Evaluating user experience of adaptive digital educational games with Activity Theory

Adaptive digital educational games (DEGs) providing players with relevant interventions can enhance gameplay experience. This advance in game design, however, renders the user experience (UX) evaluation of DEGs even more challenging. To tackle this challenge, we developed a four-dimension evaluation framework (i.e., gaming experience, learning experience, adaptivity, and usability) and applied it to an empirical study with a DEG on teaching geography. Mixed-method approaches were adopted to collect data with 16 boys aged 10–11. Specifically, a so-called Dyadic User Experience Tests (DUxT) was employed; participants were paired up to assume different roles during gameplay. Learning efficacy was evaluated with a pre-post intervention measurement using a domain-specific questionnaire. Learning experience, gaming experiences and usability were evaluated with intensive in situ observations and interviews guided by a multidimensional scheme; content analysis of these transcribed audio data was supplemented by video analysis. Effectiveness of adaptivity algorithms was planned to be evaluated with automatic logfiles, which, unfortunately, could not be realised due to some technical problem. Nonetheless, the user-based data could offer some insights into this issue. Furthermore, we attempted to bridge the existing gap in UX research – the lack of theoretical frameworks in understanding user experience – by adopting Engeström's (1987) extended framework of Activity Theory (AT) that provides contextual information essential for understanding contradictions and breakdowns observed in the interactions between the game players. The dyadic gameplay setting allows us to explore the issue of group UX. Implications for further applications of the AT framework in the UX research, especially the interplay between evaluation and redesign (i.e., downstream utility of UX evaluation methods), are discussed.     

Key factors that influence the UX of a dual-player game for the cognitive stimulation and motor rehabilitation of older adults

Universal Access in the Information Society - In this work, the results of usability and user experience (UX) evaluation of a serious video game for the cognitive stimulation and motor...     

Gender and Computer Games: Exploring Females' Dislikes

On average, girls and women are less involved with video games than are boys and men, and when they do play, they often prefer different games. This article reports two studies that investigated the dislikes of German females with regard to video games. Study 1 applied conjoint analysis to female respondents' ( N = 317) ratings of fictional video games and demonstrated that lack of meaningful social interaction, followed by violent content and sexual gender role stereotyping of game characters, were the most important reasons why females disliked the games. Study 2, an online survey ( N = 795), revealed that female respondents were less attracted to competitive elements in video games, suggesting an explanation for gender-specific game preferences. These findings are discussed with respect to communication theory on interactive entertainment and their implications for applied video game design.     

Design and evaluation of user’s physical experience in an Ambient Interactive Storybook and full body interaction games

The paper presents the design and evaluation of an original Ambient Interactive Storybook (AIS) for children, including its platform, the background story, and 10 full body interactive games. The evaluation, which focused on the user’s physical experience and elements important to the designer, has been methodologically derived from the Kroflič’s and Laban’s framework Body, Space, Time and Relationship, and additionally supported by sport science measurements. An experiment with 8 participants playing 10 games for 20 min was conducted and recorded to a digital video. Participants’ physical experience was evaluated through the analysis of postures, the quality of the movement, the body parts used in the interaction, the playing area, the direction of movement, direction of gaze, tempo, dynamics and the quantity of motion (QoM). Results of the experiment are discussed in relation and with implications for game design. Conclusions are drawn with the summary of main findings, to better understand the mechanisms and principles involved the design of user’s physical activity in full body interactive games for children. The theoretical work of Laban and Kroflič proved to be useful for interaction and games design in the transition from desktop to full body interactive games.     

Developing a model to evaluate and improve user experience with hand motions in virtual reality environments

Universal Access in the Information Society - In video games, the evaluation of the user experience (UX) mainly refers to two main groups of aspects, those that refer to the player that is mainly...     

The winner takes it all: The effect of in-game success and need satisfaction on mood repair and enjoyment

Recent research found that playing video games is able to serve mood management purposes as well as contribute to gratifications such as need satisfaction. Both aspects can foster the enjoyment as entertainment experience. The current study explores the question of how in-game success as a prerequisite for satisfying the need for competence and autonomy positively influences mood repair and game enjoyment. In a laboratory setting, participants were frustrated via a highly stressing math task and then played a video game (Mario Kart). Results show that in-game success drives mood repair as reflected in the experience of anger, happiness and activation. Moreover, fulfilling the intrinsic needs for competence and autonomy mediated the effects of in-game success and predicted enjoyment of the video game. Results are discussed in context of recent conceptualizations of media entertainment and the hierarchical order of emotional gratifications.     

A psychometric user experience model based on fuzzy measure approaches

User experience (UX) is considered a key quality of interactive products in today’s competitive mass markets and is of growing interest in both academia and industry. UX concerns the encounters a user has while interacting with products, systems, and services. It is ubiquitous, omnipresent, and dynamic in nature, referring to the non-quantifiable, subjective, affective-based, and context-dependent processes. UX is difficult for researchers to objectively and uniformly measure as it involves complex human perceptual interpretations of experiential responses with a certain degree of uncertainty, imprecision, and vagueness. Based on the user experience questionnaire (UEQ), this paper presents a psychometric UX model using fuzzy measure approaches, the purpose of which is to develop a metric for quantitative assessment of certain product UXs through a user experience index (UXI). This model enables researchers to understand users’ perceptions of the interactions that constitute qualities of using a specific product. An empirical study concerning the episodic UX measures of using a set of touch mice was conducted to verify the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed UX model. The theoretical and practical implications of the UX model are also discussed.     

The Librarian as Video Game Player

Despite media coverage that is usually negative or non-existent, digital (video) game playing is a major form of entertainment for significant numbers of people in developed countries. This paper begins with a brief outline of what these games are, who plays them and why there is interest within the library community. We then move through several examples of the current direct impact of digital games on libraries. This is followed by more abstract examples of how video games could, and do, influence library practise and technology. Attributes of online games are discussed, focusing on one particular game, Second Life. This game is used widely within the library community, with many librarians spending significant time developing avatars, open services and infrastructure. The paper concludes with a summary of the ten attributes of video game players, found across the research literature body, that are of relevance to digital information and library services.     

Geogames: Designing Location-Based Games from Classic Board Games

The traditional image of interactive entertainment - games that reduce players' physical involvement to moving a joy stick - is obsolete. Games researchers and designers are already integrating complex movement into games. Location-based games involve body movements beyond figural space - that is, beyond the space of computer screens and small 3D objects. They focus on locomotion in vista space, typically a single room or sports field, or in environmental space, such as a neighborhood or city. Several location-based games have been designed for environmental space using localization technologies such as GPS. Some are adaptations of popular computer games, and others are rather straightforward chase games. A third type of game - what we call challenging location-based games - combines the intellectual and strategic appeal of classic board games with the real-time locomotion and physical involvement of location-based games. Furthermore, a straightforward approach to the spatial mapping of classic board games doesn't work. Instead, we developed the Geogames framework, which uses search techniques to identify a single temporal parameter for balancing sportive versus strategic elements     

Interactive movie elements in a pervasive game

This paper presents our research initiatives around new user experiences in the area of pervasive mixed reality crossmedia gaming. In a prototypical game, The Epidemic Menace, we combined static and interactive story telling elements to create a mixed reality experience. As part of this research initiative we also investigated how elements of the real world and virtual worlds could produce a new environment where physical and digital objects can co-exist and interact with each other, we wanted to evaluate how linear stories could be integrated into a game flow and how they could be used to extend game experiences. A new form of interactive entertainment that is not limited to hardware based games or linear storylines but includes a truly interactive TV experience was one of our goals.     

Converging coolness and investigating its relation to user experience

Recently a number of studies appeared that operationalised coolness and explored its relation to digital products. Literature suggests that perceived coolness is another factor of user experience, and this adds to an existing explosion of dimensions related to aesthetics, hedonic quality, pragmatic quality, attractiveness, etc. A critical challenge highlighted in prior research is to study the relationships among those factors and so far, no studies have empirically examined the relationship between coolness and other established user experience factors. In this paper, we address this challenge by presenting two studies one that focuses on factors from two cool questionnaires, and one that compares them against existing User eXperience (UX) factors. Our findings show that factors from the two cool questionnaires converge and they also converge to existing, established UX factors. Thus, 11 distinct cool and UX factors converge into 5 for the case of mobile devices. Our findings are important for researchers, as we demonstrate through a validated model that coolness is part of UX research, as well as for practitioners, by developing a questionnaire that can reliably measure both perceived inner and outer coolness as well as the overall coolness judgement based on 5 factors and 21 items.     

From visual simulation to virtual reality to games

During the past decades, the virtual reality community has based its development on a synthesis of earlier work in interactive 3D graphics, user interfaces, and visual simulation. Currently, the VR field is transitioning into work influenced by video games. Because much of the research and development being conducted in the games community parallels the VR community's efforts, it has the potential to affect a greater audience. Given these trends, VR researchers who want their work to remain relevant must realign to focus on game research and development. Leveraging technology from the visual simulation and virtual reality communities, serious games provide a delivery system for organizational video game instruction and training.     

Analyzing the Role of Interactivity in User Experience

An experimental investigation into the role of interaction in user experience (UX) with a controlled manipulation of interactivity features (e.g., avatars, interactive video) in a university information website is reported. The more interactive version had better affect and hedonic ratings, even though its perceived usability was worse. Analysis of qualitative data showed users were attracted to the interactive features, although they complained about poor usability. The results of the experiments are discussed to consider the role of interactivity in UX and the differences between users’ quantitative judgments of UX and their comments on interactive features, which reveal different perspectives.     

FANTASIA: a framework for advanced natural tools and applications in social,interactive approaches

With the recent availability of industry-grade, high-performing engines for video games production, researchers in different fields have been exploiting the advanced technologies offered by these artefacts to improve the quality of the interactive experiences they design. While these engines provide excellent and easy-to-use tools to design interfaces and complex rule-based systems to control the experience, there are some aspects of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research they do not support in the same way because of their original mission and related design patterns pointing at a different primary target audience. In particular, the more research in HCI evolves towards natural, socially engaging approaches, the more there is the need to rapidly design and deploy software architectures to support these new paradigms. Topics such as knowledge representation, probabilistic reasoning and voice synthesis demand space as possible instruments within this new ideal design environment. In this work, we propose a framework, named FANTASIA, designed to integrate a set of chosen modules (a graph database, a dialogue manager, a game engine and a voice synthesis engine) and support rapid design and implementation of interactive applications for HCI studies. We will present a number of different case studies to exemplify how the proposed tools can be deployed to develop very different kinds of interactive applications and we will discuss ongoing and future work to further extend the framework we propose.

     

Guest Editors' Introduction: Intelligent Systems for Interactive Entertainment

This special issue presents research in innovative aspects of intelligent interactive entertainment (IE) that haven't seen much publication yet. AI researchers find IE interesting because it requires systems that think, behave, and interact the way that real people do. An invited article discusses the challenges, important trends, and future directions for intelligent IE. The other selected articles deal with a variety of topics: generating nonrepetitive behavior of nonplayer characters in video games; 3D virtual characters using speech, posture, pointing, and involuntary movements to interact with 2D presentations; applying a movie set metaphor to manage multiple software agents in dynamic scenarios; using spatial and temporal coherence as constraints for defining synchronization of actions and turn-taking in location-based games; adding humorous one-liners to text-based applications; and a user interface in which objects react and adapt to the user's focus of attention. This article is part of a special issue on interactive entertainment.     

Is the use of information and communication technology related to performance in working memory tasks? Evidence from seventh-grade students

The main purpose of this study was to assess whether seventh-grade students use of information and communication technology (ICT) was related to performance on working memory tasks. In addition, the study tested whether the relationship between ICT use and performance on working memory tasks interacted with seventh-grade students’ socioeconomic level and gender. 275 students recruited from 30 Chilean schools were grouped according to their self-reported use of PC, the Internet, Chat and Video games. To assess students’ working memory performance, they were tested with a digit span test and a visuo-spatial measure. Only one of our two dependent variables reflected a relationship between specific profiles of ICT use and working memory. Higher scores on the digits span test were related to those user profiles combining PC use and video game play, that is, those identified as Full users and as PC and Console Gamers. We did not find an interaction effect of gender and ICT use or an interaction effect of socioeconomic level and ICT use. There are three possible explanations for these results: first, a proclivity of students with higher working memory capacity to engage in technology use; second, an impact on working memory of potential differences in multitasking; and, third, an impact on working memory of video game play. However, these results must be interpreted cautiously since scores on the GEFT, our visuo-spatial working memory measure, were not related to any profile of technology use. As serious educational games become more regularly used at school, previous differences in video game experience become growingly important. Future research must study whether the intended benefits of serious educational games are being mediated by individual differences in previous exposure to video games and other information and computer technologies, with independence of the directionality of the relationship between video game play and working memory.     

The effect of violent and non-violent computer games on cognitive performance

Two studies were conducted in order to determine the impact computer games had on the cognitive performance. Study 1 evaluated a measure of cognition, which incorporates aspects of short-term working memory, visual attention, mathematical decision making, and auditory perception. Study 2 measured the cognitive performance between those who did not play video games versus those who played either a violent or non-violent video game. Results from Study 1 indicate participants needed approximately four trials to reach asymptotic performance on the cognitive measure. Results of Study 2 showed that participants who did not play any video game did not have a change in their cognitive performance, while those who played either a violent or non-violent video game had an increase in their cognitive performance.     

Implementing digital game-based learning in schools: augmented learning environment of ‘Europe 2045’

It is widely agreed that the traditional process of schooling can benefit from the usage of computers as supportive tools. Of various approaches using computers in education over the last decade, e-learning and edutainment have become the most prominent. Recently, a number of authors have criticised these approaches arguing that they conserve traditional ‘drill and practice’ behaviouristic methods of teaching instead of enhancing and augmenting them. It has been proposed that a ‘paradigm shift’ is needed and that this shift may come through utilizing all the advantages of full-fledged video games, so-called digital game-based learning (DGBL). However, several case studies reported serious problems with the DGBL. Among the most notable issues are the lack of acceptance of games as an educational tool, problems with integration of games into formal schooling environments, and the so-called transfer problem, which is the problem of the inherent tension between game play and learning objectives, the tension that mitigates the ability of students to transfer knowledge gained in the video game to the real-world context. Here, we present a framework for an augmented learning environment (ALE), which verbalises one way of how these problems can be challenged. The ALE framework has been constructed based on our experience with the educational game, Europe 2045, which we developed and which has been implemented in a number of secondary schools in the Czech Republic during 2008. The key feature of this game is that it combines principles of on-line multi-player computer games with social, role-playing games. The evaluation which we present in this paper indicates the successful integration of the game and its acceptance by teachers and students. The ALE framework isolates key principles of the game contributing to this success, abstracts them into theoretical entities we call action-based spaces and causal and grounding links, and condenses them in a coherent methodological structure, which paves the way for further exploitation of the DGBL by educational game researchers and designers.     

Player–video game interaction: A systematic review of current concepts

Video game design requires a user-centered approach to ensure that the experience enjoyed by players is as good as possible. However, the nature of player–video game interactions has not as yet been clearly defined in the scientific literature. The purpose of the present study was to provide a systematic review of empirical evidences of the current concepts of player–video game interactions in entertainment situations. A total of 72 articles published in scientific journals that deal with human–computer interaction met the criteria for inclusion in the present review. Major findings of these articles were presented in a narrative synthesis. Results showed that player–video game interactions could be defined with multiple concepts that are closely linked and intertwined. These concepts concern player aspects of player–video game interactions, namely engagement and enjoyment, and video game aspects, namely information input/output techniques, game contents and multiplayer games. Global approaches, such as playability, also exist to qualify player–video game interactions. Limitations of these findings are discussed to help researchers to plan future advances of the field and provide supplementary effort to better know the role of less-studied aspects. Practical implications are also discussed to help game designers to optimize the design of player–video game interactions.