Development of an attention assisting game
Tiainen, Tuomo (2024)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024091825342
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024091825342
Tiivistelmä
The objective of this thesis was to investigate the development of a game that could be played to assist attentiveness during a sustained attention task. For the thesis, a prototype game was designed, developed, and tested. The aim was to design and test a game that could be played during a lecture or lesson.
The thesis was made as a constructive design-based study. In the theoretical framework, multiple design principles were proposed. The prototype game was then developed with a combination of the proposed principles based on general game design theory. Finally, the prototype was tested in a small-scale field test. In the test, the participants were requested to play the game during a lecture and then respond to a survey. In the test, information was collected about participants’ experience concerning their attention.
The thesis proposed six different design principles which were used during the prototype development. The principles aimed to limit a game’s engagement, reduce task switching cost and take account of different attentional resources.
The resulting prototype was a simple match-tree mobile game. A majority of the participants stated that the game distracted them. Multiple reasons were suggested for the results: the test duration might have been too brief or the game might have been overly engaging or overly difficult. Despite the protype failing to reach its goal, the proposed principles could still be applied in developing games.
The thesis was made as a constructive design-based study. In the theoretical framework, multiple design principles were proposed. The prototype game was then developed with a combination of the proposed principles based on general game design theory. Finally, the prototype was tested in a small-scale field test. In the test, the participants were requested to play the game during a lecture and then respond to a survey. In the test, information was collected about participants’ experience concerning their attention.
The thesis proposed six different design principles which were used during the prototype development. The principles aimed to limit a game’s engagement, reduce task switching cost and take account of different attentional resources.
The resulting prototype was a simple match-tree mobile game. A majority of the participants stated that the game distracted them. Multiple reasons were suggested for the results: the test duration might have been too brief or the game might have been overly engaging or overly difficult. Despite the protype failing to reach its goal, the proposed principles could still be applied in developing games.