Traversing transmedia together: Co-designing an educational Alternate Reality Game for teens, with teens

Elizabeth Bonsignore, Derek Hansen, Anthony Pellicone, June Ahn, Kari Kraus, Steven Shumway, Kathryn Kaczmarek, Jeff Parkin, Jared Cardon, Jeff Sheets, Carlea Holl-Jensen, Jes Koepfler

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

An Alternate Reality Game (ARG) is an interactive storygame hybrid whose core mechanics include collaborative problem solving and storytelling. ARGs are also participatory experiences, because game designers dynamically adjust content in response to players' actions as game play progresses. What if the participatory process was extended during the design phase of an ARG as well? Few, if any, studies have explored how to include player populations in the ARG design process - especially ARGs that target youth. In this paper, we share the process we followed to design a large-scale ARG to promote scientific inquiry for teenagers (13-17 years old) by partnering with them. Our findings suggest that co-designing with youth resulted in novel design features in the final game, and gave us insight into adolescent attitudes toward various scientific concepts. We also share co-design techniques that were not as effective and offer suggestions for future approaches.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of IDC 2016 - The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages11-24
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9781450343138
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 21 2016
Event15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2016 - Manchester, United Kingdom
Duration: Jun 21 2016Jun 24 2016

Publication series

NameProceedings of IDC 2016 - The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children

Other

Other15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityManchester
Period6/21/166/24/16

Keywords

  • Adolescents
  • Alternate Reality Games
  • Co-design
  • Learning
  • Participatory design
  • Teens
  • Transmedia storytelling

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Human-Computer Interaction

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