Jane Lessiter

Immersive FPS games: user experience and performance

Computer games are ideally placed to form the content of future Immersive Media, but this prospect is faced with both technical and usability issues. This paper describes an experiment in immersive gaming using a state-of-the-art computer First Person Shooter (FPS) game, in which we analyze user experience and performance through a combination of in-game metrics, questionnaires and subjective reports. We describe the evaluation of a major commercial computer game as a real-time immersive stereoscopic experience based on a four-screen CAVE-like installation. The implementation is based on a bespoke VR middleware developed on top of the games own engine. Our results show an overwhelming subjective preference for the immersive version despite a decrease in performance attributed to a more realistic aiming mechanism. More importantly, metrics suggest that users took advantage of the immersive context rather than simply transposing their desktop gaming skills.

A Comparative Study of Remote Controls for Digital TV Receivers

This study was designed to explore the usability of three remote controls that operate a specific digital set top box (Logik LDR V3) amongst consumers who may have more difficulty than most in accessing and using digital television equipment. Participants were UK consumers (a) aged over 75 years with various sensory, physical and/or cognitive impairment, (b) aged under 45 years with learning difficulties, and (c) aged under 45 years without any sensory, physical or cognitive impairment. Using a repeated measures design, participants were asked to perform a series of everyday tasks using remote controls with digital television equipment. Subjective and objective data were collected to explore how intuitive and desirable the remote controls were, and how well subjective preferences related to objective performance data. The study provides evidence that user interfaces that meet the UK Digital TV receiver recommendations (V1.3) for digital terrestrial television (section 5: remote controls) better meet the needs of consumers likely to face difficulty using digital television equipment.

CEEDs: Unleashing the Power of the Subconscious

Abstract The Collective Experience of Empathic Data Systems (CEEDs) project aims to offer a solution to the data deluge problem. With theoretical foundations in consciousness, information processing and creative discovery, the project proposes to develop a data analysis tool that harnesses and interprets the unconscious processes that influence our understanding of the world. Implicit reactions to immersive multimodal representations of large data sets will be used to guide a users exploration of those data and support learning, understanding and discovery of new patterns that might otherwise be undetected using standard analysis tools.

Ghosts in the Machines: Towards a Taxonomy of Human Computer Interaction

This paper explores a high level conceptualisation (taxonomy) of human computer interaction that intends to highlight a range of interaction uses for advanced (symbiotic) systems. The work formed part of an EC-funded project called CEEDs which aims to develop a virtual reality based system to improve human ability to process information, and experience and understand large, complex data sets by capitalising on conscious and unconscious human responses to those data. This study, based on critical and creative thinking as well as stakeholder consultation, identified a range of variables that impact on the types of possible human computer interaction, including so called ‘symbiotic’ interactions (e.g., content displayed – raw/tagged; user response – explicit/implicit; and whether or not there is real time influence of user response on content display). Impact of variation in the number of concurrent users, and of more than one group of users was also considered. This taxonomy has implications for providing new visual stimuli for creative exploration of data, and questions are raised as to what might offer the most intuitive use of unconscious/implicit user responses in symbiotic systems.

Cognitive training via interactive television: drivers, barriers and potential users

This paper describes research to investigate the attitudinal and motivational factors that might facilitate or inhibit the uptake and use of cognitive training (CT) applications via interactive television (iTV) by both young and older people and to explore the profiles of potential users of such applications. A questionnaire was designed and distributed as part of the Vital Mind (VM) project. Data from a sample of 848 young and older people were collected and analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA). PCA of 41 attitude statements identified six components/factors. Three factors measured potential drivers to uptake and use of iTV-based CT applications (‘active wellbeing’, ‘health concern’ and ‘technophilia’) and two measured potential barriers (‘unprogressiveness’ and ‘telly-negativity’). A sixth factor (‘active sociability’) could act as either a driver or barrier, depending on how socially oriented are different CT applications. CA of the factors and age data revealed seven different profiles of potential users of CT through iTV. Three of the clusters were predominantly older (labelled Cultured-Conservatives, Digital-Immigrants and Telly-Fans), three were younger (labelled Healthy-Strivers, Digital-Natives and Net-Generation) and one was middle-aged (labelled Busy-Interactors). Reported media use and activity (mental, physical and social) were consistent with the attitude profiles of the clusters. The appeal of iTV-based CT was generally high, with Digital-Natives and Digital-Immigrants indicating the most interest. This research provides evidence for the key attitudinal dimensions predictive of likely adoption and use of iTV-based CT, and a refined understanding of target younger and older user markets.

Vital Mind: an Interactive set-top box platform for cognitive training applications

This poster aims to give an overview of the concept behind a project called Vital Mind, which is investigating the user design and technical challenges to facilitate the delivery of cognitive training to older people via interactive digital television.

The use of improvisational role-play in user centered design processes

This paper describes the development and piloting of a user-centered design method which enables participants to actively engage in a creative process to produce intuitive representations and inspire early design concepts for innovative mobile and ubiquitous applications. The research has been produced as part of the EC funded project PASION, aiming to enhance mediated communication in games and collaborative environments through the introduction of socio-emotional information cues, represented in meaningful yet abstract enough ways to accommodate variable thresholds of privacy. We describe our design research methodology, which combines analytical approaches, aiming to uncover participants needs, desires and perceptions with creative, generative methods, with which participants inform and inspire the design process.

Are immerrsive FPS games enjoyable

This paper describes an experiment comparinng immersive and non-immersive gaming using a state-of-the-art first person shooter game (FPS) in which we analyse user experience and performance through a combination of in-game metrics, questionaires and subjective reports. Our results show an overwhelming subjective preference for the immersive version despite a decrease in performance attributed to a more realistic aimming mechanism. Interaction metrics suggest that users took full advantage of the immmersive context rather than simply transposing their desktop gaming skills.

11. The Human as the Mind in the Machine: Addressing Big Data

A lot of what our brains process never enters our consciousness, even if it may be of potential value to us. So just what are we wasting by letting our brains process stimuli we don’t even notice or attend to? This is one of the areas being explored in the 16-partner CEEDs project (ceeds-project.eu). Funded by the European Commission’s Future and Emerging Technologies programme, CEEDs (the Collective Experience of Empathic Data systems) has developed new sensors and technologies to unobtrusively measure people’s implicit reactions to multimodal presentations of very large data sets. The idea is that monitoring these reactions may reveal when you are surprised, satisfied, interested or engaged by a part of the data, even if you’re not aware of being so. Applications of CEEDs technology are relevant to a broad range of disciplines – spanning science, education, design, and archaeology, all the way through to connected retail. This chapter provides a formalisation of the CEEDs approach and its applications and in so doing explains how the CEEDs project has broken new ground in the nascent domain of human computer confluence.

Applying Psychology Research to Shopper Mindsets with Implications for Future Symbiotic Search Systems

Optimising communications to take account of user states is a nascent, huge and growing business opportunity for the retail and advertising worlds. Understanding people’s behaviours, thoughts and emotions to different messages in different contexts at different times, can inform the strategic planning and design of systems promoting positive customer experiences and increasing retail sales. Using theory combined with applied insights from our projects, this paper highlights a number of factors (mindset, attention, focus, time pressure and salience) that drive ‘search’ behaviour in a dynamic retail based environment. The work has implications for developing symbiotic systems.