[1]
How Disclosing Skill Assistance Affects Play Experience in a Multiplayer
First-Person Shooter Game
Supporting Player Performance
/
Depping, Ansgar E.
/
Mandryk, Regan L.
/
Li, Chengzhao
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Vicencio-Moreira, Rodrigo
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.3462-3472
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: In social play settings, it can be difficult for people with different skill
levels to play a game together. Player balancing that provides skill assistance
for the weaker player can allow for enjoyable play experiences; however,
previous research (and conventional wisdom) has suggested that skill assistance
should be kept hidden to avoid perceptions of unfairness. We carried out a
study to test how disclosing skill assistance affects player experience. We
found -- surprisingly -- that disclosing assistance did not harm play
experience; players were more influenced by the benefits of equalized
performance resulting from assistance than by their knowledge of the assist. We
introduce the idea of attribution biases to help explain why awareness was not
harmful -- people tend to take credit for their successes, but attribute
failures externally. We discuss how game designers can incorporate skill
assistance to build multiplayer games that improve experiences for a wide range
of players.
[2]
Faster Command Selection on Touchscreen Watches
Interaction with Small Displays
/
Lafreniere, Benjamin
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Cockburn, Andy
/
Grossman, Tovi
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.4663-4674
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: Small touchscreens worn on the wrist are becoming increasingly common, but
standard interaction techniques for these devices can be slow, requiring a
series of coarse swipes and taps to perform an action. To support faster
command selection on watches, we investigate two related interaction techniques
that exploit spatial memory. WristTap uses multitouch to allow selection in a
single action, and TwoTap uses a rapid combination of two sequential taps. In
three quantitative studies, we investigate the design and performance of these
techniques in comparison to standard methods. Results indicate that both
techniques are feasible, able to accommodate large numbers of commands, and
fast users are able to quickly learn the techniques and reach performance of
1.0 seconds per selection, which is approximately one-third of the time of
standard commercial techniques. We also provide insights into the types of
applications for which these techniques are well-suited, and discuss how the
techniques could be extended.
[3]
Supporting Transitions to Expertise in Hidden Toolbars
Interaction with Small Displays
/
Schramm, Katherine
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Cockburn, Andy
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.4687-4698
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: Hidden toolbars are becoming common on mobile devices. These techniques
maximize the space available for application content by keeping tools
off-screen until needed. However, current designs require several actions to
make a selection, and they do not provide shortcuts for users who have become
familiar with the toolbar. To better understand the performance capabilities
and tradeoffs involved in hidden toolbars, we outline a design space that
captures the key elements of these controls, and report on an empirical
evaluation of four designs. Two of our designs provide shortcuts that are based
on the user's spatial memory of item locations. The study found that toolbars
with spatial-memory shortcuts had significantly better performance (700ms
faster) than standard designs currently in use. Participants quickly learned
the shortcut selection method (although switching to a memory-based method led
to higher error rates than the visually-guided techniques). Participants
strongly preferred one of the shortcut methods that allowed selections by
swiping across the screen bezel at the location of the desired item. This work
shows that shortcut techniques are feasible and desirable on touch devices, and
shows that spatial memory can provide a foundation for designing shortcuts.
[4]
Peak-End Effects on Player Experience in Casual Games
Engaging Players in Games
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Rooke, Christianne
/
Cockburn, Andy
/
Mandryk, Regan L.
/
Lafreniere, Benjamin
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.5608-5619
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: The peak-end rule is a psychological heuristic observing that people's
retrospective assessment of an experience is strongly influenced by the
intensity of the peak and final moments of that experience. We examine how
aspects of game player experience are influenced by peak-end manipulations to
the sequence of events in games that are otherwise objectively identical. A
first experiment examines players' retrospective assessments of two games (a
pattern matching game based on Bejeweled and a point-and-click reaction game)
when the sequence of difficulty is manipulated to induce positive, negative and
neutral peak-end effects. A second experiment examines assessments of a
shootout game in which the balance between challenge and skill is similarly
manipulated. Results across the games show that recollection of challenge was
strongly influenced by peak-end effects; however, results for fun, enjoyment,
and preference to repeat were varied -- sometimes significantly in favour of
the hypothesized effects, sometimes insignificant, but never against the
hypothesis.
[5]
HandMark Menus: Rapid Command Selection and Large Command Sets on
Multi-Touch Displays
Large Display Interaction
/
Uddin, Md. Sami
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Lafreniere, Benjamin
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2016-05-07
v.1
p.5836-5848
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: Command selection on large multi-touch surfaces can be difficult, because
the large surface means that there are few landmarks to help users build up
familiarity with controls. However, people's hands and fingers are landmarks
that are always present when interacting with a touch display. To explore the
use of hands as landmarks, we designed two hand-centric techniques for
multi-touch displays -- one allowing 42 commands, and one allowing 160 -- and
tested them in an empirical comparison against standard tab widgets. We found
that the small version (HandMark-Fingers) was significantly faster at all
stages of use, and that the large version (HandMark-Multi) was slower at the
start but equivalent to tabs after people gained experience with the technique.
There was no difference in error rates, and participants strongly preferred
both of the HandMark menus over tabs. We demonstrate that people's intimate
knowledge of their hands can be the basis for fast and feasible interaction
techniques that can improve the performance and usability of interactive tables
and other multi-touch systems.
[6]
Quantifying Individual Differences, Skill Development, and Fatigue Effects
in Small-Scale Exertion Interfaces
Exert Yourself
/
Sheinin, Mike
/
Gutwin, Carl
Proceedings of the 2015 ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human
Interaction in Play
2015-10-05
p.57-66
© Copyright 2015 ACM
Summary: Game mechanics in sports video games for skills like running and throwing
are nothing like those skills in real sports. Adding small-scale exertion to
the control scheme -- using small muscle groups such as hands and fingers --
can re-introduce some degree of physicality into sports video games. However,
there is little quantitative knowledge about how small-scale exertion affects
individual variability, skill development, or fatigue -- and how it compares to
traditional game mechanics. We carried out two studies to provide this
quantitative information. Our studies showed that controlling movement with
small-scale exertion was significantly and substantially different from
rate-based control, and that both movement and passing skills showed
significant increases with practice. Our work provides valuable information
that can help designers decide when and how to use small-scale exertion, and
provides an empirical basis for the design of new game interaction techniques.
[7]
Effects of arm embodiment on implicit coordination, co-presence, and
awareness in mixed-focus distributed tabletop tasks
Working with others
/
Doucette, Andre
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Mandryk, Regan
Proceedings of the 2015 Conference on Graphics Interface
2015-06-03
p.131-138
© Copyright 2015 ACM
Summary: Mixed-focus collaboration occurs when people work on individual tasks in a
shared space -- and although their tasks may not be directly linked, they still
need to maintain awareness and manage access to shared resources. This kind of
collaboration is common on tables, where people often use the same space to
carry out work that is only loosely coupled. At physical tables, people easily
manage to coordinate access to the table surface and the artifacts on it,
because people have years of experience interacting around other physical
bodies. At distributed digital tabletops, however, where there is no physical
body for the remote person, many of the natural cues used to manage mixed-focus
collaboration are missing. To compensate, distributed groupware often uses
digital embodiments. On digital touch tables, however, we know little about how
these embodiments affect coordination and awareness. We carried out an
empirical study of how four factors in an arm embodiment (transparency, input
technique, visual fidelity, and tactile feedback) affected implicit
coordination, awareness, and co-presence. We found that although some
embodiments affected subjective feelings of co-presence or awareness, there
were no changes in table behavior -- people acted as if the other person did
not exist. These findings show the possibilities and limitations of digital arm
embodiments, and suggest that the natural advantages of tables for
collaboration may not extend to distributed tables.
[8]
Testing the rehearsal hypothesis with two FastTap interfaces
Interaction techniques
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Cockburn, Andy
/
Lafreniere, Benjamin
Proceedings of the 2015 Conference on Graphics Interface
2015-06-03
p.223-231
© Copyright 2015 ACM
Summary: Rehearsal-based interfaces such as Marking Menus or FastTap are designed to
enable smooth transitions from novice to expert performance by making the
novice's visually-guided actions a physical rehearsal of the expert's
feedback-free actions. However, these interfaces have not been extensively
tested in real use. We carried out studies of the adoption of rehearsal-based
expert methods in two dissimilar applications -- a game that directly rewards
rapid selections, and a drawing program that has no particular need for
urgency. Results showed very different patterns of use for the guidance-free
expert method. In the game, participants quickly switched to sustained use of
expert selections, whereas few users regularly used the expert method in the
drawing program, even after ten weeks and more than 1800 selections. These
studies show that rehearsal alone does not guarantee that users will switch to
expert methods, and that additional factors affect users' decisions about what
methods to use. Our studies also revealed several issues that should be
considered by designers of rehearsal-based techniques -- such as perceived risk
in making selections without visual guidance, the value of guidance that shows
possible options in the UI, and training that reminds users of an expert method
and motivates its use.
[9]
Quantifying and Mitigating the Negative Effects of Local Latencies on Aiming
in 3D Shooter Games
Improving Game Experiences
/
Ivkovic, Zenja
/
Stavness, Ian
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Sutcliffe, Steven
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'15 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2015-04-18
v.1
p.135-144
© Copyright 2015 ACM
Summary: Real-time games such as first-person shooters (FPS) are sensitive to even
small amounts of lag. The effects of net-work latency have been studied, but
less is known about local latency, the lag caused by input devices and
displays. While local latency is important to gamers, we do not know how it
affects aiming performance and whether we can reduce its negative effects. To
explore these issues, we tested local latency in a variety of real-world gaming
scenarios and carried out a controlled study focusing on targeting and tracking
activities in an FPS game with varying degrees of local latency. In addition,
we tested the ability of a lag compensation technique (based on aim assistance)
to mitigate the negative effects. Our study found local latencies in the
real-world range from 23 to 243 ms which cause significant and substantial
degradation in performance (even for latencies as low as 41 ms). The study also
showed that our compensation technique worked extremely well, reducing the
problems caused by lag in the case of targeting, and removing the problem
altogether in the case of tracking. Our work shows that local latency is a real
and substantial problem -- but games can mitigate the problem with appropriate
compensation methods.
[10]
Examining the Peak-End Effects of Subjective Experience
Understanding & Evaluating Performance
/
Cockburn, Andy
/
Quinn, Philip
/
Gutwin, Carl
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'15 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2015-04-18
v.1
p.357-366
© Copyright 2015 ACM
Summary: Psychological research has shown that 'peak-end' effects influence people's
retrospective evaluation of hedonic and affective experience. Rather than
objectively reviewing the total amount of pleasure or pain during an
experience, people's evaluation is shaped by the most intense moment (the peak)
and the final moment (end). We describe an experiment demonstrating that
peak-end effects can influence a user's preference for interaction sequences
that are objectively identical in their overall requirements. Participants were
asked to choose which of two interactive sequences of five pages they
preferred. Both sequences required setting a total of 25 sliders to target
values, and differed only in the distribution of the sliders across the five
pages -- with one sequence intended to induce positive peak-end effects, the
other negative. The study found that manipulating only the peak or the end of
the series did not significantly change preference, but that a combined
manipulation of both peak and end did lead to significant differences in
preference, even though all series had the same overall effort.
[11]
Now You Can Compete With Anyone: Balancing Players of Different Skill Levels
in a First-Person Shooter Game
Player Performance & Experience in Games
/
Vicencio-Moreira, Rodrigo
/
Mandryk, Regan L.
/
Gutwin, Carl
Proceedings of the ACM CHI'15 Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
2015-04-18
v.1
p.2255-2264
© Copyright 2015 ACM
Summary: When player skill levels differ widely in a competitive First-Person Shooter
(FPS) game, enjoyment suffers: weaker players become frustrated and stronger
players become less engaged. Player balancing techniques attempt to assist the
weaker player and make games more competitive, but these techniques have
limitations for deployment when skill levels vary substantially. We developed
new player balancing schemes to deal with a range of FPS skill difference, and
tested these techniques in one-on-one deathmatches using a commercial-quality
FPS game developed with the UDK engine. Our results showed that the new
balancing schemes are extremely effective at balancing, even for players with
large skill differences. Surprisingly, the techniques that were most effective
at balancing were also rated as most enjoyable by both players -- even though
these schemes were the most noticeable. Our study is the first to show that
player balancing can work well in realistic FPS games, providing developers
with a way to increase the audience for this popular genre. In addition, our
results demonstrate the idea that successful balancing is as much about the way
the technique is applied as it is about the specific manipulation.
[12]
Jelly Polo: True Sport-Like Competition Using Small-Scale Exertion
Student Games Competition
/
Sheinin, Mike
/
Gutwin, Carl
Extended Abstracts of the ACM CHI'15 Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems
2015-04-18
v.2
p.85-88
© Copyright 2015 ACM
Summary: Sports video games attempt to be the best possible simulation of their
real-world sport counterpart; the graphics are near perfect, the physics are
highly realistic, and the in-game statistics of each character closely
represent the real-world person they are mimicking. Overall, this has led to
sports video games being heavily based on statistical simulations (e.g., how
high a shot statistic is determines the success of a shot, not player skill).
This takes away from the sport-like aspect of true competition between the
players of the game. Jelly Polo is a team-based sports video game which uses
small-scale exertion. By providing small-scale exertion, in terms of movement,
players can gain expertise development, have individual differences in how they
play, and get tired during the course of a game. This makes the game more
sport-like and competitive because players have to work to strategize as a
team, counter-balance fatigue, and increase their physical and mental skills to
win against opponents.
[13]
The Effects of View Portals on Performance and Awareness in Co-Located
Tabletop Groupware
Framing Collaboration: Systems and Analysis
/
Pinelle, David
/
Gutwin, Carl
Proceedings of ACM CSCW 2015 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative
Work and Social Computing
2015-02-28
v.1
p.195-206
© Copyright 2015 ACM
Summary: Tabletop work surfaces have natural advantages for co-located collaboration,
but also have physical constraints that can make group work difficult. View
portals have been proposed as a way to provide access to other parts of a table
surface, and as a way to re-orient content for group members in different
locations; however, there is little research on whether portals really do
improve group performance, how much they help, and whether they change other
aspects of collaboration. We report on two studies that evaluate the effects of
portals on group performance and behavior. Our first study showed significant
performance advantages for portals: people were able to complete tasks more
quickly and with more equal division of labor. Our second study, with a
realistic design task, showed that people used portals extensively and saw them
as valuable, but that they affected people's ability to maintain awareness,
coordinate access to objects, and understand the organization of the workspace.
Our work demonstrates benefits and potential drawbacks of portals for tables,
and suggests that designers should carefully consider both individual and group
needs before implementing these and other tabletop view augmentations.
[14]
The Effect of View Techniques on Collaboration and Awareness in Tabletop
Map-Based Tasks
Session 3: Surfaces for Geo-Applications
/
Bortolaso, Christophe
/
Oskamp, Matthew
/
Phillips, Greg
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Graham, T. C. Nicholas
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Conference on Interactive
Tabletops and Surfaces
2014-11-16
p.79-88
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Digital tabletops have become a natural medium for collaborative planning
activities involving maps. Such activities are typically mixed-focus, where
users switch between high-level and detailed views of the map and between
individual and collaborative work. A wide range of view-sharing techniques such
as lenses, zooming and radar views provide both shared and individual access to
the same workspace. However, it is not yet sufficiently clear how the choice of
view techniques affects collaboration in mixed-focus scenarios. In this paper,
we explore the effect of different view techniques on collaborative map-based
tasks around tables. We report on two studies in the context of military
planning, one in a controlled environment and one in an open-ended scenario
carried out by domain experts. Our findings show how the success of different
techniques is sensitive to the form of collaboration and to the proximity of
work on the table.
[15]
Improving player balancing in racing games
Research paper presentations
/
Cechanowicz, Jared E.
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Bateman, Scott
/
Mandryk, Regan
/
Stavness, Ian
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human
Interaction in Play
2014-10-19
p.47-56
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: In competitive games where players' skill levels are mismatched, the play
experience can be unsatisfying for both stronger and weaker players. Player
balancing provides assistance for less-skilled players in order to make games
more competitive and engaging. Although player balancing can be seen in many
real-world games, there is little work on the design and effectiveness of these
techniques outside of shooting games. In this paper we provide new knowledge
about player balancing in the popular and competitive racing genre. We studied
issues of noticeability and balancing effectiveness in a prototype racing game,
and tested the effects of several balancing techniques on performance and play
experience. The techniques significantly improved the balance of player
performance, were preferred by both experts and novices, increased novices'
feelings of competitiveness, and did not detract from experts' experience. Our
results provide new understanding of the design and use of player balancing for
racing games, and provide novel techniques that can also be applied to other
genres.
[16]
Jelly polo: increasing richness and competition in sports games using
small-scale exertion
Student games competitions
/
Sheinin, Mike
/
Gutwin, Carl
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human
Interaction in Play
2014-10-19
p.367-370
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Sports video games should be inherently competitive, but they fall short in
providing true competition for the players. The emphasis on statistical
simulations in traditional sports video games has taken away the ability for
players to gain expertise development, differentiate how they play from other
players, and change the way they play throughout the course of the game. Jelly
Polo, a 2D 3-on-3 sports video game uses small-scale exertion to counter the
drawbacks stated above. By providing impulse-based movement and precision
passing, players can gain expertise in running and passing, differentiating how
they play. The small-scale exertion aspect also makes players fatigued, forcing
them to strategize how they play throughout the course of a game. Jelly Polo is
the first game to show that small-scale exertion can increase the richness and
competitiveness in sports video games.
[17]
The effectiveness (or lack thereof) of aim-assist techniques in first-person
shooter games
Understanding and designing games
/
Vicencio-Moreira, Rodrigo
/
Mandryk, Regan L.
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Bateman, Scott
Proceedings of ACM CHI 2014 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2014-04-26
v.1
p.937-946
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Aim-assistance techniques have been shown to work for player balancing in 2D
environments, but little information exists about how well these techniques
will work in a 3D FPS game. We carried out three studies of the performance of
five different aim assists in an Unreal-based game world. The assists worked
well in a target-range scenario (study 1), but their performance was reduced
when game elements were introduced in a walkthrough map (study 2). We
systematically examined the relationships between realistic game elements and
assist performance (study 3). These studies show that two techniques -- bullet
magnetism and area cursor -- worked well in a wide variety of situations. Other
techniques that worked well were too perceptible, and some
previously-successful techniques did not work well in any game-like scenario.
Our studies are the first to provide empirical evidence of the performance of
aim assist techniques in 3D environments, and the first to identify the
complexities in using these techniques in real FPS games.
[18]
Exertion in the small: improving differentiation and expressiveness in
sports games with physical controls
Exploring exergames
/
Sheinin, Mike
/
Gutwin, Carl
Proceedings of ACM CHI 2014 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2014-04-26
v.1
p.1845-1854
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Many sports video games contain elements such as running or throwing that
are based on real-world physical activities, but the translation of these
activities to game controllers means that the original physicality is lost.
This results in games where players have limited opportunity to improve their
physical skills, where there is little differentiation in people's physical
abilities, and where skills do not change over the course of a game. To explore
ways of adding these elements back into sports games, we developed two games
with small-scale physical controls for running and throwing -- one game was a
simple running race, and one was a team-based handball-style game called Jelly
Polo. In two studies (three track-and-field tournaments for the running game,
and a four-week league for Jelly Polo), we observed the effects of physical
controls on gameplay. Our studies showed that the physical controls enabled
substantial individual differences in running and passing skill, allowed people
to increase their expertise over time, and led to fatigue-based changes in
performance during a game. Physical controls increased the games' challenge,
complexity, and unpredictability, and dramatically improved player interest,
expressiveness, and enjoyment. Our work shows that game designers should
consider the idea of "exertion in the small" as a way to improve play
experience in games based on physical activities.
[19]
The usability of CommandMaps in realistic tasks
Designing and modeling GUIs
/
Scarr, Joey
/
Cockburn, Andy
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Bunt, Andrea
/
Cechanowicz, Jared E.
Proceedings of ACM CHI 2014 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2014-04-26
v.1
p.2241-2250
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: CommandMaps are a promising interface technique that flattens command
hierarchies and exploits human spatial memory to provide rapid access to
commands. CommandMaps have performed favorably in constrained cued-selection
studies, but have not yet been tested in the context of real tasks. In this
paper we present two real-world implementations of CommandMaps: one for
Microsoft Word and one for an image editing program called Pinta. We use these
as our experimental platforms in two experiments. In the first, we show that
CommandMaps demonstrate performance and subjective advantages in a realistic
task. In the second, we observe naturalistic use of CommandMaps over the course
of a week, and gather qualitative data from interviews, questionnaires, and
conversations. Our results provide substantial insight into users' reactions to
CommandMaps, showing that they are positively received by users and allowing us
to provide concrete recommendations to designers regarding when and how they
should be implemented in real applications.
[20]
Faster command selection on tablets with FastTap
Touch input
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Cockburn, Andy
/
Scarr, Joey
/
Malacria, Sylvain
/
Olson, Scott C.
Proceedings of ACM CHI 2014 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2014-04-26
v.1
p.2617-2626
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Touch-based tablet UIs provide few shortcut mechanisms for rapid command
selection; as a result, command selection on tablets often requires slow
traversal of menus. We developed a new selection technique for multi-touch
tablets, called FastTap, that uses thumb-and-finger touches to show and choose
from a spatially-stable grid-based overlay interface. FastTap allows novices to
view and inspect the full interface, but once item locations are known, FastTap
allows people to select commands with a single quick thumb-and-finger tap. The
interface helps users develop expertise, since the motor actions carried out as
a novice rehearse the expert behavior. A controlled study showed that FastTap
was significantly faster (by 33% per selection overall) than marking menus,
both for novices and experts, and without reduction in accuracy or subjective
preference. Our work introduces a new and efficient selection mechanism that
supports rapid command execution on touch tablets, for both novices and
experts.
[21]
Finder highlights: field evaluation and design of an augmented file browser
Desktop search and history
/
Fitchett, Stephen
/
Cockburn, Andy
/
Gutwin, Carl
Proceedings of ACM CHI 2014 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2014-04-26
v.1
p.3685-3694
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Navigating to files through a hierarchy is often a slow, laborious, and
repetitive task. Recent lab studies showed that file browser interface
augmentations, such as Icon Highlights and Search Directed Navigation, have the
potential to reduce file retrieval times. However, for this potential to be
realised in actual systems, further study is necessary to address two important
issues. First, there are important design and implementation challenges in
advancing the research prototypes previously evaluated into complete
interactive systems that can be used for real work. Second, it is unknown how
real users would employ these systems while engaged in actual work; would the
potential performance improvements suggested by the earlier lab studies be
realised? We therefore describe the design, implementation, and longitudinal
field study evaluation of Finder Highlights, a file browser plugin for the OS X
'Finder' that adds support for Icon Highlights and Search Directed Navigation.
Study results confirm that the augmentations are effective in reducing
real-world file retrieval times, with retrieval times 13% faster when using
Finder Highlights compared to the standard tool (10.6 s versus 12.2 s), while
also emphasising important differences between lab and field studies. In
summary, the paper strongly suggests that large-scale deployment of interface
augmentations to file browsers, particularly Icon Highlights, will have a
marked effect in improving users' real-world file retrieval.
[22]
Making big gestures: effects of gesture size on observability and
identification for co-located group awareness
Gesture-based interaction
/
Reetz, Adrian
/
Gutwin, Carl
Proceedings of ACM CHI 2014 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2014-04-26
v.1
p.4087-4096
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Co-located work environments allow people to maintain awareness by observing
others' actions (called consequential communication), but the computerization
of many tasks has dramatically reduced the observability of work actions. The
recent interest in gestural interaction techniques offers the possibility of
recreating some of the noticeability of previous work actions, but little is
known about the observability and identifiability of command gestures. To
investigate these basic issues, we carried out a study that asked people to
observe and identify different sizes and morphologies of gestures from
different locations, while carrying out an attention-demanding primary task. We
studied small (tablet sized), medium (monitor-sized), and large (full-arm)
gestures. Our study showed that although size did have significant effects, as
expected, even small gestures were highly noticeable (rates above 75%) and
identifiable (rates above 69%). Our results provide empirical guidance about
the ways that gesture size, morphology, and location affect observation, and
show that gestural interaction has potential for improving group awareness in
co-located environments.
[23]
How players value their characters in world of warcraft
Gaming
/
Livingston, Ian J.
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Mandryk, Regan L.
/
Birk, Max
Proceedings of ACM CSCW 2014 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative
Work and Social Computing
2014-02-15
v.1
p.1333-1343
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Characters in games such as World of Warcraft allow players to act in the
game world and to interact with others. Game characters and avatars are a
mediated form of self-representation for the player, but some research suggests
that players also view characters in other ways that have to do with the kinds
of value that the characters provide. To better understand the ways that
players value their characters in an online environment, we carried out a
semi-structured interview study of twenty World of Warcraft players. From our
data we identify ten kinds of value that characters can provide -- including
utility, investment, communication, memory, enjoyment, and representations of
relationships, as well as value as an opportunity for experience, creativity,
sociability, and self-expression. The analytical lens of value provides a new
understanding of the ways that players appreciate characters in online
multi-user worlds. Our results can help developers understand and enhance an
element of multi-player games that contributes greatly to player experience and
satisfaction.
[24]
The effects of consistency maintenance methods on player experience and
performance in networked games
Gaming
/
Savery, Cheryl
/
Graham, Nicholas
/
Gutwin, Carl
/
Brown, Michelle
Proceedings of ACM CSCW 2014 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative
Work and Social Computing
2014-02-15
v.1
p.1344-1355
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Network lag is a fact of life for networked games. Lag can cause game states
to diverge at different nodes in the network, making it difficult to maintain
the illusion of a single shared space. Traditional lag compensation techniques
help reduce inconsistency in networked games; however, these techniques do not
address what to do when states actually have diverged. Traditional consistency
maintenance (CM) does not specify how to make game-critical decisions when
players' views of the shared state are different, nor does it indicate how to
repair inconsistencies. These two issues -- decision-making and error repair --
can have substantial effects on players' gaming experience. To address this
shortcoming, we have characterized a range of algorithmic choices for
decision-making and error repair. We report on a study confirming that these
algorithms can have significant effects on player experience and performance,
and showing that they are often more important than degree of consistency
itself.
[25]
Support for deictic pointing in CVEs: still fragmented after all these
years'
Multiple dimensions and displays
/
Wong, Nelson
/
Gutwin, Carl
Proceedings of ACM CSCW 2014 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative
Work and Social Computing
2014-02-15
v.1
p.1377-1387
© Copyright 2014 ACM
Summary: Pointing gestures -- particularly deictic references -- are ubiquitous in
face-to-face communication. However, deictic pointing can be much more
difficult in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) than in everyday life --
early studies found that the 'fragmentation' caused by the environment greatly
complicated object-based communication. In the fifteen years since these
studies appeared, the technologies used in CVEs have improved substantially,
and several techniques for improving pointing have been proposed or
implemented. What these advances mean for the problems of fragmentation and
deictic gesture, however, is not clear. To find out, we conducted a new
observational study of deictic pointing in a CVE with several techniques that
may reduce fragmentation: extra-wide and third-person views, precise control
over an avatar's pointing arm, and visual enhancements such as object
highlighting and laser pointing. Our study shows that although pointing has
come a long way, problems of fragmentation still occur, and that visual and
view enhancements can cause new problems for collaboration, even as they solve
others. In addition, the visibility of a gesture's preparatory actions remained
important to study participants, even when pointing was augmented. These
results provide a richer understanding of the subtlety in avatar-based deictic
communication, and of the ways that this critical communication mechanism can
be better supported in CVEs.
