Emotional Design and Gamification in Educational Processes: Predictor Model to Increase Video Game Efficiency

This article aims to present the results obtained in the first phase of a study that applied an innovative gamified technique of emotional design. It was developed by the MEET Playware company to a heterogeneous sample of 230 students, aged between 11 and 15 years old. The study aimed to combat school dropout and increase student involvement in school content (with focus on Portuguese and Mathematics). The experience compared the real conditions of a knowledge tournament, accomplished through the gamification process in schools, with a sample simulated in the laboratory of the same experiment (n = 24), and it provided fundamental contributions to the product to be developed. At the end of the process, questionnaires were answered by students (n = 230) and teachers (n = 13) who followed the study in schools. As a result of the methods, techniques and procedures used to measure and categorize users’ feelings, they proved to be efficient and to increase the proposed motivation. In general, the results show that, in a real context, feelings tend to fluctuate under the influence of several factors that are difficult to isolate under laboratory conditions. The conclusions point to the validity of using emotional design as a predictive factor of product efficiency, according to studies cited in the theoretical review and effectively suggest that emotional design can be a predictive factor for product efficiency in the context of motivational activities, as education in particular.