapted. The resulting game was evaluated through playtesting with the co-discovery method and a feedback survey.
During the project, a functioning persuasive game was designed through an iteratice process. The reflection and learning upon the design process also resulted in a process model for persuasive game design and set of guidelines to help guide children's persuasive game projects in the future.
The study was limited by the fact that the long-term effects of the game intervention on children's safety awareness were not monitored. Future research on the topic should address the measurement of long-term effects of persuasive games, as well as study their design and implementation in different contexts, environments, and user groups.
The purpose of this study is, through constructive research, to examine 1) how can a persuasive game be designed to increase children's safety awareness in their early childhood, and 2) which good practices and guidelines can be derived from the design process.
In collaboration with Tukes, the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency and Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, a mobile game was developed with the agenda of increasing children's safety awareness. Action Design Research (ADR) methodology is used to describe the design process, containing four phases: Problem Formulation, Building, Intervention and Evaluation, Reflection and Learning, and Formalization of Learning. As the theoretical background, the concept of procedural rhetoric and the prior research knowledge on children 's user-centered interaction design were adapted. The resulting game was evaluated through playtesting with the co-discovery method and a feedback survey.
During the project, a functioning persuasive game was designed through an iteratice process. The reflection and learning upon the design process also resulted in a process model for persuasive game design and set of guidelines to help guide children's persuasive game projects in the future.
The study was limited by the fact that the long-term effects of the game intervention on children's safety awareness were not monitored. Future research on the topic should address the measurement of long-term effects of persuasive games, as well as study their design and implementation in different contexts, environments, and user groups.