tocauthor: Stach_T* : Human-Computer Interaction Bibliography Search

Diary Methods in AAA Games User Research Late-Breaking Works: Games & Playful Interaction / Hillman, Serena / Stach, Tad / Procyk, Jason / Zammitto, Veronica Extended Abstracts of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2016-05-07 v.2 p.1879-1885

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Summary: In this paper we present lessons learned from a diary study completed for Electronic Arts' AAA video game NHL16 in August 2015. Key findings suggest that while there is high risk to use the method, there is also great benefit in terms of impact via actionable data and ability to collect rich artifacts to tell the users' stories. To reduce the risk, this work presents a series of suggested guidelines for conducting a diary study in games user research, which has not been investigated in past work. We lay a foundation for diary methods in GUR and how to further improve the method by providing examples and real results through an AAA game example.

Design of an exergaming station for children with cerebral palsy Health & children / Hernandez, Hamilton A. / Graham, T. C. Nicholas / Fehlings, Darcy / Switzer, Lauren / Ye, Zi / Bellay, Quentin / Hamza, Md Ameer / Savery, Cheryl / Stach, Tadeusz Proceedings of ACM CHI 2012 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2012-05-05 v.1 p.2619-2628

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Summary: We report on the design of a novel station supporting the play of exercise video games (exergames) by children with cerebral palsy (CP). The station combines a physical platform allowing children with CP to provide pedaling input into a game, a standard Xbox 360 controller, and algorithms for interpreting the cycling input to improve smoothness and accuracy of gameplay. The station was designed through an iterative and incremental participatory design process involving medical professionals, game designers, computer scientists, kinesiologists, physical therapists, and eight children with CP. It has been tested through observation of its use, through gathering opinions from the children, and through small experimental studies. With our initial design, only three of eight children were capable of playing a cycling-based game; with the final design, seven of eight could cycle effectively, and six reached energy expenditure levels recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine while pedaling unassisted.

PHD-THESIS Heart rate balancing for multiplayer exergames / Stach, Tadeusz B / Graham, Nicholas 2012 p.159 Kingston, Ontario Queen's University, Computing

oclcnum: 815723944

Keywords: Exergames

Keywords: Exercise video game

Keywords: Heart rate

Keywords: Biofeedback

Keywords: Human-Computer Interaction

hdl.handle.net/1974/7525

Summary: Exergames combine physical activity and entertainment in an effort to increase people's motivation to exercise. Multiplayer exergames attempt to include the motivating aspects of group activity by allowing two or more people to play together. In most multiplayer exergames, a player's in-game performance is limited by her physical abilities. Less fit players are demotivated by repeated losses to more fit opponents, while fitter players face a lack of competition from unfit opponents. This situation makes it difficult for people of disparate physical abilities to play exergames together. This research presents heart rate balancing, a novel player balancing technique to better support engaging experiences in multiplayer exergames. Heart rate balancing bases players' in-game performance on their effort relative to fitness level rather than their raw power. More specifically, heart rate monitoring is used to set in-game performance based on how closely a person adheres to her target heart rate. Experiments with heart rate balancing show that the technique improves competition between players. A strong correlation was found between people's perceived effort and their in-game performance with heart rate balancing. The degree to which players noticed the balancing mechanism varied depending on game type. However, heart rate balancing did not interfere with people's ability to play exergames. These results indicate that the heart rate balancing technique is a promising approach for improving enjoyment and engagement in multiplayer exergames

Exploring Haptic Feedback in Exergames Health I / Stach, Tadeusz / Graham, T. C. Nicholas Proceedings of IFIP INTERACT'11: Human-Computer Interaction 2011-09-05 v.2 p.18-35

Keywords: Exergames; haptics; force-feedback; exercise video games; exertion interfaces; active games

Link to Digital Content at Springer

Summary: Exergames combine entertainment and exercise in an effort to encourage people to be more physically active. Although exergames require active input, interactions are less physical than those experienced in real-world exercise. Interactions can feel artificial, limiting the captivating experience exergames aim to provide. To address this problem, haptics have been proposed as a means of providing additional feedback to players through the sense of touch. However, there is very little empirical evidence supporting the benefits of haptics in exergames. To address this, we have identified and evaluated three ways in which haptic feedback can enhance exergames: by helping to balance group exercise among people of different fitness levels, by guiding players toward safe and healthy interaction, and by increasing peoples' sense of virtual presence in exergames. We present three novel exergames incorporating haptic feedback, and report on experiments investigating their success. We find that haptics which are consistent with actions displayed on-screen increase immersion and improve enjoyment. However, we discover pitfalls when using haptics to represent phenomena that do not have a physical basis. These results allow us to present a set of design issues for haptic feedback in exergames.

Target assistance for subtly balancing competitive play Games / Bateman, Scott / Mandryk, Regan L. / Stach, Tadeusz / Gutwin, Carl Proceedings of ACM CHI 2011 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2011-05-07 v.1 p.2355-2364

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Summary: In games where skills such as targeting are critical to winning, it is difficult for players with different skill levels to have a competitive and engaging experience. Although several mechanisms for accommodating different skill levels have been proposed, traditional approaches can be too obvious and can change the nature of the game. For games involving aiming, we propose the use of target assistance techniques (such as area cursors, target gravity, and sticky targets) to accommodate skill imbalances. We compared three techniques in a study, and found that area cursors and target gravity significantly reduced score differential in a shooting-gallery game. Further, less skilled players reported having more fun when the techniques helped them be more competitive, and even after they learned assistance was given, felt that this form of balancing was good for group gameplay. Our results show that target assistance techniques can make target-based games more competitive for shared play.

Classifying input for active games Short papers: Devices for games / Stach, Tadeusz / Graham, T. C. Nicholas / Brehmer, Matthew / Hollatz, Andreas Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology 2009-10-29 p.379-382

ACM Digital Library Link

Summary: Active games are video games that involve physical activity. Active games capture input via a variety of devices such as accelerometers, cameras, pressure sensors and exercise equipment. Although active games have become highly popular, the interaction styles they support are poorly understood, and largely driven by the capabilities of individual hardware devices. In order to allow for a standard development approach, a better understanding of the interaction found in active games is required. We have investigated existing commercial and academic games in order to classify input for active games. Our classification abstracts input from hardware, providing a better understanding of the interaction itself. Our ultimate goal is to make it easier to develop active games independently of underlying input hardware.

Heart rate control of exercise video games Haptics and novel interaction techniques / Stach, Tadeusz / Graham, T. C. Nicholas / Yim, Jeffrey / Rhodes, Ryan E. Proceedings of the 2009 Conference on Graphics Interface 2009-05-25 p.125-132

Keywords: active games, exertion interfaces, heart rate input, kinetic interfaces, multiplayer exercise video games

ACM Digital Library Link

Summary: Exercise video games combine entertainment and physical movement in an effort to encourage people to be more physically active. Multiplayer exercise games take advantage of the motivating aspects of group activity by allowing people to exercise together. However, people of significantly different fitness levels can have a hard time playing together, as large differences in performance can be demotivating. To address this problem, we present heart rate scaling, a mechanism where players' in-game performance is based on their effort relative to their fitness level. Specifically, heart rate monitoring is used to scale performance relative to how closely a person adheres to his/her target heart rate zone. We demonstrate that heart rate scaling reduces the performance gap between people of different fitness levels, and that the scaling mechanism does not significantly affect engagement during gameplay.

Usability heuristics for networked multiplayer games Collaborative tools and technologies II / Pinelle, David / Wong, Nelson / Stach, Tadeusz / Gutwin, Carl GROUP'09: International Conference on Supporting Group Work 2009-05-10 p.169-178

Keywords: NGH, game usability, heuristic evaluation, multiplayer games, networked game heuristics, networked games, usability

ACM Digital Library Link

Summary: Networked multiplayer games must support a much wider variety of interactions than single-player games because networked games involve communication and coordination between players. This means that designers must consider additional usability issues that relate to group play -- but there are currently no usability engineering methods that are specifically oriented towards the needs of multiplayer games. To address this problem, we developed a new set of usability heuristics, called Networked Game Heuristics (NGH), which can be used in the design and evaluation of networked multiplayer games. The new heuristics were identified by analyzing problem reports from 382 reviews of networked PC games, covering six main genres. We aggregated problem reports into ten problem categories (covering issues from session management to cheating to training for novice players) and developed heuristics that describe how these usability problems can be avoided. We tested the new heuristics by having evaluators use them and an existing set to assess the usability of two networked games. Evaluators found more usability problems with NGH, and stated that the new heuristics were better for evaluating multiplayer game usability. Our research is the first to present networked game heuristics that are derived from real problem reports, and the first to evaluate the heuristics' effectiveness in a realistic usability test.

Using genres to customize usability evaluations of video games Game design / Pinelle, David / Wong, Nelson / Stach, Tadeusz Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Future Play 2008-11-03 p.129-136

Keywords: game genres, heuristic evaluation, usability evaluation, video games

ACM Digital Library Link

Summary: Video games are varied, with vastly different visual layouts and interaction styles; however, most games that share a common genre still have many user interface similarities. These similarities suggest that genres can be used as a conceptual framework for examining design issues in video games, and for developing a deeper understanding of how the design process can be specialized for specific types of games. In this paper, we consider how genre relates to one aspect of design -- the usability of games, which deals with players' ability to learn, control, and understand a game interface. We report results from a study where we coded usability problems in reviews of 108 commercial video games. The review set included 18 games from each of six major game genres. We statistically analyzed the problems from each genre, and found significant differences between many of the genres. We present usability profiles for each genre based on the problem distributions that we found. The profiles describe both common and infrequent problems in each genre and provide details on how they commonly occur in games. The profiles can be used to specialize usability evaluations by helping designers focus on common problems seen in games from each genre.

The Effects of Co-Present Embodiments on Awareness and Collaboration in Tabletop Groupware Large Displays / Pinelle, David / Nacenta, Miguel / Gutwin, Carl / Stach, Tadeusz Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Graphics Interface 2008-05-28 p.1-8

Summary: Most current tabletop groupware systems use direct touch, where people manipulate objects by touching them with a pen or a fingertip. The use of people's real arms and hands provides obvious awareness information, but workspace access is limited by the user's reach. Relative input techniques, where users manipulate a cursor rather than touching objects directly, allow users to reach all areas of the table. However, the only available awareness information comes from the virtual embodiment of the user (e.g., their cursor). This presents designers with a tradeoff: direct-touch techniques have advantages for group awareness; relative input techniques offer additional power but less awareness information. In this paper, we explore this tradeoff, and we explore the design space of virtual embodiments to determine whether factors such as size, realism, and visibility can improve awareness and coordination. We conducted a study in which seven groups carried out a picture-categorizing task using seven techniques: direct touch and relative input with six different virtual embodiments. Our results provide both valuable information to designers of tabletop groupware, and a number of new directions for future research.

Improving recognition and characterization in groupware with rich embodiments Faces & bodies in interaction / Stach, Tadeusz / Gutwin, Carl / Pinelle, David / Irani, Pourang Proceedings of ACM CHI 2007 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2007-04-28 v.1 p.11-20

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Summary: Embodiments are visual representations of people in a groupware system. Embodiments convey awareness information such as presence, location, and movement -- but they provide far less information than what is available from a real body in a face-to-face setting. As a result, it is often difficult to recognize and characterize other people in a groupware system without extensive communication. To address this problem, information-rich embodiments use ideas from multivariate information visualization to maximize the amount of information that is represented about a person. To investigate the feasibility of rich embodiment and their effects on group interaction, we carried out three studies. The first shows that users are able to recall and interpret a large set of variables that are graphically encoded on an embodiment. The second and third studies demonstrated rich embodiments in two groupware systems -- a multiplayer game and a drawing application -- and showed that the enhanced representations do improve recognition and characterization, and that they can enrich interaction in a variety of ways.

Superflick: a natural and efficient technique for long-distance object placement on digital tables Gesture and interaction / Reetz, Adrian / Gutwin, Carl / Stach, Tadeusz / Nacenta, Miguel / Subramanian, Sriram Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Graphics Interface 2006-06-07 p.163-170

ACM Digital Library Citation

Summary: Moving objects past arms' reach is a common action in both real-world and digital tabletops. In the real world, the most common way to accomplish this task is by throwing or sliding the object across the table. Sliding is natural, easy to do, and fast: however, in digital tabletops, few existing techniques for long-distance movement bear any resemblance to these real-world motions. We have designed and evaluated two tabletop interaction techniques that closely mimic the action of sliding an object across the table. Flick is an open-loop technique that is extremely fast. Superflick is based on Flick, but adds a correction step to improve accuracy for small targets. We carried out two user studies to compare these techniques to a fast and accurate proxy-based technique, the radar view. In the first study, we found that Flick is significantly faster than the radar for large targets, but is inaccurate for small targets. In the second study, we found no differences between Superflick and radar for either time or accuracy. Given the simplicity and learnability of flicking, our results suggest that throwing-based techniques have promise for improving the usability of digital tables.