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UX in educational virtual worlds

Panagiotis Zaharias
Panagiotis Zaharias

The document summarizes a study that investigated how user experience (UX) develops over time in educational virtual worlds. The study involved 40 students using Second Life for a two-month collaborative learning activity. Students' UX was measured at the beginning and end using a questionnaire assessing pragmatic quality, hedonic stimulation, hedonic identification, and attraction. Results showed evaluations decreased over time, with a significant difference in pragmatic quality, likely due to usability and technical problems. Despite issues, users still found the novel system supported collaboration and had appeal. The study could be improved by developing new customized UX evaluation methods for virtual worlds and collecting longitudinal experience data.

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9/4/2011 User Experience in Educational Virtual Worlds Panagiotis Zaharias, Marios Belk, Panagiotis Germanakos, George Samaras University of Cyprus zaharias@cs.ucy.ac.cy Main concepts User Experience (UX): holistic view on HCI Focuses on experiential, emotional and affective aspects of interaction but also includes practical issues such as traditional usability measures (Forlizzi and Battarbee 2004), It is highly subjective and dynamic as it changes over time (Hassenzahl and Tractinsky, 2006) Virtual Worlds: computer generated spaces represented graphically in three dimensions and can be experienced by many people at the same time (Castronova, 2005) Panagiotis Zaharias EHCIDE 1
9/4/2011 UX evaluation in Virtual Worlds Efforts on UX evaluation: B2C applications (OBriens, 2010; Petre et al., 2006) interactive products (Karapanos et al., 2010; Hassenzahl, 2003) games (Bernhaupt et al., 2008), etc. UX evaluation in VWs: Shin (2009) conducted an empirical study to examine intrinsic and extrinsic motivational determinants for the use of Second Life (SL) Wang and Mainwaring (2008) argue for the suitability of ethnography in UX assessment in VWs Guna et al (2010) proposed a multimodal interaction approach which significantly improved UX of SL users. The study (1) Main goals: to investigate how UX in such a VW develops over time Method: Participants: 40 students (57% male, 43% female, age varying from 20-24) from the University of Cyprus participated in a two-month problem-based learning study To undertake the learning tasks and activities, a learning space was built in Second Life where the users had to use in-world collaboration tools and techniques (i.e., text and voice chatting, forums for comments, etc.) Panagiotis Zaharias EHCIDE 2
9/4/2011 The study (2) Procedure: Phase I (during the first week): a series of introductory tutorials on Second Life were conducted (i.e., how to configure an avatar, how to create objects, etc.). Phase II: students formed groups of 3-4 and they were assigned to design and develop interfaces for several interactive systems (e.g., Realtors Agency, Online Game Shop, Universitys Management System, Smart Home Management System, etc.) by utilizing objects in VW Panagiotis Zaharias EHCIDE 3
9/4/2011 The study (3) Data collection: AttakDiff2 questionnaire (Hassenzahl, 2004) Chat logs and observation Hassenzahl s model of UX: Pragmatic Quality (PQ), (e.g. simple, practical,clear) Hedonic Quality Stimulation (HQS), (e.g. innovative, exciting, new) Hedonic Quality Identification (HQI), (e.g. inclusive, classy, presentable) and Attraction (ATT) (global appeal) Results Two measurements at different times (time0-end of week1 and time1-end of week8): Evaluation measurements at time 0 were higher than the evaluations at time 1 Differences in evaluations of PQ were significant (mean difference=.436, t=2.651, p=.012) Usability problems such as navigation problems and many technical problems (service unavailability) led to users frustration and irritation PQ seems to affect the other UX qualities Despite the problems users felt that they are using a novel system that supports collaborative learning (ATT and HQS higher than PQ and HQI) Panagiotis Zaharias EHCIDE 4
9/4/2011 Limitations and Future work Use of AttrakDiff2 Development of new methods for UX evaluation customized to educational VWs The two measurements evaluated UX at two distinct times (current state of UX) Future work can focus on how the perceptions of users changed over time Use of methods such as event-contingent diaries (Bolger et al., 2003) or tools like iScale (Karapanos et al., 2009) Reporting experiences retrospectively Focus on what a user remembers from an experience Thank you! Panagiotis Zaharias EHCIDE 5

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UX in educational virtual worlds

  • 1. 9/4/2011 User Experience in Educational Virtual Worlds Panagiotis Zaharias, Marios Belk, Panagiotis Germanakos, George Samaras University of Cyprus zaharias@cs.ucy.ac.cy Main concepts User Experience (UX): holistic view on HCI Focuses on experiential, emotional and affective aspects of interaction but also includes practical issues such as traditional usability measures (Forlizzi and Battarbee 2004), It is highly subjective and dynamic as it changes over time (Hassenzahl and Tractinsky, 2006) Virtual Worlds: computer generated spaces represented graphically in three dimensions and can be experienced by many people at the same time (Castronova, 2005) Panagiotis Zaharias EHCIDE 1
  • 2. 9/4/2011 UX evaluation in Virtual Worlds Efforts on UX evaluation: B2C applications (OBriens, 2010; Petre et al., 2006) interactive products (Karapanos et al., 2010; Hassenzahl, 2003) games (Bernhaupt et al., 2008), etc. UX evaluation in VWs: Shin (2009) conducted an empirical study to examine intrinsic and extrinsic motivational determinants for the use of Second Life (SL) Wang and Mainwaring (2008) argue for the suitability of ethnography in UX assessment in VWs Guna et al (2010) proposed a multimodal interaction approach which significantly improved UX of SL users. The study (1) Main goals: to investigate how UX in such a VW develops over time Method: Participants: 40 students (57% male, 43% female, age varying from 20-24) from the University of Cyprus participated in a two-month problem-based learning study To undertake the learning tasks and activities, a learning space was built in Second Life where the users had to use in-world collaboration tools and techniques (i.e., text and voice chatting, forums for comments, etc.) Panagiotis Zaharias EHCIDE 2
  • 3. 9/4/2011 The study (2) Procedure: Phase I (during the first week): a series of introductory tutorials on Second Life were conducted (i.e., how to configure an avatar, how to create objects, etc.). Phase II: students formed groups of 3-4 and they were assigned to design and develop interfaces for several interactive systems (e.g., Realtors Agency, Online Game Shop, Universitys Management System, Smart Home Management System, etc.) by utilizing objects in VW Panagiotis Zaharias EHCIDE 3
  • 4. 9/4/2011 The study (3) Data collection: AttakDiff2 questionnaire (Hassenzahl, 2004) Chat logs and observation Hassenzahl s model of UX: Pragmatic Quality (PQ), (e.g. simple, practical,clear) Hedonic Quality Stimulation (HQS), (e.g. innovative, exciting, new) Hedonic Quality Identification (HQI), (e.g. inclusive, classy, presentable) and Attraction (ATT) (global appeal) Results Two measurements at different times (time0-end of week1 and time1-end of week8): Evaluation measurements at time 0 were higher than the evaluations at time 1 Differences in evaluations of PQ were significant (mean difference=.436, t=2.651, p=.012) Usability problems such as navigation problems and many technical problems (service unavailability) led to users frustration and irritation PQ seems to affect the other UX qualities Despite the problems users felt that they are using a novel system that supports collaborative learning (ATT and HQS higher than PQ and HQI) Panagiotis Zaharias EHCIDE 4
  • 5. 9/4/2011 Limitations and Future work Use of AttrakDiff2 Development of new methods for UX evaluation customized to educational VWs The two measurements evaluated UX at two distinct times (current state of UX) Future work can focus on how the perceptions of users changed over time Use of methods such as event-contingent diaries (Bolger et al., 2003) or tools like iScale (Karapanos et al., 2009) Reporting experiences retrospectively Focus on what a user remembers from an experience Thank you! Panagiotis Zaharias EHCIDE 5