Tiles and Patterns. Modular Concept in PUDCAD Learning Game Scenario

PUDCAD is a project involving several European university institutes, supported by the European Erasmus + Program, that promotes specific skills acquisition and the improvement of students and young workers preparation levels to increase their ability to operate in UE. By developing a ludic application, configured not only as a tool for digital drawing but as a real learning software, PUDCAD intends to educate university Design students about Universal Design, an ergonomic approach that provides for the use of environments and products regardless of age, social conditions and user’s physical skills. The Politecnico di Milano team conducted a research in secondary schools, evolving a modular process capable of implementing precise features. The use of a module (from the Latin modus, “measure”) in any design activity involves the definition of a basic unit assigned by the designer, from which all parts of a complex descend by multiplication or division. The same module can be developed in different patterns, but regardless of the formal result, purpose of the composition rules is to support and order the parts in a coordinated whole. Similarly the game, an occupation that usually suggests nice and apparently disordered conditions, is an activity always regulated by internal principles, perhaps not always responding to rational needs, but essential to establish an order that involves the end of the playful principle if violated. In the same way, the PUDCAD application development of game environments is based on a pattern aimed at spreading the principles of Universal Design and in acquiring appropriate design practices. This paper illustrates the methodological path and the conceptual tools adopted in the interactive game development.