HCI Games Group
Researching Affective Systems and Engaging Interactions
Written by Gustavo Tondello of the HCI Games Group. Goal-setting theory has been used for decades to explain how to motivate people to perform better in work-related tasks by setting and monitoring goals. Gamification is also inherently a goal-oriented activity, aimed at fostering motivation; therefore, it is logic to expect that these two practices would …
Written by Colin Whaley. For most people, physically using computer peripherals is not a usability barrier — a keyboard is a keyboard is a keyboard, right? However, for the elderly or those with nerve damage, both sensory and motor problems may make the use of such computer peripherals uncomfortable or even painful. At the University of Waterloo, …
Written by Gustavo Tondello. The HCI Games Group collaborated with a research project that also involved the Play & Interactive Experiences for Learning Lab at the New Mexico State University and the University of California at Irvine to investigate player behaviour regarding the collection of digital objects in games. The study aimed to understand what …
Written by Lennart Nacke. I am at the CHI PLAY conference (a conference series that I started 3 years ago in Toronto) in Austin, Texas and the conference just began with a great keynote from Jamie Madigan of The Psychology of Games. Look, it's @JamieMadigan kicking off #chiplay16 with https://t.co/rZFh5W06U0 pic.twitter.com/02th3IoQcH — Lennart Nacke #UX …
Written by Gustavo Tondello. Infographics by Marim Ganaba. Several studies have indicated the need for personalising gamified systems to users’ personalities. However, mapping user personality onto design elements is difficult. To address this problem, Marczewski developed the Gamification User Types Hexad framework, based on research on human motivation, player types, and practical design experience. He …
Written by Mike Schaekermann. In everyday life, we seldom do things for the first time. Instead, a large part of our behaviour is determined by habits rather than conscious motivation [1]. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to assume that habitual behaviour may also be a strong determinant for what we do as players in online …
You may have heard of word Gamification. It’s as much a buzzword as it is a new academic field. Many people are interested in what it is and how to use it effectively, but don’t know why it works. It’s clear why, since games excite us by driving our curiosity to discover something new. They …
Written by Mike Schaekermann. At the HCI Games Group, we love looking at emotion as a core driver of gameplay experience. One common technique used to find out how players experience a game prototype and what affective responses in-game interaction triggers, is to ask players how they feel after playing the game. For this purpose, …
Written by Dennis L. Kappen and Lennart E. Nacke HCI Games Group collaborated with Erin Billowits, founder and owner of Vintage Fitness, a Toronto based health and wellness company catering to the fitness training needs of adults of age 50 years and older. Vintage Fitness aimed to engage older adults in daily exercise routines by catering to …
This year, the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society launched the Games, Entertainment, and Media (GEM) conference series, following the success of the previous International Games Innovation Conferences. Uniting the worlds of research and industry expertise, the conference serves as a platform for examining the current state of the art in game development and user research. The …
For the first time this year, prestigious game researchers and designers from all over the world gather for an international conference exploring new developments in gaming technology and research applications. The conference, entitled Computer-Human Interaction in Play or CHI PLAY, was held in Toronto this past week. We are proud to announce that CHI PLAY …
