Savouring our mistakes: Learning from the FitQuest project

The paper reflects on possible flaws during the design and evaluation process which could have led to the disappointing results, and presents some proposals for improving the research process for developing serious games for children. These include: deepening the ways in which we interact with domain expert colleagues, developing a shared understanding of the expectations for different phases of evaluation, closing the gap between game design knowledge and domain theories, raising the standards of evidence for design guidelines, encouraging synthesis across studies by evaluating mid-range theories rather than individual games, and developing guidelines for monitoring intervention fidelity in this domain.