Gamification and User eXperience for make the learning experience better

In studies such as ICT engineering programs, a transversal and compulsory subject is taught to all students. This subject is one, which activates the creativity and the critical capacity of the student, given that the majority of the students come from a more technological background. Gamification forms part of the Design and Usability 1 course. It has been designed and evaluated to be used repeatedly in the methodology and changes have been applied which have improved its design and its application with students. Gamification is based mainly on respecting the course content: communication, graphic design and usability and user experience to be taken into consideration in the mechanisms of applied games. After the gamification in the 2013-14 course, students were surveyed on the user experience evaluation techniques in order to obtain data on both the academic content and the positive and negative points of the mechanisms applied. These surveys were compared to the academic results of the students in the both the semester and final exams. This article shows the changes introduced in the design methodology, its evaluation and the consequent results. The question to be asked is: have the improvements made to the program improved the results?