Adolescents and young adults represent the largest and most active age group of Internet users worldwide. However, contrary to the notion of naturally acquired digital competences, many lack an understanding of technology and the associated risks. Serious games are a promising way to promote self-regulatory digital competences. In the A-DigiKomp project, a three-day online game jam with adolescents was organized to involve the target group in the user-centered development process of game ideas for more digital empowerment. Three prototypes on the topic of data protection and online safety were developed as part of the CGN game jam. Personal experiences and target group-specific knowledge of adolescents were successfully addressed. The potential of game jams as a participatory research method is investigated and implications for future use cases are derived. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene stellen weltweit die größte und aktivste Altersgruppe von Internetnutzer*innen dar. Entgegen der Vorstellung natürlich erworbener digitaler Kompetenzen, fehlt es vielen jedoch an einem Verständnis für Technik und den damit verbundenen Risiken. Serious Games sind eine vielversprechende Möglichkeit selbstregulative digitale Kompetenzen zu fördern. Im Projekt A-DigiKomp wurde ein dreitätiger online Game Jam mit Adoleszenten veranstaltet, um die Zielgruppe in den user-zentrierten Entwicklungsprozess von Spielideen zur Förderung digitaler Handlungsfähigkeit einzubeziehen. Drei Prototypen zum Thema Datenschutz und Online-Sicherheit wurden im Rahmen des CGN Game Jams entwickelt. Persönliche Erfahrungen und zielgruppenspezifisches Wissen Adoleszenter wurden erfolgreich aufgegriffen. Das Potenzial von Game Jams als partizipative Forschungsmethode wird untersucht und Implikationen für zukünftige Veranstaltungen abgeleitet.
Web-based platforms do not always offer the necessary prerequisites for the development and scientific monitoring of online interventions. Also, the use of these platforms is often associated with high licensing fees. This article presents TrainOn, an open source plugin for WordPress that can be used to create complex interactive online trainings as well as to realize online surveys and complex study designs.
Highly complex systems, such as software development tools, constantly gain features and, consequently, complexity and, thus, risk overwhelming or distracting the user. We argue that automation and adaptation could help users to focus on their work. However, the challenge is to correctly and promptly determine when to adapt what, as often the users’ intent is unclear. To assist software developers, we build a gaze-adaptive integrated development environment using the developers’ gaze as the source for learning appropriate adaptation. Beyond our experience of using gaze for an adaptive user interface, we also report first feedback from developers regarding the desirability of such a user interface, which indicated that adaptations for development tools need to strike a careful balance between automation and user control. Nonetheless, the developers see the value in a gaze-based adaptive user interface and how it could improve software development tools going forward.
Many career guidance platforms are information portals that have a strong text-based approach and are used in higher grades later in the career guidance process. As part of a research project (JOLanDA) aimed at improving the career orientation of young people, we are developing a gamified platform to support younger pupils (12 years and older) in career orientation also outside of school. In this paper, we report on a moderated usability test (n = 14) with junior experts (students) to gain initial insights on how to improve the platform, as well as results from school workshops (n = 197, grade 7-9) within three field phases. Due to the playful approach, narrative structure (interactive digital storytelling), and a novel interaction concept (scroll-activated animations), the platform seems to attract great interest and has the potential to foster intrinsic user motivation. Based on the results, we provide design recommendations for online learning environments.
The subject of this study was to explore children's ability to offer verbal feedback during usability evaluation studies. The aim is to find out whether the use of the method Peer Tutoring or Thinking Aloud can identify more usability findings in usability tests with second graders than observation. 13 Second graders tested an interactive game using two evaluation techniques. The findings indicate that the majority of verbal remarks were identified with the method of Thinking Aloud and that participants also provided more higher quality remarks. More usability findings could be identified than in a purely observational situation. Unexpectedly, the Peer Tutoring method was less beneficial for the identification of usability problems since the participants struggled to cooperate successfully.
The increasing emphasis on digital wellbeing (DW) underscores the significance of balancing technology use with other aspects of life. However, it remains unclear to what extent mobile DW apps support this balance by incorporating the life component. We conducted a systematic review of 152 mobile apps available on Google's Playstore and found that current DW apps mainly focus on digital-centric actions, such as monitoring screen time and setting app limits, while overlooking everyday life activities that occur outside the smartphone. To address this limitation, we created Life-Relaunched, a smartphone launcher that adapts to users' real-life contexts and activities implicitly. We then performed a preliminary study to examine the opportunities and challenges of incorporating implicit features into DW apps. The results of our study indicate that integrating implicit features can be advantageous in facilitating a balance between life and smartphone use. Nonetheless, it also emphasizes the challenges of user burden in establishing usage contexts initially.
The immersive nature of virtual reality (VR) allows even complex information to be communicated in an engaging, interactive, and fast way. This is particularly useful in the case of long-term political processes, such as the siting, construction, and management of a repository for high-level radioactive waste (HLRW). In this paper, we present an approach to convey an understanding of such long-time horizons by converting the information into a motion-controlled VR application. To gain insight into how users experience a period of 500 years, a pilot study with 15 subjects was conducted. The first results were positive; the subjects were thrilled with the presentation format in VR and offered several recommendations for improvement of the time visualization. For inexperienced users, the interaction was possible without any assistance and has the potential to be adapted to other use cases.
User-centered and Participatory Design approaches have become widespread within HCI, also when designing digital media for older adults. These methodologies are seen as crucial to adapt technology design to older people's needs and increase their acceptance of digital technology. Nevertheless, it is often difficult to reach a diverse group of older people, for instance, people with limited technology skills, limited mobility, or cognitive issues. In addition, gerontologists criticized lately how older people's participation unfolds in technology design projects, e.g. that people are pushed into the role of users. Little is known about the motivations and needs of older adults regarding their participation in HCI research. To close this gap, we conducted an online survey (N=46) and semi-structured interviews (N=8) focusing on motivations, willingness and experiences regarding participation. Results show that people are generally willing to participate due to interest in the topic, learning new things and social bonding. However, despite the conceptions within HCI that long-term engagement is crucial within participatory design, older people in the study preferred less commitment and more open formats.
An important ability for participation in society is wayfinding. In this paper the findings of a pilot user study conducted to assess the usability of the CompanionApp, a mobile application aimed at providing landmark training and wayfinding assistance to individuals with cognitive impairments are presented. The study focuses on the role of caregivers in using the app and explores their level of comfort with technology. Participants engaged in a workshop where they created routes using the app, followed by a feedback session. The results indicate promising usability of the app’s user interface and route creation process. However, certain aspects require clarification and a more comprehensive introduction. These findings highlight the potential of the CompanionApp in empowering individuals with cognitive impairments to navigate independently and foster inclusion.
This paper explores the concept of Cyber-Physical & Human Systems (CPHS), which consist of cyber-physical computer systems and humans that interact on different levels, physically and digitally. CPHS focuses on two aspects: the cyber-physical system and the human system, and how they are linked by artificial intelligence (AI). This concept applies in various applications, such as medical systems, assistance systems, and environmental systems. Aside from providing a comprehensive overview of CPHS and its related concepts, the paper ultimately contributes a definition and closes with an outlook.
The use of mid-air gestures to control interactive systems is becoming increasingly important, particularly in mixed reality scenarios. However, these gestures are not always intuitive and can be challenging to learn as they lack visual guidance. Therefore, it is crucial to explore strategies to improve the learnability of these gestures. In this work, it is investigated how a vibration stimulus can be applied at the forearm to guide a person in performing a gesture. Utilizing a prototypical wristband with 24 vibrotactile actuators, the metaphors pull and push, representing attractive and repulsive feedback, were compared against each other. Results of a controlled user study show that participants perform significantly better with the pull metaphor, completing gestures faster, and make fewer errors. In line with this, the majority stated a subjective preference towards pull after experiencing both metaphors.
Latency is present in all interactive systems and decreases user experience and performance. Previous work developed approaches that predict user actions and show these predictions to reduce latencies’ negative effects. While this can increase user experience and performance, it is unclear if predicting beyond a system’s latency results in further improvements. Therefore, we investigated the effects of predicting beyond a system’s latency. We collected data from 60 participants performing Steering Law tasks to systematically train an artificial neural network (ANN) that predicts 100ms into the future. We integrated the ANN into the Steering Law task and buffered users’ inputs to simulate latency between 50ms and -50ms. A study with 30 participants showed that decreasing latency beyond the system’s latency increases throughput up to -50ms. Subjective measures improved up to -16.67ms without negative effects on agency. Overall, we show that predicting beyond a system’s latency can increase performance and user experience.
In this work, we analyze whether the empowerment of young adults can be supported through gamified design approaches in a socio-spatial context. Based on a literature research, relevant empowerment factors were identified. Further, we give an overview of different gamified approaches to strengthen empowerment. We tested the results of our literature research within the implementation of a web-based application in the context of a project, which deals with digital participation processes for the youth. We suggest that gamified approaches within a web-app can be used to strengthen the empowerment of young adults in a socio-spatial context. In this paper, we focus on our process of gamifying the utilization of social offers (e.g., leisure activities, participation offers, youth welfare services) to strengthen the empowerment of young adults and thereby establish foundations for future studies examining the effect of game elements on the empowerment of young adults.
Many people would like to remain in their familiar surroundings in old age, even if they need certain forms of assistance. But what exactly does everyday life look like, where are the hurdles and where can community-based support options start? The results of a citizen-based participatory interview study of community members of a rural Living Lab near Zurich, Switzerland and full-time researchers from two universities in Switzerland and Germany explore these questions. Results of the study relate to physical limitations and potentials in old age, aspects of well-being and mental health, social engagement, relationships and networks, as well as the theme of ‘asking for help, accepting help and giving help’. Against the background of a key category, the barriers of ‘asking for, accepting and giving help’, an overarching reflection by the co-researchers and full-time researchers took place. This focus provided the basis for the participatory development of CareConnection, a digital community platform design that fosters social exchange and helps to overcome identified barriers, which can be physical, mental or social and within these categories temporal, spatial, structural and/or individual and thus enable or promote social encounters and interaction to establish a higher level of well-being and health.
In this demo, we present HoloBoard, a HoloLens2-based Augmented Reality application, which gamifies traditional balance board training to make it more engaging and enjoyable. Ankle injuries are among the most common injuries in many ball sports. Balance training, such as training programs which use a balance board, can help stabilize foot joints and prevent injuries. Traditional balance training is often inadequate because there is no feedback, and the "monotonous" movements are perceived as "boring". Our application is based on the Unreal game engine and utilizes the HoloLens2 to engage the player in various ball sports related game types such as catching, heading and dodging, thereby requiring various body movements similar to traditional balance board training programs.
Developing and evaluating chatbots can be a costly and resource-intensive endeavor, often only addressing the preferences of final stakeholders at the very late stage. This paper presents an innovative approach that leverages chatbot simulations within a co-design framework to involve users early on. The proposed methodology aims to enable comprehensive evaluation of chatbot aspects without the need for users to download an app. The integration of a Wizard-of-Oz (WoZ) tool with WidgetExplorer, our proposed chatbot prototyping and evaluation tool, is introduced as a platform for rapid prototyping and user-centered evaluation. This iterative process facilitates contextual conversations, reflection, and dynamic adjustments to the dialog flow and its appearance. Furthermore, the paper presents the incorporation of visual UI components using AdaptiveCards Designer. Using this approach could lead to improving efficiency, inclusivity, and transparency in chatbot design and evaluation.
The effective delivery of e-learning depends on the continuous monitoring and management of student attention. While instructors in traditional classroom settings can easily assess crowd attention through gaze cues, these cues are largely unavailable in online learning environments. To address this challenge and highlight the significance of our study, we collected eye movement data from twenty students and developed four visualization methods: (a) a heat map, (b) an ellipse map, (c) two moving bars, and (d) a vertical bar, which were overlaid on 13 instructional videos. Our results revealed unexpected preferences among the instructors. Contrary to expectations, they did not prefer the established heat map and vertical bar for live online instruction. Instead, they chose the less intrusive ellipse visualization. Nevertheless, the heat map remained the preferred choice for retrospective analysis due to its more detailed information. Importantly, all visualizations were found to be useful and to help restore emotional connections in online learning. In conclusion, our innovative visualizations of crowd attention show considerable potential for a wide range of applications, extending beyond e-learning to all online presentations and retrospective analyses. The significant results of our study underscore the critical role these visualizations will play in enhancing both the effectiveness and emotional connectedness of future e-learning experiences, thereby facilitating the educational landscape.
Controllers are not merely the dominant interface to interact in virtual reality (VR); they also are the main resource for haptically perceiving the virtual world. As standard VR controllers fail in generating realistic haptic feedback, we designed HapticCollider, a kinetic controller rendering force feedback, e.g., to simulate a collision when hammering or hitting against a virtual object. In our user study, we demonstrated that HapticCollider significantly increases realism in tool usage compared with a standard VR controller. As key factors for tool use realism in VR, we identified force feedback, controller weight, and grip shape in combination with software solutions, namely collision prediction, and control-display ratio to render the force timing, as well as, the tool position according to the user’s expectations.
Elastic Displays are shape-changing interfaces, typically made from elastic fabric. Surface deformation creates an additional dimension of interaction and enhances the haptic experience for the user compared to rigid touch interfaces. Other forms of shape-changing interfaces such as actuated displays introduce significant mechanical complexity with the benefit of providing active haptic feedback and self-deformation. We investigate ways to make Elastic Displays more ‘active’ while maintaining their simple setup. Our approach adds vibrotactile feedback to the elastic surface, which add explicit haptic feedback when pushing and pulling the surface. In this contribution, we describe the technical setup and introduce concepts for exploring this active haptic feedback. We realized a case study, in which a layered information space is explored. Finally, we report lessons learned from user feedback, showing that solely vibrotactile feedback may have distracting effects on the user, but in combination with visual feedback can improve the user experience.
In recent years, there has been a growing trend toward using information-rich virtual environments that combine virtual environments (VE) with text as educational tools. This has been made viable by advances in head-mounted displays (HMDs). However, the use of virtual reality (VR) can create a problem of high extraneous cognitive load (ECL) caused by the VR technology itself. This can hinder learning if it exceeds a user’s limited working memory. To reduce this load, designers of VEs can only address design elements like the text placement method. To give insights into the placement with the lowest ECL, we conducted a study with 30 participants, evaluating different head-anchored text placements in two abstracted, non-stationary learning tasks to assess their cognitive load, usability, and task load. Our results showed that head-anchored text should be placed above eye level for tasks at normal working height. Furthermore, the horizontal movement of text had little to no influence on cognitive load.
