We are excited to announce that three of, our founder, Prof Jonny Freeman’s Ph.D. students, Leah, Matt and Zoe, are taking part in the HCI International 2022 conference on June 28th!
Their innovative Ph.D. research spans motivations to game, how games can improve mental health outcomes and how human-centred design tools can be used to craft successful games.
Leah, Zoë and Matt will be presenting as part of the Sources and Applications of Game Enjoyment session. Read below to find out more about their research and join the session on the 28th at 1.30pm GMT.
Jonny said “I am delighted that all three have papers at this conference, and it’s especially satisfying to see Leah, also i2’s Innovation Lead, presenting i2’s new IMPACT model whose development she has led.”
There’s still time to register for the conference if you'd like to catch the presentations next week! https://2022.hci.international/registration.html.
Leah Kurta
Research has shown that technologist and UX professionals often find it difficult to translate quantitative user research findings into practical design changes (Law et al., 2014). Leah’s Ph.D. research focuses on addressing this problem by helping creative practitioners and technologists apply human-centred design to their work practice. Leah develops qualitative and generative tools that can aid design practically during development sprints.
In this presentation for HCI she introduces a generative tool and psychological model of user experience called the IMPACT model and applies it to game development. The purpose of the IMPACT model is to help designers recognise the features which are likely to be successful and ideate from a human-centred perspective. The IMPACT model is six psychological lenses that help designers think about features of their work that could evoke different psychological states in players. IMPACT stands for interesting, meaningful, personalised, affective, collective and transportive. The talk will demonstrate how successful games interest players through effective advertising and marketing campaigns, build sustained engagement during gameplay and develop player loyalty after game play has ended.
Matt Copeman
Matt’s research focuses on the benefits video games can bring to mental health. As part of his Ph.D., Matt will be designing and building a model of transdiagnostic mental health to understand what sort of video games better suit different forms of mental ill-health. So far, Matt’s research has focused on testing a clinical tool to predict social anxiety, as well as conducting and analysing interviews with game players with social anxiety. Overall, the research may indicate that matching specific forms of gaming to particular mental health issues may well prevent a worsening of mental ill-health, and provide additional help to more standard clinical interventions.
Zoë O’shea
Zoë’s research focuses on exploring two types of game, “Tend and Befriend” and “Fight-or-flight” and how these relate to fundamental theories of human psychology. Through studying games such as ‘Animal Crossing’, she will be exploring the potential of players' experiences of affiliation with others for safety (befriending) and protecting vulnerable individuals in the group interest (tending). Using a combination of Game Design and Player Psychology she will help develop our insight into players' motivations and interests, and how this can improve our understanding of game development and design methodologies.
Good luck to all those presenting!
References
Law, E. L. C., Van Schaik, P., & Roto, V. (2014). Attitudes towards user experience (UX) measurement. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 72(6), 526-541.