Design, development and usability test of serious games related to genetics

Technological progresses and lower DNA sequencing costs have made genetic testing more and more accessible to the general public. However, this progress does not reflect an increased literacy on genetics in lay people. For this reason the authors has developed a suite of three serious games to educate people on genetic issues and tested them for playability. The playability testing was conducted with a convenience sample of 30 participants, subdivided into 3 equal groups and randomly assigned to each game. Participants were asked to report any problem or negative issue they found during the play and to complete the Games Experience Questionnaire. Results showed some usability issues, mainly related to the lack of intuition and immediacy in the use of some commands. Overall participants experienced moderate levels of immersion and flow for the serious games (not designed to be immersive rather than educational), low levels of negative feelings such as annoyance and frustration and prevalence of positive emotions. Results imply that, with the aim to guarantee games effectiveness and efficacy, the game should be more intuitive and improve their correspondence between the commands and the in-game tasks to achieve the goals. Furthermore they have the right level of immersion and flow, which allow the balance between fun and investment of cognitive resources to learn genetic contents.