Design Briefs - Themes and Novel HCI Technology

Introduction

In game design there are many themes a game designer could look at in order to create a game. Focusing on one theme allows a designer to create a game with a specific purpose, a game that allows a player to feel a specific emotion. Change, glance and time are three precise themes can be developed in games. A developer could use a novel technology to attract gamers to play a game in a fun and innovative way. There are specific novel human computer interaction technologies that could be used in gaming such as Emotiv EPOC, Neurosky Headset, Kinect for Windows, Leap Motion and AR Toolkit. By combining a novel HCI technology and a specific theme a game developer can create a video game that allows a player to focus on a specification by interacting in an innovative way.

Themes

Change

Change as a theme is defined by making a person change their behaviour. Changing a person’s behaviour is very hard; one must try to slowly adapt a person’s mind so that they break their habit or routine. A game designer would have to use a technology to change their behaviour to meet their goals, a game example would be that players have always used a controller to control movements of a character, if a player used their mind to control their movement this would change their habit and break their routine. If the player found this method of control joyful they would continue to use it and create a new habit.

Figure 1- Player controlling character with her mind

Glance

Glance as a theme allows a player to quickly look over a large set of information and determine what information is necessary to achieve his/her goal. If a player could use a technology to help decrease the overload of information on a screen it would benefit the player greatly. An in game example of this is creating an AR toolkit so that when a player looks over a game environment the important information on the screen will become three dimensional and look like it is coming out of the screen. This technology allows players to quickly glance at a detailed game environment and analyze everything on the screen quickly. 

Figure 2 - AR used to determine targets at a quick glance

 

Time

Time as a theme is defined as change. A clock, game time and in game season changes are representations of change over time. These things can have a physiological effect on a player. An in game example would be if a player could control time with their mind using an Emotiv EPOC so that they could speed up time so they could control climate change and aging enemies. This could be an attack to kill opponents and it is a new representation of time.

“While time is not something that can be directly seen, smelled, tasted, touched or heard, it is something that as the psychologist Fraisse (1984) has noted, we perceive through changes in the world and the duration between changes” (Mitchell, 2007). If we wanted to create a new representation of time we would need to look at representations that already exist. In a game user interface time is usually represented as a horizontal line with an object travelling from point A to point B. “Representations of time in computer interface designs must reflect people's conceptions of time and represent the kinds of time that people require when using a computer.” (Mitchell, 2007). An idea that might convey time or change in a game using a technology could be to use a Neurosky Headset and let a frequency travel through a player’s ear to indicate time is running low or a change in the gaming world is about to occur.

Example of representation of time – Mortal Kombat Deception https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpJNECtjpuo

Novel HCI Technologies

Some novel HCI Technologies are the Emotiv Epoc, Neurosky Headset, Kinect for Windows, Leap Motion and AR Toolkits. Emotiv Epoc is a headset device that senses brainwaves and translates it into a computer. It can be used to allow players to control parts of a game using brain waves. Neurosky Headsets allows a person to hear frequencies. Kinect is a program that recognizes body gestures and interoperates it so that it can be used as meaningful data. Leap motion is similar to the Kinect; it deals with precise finger-based motion. AR Toolkits are camera-based and it creates an augmented reality. It can make things appear in a player’s environment.

Figure 3 - Neurosky Headset being used for an unconventional gaming controller

Figure 4 - Emotive Epoc

Using these types of novel technologies can produce new ways for gamers to play games in an interesting way. If we can create alternative methods to typical controllers it could open up diverse ways for players to play games and it could also create a new target audience for gaming systems.  

Questions to Consider

How could we implement these novel HCI technologies into new generation consoles?

Would these novel technologies attract a new customer base? If so, how would it affect the present target market?

Could these HCI technologies deal with haptic senses such as the nociceptors and target a wide enough market to do well (in terms of profit) in the gaming industry?

References

Mitchell, Marilyn . "Representations of time in computer inferface design." Humanities & Social Sciences papers. N.p., 1 Nov. 2007. Web. 7 Mar. 2013. <epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1233&context=hss_pubs>.

Figure 1 - http://media.onsugar.com/files/upl0/2/22911/08_2008/emotive.preview.jpg

Figure 2 - http://beefjack.com/files/2011/01/ar-games-2.jpg

Figure 3 - http://www.geekalerts.com/u/NeuroSky-Mindwave-Mobile-EEG-headset.jpg
Figure 4 - http://www.emotiv.com/upload/iblock/38a/header_set.gif

The Human Factor

When designing interactive systems such as a gaming console a person must take into consideration the limitations of human information processing capabilities. The first thing a person must do is understand how people perceive the world around them and how they think about certain things such as how to solve problems and handle objects that pertain to their problem or situation.

The model Human Processor consists of different systems, the perceptual system, the motor system and the cognitive system. The perceptual system, deals with sensory information, the motor system controls how a person reacts to information such as if someone close to you dies, the person would react very sad. Another example would be if someone throws a surprise birthday party, the person’s reaction would be excited and thrilled. The cognitive system connects the other two together so that they can work together. Humans can be monitored by looking at these three system, if you look at human input/output (what they take in and put out), memory storage (what a person remembers and how they remember it) and applying/processing systems (how they manipulate what they remember and what they take in and out and how they combine them together) then you can understand how humans process information. 

Let’s look at the human visual system process. This is a two-stage process, receiving the stimulus and processing the stimulus. First you must receive the visual stimulus, this is done by looking at it with your eyes, within the eye there are rods and cones, these things help a person understand what they are looking at. Cones are less sensitive to light and they come in blue, red and green, they allow us to see colour. Identifying parts of the eye and understanding how each part works is very important because when creating a game a person must know what a player can and cannot see. If a person cannot comprehend what is happening in a game he/she cannot enjoy the game. Recently I was playing Resident Evil 6 and I found the game to be very dark. I understand the creators wanted the mood of the game to be dark but as a gamer I felt that I couldn’t see what was happening on the screen and I couldn’t get into the story, my eyes started hurting and I turned the game off.  

Figure 1: Resident Evil 6 dark gameplay

When a person looks at something they can determine the depth and size of the object. This is relevant to game design because designers want to create depth in game. Even though the screen is flat you would want the player to feel that he/she is in a deep ominous tunnel or a large open meadow. Visual angle allows us to understand depth and size of an area; it indicates how much of the view is taken up by an object that is seen. Overlapping is used to determine perception of size and depth. Interpretation of brightness is based on our reaction to different levels of light. In a game scenario if a metallic item is in the sun there should be a glare or a shine on it, this would show how a human should interoperate sun light on a shiny object. The colour of an object is made up of hue, intensity and saturation. Hue is the spectral light wavelength (blues have the shortest wavelength and reds have the longest). Intensity describes the brightness of the colour (how strong the colour is). Saturation is the amount of white in a colour, by adding white to a colour it can become lighter and more faded. By changing these three components a person can see roughly seven million different colours, making blue turn into baby blue can be easily done by changing the hue, saturation and intensity. 

Figure 2: Child playing video games and looking at the different colours on the screen

When playing games it is important to use your eyes to determine what a player’s surroundings are but it is also important to hear what is going on around you too. Sight is good for a specific direction however hearing can allow a person to understand what is going on around them in a 360 degree area. Sounds can be determined by pitch, loudness and timbre. Humans are less accurate at distinguishing high frequencies rather than low ones, this is important to understand when creating games. If you want to make a distinctive sound that gives a player specific information the designer should use low frequency sounds so that a player can determine it easily. The human ear is made up of the outer ear which protects the ear and amplifies sounds, the middle ear which transmits sound waves from the outer to the inner ear and the inner ear which transmits the sounds to the brain so that they can be understood. 

Another important human information processing capability is touch. There are three receptors, thermo receptors (hot and cold), nociceptors (pain) and mechanoreceptors (pressure). Bringing touch into gaming is very important. When a controller rumbles that initiates a sense that a player is being attacked or some type of action is happening in the game. For example, in fighting games whenever the opponent hits the player, the player’s controller will begin to rumble.

Figure 3: Gaming controller that rumbles

Fitts’ Law is the time taken to move to a target. Understanding how long it takes for a mouse to move to a specific point on the screen or a cursor to hover over a specific item. A gaming example is when playing Call of Duty a player must know how long it takes to move the cross-hair from one point of the screen to another point, once you comprehend that you can determine how long it will take to shoot someone. 

Human memory is also important to the gaming world. There is sensory, short-term and long-term memory. Sensory memory is always being replaced; it is things like visual and aural senses. When someone is talking to you, you might remember what he/she said three seconds before that. Short-term memory is good for temporary recall. Completing a short term task such as writing a paragraph uses short term memory. As you continue the paragraph you remember what you had written earlier to create a well-structured paragraph. Short term memory is good for remembering something for a short period of time and then forgetting it. Long term memory is good for holding information that is important to you such as your pin for a debit or visa card. It might take a longer time to recall it however it takes a very long time to forget it. 

Figure 4: Human Information Processing

Hick’s Law describes the time a user needs to make a decision when multiple options are available. This is important to understand for game designing because a designer must know how many options he/she should give a player so that it isn’t easy to pick the right answer very fast as well as not extremely hard where the player must choose an answer out of 100 options. When a player is looking at each of the options he/she must think about what is a right answer and what is a wrong one. They must problem solve in order to come up with a solution. The player must use reasoning to determine what is correct; there are three types of reasoning. Deductive (try to find out the ending given the beginning), inductive (determine what the most right answer is in an unknown situation by using known information) and abductive reasoning (given a fact what is the cause of the situation). By using these types of reasoning a person or player can determine the best course of action to take. 

Some questions to consider when looking at human factors are:

In the lecture we discussed rods and cones being able to determine sight and colour and that some people are colour blind, can we make a game that is suited for blind people but still be interesting to people that can interpret colour?

Why can’t we create a game that incorporates hot and cold into a controller? (Create a controller that can sustain temperature changes)

Why are games that emit pain to players so popular? Can we make a controller that releases pain to players and successfully mass market it?

Personal Experience

During the years of playing video games I have come across something that will never change and it is error types. Slips and mistakes have been seen throughout the course of gaming and it is something that I believe will always be around. Slips is when you have the right intention but carry out the wrong execution such as pressing the key ‘w’ instead of ‘e’ because they are right beside each other. Mistakes are when you have a wrong intention and because of that you have an incorrect understanding. Slips are bound to happen when playing video games because when I’m playing games I need to move my fingers really quick to create button sequences for combos and sooner or later my hand will slip and I will press the wrong button even though I have the right intention.

Work Cited

Figure 1 -

"New Resident Evil 6 Gameplay Footage Released | RipTen Videogame Blog." Ripten Videogame Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://www.ripten.com/2012/07/20/new-resident-evil-6-gameplay-footage-released/>.

Figure 2 -

"Dürfen Kinder Videospiele spielen? Ein schlechter Einfluss? | Design weckt Leidenschaft – Design & Interface." Photoshop Tutorials Webdesign und Zeichenkurse. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://tex-block.de/games/duerfen-kinder-videospiele-spielen-ohne-bedenken/3014/>. 

Figure 3 -

"Sony confirms rumbling Dual Shock 3, gives list of supported titles | Ars Technica." Ars Technica. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2007/09/sony-confirms-rumbling-dual-shock-3-gives-game-list-of-supported-titles/>. 

Figure 4 -

"NDE Reliability - Human Factors - Basic Considerations." NDT. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Feb. 2013. <www.ndt.net/article/wcndt00/papers/idn736/idn736.htm>.

Human Computer Interaction

Figure 1 - Human Computer Interaction

In this week’s lecture we discussed what human computer interaction is. It combines different fields together such as computer science, technical writers, anthropology and sociology. Human computer interaction (HCI) is a full circle, the human is connected to the computer, the computer is connected to interaction and finally, the interaction is connected back to the human. In HCI a person must fail fast so that they can succeed sooner. A person must use a process to understand their design, evaluate --> design --> implement and then back around to evaluate. A person must continue to iterate their design to perfect it (or come as close as possible). 

Human computer interaction can also be used for businesses, entertainment for any type of person (young /old, tech savvy/not tech savvy). It also helps with language barriers for globalization, being able to translate different systems to different types of languages is crucial in order for information to be transmitted across different nations. Small devices are good examples of HCI devices. They store information, entertainment, they are used for communications, measurement (measure how a person moves their phone around) and GPS is used a lot on cell phones. I use my phone everyday not thinking about all the different interactions it allows me to experience because I am so use to having these efficient devices at the tip of my fingers. These devices are user-friendly, they allow people to easily handle the device, they are accessible and intelligible. 

There are five factors of usability: time to learn, speed of errors by users, rate of errors by users, retention over time and subjective satisfaction. Usability is the concept of user friendliness, how well a device cooperates with a user. Usability is very important because we have poor interface design across domains. Medical, police devices and lifesaving systems must be reliable. Usability for these devices are extremely important, nurses and doctors must understand the technology they work with as quickly as possible so that they are worrying more about saving a life and less about how to turn on and use a specific machine. Usability is important for a wide range of people; this is why universal usability is used. Universal usability is defined as things that work for everyone. A person must balance the system so that the majority of the group is fond of it. If you cannot come up with a balanced system then you must make multiple variations of one system. An example of this is the loudness of a person’s ringtone. There is a minimum amount (zero) and a maximum volume (10) and then there’s the middle, where people can decide what is best suited for their needs (1-9).  In a gaming example there is hard, medium and easy difficulties in game levels. Even though there are more versions a game can uses three standard variations. I personally would enjoy a medium-hard difficulty setting because sometimes in a game hard is too hard and medium difficulty is too easy.

Human computer interface is also seen in games. Players must navigate through interfaces in order to play the game. Menus and information space in games use HCI to help design them so that users find them easier to follow. If these things flow well it will help a player have more fun within the game. No one likes being confused while going through a menu system or looking at the heads up display and not being able to follow what is happening. If I had a game that had serious problems in these areas I would probably break the disc. 

Human computer interaction is also seen in gaming controllers. A designer could use natural user interface controllers and touch interaction (such as the Samsung Galaxy) to make a controller easy to use and make the game more enjoyable. I believe a really easy and fun controller that is used a lot today is the Ipad touch controller. For certain games on the Ipad a player uses the touch screen to control player movement and action buttons like shooting or punching. It is really fun and easy to use and this is why people who use the Ipad can enjoy video games with the touch controller for hours on end. The study of playing a game and how to measure fun can be done by looking at game usability. This is a very useful tool because it helps to determine if the game is learnable, fun to play and memorable. You can also evaluate player experience, this looks at the design of the game and the correlation it has with the player. The three things to look at are design <--> game <--> player and then back to design. If you look at the relationship between design and game you should look at the playability relationship and if you look at the relationship between game and player you would look at the actual effect of the game on the player and the player experience relationships. By evaluating the player experience a person can determine what makes the game fun and interesting from a player’s eye. It helps determine if the game is playable and if the experience a player is having is actual the reaction you want them to feel. 

Evaluating player experience can sometimes be hard to do. There are workshops people can attend that help them break down what they are looking at in order to determine player experience.

“The main goals of the workshop and the expected outcomes are:

1. To create synergies between game design issues and player experience measures.
2. To identify better and more usable ways to measure the player experience in different interactive entertainment contexts, across academia and industry.
3. To enhance the evaluation methodologies typical of games-oriented HCI, for example by including an accessible use of psychophysiological and behavioral measurements.
4. To identify challenges in using psychophysiological and behavioral measurement in in-situ evaluations and ex-situ evaluations.
5. To explore the synergy between psychophysiological methods, user telemetry and metrics, and other game-user research evaluation approaches.” (Nacke, 2011)

The picture below shows a user experience design. As you can see it is broken down into several subsections such as visual deisgn and interaction design. All these different branches help determine a user experience design (it is not only used for gaming). 

Figure 2 - “Variety of disciplinary knowledge and skills involved in contemporary design of human-computer interactions.” (Carroll, 2012)

Some questions to consider when looking at human computer interactions are:

Can these new types of gaming technologies be built toward a large enough target audience so that older generations can have the same user experience that a young child might receive from the same console?

Can universal usability be applied to the gaming world in the sense that older people, people with physical challenges and avid game users can all experience a fun and exciting game using the same system and interface?

Personal experiences with human computer interaction

A very memorable experience I had with HCI in games is Mario Party for the Wii. The game is really fun because of its interface. The board game layout, the different actions a player must take in order to win a game and the design keeps the gaming flowing and allows users to have fun with the playability of the game, Mario Party will leave a long lasting experience on the player because of these great attributes.  

Figure 3 - Mario Party in game action

Work Cited

Nacke, Lennart . "2nd International Workshop on Evaluating Player Experience in Games (epex11) » Foundations of Digital Games Conference Workshop 2011 » Evaluating Player Experience in Games (epex11) Workshop Call for Papers." 2nd International Workshop on Evaluating Player Experience in Games (epex11) . N.p., 28 June 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2013. <http://playability.affectivegaming.info/fdg2011/evaluating-player-experience-in-games-fdg-workshop-call-for-papers/>. 

Figure 1

"Career Hubs | SmartGirl." SmartGirl. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2013. <http://www.smartgirl.org/brain-food/career-hubs/human-computer-interaction.html>. 

Figure 2

Carroll, John. "Human Computer Interaction (HCI)." Interaction Design Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2013. <http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/human_computer_interaction_hci.html>. 

Figure 3

"Mario Party 8 - Wii Reviews | MMGN Australia." Wii Game Reviews, Forums, Videos, News, Cheats and more | MMGN Australia. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2013. <http://wii.mmgn.com/Reviews/Mario-Party-8-HE4>.

First Blog of the Semester!!

During the first lecture of Human-Computer Interaction the class discussed what makes them get out of bed in the morning. When I first heard I needed to analyze what why passion was I thought that I wouldn’t know what to say, but after one idea popped into my head another one came rolling along and before I knew it, I realized that I am very passionate about graduating and finding my place in the gaming industry. 

I really enjoy specific aspects of game development such as modelling, game designing (such as script writing, character balancing and story development) and the business aspect. I am taking a marketing minor so that I can pursue my passion in either a marketing field or modelling within a gaming company. I enjoy spending countless hours building levels. I start by creating a blueprint on paper and then create it in Maya. After I have completed a base structure I add in the detail and then colour.

During the lecture we discussed things we would want to learn within the class. I am looking forward to learning about unorthodox controllers, such as controlling a character using your mind or making a character respond to a player’s emotion. I find that intriguing because it is something that is not seen in today’s gaming world and anything new and creative is always something that grabs my attention.

Controller that reads brain waves

    

In the videos that were posted I found them very interesting and informative. The video that described a day in a glass world was amazing because I watch a lot of anime and most futuristic anime has things similar to what was seen in that video and I thought, “what a cool and innovative technology this would be if we had it in today’s society.” Everything is futuristic and uses a glass type material to interact with. Monitors and computers have vanished and it is all replaced by this glass technology. The overall message of the video I thought, was to make tedious jobs disappear for example when you have groceries and you don’t want to put them on the floor to open the trunk of the car, the car should know and open it for you. Another video that I was intrigued about was the virtual reality video. It showed so many ways a person can control a character and how virtual reality is coming back to show that it can be something great. The Oculus Rift, which is the VR headset, looks amazing and I would be very interested in seeing if it really puts you into the game and if it gives you headaches after couple hours of gameplay. The tongue controller was mesmerizing because on one hand it was a very unique controller but on the other hand it is gross and very… “Different”, one could say it is too unique, but I’d still like to try it just to experience controlling a character with the muscles of my tongue. 

Glass Technology used in the comfort of your washroom!

Below are some videos that talk about futuristic technologies and the next generation for gaming consoles. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8MKETsmRW0 - next gen consoles PS4 and Xbox 720 up against the Wii U also has touch screens and new controllers (at the end of the video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIDF_60ok04 - future technologies