Marion Boberg

Applying game achievement systems to enhance user experience in a photo sharing service

Achievement systems are reward structures providing additional goals for players, and thus extending the play time of videogames. In this paper, we explore how applications other than games could benefit from achievement systems, and how users perceive this additional content in a service. For this purpose, we added an achievement system to a geo-tagged photo sharing service called Nokia Image Space. The results suggest that there is some potential in achievement systems outside the game domain. The achievements triggered some friendly competition and comparison between users. However, many users were not convinced, expressing concerns about the achievements motivating undesirable usage patterns. Therefore, an achievement system poses certain design considerations when applied in nongame software.

Applying the PLEX framework in designing for playfulness

In addition to functionality and usability, interactive products are increasingly expected to provide pleasurable experiences to their users. Playfulness is a part of these experiences. However, playfulness can manifest in many different ways as humans are inherently playful by nature. This poses challenges for designing for playfulness. To tackle this broad field, we have developed the Playful Experiences (PLEX) framework. The two-fold purpose of the PLEX framework is to be a conceptual tool for understanding the playful aspects of user experience (UX), and be a practical tool for designing for such experiences through established user-centered design (UCD) methods. In this paper we present an overview of our work during 2008--2010 on designing for playful experiences. After introducing and summarizing previous studies, we motivate the reasons for designing for playfulness by framing PLEX within the domains of user experience and emotional experience. Then, we briefly discuss the creation and evaluation of the PLEX Cards and its associated techniques as practical design tools based on the PLEX framework, followed by a concrete design case where these tools have been used. We also present the development of the PLEX Design Patterns for actual design solutions for playfulness. Based on this work, we propose the PLEX framework as a powerful tool for understanding playful experiences, and for providing inspiration to design interactive products that elicit playfulness.

Designing avatars

This document summarizes three studies on avatars leading us to propose considerations for designing avatars. A background study was conducted on earlier avatar research and the key findings are summarized in this document. Based on the background study, we conducted focus groups discussion with active online community users (who participated in social networking web sites, virtual worlds, and massively multi-player online games) to gain a better understanding of what aspects in designing avatars are important to users. From those two studies we elaborated a list of considerations topicss pointing out aspects that designers can use for avatar design. Moreover, for our avatar design project, we conducted a third study where we investigated the use of online avatar design applications. Through the analysis of this third study, we evaluated the considerations from the user point of view. In conclusion, we discuss the findings and propose a summarized list of the considerations that appear essential when designing new virtual worlds involving avatars. These design considerations concern the way avatars look, what they can do, the way they can be used for communication, the context in which they are created, how many avatars can be created and in under what kind of governance, who owns the avatar, and how to plan avatar design.

Twisting touch: combining deformation and touch as input within the same interaction cycle on handheld devices

We present a study that investigates the potential of combining, within the same interaction cycle, deformation and touch input in a handheld device. Using a flexible, input-only device connected to an external display, we compared a multitouch input technique and two hybrid deformation-plus-touch input techniques (bending and twisting the device, plus either front- or back-touch), in an image-docking task. We compared and analyzed the performance (completion time) and user experience (UX) obtained in each case, using multiple assessment metrics. We found that combining device deformation with front-touch produced the best UX. All the interaction techniques showed the same efficiency in task completion. This was a surprising finding, since multitouch (an integral input technique) was expected to be the most efficient technique in an image docking task (an interaction in an integral perceptual space). We discuss these findings in relation to self-reported qualitative data and observed interaction-procedure metrics. We found that the interaction procedures with the hybrid techniques were more sequential but also more paced. These findings suggest that the benefits of deformation input can still be observed when deformation and touch are combined in an input device.

Image space: capturing, sharing and contextualizing personal pictures in a simple and playful way

The increasing use of digital cameras and camera phones has changed peoples behavior regarding the amount of photos that they make. As a result, growing collections of photos are more and more difficult to understand, search and navigate. Helping users make sense of these collections and create an understanding of the world that they depict has become a challenging task. In this paper, we present the design, implementation and evaluation of the Image Space service, which enables users to capture, browse and contextualize their digital photographs with the aid of a community of other users in a simple and playful way. We report evaluations which indicate that the service was easy and to a lesser degree playful to use.

PLEXQ: Towards a Playful Experiences Questionnaire

Playfulness is an important, but often neglected, design quality for interactive products. This paper presents a first step towards a validated questionnaire called PLEXQ, which measures 17 different facets of playful user experiences. We describe the development and validation of the questionnaire, from the generation of 231 items, to the current questionnaire consisting of 17 constructs of playfulness, each measured through three items. Using PLEXQ we discuss the nature of playfulness by looking at the role of age, gender, and product type in ones proclivity to experience playfulness differently. Finally, we reveal a four-factor structure of playfulness and discuss the implications for further theory development.

Feel the action: dynamic tactile cues in the interaction with deformable uis

Deformable User Interfaces (DUIs) often require external confirmation of the status of the interface, which is normally provided visually. We propose that tactile cues can also be employed for this end. In a user study that presents both visual and tactile cues in redundancy, we found that both channels can be combined with no loss in user experience or performance. This validates our design for further research on multimodal designs that make use of no redundancy in the supporting cues.

Introducing game and playful experiences to other application domains through personality and motivation models

We discuss the use of the PLEX playful experience model a system to introduce games design aspects into alternative application and product domains. We report an exploratory study to relate the relationships between playful experiences and real world values and personalities. The method led to a prototype model of playful experiences associated with values and personality based motivations, emotions and behavior, and could be a useful tool for playful concept creation. As consumer offerings are increasingly differentiated by the quality of the experience, our approach promises to enhance the fun, and widen the engagement, of many products and applications.

Image space: an empirical study of geotagged mobile media content capture and sharing

In the past few years, there has been a rapid increase in the everyday usage of cameraphones and image sharing services. The existing services offer means to store, tag and share photos, but they offer only limited means to geotag and offer meaningful representations of the captured media content. We conducted a two-month field study of Image Space, an Internet-based service that allows people to automatically share and geotag photos (and sounds) onto 2D and 3D representations of photo collections online. In the study, we explored peoples perception with regards to capturing and sharing geotagged mobile media content and whether geotagging increases the personal and social value of the photos. The study also looked into Scenes, which allow people to organize photos according to spatial and/or chronological associations. We report our findings based on three types of geotagged media content: photos, Scenes, and sounds. Our findings suggest that participants took photos of objects for self-documentation of their daily lives, of places to show to others what life is like where they live, and of people, which they used to reflect on overall aspects of privacy. Regarding the creation of Scenes, participants used them for storytelling, to save a journey, and to explore places by means of guided tours. Sounds were mainly used to support storytelling. Additionally, we report on novel practices with respect to the creation of Scenes, and photo capturing for Scenes, i.e., by taking photos and sounds from a moving vehicle.