Mise-En-Scene: Playful Interactive Mechanics To Enhance Children'S Digital Books

The inclusion of interactive content has become commonplace in many reading applications for children. Yet a growing body of research suggests that the inclusion of interactive content may distract children from the actual content of the story. Models are used to effectively integrate interactive content into reading applications to support a child's understanding of the story. This paper discusses the design of an interactive application for Omani children called Trees of Tales, including its use of a mise-en-scene inspired game mechanic to facilitate playful and meaningful engagement with the story. A trial of n = 18 Omani primary school students was used to determine the impact of the design on the intrinsic motivation and engagement in comparison with printed storybooks and e-books with limited interactivity. The findings suggest that Trees of Tales improves children's motivation to read. There was also evidence that the application enhances reading engagement of female children in particular.