Brigid Costello

A study in play, pleasure and interaction design

This paper focuses on the design of pleasurably playful interfaces within an interactive art context. It describes the development of a framework of thirteen pleasures of play and outlines the application of this framework during the design process of three interactive artworks. These processes included both initial conceptual development stages and later user evaluation studies. The paper compares the artists view of the pleasures that might be experienced in each work with the actual pleasures experienced by users during evaluation sessions. The results suggest that the pleasure framework is a useful tool to aid in the design of playful interfaces.

A tool for characterizing the experience of play

We survey six theories that characterize the pleasurable aspects of a play experience and synthesize these to develop a new framework. This new play framework contains thirteen categories; creation, exploration, discovery, difficulty, competition, danger, captivation, sensation, sympathy, simulation, fantasy, camaraderie and subversion. The methods of using this framework as a tool to aid in the design of playful interactive experiences are then discussed.

Displaying the Phallus Masculinity and the Performance of Sexuality on the Internet

On adult video-conferencing sites, men present sexualized bodies as objects of the gaze through an interactive medium that enables, while it limits, the possibility of the passive and the feminine. Within this unstable subject/object framework, the men construct a masculine subjectivity and a male sexual identity. Male sexuality, through the medium of CU-SeeMe, is both an affirmational community performance and an individual erotic display. These sites combine established conventions of film and the evolving practices of electronic chat to produce new discourses of male sexual display.

Directed and emergent play

We describe a case study of the audience experience of an interactive artwork titled Just a Bit of Spin. This study was part of practice-based research project that aimed to develop strategies for designing for a play experience. In this paper, we focus on results relating to the two play characteristics of difficulty and competition. These results lead us to reflect on the importance of creating a balance between directing the play experience and providing opportunities for play to emerge through the creative activities of the player.

Rhythms of Kinesthetic Empathy

This paper focuses on the rhythmic interrelationships between the sensing body and the sensing computer. The author proposes that the term kinesthetic empathy provides a useful way of deepening our understanding of feedback and control rhythms.

My Friend Scarlet Interactive Tragedy in The Path

Interactive storytelling has been a topic of much debate for the past two decades. Many have foreseen exciting new works; while others have cast doubt on the whole endeavor. In terms of actual titles, most games express a familiar story of a hero triumphing against the odds in order to save the day. However, a number of recent titles have attempted to innovate. The Path is one such game. Rather than a tale of heroism, The Path is a tragedy of shattered innocence, powerfully told through play. The authors perform a close reading of this work and highlight the importance of the ludic contract between the player and the game. The authors distinguish two different contracts employed by the work, antagonistic and exploratory, which make different appeals and offer different rewards. The Path manipulates these contracts to lead the player into being both the architect of the tragedy and its helpless victim.

The Rhythm of Game Interactions: Player Experience and Rhythm in Minecraft and Don’t Starve

This article investigates the impact that the rhythms of game interactions can have on a player’s experience of a computer game. Using a phenomenological approach, the research focuses on rhythmic experience within games and, in particular, on the rhythm of tree chopping within the games Minecraft and Don’t Starve. Graphic, aural, and embodied representations are used to closely analyze and compare a single-player experience within the two games. The analysis reflects on the efficacy of these methods and suggests some possible key factors for designing rhythmically expressive play experiences. It is suggested that combining real-time control with perceivable and performable repetition and variety can give the player expressive creative control over the rhythms of their performed interactions, potentially enriching their experience of repetitive tasks and extending the play life of a game.

Being Swept in

When users first encounter an interactive application, their personal rhythms need to synchronise with and become attuned to its rhythms. Any breakdown of rhythmic synchrony at this stage can leave users confused, distracted, frustrated or bored. Often, users can’t explain this breakdown, apart from having a sense that the application “just didn’t grab” them, and it can occur no matter how interesting the work’s content may be. At the other end of the scale, the rhythms of a work can grab users so fast that they feel as if they have been taken over and possessed. An experience they might then describe as addictive. The rhythms of a beginning lead users into the patterns within a work, guiding attention and developing expectations about how these patterns might then progress. Their flow has an energy that, when combined with a user’s rhythms, pulls the interactive experience ever onwards towards whatever it is to become. Beginnings sow the seeds not just for rhythmic progression but also for its potential resolution or ending. The rhythmic flow of the beginning of a work is also a key focus in the theatre and performance practice of Clare Grant, a director, dramaturg and performer. Grant is internationally recognised as a leader in the field of experimental theatre and has worked with companies across Europe and Australasia. Her performances experiment with the boundaries between audience and performer, and often involve audience interaction. Like this chapter, Clare Grant’s interview focuses on the rhythmic processes of captivation. As she emphasises, this process is not just about grabbing attention but also about the quality of the way that you might hold that attention and then let it go. It’s about being swept in and out. Thus, it’s about rhythmically shaping both entrances and exits.

Rhythm, Play and Interaction Design

Our world is composed of rhythms. We walk in rhythms, gesture in rhythms, speak in rhythms, breathe and think in rhythms. We also read rhythms from the environment and people around us. Sitting inside by a window, we can tell the strength of the wind just from the movement of trees and their leaves. Before we see the beach, we can tell the ferocity of the surf just from the sound of its crashing waves. Any disturbance in a habitual rhythm signals itself strongly. Our attention will be drawn towards the person in a crowd whose walk is hampered by an injury or a tight joint. The distant rhythms of people speaking will signal their foreignness well before their words can be distinguished. A change in the rhythmic ripples of a pond will alert us to the presence of fish and we will feel the shift in the vibrations of our car’s engine when a cylinder misfires. Rhythm plays a major role in all forms of human expression whether it be music, dance, theatre, art, architecture, film, literature or computer games. It communicates to us, attracts our attention and has emotional impact. We can be soothed by a rhythm, aroused by a rhythm, captivated by a rhythm, made sad or joyful by a rhythm. It is this expressive power of rhythm that is the focus of this book and, in particular, the way that rhythm can be used by interaction designers within the design of playful computer applications. Human computer interactions all involve rhythm: the rhythm of action and response that is implied by the very word interaction itself. When interactions occur in sequence, their patterned cycles of action and response form rhythms that can be sensed, interpreted, learnt and performed. Such rhythms will attract and engage our attention. These rhythms communicate in ways that, although deeply interrelated, can be separated from the meanings of the events that pattern their flow. Interactive rhythms give a shape and character to user experience, one that is perhaps not always consciously acknowledged but is most certainly felt. Rhythm also patterns the free

Architectures of Rhythm

Our journey into rhythm, play and interaction design has taken us along many interesting paths, each inspired by one of the eighteen creative practitioners interviewed for this book. Through the ideas of these creative practitioners, we have understood rhythm as something that shapes societies, cultures, thoughts, bodies, meanings and perceptions. We have also uncovered strategies for designing rhythms across all its dimensions and gained insights into the feelings rhythm can evoke when it is performed and perceived. Before finishing, we now have a short summary of the many rhythmic design strategies that have been uncovered. This summary cannot possibly express the full nuance of all that we have discussed nor the true vitality of each strategy, but it will act as a reminder of the detail covered in the previous chapters. The summary is divided into sections that address the three major themes of the book—strategies for creating dynamics, designing for expressive control and the pleasures of playful experience.