Serious games, developed to address social issues such as education, have been shown to enhance users’ motivation to learn. However, their effectiveness varies among individuals, and research on design methods to maximize this effectiveness remains limited. This study hypothesizes that aligning game designs with players’ personality traits can improve user experience (UX) across six dimensions: effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, immersion, motivation, and emotion. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed participants’ personalities based on the Big Five personality traits and a trait model for video game players, and conducted a user study comparing UX across five different game designs based on English vocabulary quizzes: (1) a basic quiz only, (2) a quiz with scoring elements, (3) a quiz with adventure elements, (4) a quiz with action elements, and (5) a multiplayer quiz with action elements. The results revealed that certain combinations of personality traits and game design types exhibit affinities that can significantly enhance the UX of serious games—for example, the affinity between openness or narrative orientation and adventure elements.
Nishio et al. (Wed,) studied this question.