oa AnswerPro: Designing to Motivate Interaction

This paper describes the design and initial testing of AnswerPro, a mobile academic peer support system for UK KeyStage 3 and 4 pupils (11-16 year olds). AnswerPro is a web application that enables pupils to seek support from theirknowledgeable peers on various subjects. This paper correlates the findings from a previous requirements-gatheringexercise (Anonymous), and from research into academic motivation, to propose design elements embedded withinAnswerPro. A pilot study was conducted with 7 school pupils over 3 weeks. Participants then engaged in a focus groupwhich discussed their experience using AnswerPro and the motivational elements embedded within it. Findings fromtheir use of AnswerPro, and from the subsequent discussion, highlighted some problems with the embedded motivationalfeatures. As a result, suggestions for potential solutions and their merits are proposed for the next version of AnswerPro.