A Gamified Mobile Learning App for Child Protection: A Design Thinking Development Approach

This study aims to design and validate a gamified mobile learning application that supports early childhood body safety education through a developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive approach. The material of this study is a mobile application named SALI (Sadar dan Lindungi), which integrates interactive storytelling, educational songs, and scenario-based mini-games to introduce basic body safety concepts to preschool children aged 4–6 years. The application is designed to accommodate pre-literate users by emphasizing audio-based interaction and simple visual navigation. The research method employed a Design Thinking framework consisting of five iterative stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Data collection involved a literature review, stakeholder interviews, co-design activities with early childhood educators, and an expert review evaluation to assess content validity, usability, and cultural alignment. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained using structured validation instruments and expert feedback forms. The results indicate that the developed application meets key usability, pedagogical, and cultural requirements. All evaluated aspects achieved mean scores within the “very suitable” category, demonstrating strong alignment between the application’s design features and the intended educational objectives. Expert feedback further highlighted the application's strengths in supporting accessibility for pre-literate children and delivering body safety messages in an engaging manner. The implications of this study suggest that design-oriented and human-centered development approaches, such as Design Thinking, are effective for creating ethical digital learning tools in sensitive educational contexts. Future research is recommended to conduct empirical effectiveness testing with children and longitudinal evaluations to examine learning outcomes.