Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games
Date Submitted: Dec 28, 2025
Date Accepted: Apr 28, 2026
Serious Game Aimed at Assessing Executive Planning Skills in Children with Autism: A Cross-Sectional Design and Formative Evaluation of ShopAutiPlan
ABSTRACT
Background:
Planning deficits are among the most prominent executive function impairments in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), affecting their ability to organize, sequence, and execute goal-directed behaviors in daily life. Despite the growing use of virtual and game-based tools to assess cognitive skills, there remains a lack of validated, ecologically grounded instruments designed specifically to evaluate planning in autistic children.
Objective:
This study aimed to design and evaluate ShopAutiPlan, a supermarket-based serious game aimed to assess executive planning skills in children with ASD, through a formative expert usability evaluation before clinical deployment.
Methods:
The game was designed through a multidisciplinary, four-phase process grounded in a theoretical cognitive model of planning, involving researchers, psychologists, and game developers. Expert evaluation included six specialists (HCI researchers, psychologists, and developers) who conducted think-aloud sessions, completed the System Usability Scale (SUS), and applied ASD-specific heuristics. Quantitative SUS scores and deductive analysis based on ASD-guided heuristic mapping were used to identify usability strengths and areas for refinement.
Results:
Experts identified 45 usability issues across 15 heuristics, primarily related to aesthetic design, system feedback, responsiveness and realism. The overall SUS score (mean = 70.4) indicated good usability above the standard benchmark of 68. Psychologists rated efficiency and satisfaction highest (91.7%), highlighting the game’s cognitive clarity and engagement, whereas developers emphasized technical improvements in responsiveness and visual consistency.
Conclusions:
ShopAutiPlan demonstrated good usability, interdisciplinary validation, and ecological relevance for assessing planning in ASD. The formative evaluation pinpointed key areas for refinement, particularly in visual design and realism, and demonstrated the value of early expert feedback in creating accessible, clinically relevant serious games for autism assessment.
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