Child-Centered Design of Mobile Educational Games for Arab Preschoolers

L A I L A H U S S E I N S H O U K R Y

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Child-Centered Design of Mobile Educational Games for Arab Preschoolers

Child Computer Interaction

Mobile Touch Technology

What are the design requirements and evaluation strategies for a mobile educational game for preschoolers - with application on teaching them the Arabic Alphabet - for it to fit the needs and abilities of, be usable by and of benefit to Arab (Egyptian) preschoolers?

Primary Research Question

Developing Our Project

Thesis Overview

Interviews

Survey

Evaluation Study

Evaluating Our Project

Pre-MEGa Framework

Interaction Design 4 Preschoolers

Design Requirements & Evaluation Strategies 4 Arabic Mobile Educational Game 4

Egyptian Preschoolers IMM Project Steps & Challenges 4 Presch.

Preschoolers IMM Use: Here vs. Abroad

Arabic vs. English Early Literacy Software

Arabic Alphabet Learning

Evaluation Strategies

Preschoolers’ IMM Use Abroad

Interviews

Interviews

Interviews

Interviews

Some Results: Preschoolers (age 3-5):

prefer IM to traditional toys

68% use IM >1 h a day

35% own their own device

Most used : websites & mobile apps

Favorite device: tablet devices

Favorite activity: games

Easiest use: touch screens

Survey: Arab Preschoolers & Interactive Media

Survey Interviews

Some Results: Preschoolers (age 3-5):

Order of features which attracts them:

Cartoon characters

Audio and Songs

Colors and Design

Containing more activities

Simplicity and Ease of Use


Survey Interviews

Some Results: Parents:

87% let their preschoolers use their devices

64% prefer content in English over Arabic

78% download pirated software


Survey Interviews

How Egyptian Parents rate English Software teaching Alphabet

How they rate Arabic Software teaching Alphabet

Survey Interviews


Some Results: Early Literacy:

64% prefer content in English over Arabic

50% don’t learn Arabic Alphabet at nursery

65% can’t sing the whole Arabic Alphabet song

25% can’t associate any Arabic letter with its sound


Survey Interviews

Limitation: Represents only a certain social class


Survey Interviews

Study: Qulity of Available Early Literacy Software

Survey Interviews Evaluation Study

Study: Qulity of Available Early Literacy Software


Study: Quality of Available Early Literacy Software


Status of most Arabic software even worse than that of their English

counterparts back in 1993

Study: Quality of Available Early Literacy Software


Solutions:

Creation of Higher Quality Authentic Content More research

Fund

Public-private partnerships

Addressing piracy

Localization of Foreign Content Involving local educators and experts

Narrations by native speakers

Adapting multimedia elements

Testing in local context

Problem: Threat to Cultural Identity

Designing Mobile Educational Games for Preschoolers

Fun

Usability

Learning

Mobility

Preschoolers’ age

Design Requirements/

Heuristics

Premega

SEEM

Premega

The HECE Framework of Usability Heuristics for Child E-Learning Applications

The Enali Framework for Pedagogical Agents

J.P.Hourcade’s chapter on Interaction design and children

“Playability Heuristics for Mobile Games “

“Heuristic evaluation for games: usability principles for video game design. “

“Designing and testing mobile interfaces for children. “

“Design Principles of Educational Virtual Worlds for Preschool Children”

“A comparison of the mouse and touch screen for children's use of computers. “

“The role of usability research in designing children's computer products”

“Conducting game user experience research with preschoolers.”

“Games, motivation, and learning: A research and practice model.”

“Gender differences in children's creative game play.”

childrennow.org: The effects of interactive media on preschoolers' learning.

Smashingmagazine.com: A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

Premega

Screen Design

Navigation & Control

Ease of Use

Responsiveness

Game Design

Learning Potential

Instructions

Feedback

Difficulty Level

Content Delivery & Presentation

Pedagogical Agent

Customization

Security

Accessibility

Value

Proposed Framework: Pre-MEGa

• Guidelines/Heuristics for design and evaluation of Preschoolers’ Mobile Educational Games

•15 categories with sub-categories:

Premega

Proposed Framework: Pre-MEGa

Premega

Hamza Arabic Alphabet Game

Main objectives: •Preschoolers will actually play with it! •Preschoolers will prefer it over available English games. •Preschoolers will love the Arabic Alphabet. •Not complete, but a minimal working example. Main constraints: Time and cost. Story of the game: •Hamza has lost his beloved letters and wants to collect them. •The player should help Hamza pick all his letters again. •This is done using several games and then they play together with the letters. •All this repetition is meant to teach them the Alphabet in an indirect way. Developing Our

Project


Actual Project Timeline



Storyboard


Game Design

Combine simple exploratory non-goal-oriented games with more sophisticated goal-oriented games

Support different playing styles

Include collaboration options

Game Type and Scope

Supports game play and is encouraging.

Offers a social experience

Fosters imagination

Provides positive role models and messages

Game Story


Game Design

Clear, fun goal which quick sub-goals

Clear, fun and physically age-appropriate actions to reach the goals

Balancing challenge, strategy and pace

No repetitive or boring tasks

Reminder of progress

Convenient, flexible, game controls

No loss of any hard-owned possessions

Challenge Elements


Activities resembling adults' which look "difficult“

Include suspense and "danger" without leading to fear or frustration

Difficulty Level

Pedagogical Agent

Context-appropriate visual representation

Attractive

Free of gender or ethnic bias

Establishes credibility and trustworthiness

Establishes a role and relationship to child and the game

Polite and positive

Characteristics

Using a song with simple Egyptian Arabic Language

Clearly owned by agent

Complete and specific

Describes feelings by figure of speech

Message


Screen Design

Clear picture menus without text

Consistent design

Layout efficient and visually pleasing

Similar learning objects are organized in a similar style


Visually meaningful

Large, easy to select

No phantom icons

Icons

Menus

Mobile & Touch Screen Specifics

Cautious Response with tilt functionality

No buttons near screen edges

Simplified screens, adaptable to different sizes

Using device interface and game interface for their own purposes

Consistent control keys following standard conventions

Interruptions are handled reasonably


Learning

Dividing letters into ranges

Using verbal rehearsal to foster memorization

Varying activities during learning sessions to avoid boredom

Introducing concepts through many entry points

Including Self-Assessments


Content Delivery & Presentation

Theme meaningful to children, Egyptian scenery

Embedded in fantasy contexts

Based on real-life experience

Personifying the letters

High quality graphics, audio and visual effects

Using music and songs

Multimedia elements assist and are consistent with the learning process

No graphics detracting from educational intention

Using "Surprises" and employing random generation techniques

Giving kids unusual powers


Navigation & Control

Simple one layer menus with direct access

Consistent, logical and minimalist controls

Help Kids know where they are

Remember things already discussed

Choices to select strategies (even if instructionally irrelevant)

Control over rate and order of display

Clear exits from all sub-games

Main menu accessible everywhere

No irreversible errors


Short, interruptible routines and animations

Let kids accidentally• succeed in the first 30 seconds

Quick, clear response to touch and no stagnation

Responsiveness

Instructions & Feedback

Age-appropriate, easy to understand and remember

Supportive rather than distracting

Using clear-speech

Integrated in the context of the problem

Instructions

Feedback Frequent, variable, age-appropriate,

context-related

Employs meaningful graphics and/or sound

Descriptive, non-evaluative

Positive:

Motivational

Attractive, fun, humorful

Negative:

Let children know if they made a mistake

Offer helpful hints to correct actions


Customization

Experience adaptable to gender

Customized, individualized instructions and feedback (Arabic language addressing different genders)

Offers choice of scope, themes and playing styles.

Ease of Use

Require age-appropriate skills only

Bigger areas for selecting, dragging and tracing

Enable independent use after first use

Consistent responses to user actions


Ensures privacy of personal information

Free from ethnic bias, violence, scariness, inappropriate language or behavior

Free from inappropriate ads, ads which detract from content, or that lead to accidental purchases

Accessibility

Security

Can be used on a variety of devices, also a windows version is available

Working on versions with different languages

Value It’s FREE!


Creating a 3D effect in the racing game using 2D

Making the car game more efficient in terms of memory consumption

Keeping choices of gender and alphabet range throughout transitions

Enhancing navigation experience

Graphics Scalability

Handling interruptions of mobile devices like calls and defining actions for control buttons

Adjusting volume ratios so that music and sound effects don't interfere with the learning experience or distract from the learning content.

Design Challenges


Hamza on Google Play


Field Study

At a nursery

Participants: 12 preschoolers, several sessions each



User Reviews



More than 100 responses!

Online Evaluation Form



Some Results



Best Ratings for Idea, Design, Usability and Fun!

Some Results



Game Updates: Navigation

Other Game Updates

Adding a letters test game

More repetition of the letters sounds in racing

Enlarging buttons which were difficult to hit

Increasing the area for dragging and for dropping the alphabets into the bag

Reducing the speed of the racing game and the tilt reaction.

Enhancing audio quality

Adding more instruction for bag game and animating the bag saying the instructions

Making the letter names be pronounced in formal Arabic instead of Egyptian Arabic

Hamza2

Validating, extending, using Pre-MEGa framework

More research on Egyptian children’s interaction with new technologies

More research on game preferences of Egyptian children and how to design and test applications for and with them.

Using more smart technologies in mobile literacy applications.

Enhancing our application

Applying similar research on school children and integrating technology to accompany the Egyptian curriculum.

Encouraging companies and individuals to invest in quality research-based interactive products for young children

Establishing a research community for Digital Games-Based Learning, with a focus group targeting young children.

Use of new technologies in eradicating illiteracy among Egyptian children

Recommendations

For more information, read our papers:

Shoukry, L.H., Sturm, Ch., Galal-Edeen, G.H., " Arab Preschoolers,

Interactive Media and Early Literacy Development", The proceedings of The International Conference on E-Learning and E-Technologies in Education (ICEEE), Technical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland Sept. 24-26, 2012, http://www.sdiwc.net/iccaee2012, Pages: 43-48.

Shoukry, L.H., Sturm, Ch., Galal-Edeen, G.H., “Pre-MEGa: A Proposed

Framework for the Design and Evaluation of Preschoolers' Mobile Educational Games”, The proceedings of the CISSE virtual conference, Dec. 2012, http://conference.cisseconference.org/2012

Publications

http://www.sdiwc.net/iccaee2012

http://www.sdiwc.net/iccaee2012

http://conference.cisseconference.org/2012

http://conference.cisseconference.org/2012

About Me: Laila Hussein Shoukry

Master's Student

Digital Media Engineering & Technology

German University in Cairo

Egypt

[email protected]

http://guc.academia.edu/LailaHussein

Thank you

Documents

Child-Centered Design of Mobile Educational Games for Arab Preschoolers