Learnability is a core aspect of software usability. Video games are not an exception, as game designers need to teach players how to play their creations. We analyzed 40 contemporary video games to identify how video games approach learning experiences. We found that games have advanced far beyond using simple tutorials or demonstration screens and adopt a range of repeatable and reusable design strategies using visual cues to facilitate learning. We provide a detailed descriptive framework of these design strategies, elucidating how and when they can be used, and describing how the visual cues are used to build them. Our research can be useful for both general HCI researchers and practitioners seeking to tap into the rich ideas from video game learnability design looking for practical solutions for their work.

Collaborative exploration of 360 videos with contemporary interfaces is challenging because collaborators do not have awareness of one another's viewing activities. Tourgether360 enhances social exploration of 360° tour videos using a pseudo-spatial navigation technique that provides both an overhead "context" view of the environment as a minimap, as well as a shared pseudo-3D environment for exploring the video. Collaborators are embodied as avatars along a track depending on their position in the video timeline and can point and synchronize their playback. We evaluated the Tourgether360 concept through two studies: first, a comparative study with a simplified version of Tourgether360 with collaborator embodiments and a minimap versus a conventional interface; second, an exploratory study where we studied how collaborators used Tourgether360 to navigate and explore 360° environments together. We found that participants adopted the Tourgether360 approach with ease and enjoyed the shared social aspects of the experience. Participants reported finding the experience similar to an interactive social video game.

Many instructors in computing and HCI disciplines use hands-on activities for teaching and training new skills. Beyond simply teaching hands-on skills like sketching and programming, instructors also use these activities so students can acquire tacit skills. Yet, current video-conferencing technologies may not effectively support hands-on activities in online teaching contexts. To develop an understanding of the inadequacies of current video-conferencing technologies for hands-on activities, we conducted 15 interviews with university-level instructors who had quickly pivoted their use of hands-on activities to an online context during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on our analysis, we uncovered four pedagogical goals that instructors have when using hands-on activities online and how instructors were unable to adequately address them due to the technological limitations of current video-conferencing tools. Our work provides empirical data about the challenges that many instructors experienced, and in so doing, the pedagogical goals we identify provide new requirements for video-conferencing systems to better support hands-on activities.

Design and co-creation activities around 3D artifacts often require close collocated coordination between multiple users. Augmented reality (AR) technology can support collocated work enabling users to flexibly work with digital objects while still being able to use the physical space for coordination. With most of current research focusing on remote AR collaboration, less is known about collocated collaboration in AR, particularly in relation to interpersonal dynamics between the collocated collaborators. Our study aims at understanding how shared augmented reality facilitated by mobile devices (mobile augmented reality or MAR) affects collocated users' coordination. We compare the coordination behaviors that emerged in a MAR setting with those in a comparable fully physical setting by simulating the same task -of the shared physical dimension for participants' ability to coordinate in the context of collaborative co-creation. Namely, participants working in a fully physical setting were better able to leverage the work artifact itself for their coordination needs, working in a mode that we term artifact-oriented coordination. Conversely, participants collaborating around an AR artifact leveraged the shared physical workspace for their coordination needs, working in what we refer to as space-oriented coordination. We discuss implications for a AR-based collaboration and propose directions for designers of AR tools.

As technology advances, people increasingly interact with virtual objects in settings such as augmented reality (AR) where the virtual layer is superimposed on top of the physical world. Similarly to interactions with physical objects, users may assign virtual objects with value, experience a sense of relatedness, and develop psychological ownership over these objects. The objective of this study is to understand how AR's unique characteristics influences the emergence of meaning and ownership perceptions amongst users. We conducted a study of users' interactions with a virtual dog over a three-week period, comparing AR and fully virtual settings. Our findings show that engagement with the application is a key determinant of the relation users develop with virtual objects. However, the effect of the background layer-whether physical or virtual-dominates the development of relatedness and ownership feelings, highlighting the importance of the "real" physical layer in shaping users' perceptions.

Images are characterized by a complex system of attributes. One of the most elusive properties of an image is its emotiveness – the ability to trigger an emotional reaction in the viewer. Prior research has demonstrated that users react to image emotiveness, yet to date there is little theoretical understanding and scarce empirical evidence as to the role played by emotiveness in the image retrieval process. Our study aims to fill this gap and investigates how users perceive the emotional content of the image-seeking task; explicate this emotional content in search keywords; and react to image emotiveness in selecting relevant images. Using a multimethod approach that combines quantitative and qualitative analyses, we performed three experiments where participants searched for images, both within the predefined set of images and in an open Web environment. Our findings suggest that although seekers rarely explicate image emotiveness in search keywords, their decision to select relevant images is largely dependent on their perception of the emotional content of the task and images. We discuss implications for research on emotions in image retrieval, as well as practical implications for designers of search systems.

Novel collaborative technologies afford new modes of behavior, which are often not regulated by established social norms. In particular, shared augmented reality (AR) - where multiple users can create, attach, and interact with the same virtual elements embedded into the physical environment - has the potential to interrupt current social norms of behavior. The objective of our study is to shed light on the ways in which shared AR challenges existing behavioral expectations. Using a simulated lab experimental design, we performed a study of users' interactions in a shared AR setting. Content analysis of participants' interviews reveals users' concerns over the preservation of their self- and social identity, as well as concerns related to personal space and the sense of psychological ownership over one's body and belongings. Our findings also point to the need for regulation of shared AR spaces and design of the technology's control mechanisms.

Firms developing software -- and in particular, video game producers - seek to leverage the community of users/developers in enhancing product offering and increasing sales. Despite the practical importance of this phenomena, to date little research has investigated the actual value such communities add aside from few qualitative case studies of successful synergies between commercial enterprises and open-source communities. The objective of this study is to try and quantitatively assess the effectiveness of firms' efforts to increase sales of their product through inducing community's co-creation activity. Our empirical investigation focuses on producers of video games and their user/developer 'modding' community. An analysis of 45 games reveals that when firms are successful at engaging the community, the value added by the modding community contributes to an increase in sales of the base product. Implications for research on open innovation and for practitioners are discussed.