Projects

Study reveals AI-assisted writing enhances readability but may miss critical insights, ‘human touch’. It advocates for reviewers’ focus on research quality and unbiased judgment, regardless of writing tools used.

Project Description Over the last decade, the free-to-play (F2P) game business model has gained popularity in the games industry. We examine the role of deceptive design during a game’s transition to F2P and its impacts on players. Our analysis focuses on game mechanics and a Reddit analysis of the

Tired of boring online meetings? We’re testing video, audio, & avatars to find the perfect mix. Early results show avatars boost engagement. Stay tuned for our findings on how to make meetings awesome.

In Social Virtual Reality (SVR), mediated social communication blends with simulated virtual environments and bodies.

Video games face the challenge of providing onboarding that motivates new players to engage with a game beyond their initial experience.

Social Virtual Reality (SVR) allows real individuals to communicate and engage in simulated physical environments and activities.

Presence, as a psychological state, is typically assessed using questionnaires. While many researchers in this field assume that these self-report instruments are standardized, the reliability of such questionnaires remains uncertain.

Social Virtual Reality (SVR) consists of multi-user digital platforms that afford various co-located activities and collaborations in simulated environments.

This project aims to identify key factors influencing tabletop game purchasing decisions by conducting a qualitative analysis of player perspectives.

As the Canadian partner in this consortium, the HCI Games Group will focus on foundational research and usability studies to determine users’ needs and preferences for the context of an exergame for older adults. Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Lennart Nacke, a group of postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate researchers

A player traits model from the HCI Games Group The Games User Research (GUR) community has been collectively working towards understanding how player preferences and experiences can be understood and classified. A validated model of player motivations and behaviours can help game designers create games better targeted to their audience.

Evaluating user experience with affective measures is a field of growing importance in the human factors domain, because the emotional effects of engaging technology, such as movies, mobile networked devices, games and new media, are not well understood. Within this research theme, we are developing and validating robust new methods

The Saskatchewan-Waterloo Games User Research (SWaGUR) program brings together 11 researchers from 7 departments at the Universities of Waterloo and Saskatchewan with the long-term goal of training 85 HQP in GUR in an interdisciplinary environment in collaboration with our industrial partners to serve the needs of an important part of