User Interface: A Qualitative Investigation on Enhancing Player Engagement in Educational Games

Sammanfattning: Gaming, a widely adopted form of entertainment, brings out different reactions inpeople. While some perceive it as a leisure activity, other find it the element of violence that can be found troubling. Researchers have found that video games are associated with many advantages such as enhancing focus, multitasking ability and working memory. Educational games aim to create motivated learners, which can be described as enthusiastic, focused and engaged. To create motivated learners, it is important to stimulate players both through functionality and graphical design, as a poor graphical design can lead to unwillingness to continue playing. Therefore, it is important to conduct a thorough investigation on the impact of the user interface on user engagement in order to gain a comprehensive understanding. Previous research has highlighted the importance of extrinsic and intrinsic objectives, as well as the role of activities and emotions in player engagement. Moreover, the collective findings from previous research significantly enhance our understanding of player engagement and its importance in game design and educational settings. However, our research aims to specifically investigate the impact of user interface on user engagement and aim to contribute to the existing understanding in this specific area. This study focuses on addressing the issue of inadequate user engagement in the game SocioBalance. To do this, data on players' feedback of the user interface is collected to understand the source for its shortcomings and identify areas for improvement and subsequently update the user interface of the game. Players were invited to participate in a playtest session and a dedicated questionnaire is administered to gather feedback on the user interface. The findings indicated that by improving the user interface enhanced the clarity of the game's objective. Furthermore, a higher proportion of players found the game to be more appealing. In addition, there was an observed increase in the overall graphical experience and players' inclination to continue playing