Kana no senshi (kana warrior): a new interface for learning Japanese characters

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the design and testing of Kana Warrior, a new interface for basic Japanese character recognition based on a game-style user interface. Kana Warrior is a game designed to help Japanese students learn to read characters quickly. A small pilot study has been conducted with very encouraging results. These results support the idea that game-style interfaces may be of benefit to users outside of the realm of entertainment programs.

REFERENCES

• 1: Dennis Chao, Doom as an interface for process management, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.152-157, March 2001, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/365024.365078]
• 2: Chuck Clanton, An interpreted demonstration of computer game design, CHI 98 conference summary on Human factors in computing systems, p.1-2, April 18-23, 1998, Los Angeles, California, United States [doi>10.1145/286498.286499]
• 3: ComCul International. Kana for Windows. Available at http://www.vir.com/~comcul/ .
• 4: Lake, J. The Hiragana/Katakana Game. Available at http://www.msu.edu/~lakejess/kanjigame.html .
• 5: Sega Corporation. http://www.sega.co.jp .

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Graphical user interfaces (GUI)

Additional Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.m MISCELLANEOUS

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.8 PERSONAL COMPUTING
      K.8.0 General
          Subjects: Games

Keywords:
Japanese, game interface, language learning