Enhancing Engagement: Assessing Usability and Scoring Model in the Road Safety Spot Hazard Game

Incorporating gaming components teaches children how to spot potential road risks in a safe and controlled environment, removing the need to expose them to real-world dangers. To make this work, learning game applications must be engaging while still ensuring that children learn critical skills like hazard awareness and safe behavior. To achieve this, a study was done with the goal of developing a spot-hazard game with a competitive scoring mechanism. There are five phases to the study. The study began with the collection of user requirements, followed by the design, implementation, and testing of usability. It was created for children aged 7 to 12 and features hazard spot modules that demonstrate road safety and encourage cautious behavior. The results indicate that players initially scored the game with the “life-time + score” scoring mechanism approach at 83.7%, whereas the game's linear scoring method obtained 73.3%. The game prototype's overall usability score was 77%, with scoring features at 84.3%, implying a 7.8% improvement from pre- to post-test results. This demonstrates that participants prefer appealing scoring approaches. Similarly, three main themes emerged from the interview: ease of understanding, perceived fairness, and suggestions for improvement, as highlighted by the participants. In future work, this scoring mechanism will be integrated into an interactive quiz for a children's spot-hazard road safety program with the local community.