Usability testing for educational computer game using observation method

• 出版年: Proceedings - 2010 International Conference on Information Retrieval and Knowledge Management: Exploring the Invisible World, CAMP'10
• 第一著者: 2-s2.0-77953899295
• フォーマット: Conference paper
• 言語: English
• 出版事項: 2010
• オンライン･アクセス: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-77953899295&doi=10.1109%2fINFRKM.2010.5466926&partnerID=40&md5=377f36c38c8330b70b8798af3c8b1406

For most children the first contact with the computer is through some sort of educational game. Therefore, it is important that computer games for children are well-designed and usable for the children. In order to evaluate the usability of the computer game, children must be observed while exploring and playing the game and given the chance to express their opinions. Therefore, to involve children effectively, appropriate evaluation techniques are needed. This paper will discuss an observation method that has been adopted in a usability testing with the children. In this study, a computer game called Jelajah is chosen as the game to be tested for the usability evaluation with children. Jelajah is suitable for the experiment because it is an adventure game which is a very common game genre for children. Five preschool children aged between five and six years old are selected for this study. During the usability testing session, facilitator observes the child and fill in the observation checklist form in order to track the effectiveness and efficiency of the game. After the test session completed, the child is required to answer a simple interview-based questionnaire to know their level of satisfaction after playing the game. Data collected are both qualitative and quantitative. The collected data are analyzed to determine the levels of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. The levels of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction are being measured by averaging them to a single metric that can represent the usability of Jelajah. The result obtained showed that the approach adopted to conduct a usability testing of a computer game with children using Jelajah can also be adopted for evaluating any educational computer game with children. ©2010 IEEE.