Design and evaluation of a game for mobile platforms about periodic properties of the chemical elements

Abstract

This paper presents the results of two studies on Xenubi, a computer/mobile game about periodic properties of the chemical elements. These studies were aimed at evaluating Xenubi in 3 dimensions: interface usability, user preferences and learning outcomes. The usability and user preferences study focused on the understanding of the game mechanics by students from a public state school and from a private school in Brazil. The learning outcomes evaluation study was conducted in a public technical school, and sought for differences in post-test score between groups that played Xenubi as printed cards and on the computer. The results point to a consistent better understanding of the game mechanics by students from the private school and a higher performance improvement for the students who played Xenubi on the computer.