Storyboarding in the Initial Design of Mobile Mathematics Educational Applications: A Systematic Review Using the PRISMA Framework

Source abstract

The rapid growth of mobile learning has led to increased development of mobile educational applications, particularly in mathematics education. Effective design at the initial development stage is critical to ensure pedagogical alignment, usability, and learner engagement. Storyboarding has emerged as an instructional design technique for visualizing learning flows, interactions, and content sequencing before full application development. However, research examining the role of storyboarding in the early design of mobile mathematics educational applications remains fragmented. This study presents a systematic review of literature on storyboarding during the initial design phase of mobile mathematics educational applications, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. Searches were conducted across Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar, with the final eligibility period restricted to publications from 2024 through 2025. A total of 612 records were identified, 148 duplicates were removed, 92 full texts were assessed, and 31 studies were included in the qualitative synthesis. The findings indicate that storyboarding is used to visualize learning flow, align pedagogical and interface decisions, support low-fidelity prototyping, and facilitate communication among stakeholders. Reported limitations include difficulty representing dynamic interactions, dependence on designer expertise, implementation ambiguity, and limited empirical validation. The review also identifies methodological inconsistency and a lack of comparative and outcome-focused studies as important research gaps.