Designing an Educational Game Application for Learning Receptive Fingerspelling

Abstract

The goal of this project is to design an educational game application to learn receptive fingerspelling. The design product is presented as a series of screenshots and diagrams in these pages and also as an online interactive prototype through which the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are demonstrated.

Current research in the field of game design recommends using game design frameworks to help designers in their undertaking as well as to facilitate discussion of game design among designers, researchers, critics, and players. The MDA framework (aka mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics) was applied when designing this app. Instructional design concepts were examined and evaluated on how to foster the pedagogy of the educational game. Active learning, tangential learning, and a range of cognitive learning principles were integrated into the design. Universal principles of design were also implemented. The result is the design of an app containing a section involving gameplay as well as two sections that do not involve gameplay, one for learning the manual alphabet and one for practice drills.