A Game-Based Learning Approach to Enhance Understanding of Interface Design Principles in Design Education

The design of user interface is an important and challenging topic for student designers to understand and master. The eight principles of good User Interface (UI) design are often taught using primarily cognitive approaches, which can leave room for improvement in students' ability to apply the principles in a variety of contexts. Game-based learning tools are recognised to be beneficial in university classrooms across a variety of discipline areas and topics due to their capacity to increase engagement. This project presents a first prototype for an instructional tool that leverages constructionism and embodied learning to enhance students' understanding and application of these principles. This tool takes the form of a board game, thus encouraging peer learning. To test the prototype, three usability tests were carried out. Each user group was unique, the first being internal to the design team, the second having some prior exposure of the subject, and the third, having no prior experience at all. In each sessions, the participants were presented with a series of UI challenges, for which they were asked to construct suitable design solutions. Following the sessions, and where possible, the quality of these solutions were evaluated against a scoring system. This initial study suggests that instructional board games may be flexible enough to support learning outcomes at various stages of knowledge and skills acquisition among different learner groups.