Using psychophysiological techniques to measure user experience with entertainment technologies

Emerging technologies offer exciting new ways of using entertainment technology to create fantastic play experiences and foster interactions between players. Evaluating entertainment technology is challenging because success isn't defined in terms of productivity and performance, but in terms of enjoyment and interaction. Current subjective methods of evaluating entertainment technology aren't sufficiently robust. This paper describes two experiments designed to test the efficacy of physiological measures as evaluators of user experience with entertainment technologies. We found evidence that there is a different physiological response in the body when playing against a computer versus playing against a friend. These physiological results are mirrored in the subjective reports provided by the participants. In addition, we provide guidelines for collecting physiological data for user experience analysis, which were informed by our empirical investigations. This research provides an initial step towards using physiological responses to objectively evaluate a user's experience with entertainment technology.     

Entertaining Situated Messaging at Home

Leisure and entertainment-based computing has been traditionally associated with interactive entertainment media and game playing, yet the forms of engagement offered by these technologies only support a small part of how we act when we are at leisure. In this paper, we move away from the paradigm of leisure technology as computer-based entertainment consumption, and towards a broader view of leisure computing. This perspective is more in line with our everyday experience of leisure as an embodied, everyday accomplishment in which people artfully employ the everyday resources in the world around them in carrying out their daily lives outside of work. We develop this extended notion of leisure using data from a field study of domestic communication focusing on asynchronous and situated messaging to explore some of these issues, and develop these findings towards design implications for leisure technologies. Central to our discussion on the normal, everyday and occasioned conduct of leisure lie the notions of playfulness and creativity, the interweaving of the worlds of work and leisure, and in the creation of embodied displays of affect, all of which may be seen manifested in the use of messaging artefacts. This view of technology in support of leisure-in-the-broad is strongly divergent from traditional entertainment computing models in its coupling of the mechanics of the organisation of everyday life to the ways that we make entertainment for ourselves. This recognition allows us to draw specific implications for domestic situated messaging technologies, but also more generally for technology design by tying activities that we tend to regard as purely functional to other multifaceted and leisure-related purposes.     

Virtual Reality Interfaces for Interacting with Three-Dimensional Graphs

Today, virtual reality (VR) systems are widely available through low-cost devices such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Although VR technology has so far been centered on entertainment, there is a growing interest from developers, technology companies, and consumers to evaluate it in a wider variety of contexts. This paper explores the effectiveness of visualizing and interacting with three-dimensional graphs in VR in comparison with the traditional approach. In particular, we present an empirical evaluation study for exploring and interacting with three-dimensional graphs using Oculus Rift and Leap Motion. We designed several interfaces exploiting the natural user interface in a VR environment and compared them with traditional mouse–keyboard and joypad configurations. Our evaluation suggests that, although these upcoming VR technologies are more challenging than more traditional ones, they facilitate user involvement during graph interaction and visualization tasks, given the enjoyable experience elicited when combining gesture-based interfaces and VR.     

Psychophysiology of the passive user: Exploring the effect of technological conditions and personality traits

This purpose of this study was to investigate physiological response patterns of passive users versus active users under varying technological conditions. The relationship between user personality traits and physiological responses was also explored. In work systems, different types of users interact with technologies in different ways. Active users may control technologies, while passive users may watch the active user and the technology. While they are both important stakeholders in the system, little empirical research has been conducted to understand the passive users to date. A mixed design experiment was conducted to investigate passive user psychophysiological state, while active and passive users operated a technology under varying technological states (normal, unreliable, and difficult). Physiological measures were collected from passive users while technologies were being operated, these included electrodermal and cardiovascular (heart rate and heart rate variability). Results show that individual active users and passive users have distinct physiological response patterns in heart rate and heart rate variability while using the technology. Exploratory analyses indicated that conscientiousness was positively related to individual active users' task performance; openness, agreeableness, and extraversion were associated with passive users' electrodermal and cardiovascular responses. In addition, social interaction is more influential for passive users' physiological responses, compared to task performing. The effects of active and passive user personality traits on technology interactions are illustrated through distinctive physiological responses.Relevance to industryFindings from this study suggest that to improve passive user experience, systems that include both active and passive users should be designed to facilitate communication and information sharing between users.     

Mobile information access in the real world: A story of three wireless devices

The importance of the user perspective to the wireless information access experience cannot be understated: simply put, users will not indulge in devices that are perceived to be difficult to use and in technologies that do not offer quality infotainment – combined information and entertainment – content. In this paper, we investigate the impact that mobile devices have on the user wireless infotainment access experience in practice. To this end, we have undertaken an empirical study placed in a ‘real-world’ setting, in which participants undertook typical infotainment access tasks on three different wireless-enabled mobile devices: a laptop, a personal digital assistant and a head mounted display device. Results show that, with the exception of participants’ level of self-consciousness when using such devices in public environments, the user wireless information access experience is generally unaffected by device type. Location was shown, though, to be a significant factor when users engage in tasks such as listening to online music or navigation. Whilst the interaction between device and environment was found to influence entertainment-related tasks in our experiments, the informational ones were not affected. However, the interaction effects between device and user type was found to affect both types of tasks. Lastly, a user’s particular computing experience was shown to influence the perceived ease of wireless information access only in the case of online searching, irrespective of whether this is done for primarily informational purposes or entertainment ones.     

Engagement in digital entertainment games: A systematic review

Since their introduction over 40 years ago, digital entertainment games have become one of the most popular leisure activities globally. While digital games clearly provide highly engaging activities, the nature of this engagement is not well understood. The current study aims to advance our understanding by reporting a systematic review of recent literature addressing engagement in computer games. The papers in the review comprise a sub-sample of papers relating to engagement in digital games that was selected from a broader literature search carried out on the outcomes and impacts of playing computer games. A diverse range of studies was identified that examined varied aspects of engagement in games including subjective experiences while playing games, the physiological concomitants of these experiences, motives for playing games, game usage and time spent playing games and the impact of playing on life satisfaction. A narrative review was carried out to capture these diverse aspects of engagement and to develop a more coherent understanding of engagement in computer games.     

Why do people play on-line games? An extended TAM with social influences and flow experience

On-line games have been a highly profitable e-commerce application in recent years. The market value of on-line games is increasing markedly and number of players is rapidly growing. The reasons that people play on-line games is an important area of research. This study views on-line games as entertainment technology. However, while most past studies have focused on task-oriented technology, predictors of entertainment-oriented technology adoption have seldom been addressed.This study applies the technology acceptance model (TAM) that incorporates social influences and flow experience as belief-related constructs to predict users’ acceptance of on-line games. The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 233 users about their perceptions of on-line games. Overall, the results reveal that social norms, attitude, and flow experience explain about 80% of game playing. The implications of this study are discussed.     

Anaglyph video smell presentation using micro-porous piezoelectric film olfactory display

Anaglyph video (i.e., 3D video) is a recent trend in movies and multimedia; the method has also been recently developed for conversion of such videos from traditional 2D screens or by rendering stereoscopic media into 3D video. There have also been many studies regarding movie playing and other types of entertainment that uses olfactory displays or smell generators. These devices are capable of generating a considerable number of different odors with different intensities yet still have some limitations and are not ready for commercial use. In this study, a complete solution is presented for a user to experience olfactory sensations with a displayed video on a PC with auditory and 3D visual effects using a novel olfactory display device based on a micro-porous piezoelectric film that is capable of digitally producing fine particles of scent material with precision, quantity and speed.     

基于事件的虚拟现实用户体验评估方法研究

近年来,随着虚拟现实(Virtual Reality,VR)技术的逐渐成熟,我国VR产业处于高速增长的态势.虽然VR的发展为内容设计提供了许多新的可能性,但由于VR应用的设计不成熟,VR行业的从业者们仍面临着严峻的挑战,VR中的设计仍需要通过用户使用来验证是否可行.因此,用户体验(User Experience,UX)...     

Emotional Dimensions of User Experience: A User Psychological Analysis

User psychology is a human–technology interaction research approach that uses psychological concepts, theories, and findings to structure problems of human–technology interaction. As the notion of user experience has become central in human–technology interaction research and in product development, it is necessary to investigate the user psychology of user experience. This analysis of emotional human–technology interaction is based on the psychological theory of basic emotions. Three studies, two laboratory experiments, and one field study are used to investigate the basic emotions and the emotional mind involved in user experience. The first and second experiments study the measurement of subjective emotional experiences during novel human–technology interaction scenarios in a laboratory setting. The third study explores these aspects in a real-world environment. As a result of these experiments, a bipolar competence–frustration model is proposed, which can be used to understand the emotional aspects of user experience.     

定位技术在虚拟现实中的应用综述

近年来,我国虚拟现实技术随着5G技术、传感器技术以及民用图形处理器的发展而快速发展,教育、交通、商业、娱乐、工业等领域对虚拟现实的需求与日俱增。虚拟现实技术是一门崭新的综合性信息技术,其中的定位技术是决定用户沉浸感和交互感的关键技术,是虚拟现实技术的重要依托。因此,需要着重对虚拟现实技术的定位技术进行总结。首先介绍了虚拟现实和定位技术;其次详细分析对比了目前虚拟现实系统中使用的典型定位技术,介绍了这些技术的原理、相关研究成果以及它们在虚拟现实中具体的运用场景;然后介绍了目前市场上主流的虚拟现实定位设备,继而讨论了虚拟现实定位技术使用的定位算法;最后介绍了虚拟现实定位技术目前存在的问题和今后的发展方向。     

SeeNSearch: A context directed search facilitator for home entertainment devices

The Internet has become an extremely popular source of entertainment and information. But, despite its growing popularity, most websites today are accessed by keyword search via web browsers, making it difficult for home consumers to locate Internet content of interest on their TVs or other devices that lack keyboards. In this paper, we present assistive technologies, enabling users to easily locate Internet content related to the TV program they are watching. Access is enabled via an intuitive user interface on the TV screen or by using a secondary personal device, and thus avoiding disrupting the viewing experience of the other TV users.     

Relative subjective count and assessment of interruptive technologies applied to mobile monitoring of stress

A variety of technologies—from agents designed to assist or encourage you, to context-based messaging services—have the opportunity to interrupt you many times throughout the day. One of the challenges with designing new highly interruptive technologies is how to objectively assess their influence on human experience. This paper presents an assessment of a new mobile system that interrupts the wearer to support self-monitoring of stress. We utilize a diverse set of assessment techniques, including a newly proposed measure, relative subjective count, which compares the difference in perceived number of interruptions to actual number of interruptions. This measure, together with direct and indirect subjective reports, and a behavioral choice, is used to evaluate an empathetic version of the mobile system vs. a non-empathetic version. We found that post-experience direct questionnaire assessments such as “how stressful has using the system been?” do not significantly distinguish user experiences with the two systems; however, the new measure of relative subjective count, the behavioral choice, and another indirect questioning strategy, do point toward a preference for the empathetic system.     

Aware technologies for aging in place: understanding user needs and attitudes

Although computing technology has made inroads into home environments, it has yet to instigate a major shift in the design of homes or home activities. The convergence of television and the Internet is lagging behind expectations, and the combination of desktop computers, entertainment consoles, televisions, and cell phones has yet to form a cohesive whole. One possible reason for this lag in progress is that these technologies don't address a coherent need -they merely augment current entertainment and communication practices. We base our research on the premise that the next revolution of technology in the home will arise from devices that help older adults maintain their independence. A coherent suite of technologies will eventually let older adults be proactive about their own healthcare, will aid them in daily activities and help them learn new skills, will create new avenues for social communication, and will help ensure their safety and well being. The Aware Home Research initiative hopes to help older adults "age in place" by creating devices that can assist with daily tasks, offer memory support, and monitor daily activities. However, understanding user needs and attitudes is essential to deploying this technology.     

A case study of user immersion-based systematic design for serious heritage games

Modern digital technologies support the preservation and transfer of cultural heritage information via devices and applications such as digital storage systems, electronic books and virtual museums. Advances in virtual and augmented reality, real-time computer graphics and computer games have made it possible to construct large virtual environments in which users may experience cultural heritage through a variety of interactions and immersions. Thus, an emerging problem is to implement an appropriate systematic design method for achieving various types of entertainment, learning and information transfer. This paper proposes two important design factors that impact on user immersion in serious heritage games: user interface space volume and subsystem sequence. The impact of the two factors on proposed systematic design methods was investigated through comparative studies by implementing a serious heritage game system on three different platforms.     

Focus on User Experience: Moving from a Library-Centric Point of View

Academic libraries gain information about their users in many ways. Long a standard practice in the technology industry, studies in the form of usability tests and other user-centered methods seek to determine if software products meet end user needs. Libraries have availed themselves of user-centered techniques borrowed from technology to test webpage interfaces and other library technologies. This article aims to describe the technology foundations of user-centered techniques and their evolution in libraries. Snapshots of position postings, user experience departments, comparisons of methods, library-centric thinking, and service design efforts illustrate libraries’ status in addressing user experience for their patrons.     

Identification of usability problems and requirements of elderly Chinese users for smart TV interactions

With the development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), smart TV is gradually becoming universal and penetrating daily life. Smart TV has a wide range of user groups, and the elderly is an important group. The special physiological and psychological characteristics of Chinese elderly highlight the usability problems of smart TV interactions for them. The main functions of smart TVs were selected and operated by the elderly in this study. With the help of physiological measurements, behaviour analyses and interviews during natural usage scenarios, we determined the usability issues and user requirements of Chinese elderly for interacting with smart TVs. The research shows that the elderly in China have the intention to use smart TV products, but the usability of interactive systems affects the experience of using a smart TV. The results indicate that different content search methods result in different user experiences. Pinyin search is difficult to operate using a remote control, and some influencing factors are revealed. Voice search results in the best user experience for the elderly, but the recognition accuracy is easily affected by factors such as user accents and environmental noise. Hierarchical search is easy to operate, but it often takes a long time to finish an involved task. Other usability issues of some main functions, i.e. screen mirroring, shopping, playing games, system settings and application downloads, were also obtained, and the requirements of the elderly were well understood. These findings have implications for interaction design and implementation of smart TV service systems.     

Virtualisierung der Kommunikation – Der Beitrag von Informationsreichhaltigkeit für Kooperation

Virtualization of communication by means of information and communication technology supports companies in globally distributed value creation. Cooperation among employees in order to gain economies of scope is of special economical importance. Computer mediated communication like video conferencing and teleconferencing is more and more accompanied by technical information richness. However, in many cases such technologies do not perform as expected, so that the investment does not generate the expected added value. Newer information richness theories claim that this is caused by insufficient user experience with the technologies. The paper reviews the current state of research regarding the impact of computer mediated communication as well as of information richness (objective and subjective) on cooperation. Thus it shows how virtualization of communication can support companies in better exploiting their economical potential.