BatiKids - A Game-based Learning Designed to Introduce the Process of Batik Technique to Children

The Indonesian batik has the techniques, the symbolism, and the culture of hand-dyed fabrics that is recognised as an intangible cultural heritage. Making batik is not easy since it involves a very labour-intensive and complicated process, and it takes extensive time. Until recently, batik artisans have been dominated by elders, and very few young people became involved in this industry. Therefore, it is considered as an urgent need to transfer the art of batik to the young generation to ensure its sustainability. The young generation, especially children, must be presented with this precious legacy.
In collaboration with the Museum Batik Pekalongan, this research was carried out to seek an approach that can attract children to be interested in and eager to learn the process of making batik. This primary objective leads the study to deal with research questions on how to translate physical batik processing and the environments into digital space while applying the UX and UI design, and how the result after BatiKids, the game-based learning, is being used by the children. By implementing the Participatory Design method and adopting some elements in Garrett’s Five Planes, BatiKids was developed through several iterations following the trial-and-error cycle of product development by Hippel. BatiKids was developed according to a model that presents how multimedia resources combined with the traditional presentations of batik and how this depends on the type of users and devices provided in the museum. BatiKids provided interaction that allows users to experience as if they are actually making batik in the process. Through several workshops conducted for children in Indonesia and Germany, it is revealed that BatiKids is ideally played as an integration with the traditional process, not as a stand-alone learning process. The users, especially the children, are highly recommended to play BatiKids accompanied by the batik artisans or the teachers.
The major contributions to this study lie in the Participatory Design approaches to children who are raised in the Eastern culture and to the specific characteristics of game-based learning designed for cultural heritage.