Toward a Game-like Experience: Design of a Modern User Interface of a Simulation Game for Teaching Business Process Digitalization

Educators have recently been searching for new teaching methods other than traditional frontal lectures, and the ongoing pandemic has drastically boosted this process. Information systems (IS) education is no exception, since, in addition to the challenges of virtual learning, some IS concepts, like Digital Transformation or Business Process Management, lead to better mastering of the learning objectives when taught with some hands-on experience. One method of providing such an experience is the adoption of simulation business games. However, while the learning effect of the existing games is proven to be positive, their user interfaces (UI) are often criticized, which is also reflected in the research. Thus, taking one such game as an example, we propose a way to improve its UI by analyzing non-educational games with simulation aspects with a focus on requirements definition for the game UI in the educational context. Afterward, we implement the ten gathered requirements into a UI prototype by utilizing the SCRUM method, and finally, we evaluate our UI with an expert interview as well as by showcasing it to our target audience and gathering their opinion using the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. Our research leads to a drastic improvement of the SUS score, compared to the previous version, thus paving the way to implementing further scenarios for teaching business process digitalization.