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The Impact of User-Generated Interfaces on the Participation of Users with a Disability in Virtual Environments: Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft Model
Title
The Impact of User-Generated Interfaces on the Participation of Users with a Disability in Virtual Environments: Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft Model.
Creator
Merritt, Donald, McDaniel, Rudy, Zemliansky, Pavel, Mauer, Barry, Kim, Si Jung, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
When discussing games and the experience of gamers those with disabilities are often overlooked. This has left a gap in our understanding of the experience of players with disabilities in virtual game worlds. However there are examples of players with disabilities being very successful in the virtual world video game World of Warcraft, suggesting that there is an opportunity to study the game for usability insight in creating other virtual world environments. This study surveyed World of...
Show moreWhen discussing games and the experience of gamers those with disabilities are often overlooked. This has left a gap in our understanding of the experience of players with disabilities in virtual game worlds. However there are examples of players with disabilities being very successful in the virtual world video game World of Warcraft, suggesting that there is an opportunity to study the game for usability insight in creating other virtual world environments. This study surveyed World of Warcraft players with disabilities online for insight into how they used interface addons to manage their experience and identity performance in the game. A rubric was also created to study a selection of addons for evidence of the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The study found that World of Warcraft players with disabilities do not use addons more than able-bodied players, but some of the most popular addons do exhibit many or most of the principles of UDL. UDL principles appear to have emerged organically from addon iterations over time. The study concludes by suggesting that the same approach to user-generated content for the game interface taken by the creators of World of Warcraft, as well as high user investment in the environment, can lead to more accessible virtual world learning environments in the future.
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Date Issued
2015
Identifier
CFE0005667, ucf:50175
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005667
Multi-Modal Interfaces for Sensemaking of Graph-Connected Datasets
Title
Multi-Modal Interfaces for Sensemaking of Graph-Connected Datasets.
Creator
Wehrer, Anthony, Hughes, Charles, Wisniewski, Pamela, Pattanaik, Sumanta, Specht, Chelsea, Lisle, Curtis, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The visualization of hypothesized evolutionary processes is often shown through phylogenetic trees. Given evolutionary data presented in one of several widely accepted formats, software exists to render these data into a tree diagram. However, software packages commonly in use by biologists today often do not provide means to dynamically adjust and customize these diagrams for studying new hypothetical relationships, and for illustration and publication purposes. Even where these options are...
Show moreThe visualization of hypothesized evolutionary processes is often shown through phylogenetic trees. Given evolutionary data presented in one of several widely accepted formats, software exists to render these data into a tree diagram. However, software packages commonly in use by biologists today often do not provide means to dynamically adjust and customize these diagrams for studying new hypothetical relationships, and for illustration and publication purposes. Even where these options are available, there can be a lack of intuitiveness and ease-of-use. The goal of our research is, thus, to investigate more natural and effective means of sensemaking of the data with different user input modalities. To this end, we experimented with different input modalities, designing and running a series of prototype studies, ultimately focusing our attention on pen-and-touch. Through several iterations of feedback and revision provided with the help of biology experts and students, we developed a pen-and-touch phylogenetic tree browsing and editing application called PhyloPen. This application expands on the capabilities of existing software with visualization techniques such as overview+detail, linked data views, and new interaction and manipulation techniques using pen-and-touch. To determine its impact on phylogenetic tree sensemaking, we conducted a within-subject comparative summative study against the most comparable and commonly used state-of-the-art mouse-based software system, Mesquite. Conducted with biology majors at the University of Central Florida, each used both software systems on a set number of exercise tasks of the same type. Determining effectiveness by several dependent measures, the results show PhyloPen was significantly better in terms of usefulness, satisfaction, ease-of-learning, ease-of-use, and cognitive load and relatively the same in variation of completion time. These results support an interaction paradigm that is superior to classic mouse-based interaction, which could have the potential to be applied to other communities that employ graph-based representations of their problem domains.
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Date Issued
2019
Identifier
CFE0007872, ucf:52788
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007872
OPTIMIZING THE DESIGN OF MULTIMODAL USER INTERFACES
Title
OPTIMIZING THE DESIGN OF MULTIMODAL USER INTERFACES.
Creator
Reeves, Leah, Stanney, Kay, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Due to a current lack of principle-driven multimodal user interface design guidelines, designers may encounter difficulties when choosing the most appropriate display modality for given users or specific tasks (e.g., verbal versus spatial tasks). The development of multimodal display guidelines from both a user and task domain perspective is thus critical to the achievement of successful human-system interaction. Specifically, there is a need to determine how to design task information...
Show moreDue to a current lack of principle-driven multimodal user interface design guidelines, designers may encounter difficulties when choosing the most appropriate display modality for given users or specific tasks (e.g., verbal versus spatial tasks). The development of multimodal display guidelines from both a user and task domain perspective is thus critical to the achievement of successful human-system interaction. Specifically, there is a need to determine how to design task information presentation (e.g., via which modalities) to capitalize on an individual operator's information processing capabilities and the inherent efficiencies associated with redundant sensory information, thereby alleviating information overload. The present effort addresses this issue by proposing a theoretical framework (Architecture for Multi-Modal Optimization, AMMO) from which multimodal display design guidelines and adaptive automation strategies may be derived. The foundation of the proposed framework is based on extending, at a functional working memory (WM) level, existing information processing theories and models with the latest findings in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and other allied sciences. The utility of AMMO lies in its ability to provide designers with strategies for directing system design, as well as dynamic adaptation strategies (i.e., multimodal mitigation strategies) in support of real-time operations. In an effort to validate specific components of AMMO, a subset of AMMO-derived multimodal design guidelines was evaluated with a simulated weapons control system multitasking environment. The results of this study demonstrated significant performance improvements in user response time and accuracy when multimodal display cues were used (i.e., auditory and tactile, individually and in combination) to augment the visual display of information, thereby distributing human information processing resources across multiple sensory and WM resources. These results provide initial empirical support for validation of the overall AMMO model and a sub-set of the principle-driven multimodal design guidelines derived from it. The empirically-validated multimodal design guidelines may be applicable to a wide range of information-intensive computer-based multitasking environments.
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Date Issued
2007
Identifier
CFE0001636, ucf:47237
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001636
Exploring 3D User Interface Technologies for Improving the Gaming Experience
Title
Exploring 3D User Interface Technologies for Improving the Gaming Experience.
Creator
Kulshreshth, Arun, Laviola II, Joseph, Hughes, Charles, Da Vitoria Lobo, Niels, Masuch, Maic, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
3D user interface technologies have the potential to make games more immersive (&) engaging and thus potentially provide a better user experience to gamers. Although 3D user interface technologies are available for games, it is still unclear how their usage affects game play and if there are any user performance benefits. A systematic study of these technologies in game environments is required to understand how game play is affected and how we can optimize the usage in order to achieve...
Show more3D user interface technologies have the potential to make games more immersive (&) engaging and thus potentially provide a better user experience to gamers. Although 3D user interface technologies are available for games, it is still unclear how their usage affects game play and if there are any user performance benefits. A systematic study of these technologies in game environments is required to understand how game play is affected and how we can optimize the usage in order to achieve better game play experience.This dissertation seeks to improve the gaming experience by exploring several 3DUI technologies. In this work, we focused on stereoscopic 3D viewing (to improve viewing experience) coupled with motion based control, head tracking (to make games more engaging), and faster gesture based menu selection (to reduce cognitive burden associated with menu interaction while playing). We first studied each of these technologies in isolation to understand their benefits for games. We present the results of our experiments to evaluate benefits of stereoscopic 3D (when coupled with motion based control) and head tracking in games. We discuss the reasons behind these findings and provide recommendations for game designers who want to make use of these technologies to enhance gaming experiences. We also present the results of our experiments with finger-based menu selection techniques with an aim to find out the fastest technique. Based on these findings, we custom designed an air-combat game prototype which simultaneously uses stereoscopic 3D, head tracking, and finger-count shortcuts to prove that these technologies could be useful for games if the game is designed with these technologies in mind. Additionally, to enhance depth discrimination and minimize visual discomfort, the game dynamically optimizes stereoscopic 3D parameters (convergence and separation) based on the user's look direction. We conducted a within subjects experiment where we examined performance data and self-reported data on users perception of the game. Our results indicate that participants performed significantly better when all the 3DUI technologies (stereoscopic 3D, head-tracking and finger-count gestures) were available simultaneously with head tracking as a dominant factor. We explore the individual contribution of each of these technologies to the overall gaming experience and discuss the reasons behind our findings.Our experiments indicate that 3D user interface technologies could make gaming experience better if used effectively. The games must be designed to make use of the 3D user interface technologies available in order to provide a better gaming experience to the user. We explored a few technologies as part of this work and obtained some design guidelines for future game designers. We hope that our work will serve as the framework for the future explorations of making games better using 3D user interface technologies.
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Date Issued
2015
Identifier
CFE0005643, ucf:50190
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005643