High school students design game controllers in a new CoTinker course
May 2025: 34 students participated in a course on interaction design and computer games
When you design a game controller on your smartphone, you quickly discover what's missing. That's what high school students from Aarhus Katedralskole and Rosborg Gymnasium schools experienced when they tested the CoTinker project's new learning course on interaction design and computer games.
The third learning activity from the CoTinker project, "How to control a computer game," was tested at the two high schools with a total of 34 students. The course blends practical game design with considerations for accessibility.
Smartphones Become Controllers
The students worked in groups and designed game controllers on their smartphones via the CoTinker platform. Afterwards, they tested the controllers in a platform game where they had to collect coins on different levels. The course integrates the Unity game engine directly into the browser.
The collaboration quickly turned into a competition as the students collected points individually. But the real learning happened when the game required new functions from the controller.
Iterative Design Process Was a Surprise
The students weren't used to working iteratively. They were unfamiliar with this design method, where the entire IT system isn't fully described in advance. Instead, they had to design, test, and redesign along the way.
When the students encountered new challenges, such as needing to jump up a set of stairs, they had to redesign the controller and add new buttons. The teachers noticed that the students who were normally less active in class suddenly became engaged in the task and were eager to take the lead in solving the problem.
Accessibility as a Design Principle
The students also had to consider accessibility in their design process and think about the different needs of people playing computer games. For example, the size of a person's hand affects how they use a smartphone as a controller, and the students had to consider this as well. Instead of adding accessibility as an afterthought, it became a part of the design process itself.
The course covers core curriculum areas of interaction design, HCI, and computer games at the Informatics C-level. It also develops students' skills in digital design and design processes.
The CoTinker project is led by Clemens Nylandsted Klokmose, Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science, with the participation of Line Have Musaeus, Postdoc at the Department of Computer Science, and Thomas Thomsen, Research Assistant at the Department of Computer Science at Aarhus University. The learning activity was developed in collaboration with CAVI.