Food is an integral part of our lives. And learning food vocabulary in English helps the user to adjust their language for a store context. In real life, letting children help while doing grocery can be an enjoyable way to teach them to follow directions. Besides that, each time you go to the supermarket can be a lesson to introduce a new food item's name that the child doesn't know in English.
But how can we create gameplay in a supermarket setting so children can practice how to say food names in English in a fun way?
The hypothesis is that by working with realistic supermarket representation, creating list grocery list-like instructions, and environmental gameplay with the help of authentic designed items (cashier, shelves, signs, etc.), children would learn an extensive vocabulary continuously as they progress in the game.
Thus, the design goals focused on teaching users:
Before the ideation phase, a competitive analysis provided an overview of what is available on the market and which design patterns are being used. It also created a general idea of users' preferences according to the popularity of the apps selected.
The data collected during the competitive analysis was cross-referenced with the extensive in-house user research about Alberts' users. Therefore, it was possible to hypothesise what features would make this product stand out compared to what is already on the market.
A few requirements were defined from the end user's perspective following the competitive analysis. Thus, as a user:
Many ideas were generated during the ideation phase to address the need to have a game in a supermarket setting so children can practice food vocabulary in English. The main ideas can be described as follows:
The whole team reviewed the business problem, goals, and deliverables as criteria for selecting a concept to prototype. All the ideas were presented to the team following the idea generation, and the concepts' various features were discussed. The team better understood the different ideas and evaluated the differences from similar concepts. Thus, the Supermarket Panorama concept was selected because it fulfilled most requirements.
With selecting the concept to prototype, it was sketched a diagram of the sequence of actions involved in the game. Discussing the diagram with the team made it possible to identify essential user journeys and optimize the user experience. Through iterative sessions, adjustments were made to the flow before going into digital implementation.
The user flow provided an understanding of how most steps were connected and what were the most apparent problems with the gameplay. The low cost of adapting the diagram allowed us to try different approaches until we arrived at a satisfying solution.
The art team produced a rough sketch of the supermarket view based on the approved flow, which allowed the development of a functional prototype to be tested in-house. This clickable prototype aimed to be a tool to ensure that the overall design concept succeeds and helped identify improvements for the next iteration.
With the conclusion that the concept met the design requirements, we produced a colored mid-fidelity prototype to be tested with children. Based on previous sessions, it is clear that the lack of colors might interfere with the game's desirability when testing it with children.
The mid-fidelity prototype enabled formative research with ten children (ages from 5 to 9) when aspects of their experience motivated adjustments in the design and implementation of the concept. After each prototyping cycle, an evaluation was conducted to assess children's feedback and parents' input.
The collection of insights and anecdotes about how children used the prototype were analysed and converted into redesign recommendations for the next iteration.
In the version that users tested, the endgame consisted of a scanning process of the items without payment, which did not match most children's mental model. They expected to have a payment process as it is in real life.
The real-life context of the game made it easier to understand the game's goal. And knowing how a real supermarket works, the users had clear expectations of where certain products should be and how they should be depicted.
The testing indicated concerns for flexibility of usage. Some users quickly understood that they could drag the character to control it. And in contrast, others voiced their expectation to have an arrow button to move the character.
Children responded positively to the free form and intuitive interaction design aspects applied to the supermarket environment. Users can freely explore the different sections along with the game objective to complete the grocery list.
A clear pattern was exhibited where children acquire new vocabulary through an indirect learning process. They interact with the items to repeat their pronunciation numerous times until they have learned the items' names.
Parents responded positively to the level of gamification applied to this educational product. They observed their children's high motivation and energetic attitude toward learning vocabulary
in English.
The game fosters language acquisition through listening comprehension, scheduled repetition, and a broad and diverse vocabulary that follows the users as they progress in the language learning process. Meanwhile, it provides a playful experience where they can have fun and freely explore a real-life context.
Following a grocery list helps the user to listen and interpret instructions, which requires attention to details in spoken language and decoding the information in the appropriate steps to complete the game objective.
Animations are incorporated in the game not only to provide aesthetic satisfaction but rather to enhance the user experience, usability, and desirability. The animations help communicate actions and highlight information, so the user can quickly identify a message's content. They also help establish relationships between states and UI elements' functionality and provide users with instant feedback on their actions.
Perhaps, most notably in this game, animations provide a strong emotional background for the user experience by turning a human-computer interaction more human-like. The characters livened up with motion create an immediate connection with users.
The addition of the cashier section was a direct result of user research and aimed to assist users in retaining the vocabulary acquired while playing. There were two key factors to learning when designing it: How much information the users could retain in this context and the user's effort spent on retaining the vocabulary.
Considering that there are a lot of new words taught in short turns, there is a significant dependence on repetition to enable vocabulary acquisition. Therefore, the cashier fosters repetition upon a simple scanning process of the items and the screening of their names.
#1 Designing a game to fit children's mental model
Let's go shopping's endgame did not fit children's thought processes about how a supermarket works. Since past experiences shape mental models, children know, based on their past experiences, that after purchasing an item, you have to pay for it. Therefore, we altered the game to fit the user's thought processes, creating the interactions of a successful user experience.
#2 Research as means to effective, usable, and desirable design
The research with children and their parents informed the design process from prototyping to outcome analysis. We implemented in these phases the key knowledge gained during research as a foundation to create designs whose form and content are effective, usable, desirable, and technically feasible.
#3 Avoid testing more than one game per testing session
Due to the difficulty of gathering children for multiple usability tests, we decided to test more than one game per session, which affected the children's responses to the last games since they were already tired and not so responsive.
#4 Prototype fidelity
We had concerns about how the prototype's fidelity level would interfere with children's engagement during the testing session. Fortunately, there wasn't a significant interference with engagement. However, some features weren't fully developed, which frustrated users at times. The fidelity level didn't interfere with the user's engagement but interfered with the tester's user experience.
#5 Balance between education and gamification
There was a challenge in finding a balance between providing educational content to assist children's learning process while allowing them to have a playful experience. In the end, it became clear that despite their specificities, education and gamification are not contrasting areas, learning is fun, and there's power in play.