How to Design an Educational Game That Truly Performs ?

Guest post by Daniel Lenson an upcoming entrepreneur.

After almost a decade spent working at various assistant positions, Daniel believes he has accumulated enough experience and knowledge to start his own small business partnering with close friends. When not researching about business matters, he likes to read contemporary fantasy novels.

Kids these days seem to be born with smartphones in their hands. They chat, talk, watch videos, listen to music, and play video games. To teach and educate them, you don’t have to take their precious gadgets away from them. Quite the opposite! Take advantage of their interest in technology and interactive content, and feed them with excellent educational games and applications.

Cartoon network

Touch screen resembles the interactions in the real world, and it offers flexibility and intuitiveness. Yet fingers are clumsier than a mouse, so the user interface mustn’t be too complex. Minimalistic one does the trick if the content is engaging and well-designed.

The look and feel should follow the functionality of the app, but you have the freedom in choosing things like color scheme. As kids are the target audience, the app can be cartoonish and lighthearted. One stylistic theme works fine, and gives consistency.

Start with the navigation framework, and then move on to the functional blocks. It is always a good idea to draw a complete flowchart before going to wireframe and design. Basic concept should be clear, and introducing different logical units all the time is not the way to get anything done. Bear in mind that the kid’s device is probably not the latest OS version and not a high performance one. So plan for requirements accordingly.

Keep in mind that children don’t want a boring tutorial to get to know the app. Think about how and when they will use the application. Well, the chances are, they will run the application in shorter bursts, not hours-long marathons. Kids have short attention spans after all. So instead of packing the app with a ton of content that will make the child user ask for grown up assistance all the time, make some parts available as an in-game purchase. Or even save some material for your next standalone app.

I challenge you

In games, players should be challenged to show their wits, skills, knowledge, and systemic thinking in

order to advance. There should be a strong connection between action and feedback, the challenge and

reward. Different paths and various ways to tackle a problem are needed to immerse the players

further.

Information must be true and accurate, as otherwise it would undermine the whole point. If you are not confident with the learning material you are trying to implement into a game, educate yourself.Visit centers like the Learning Place, and gain the complete understanding of the content.

This brings us to the point that these apps and games are an amazing tool for teachers to make their subjects more relevant and entertaining. But, beginners will have a hard time developing them on their own. There are however many ways to get the app you want in a short time and without doing the coding.

Many sites like AppWizard offer such services for a moderate fee, and there are also some cool free web tools if you know the basics. You also can always browse the App Store. From puzzle games that challenge spatial thinking, to interactive language-learning courses, you can find your inspiration here.

Simple in the right way

Learning through play is the learning at its best. Even if the purpose is education, no one wants a dull-looking app or game. You must make the learning fun for kids and stimulate their productive mental work at the same time. Make a sketch and connect the screens and dots. Keep it simple, challenging and straightforward. Avoid too much information and a lot of features; you want to draw attention not make someone’s eyes hurt. The main point that would summarize all of the above is : proper theme focus coupled with a delicate balance of information amount.

Do You Have an Idea for Mobile app ?