Exertion games require investing physical effort. The fact that such games can support physical health is tempered by our limited understanding of how to design for engaging exertion experiences. This paper introduces the Exertion Framework as a way to think and talk about Exertion Games, both for their formative design and summative analysis. Our Exertion Framework is based on the ways in which we can conceive of the body investing in gamedirected exertion, supported by four perspectives on the body (the Responding Body, Moving Body, Sensing Body and Relating Body) and three perspectives on gaming (rules, play and context). The paper illustrates how this framework was derived from prior systems and theory, and presents a case study of how it has been used to inspire novel exertion interactions. Author Keywords Exertion Interface, whole-body interaction, exergame,

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) routinely attract millions of players but little empirical data is available to assess their players ’ social experiences. In this paper, we use longitudinal data collected directly from the game to examine play and grouping patterns in one of the largest MMOGs: World of Warcraft. Our observations show that the prevalence and extent of social activities in MMOGs might have been previously over-estimated, and that gaming communities face important challenges affecting their cohesion and eventual longevity. We discuss the implications of our findings for the design of future games and other online social spaces.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) often focuses on how designers can develop systems that convey a single, specific, clear interpretation of what they are for and how they should be used and experienced. New domains such as domestic and public environments, new influences from the arts and humanities, and new techniques in HCI itself are converging to suggest that multiple, potentially competing interpretations can fruitfully co-exist. In this paper, we lay out the contours of the new space opened by a focus on multiple interpretations, which may more fully address the complexity, dynamics and interplay of user, system, and designer interpretation. We document how design and evaluation strategies shift when we abandon the presumption that a specific, authoritative interpretation of the systems we build is necessary, possible or desirable.

Abstract—The NameVoyager, a Web-based visualization of historical trends in baby naming, has proven remarkably popular. We describe design decisions behind the application and lessons learned in creating an application that makes do-it-yourself data mining popular. The prime lesson, it is hypothesized, is that an information visualization tool may be fruitfully viewed not as a tool but as part of an online social environment. In other words, to design a successful exploratory data analysis tool, one good strategy is to create a system that enables “social ” data analysis. We end by discussing the design of an extension of the NameVoyager to a more complex data set, in which the principles of social data analysis played a guiding role. Index Terms—Design study, time-varying data visualization, human-computer interaction, social data analysis. 1

Collaboration often relies on all group members having a shared view of a single-user application. A common situation is a single active presenter sharing a live view of her workstation screen with a passive audience, using simple hardware-based video signal projection onto a large screen or simple bitmap-based sharing protocols. This offers simplicity and some advantages over more sophisticated software-based replication solutions, but everyone has the exact same view of the application. This conflicts with the presenter’s need to keep some information and interaction details private. It also fails to recognize the needs of the passive audience, who may struggle to follow the presentation because of the amount of interaction details, display clutter or insufficient familiarity with the application. Views that cater to the different roles of the presenter and the audience can be provided by custom solutions, but these tend to be bound to a particular application. This thesis describes a general technique and implementation details of a prototype system that allows standardized role-specific views of existing single-user applications and permits additional customization that is application-specific with no change to the application source

Interesting characteristics of large-scale events are their spatial distribution, their extended duration over days, and the fact that they are set apart from daily life. The increasing pervasiveness of computational media encourages us to investigate such unexplored domains, especially when thinking of applications for spectator groups. Here we report of a field study on two groups of rally spectators who were equipped with multimedia phones, and we present a novel mobile group media application called mGroup that supports groups in creating and sharing experiences. Particularly, we look at the possibilities of and boundary conditions for computer applications posed by our findings on group identity and formation, group awareness and coordination, the meaningful construction of an event experience and its grounding in the event context, the shared context and discourses, protagonism and active spectatorship. Moreover, we aim at providing a new perspective on spectatorship at large scale events, which can make research and development more aware of the socio-cultural dimension.

This paper introduces a novel and creative approach for coupling multimedia art with a non-conventional distributed humancomputer interface for multi-user interactive entertainment. The proposed MobiLenin system allows a group of people to interact simultaneously with a multi-track music video shown on a large public display using their personal mobile phones, effectively empowering the group with the joint authorship of the video. The system is realized with a client-server architecture which includes server-driven real-time control of the client UI to guarantee ease of use and a lottery mechanism as an incentive for interaction. Our analysis of the findings of an empirical user evaluation conducted in a true environment of use shows that the MobiLenin system is successful, addressing many of the challenges identified in the literature. The proposed system offers a new form of interactive entertainment for pubs and other public places, and the underlying architecture provides a framework for realizing similar installations with different types of multimedia content.

Previous attempts to support spectators at large-scale events have concentrated separately on real-time event information, awareness cues, or media-sharing applications. CoMedia combines a group media space with event information and integrates reusable awareness elements throughout. In two field trials, one at a rally and the other at a music festival, we found that CoMedia facilitated onsite reporting to offsite members, coordination of group action, keeping up to date with others, spectating remotely, and joking. In these activities, media, awareness cues, and event information were often used in concert, albeit assuming differing roles. We show that the integrated approach better supports continuous interweaving of use with the changing interests and occurrences in large-scale events. Author Keywords Mobile applications, groups, awareness systems, large-scale events, spectatorship, field evaluation. Acm Classification Keywords H5.3 [Information interfaces and presentation]: Group and

Mobile experiences that take place in public settings such as on city streets create new opportunities for interweaving the fictional world of a performance or game with the everyday physical world. A study of a touring performance reveals how designers generated excitement and dramatic tension by implicating bystanders and encouraging the (apparent) crossing of normal boundaries of behaviour. The study also shows how designers dealt with associated risks through a process of careful orchestration. Consequently, we extend an existing framework for designing spectator interfaces with the concept of performance frames, enabling us to distinguish audience from bystanders. We conclude that using ambiguity to blur the frame can be a powerful design tactic, empowering players to willingly suspend disbelief, so long as a safety-net of orchestration ensures that they do not stray into genuine difficulty. Author Keywords Mobile games, mixed reality performances, frames,

As large displays become prevalent in public spaces, they could be employed to create novel game experiences for the public. We present an exploratory study of an ad-hoc multiplayer game played on such public displays. The game, Flashlight Jigsaw, was deployed in a shared lab space and a public atrium for two weeks in total. Through interviews supported by observations and system logs we explored the experiences and behaviors of players and spectators. We also investigated the interrelationship between public display games and the spaces they are deployed in. The research resulted in findings regarding game play, communication, social interaction, spectatorship, and space and location around such a game. We use our findings to develop design implications for future public display games. Author Keywords Public display, games, flashlight display, exploratory study.