Aug 26 - Thomas et al, ...Setting usability guidelines for mobile educational games

Designing for learning or designing for fun? Setting usability guidelines for mobile educational games.
Siobhan Thomas and Gareth Schott. Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H OAL, UK. E-mail: four@nucleus.com; s.thomas@ioe.ac.uk, g.schott@ioe.ac.uk
Maria Kambouri. National Research and Development, Centre in Adult Literacy and Numeracy, Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H OAL, UK. E-mail: m.kambouri@ioe.ac.uk
Learning With Mobile Devices: Reserch and Development. a book of papers, edited by Jill Attewell and Carol Savill-Smith. Learning and Skills Development Agency, Regent Arcade House19–25 Argyll Street, London W1F 7LS. pg 173-181


This paper considers the potential application of industry practice to the development of mobile educational games, and its appropriateness, and identifies guiding principles that can be used in the development of educational games. The development of a set of educational game heuristics, or usability guidelines, is a useful undertaking not only because it creates a guide for the investigation of usability issues, but also because, once identified, game heuristics can help developers avoid usability problems in the first place.

Heuristic evaluation – traditionally, evaluation in which a small team of independent evaluators
compare user interfaces with a set of usability guidelines, the ‘heuristics’ – has been recognised as an effective method for the formative evaluation of educational software (Quinn 1996; Albion 1999; Squires and Preece 1999). Heuristic evaluation using six evaluators uncovers 75% of usability problems (Nielsen 1994) and is considered a costeffective method of evaluation that yields reliable results for minimum investment (Quinn 1996).

The vocabulary of software usability centres on effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction (ISO 9241-11) and looks at how easy in general it is to use software, how effectively users can achieve goals and how easy it is for them to learn to do so.
Researchers, particularly in the field of human–computer interaction (HCI), have developed comprehensive sets of usability guidelines to help designers produce better, more usable systems (McGrenere 1996).
(For more information on HCI see the usability, user interface design and HCI bibliography at www.humanfactors.com/downloads/bibliography.asp)
But efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction don’t necessarily add up to a ‘good’ mobile learning game.

Principles of mobile game learning:
1. Adaptation
2. Challenge and mastery
3. Goals
4. Community and collaboration
5. Context.

My Comments: Thomas et al did a research to establish usability guidelines (usability criteria) for mobile educational games. They established the usability criteria whereby UEM = heuristic evaluation.

Reference that I may want to read in the future:
Federoff MA (2002). Heuristics and usability guidelines for the creation and evaluation of fun
in video games. Indiana: Department of Telecommunications Indiana University.