Participatory design method to unfold educational game design issues: a systematic review of trends and outcome

Abstract

There are countless of educational game and serious games on the shelf ready to be commercialized. However, at one point the effectiveness of the game in assisting students or children in learning are still questionable. Designing the right design for the game, which emphasizes the users in it, requires particular method and process. The use of participatory design (PD) as a method in designing an educational games is much pertinent to this issue. Hence, this study aims to systematically review the literature on participatory design method for designing educational games by identifying its trends in range of ten years and investigates the process applied to reach the research outcome. Six databases were used in the search: ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Emerald Insight, Science Direct, Scopus, Springer, Taylor and Francis, and Web of Science. The search identified 4387 papers, among them, 4234 were excluded and 153 remains for further selection process. The selection process later cease to 26 papers being evaluated. The selection incorporated all papers, which focused directly on the participatory design process contributing in educational game design and development. Overall, studies lacked a strong link between the participatory design processes evaluation and interpretation of game design elements effectiveness in each process. Participatory design method makes a positive impact on educational game design effectiveness. However, existing processes have not been captured the process evaluation that may be needed. Robust research is needed to address the evaluation of participatory design processes and how to identify the effectiveness of game design using PD method.