Emotionally challenging experiences are central to player experience in games, and psychological horror provides particularly intense and thought-provoking moments. However, HCI research has largely overlooked how these experiences might influence reflection and mental health awareness. To address this gap, we interviewed two groups of eight players who experienced recent psychological horror games such as Alan Wake 2 and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Our analysis suggests that player reflection and a broader perspective on mental health are more likely to emerge when a game’s mechanics and narrative allow players to experience the characters’ mental states through gameplay. These findings highlight the potential of psychological horror games to encourage reflection on real-world experiences and offer ethical and future design considerations in crafting narratives centered around mental health.

As human actions continue to threaten wildlife, international organizations stress the importance of global environmental education.Teaching children about conservation is key to shaping their future behaviors.However, it is also important to create experiences that engage children with their local biodiversity while informing them about these issues.Seizing this opportunity, we designed, developed, and conducted a pilot study on an interactive, story-driven game with augmented reality (AR) to engage children aged 9 to 12 with local biodiversity and the impact of human actions on the environment.

Figure 1: Left: Creat'AI, a tangible storytelling prototype designed to teach AI concepts to young children.It includes a keyboard, mirror, external speaker, external enter button, and tangible elements such as QR code cards, paper, and pens.Right: Drawings created by children to interact with the AI and contribute to the storytelling process, depicting a soccer game, a strawberry, and a slice of pizza.

Figure 1: The tapestry employed a user-centred approach in its design and implementation.We developed the visuals and crafted elements to support the narrative plot about marine noise pollution.The experience also incorporates tangible interfaces, audio and sensors to engage the users and sensitise them to this topic.

Figure 1: Collaborative Gameplay Structure of Mystiria: (a) Adult Child Layout -Each of the players has their own screen, which the other player is not allowed to see.The goal is for both players to communicate with each other through 3 mini-games (b) Aqua's Mini-game; (c) Electro's Mini-game; (d) Verdis' Mini-game.For (b), (c) and (d), the top screen represents the adult's view, while the screen on the bottom is what the child will see.In addition, players can also experience (e) Quiz Example; (f) Exploring Madeira Island; (g) Picture with Characters Abstract Current interventions for climate literacy are fragmented, as they target adults or children, rather than fostering collaboration and

Financial literacy is critical for economic empowerment, yet access to effective financial education remains uneven.Serious games provide an interactive and accessible approach to financial education, fostering decision-making and cognitive development through immersive gameplay.In this demonstration, we present DreamScape, a narrative-driven serious game designed to teach financial literacy through interactive storytelling and puzzle-based mini-games.By leveraging narrative immersion and problem-solving mechanics, this online demo illustrates how interactive systems and creative design can foster economic empowerment, contributing to a more financially literate and equitable society.

Typing and editing precise numerical input, in particular floating-point values, are essential tasks in Spatial Computing for applications such as 3D precision modeling, object measurement, object dimensioning, mathematical visualization, and immersive media creation. Yet the adopted interfaces and interaction techniques in VR/AR/MR are often replicas of flat, palm-sized numpads such as those found in physical calculators or their WIMP counterparts. To move beyond such conventional confines, this paper explores redesigning the numpad by leveraging the spatial freedom of VR with a specific focus on introducing redundancy in the input of floating point values. To do so, we took inspiration from mechanisms such as combination dials, movable numbers, and a mechanical calculator that offer a larger and multi-column number layout. We assess how redundant interfaces can enhance user experience and efficiency when it comes to precise number editing of floating point values. Through a user study (N=30), we compared four numpads where participants engage in inputting a list of target numbers within a virtual environment. Our findings reveal that the redesigned numpads, which utilize redundant design elements, were preferred by users over the conventional numpad design as they provided clearer and more efficient number input methods in VR.

This work examines the estimation of heart rate and respiratory rate using only the kinematic data captured by a consumer-grade standalone VR devices. The high-resolution motion tracking offered by these devices creates an opportunity for indirect vital sign detection through spectral analysis of subtle VR device movement data. In our study, kinematic data were collected from a Meta Quest 3 head-mounted display, controllers and MX Ink pen across multiple posture configurations (e.g., seated, standing, lying down), both at rest and after moderate exercise. These postures emulate real-world XR scenarios for rest, fitness, and meditation. The collected data was processed using what we refer to as the Ghost approach, a simple yet effective method that applies a Fast Fourier Transform to capture the spectral components associated with respiratory and cardiac rhythms. Ground-truth biosignals were simultaneously recorded using wearable physiological sensors for validation. Results clearly reveal that both heart rate and respiratory rate can be reliably estimated from subtle micro-movements in the head-mounted display, VR controllers, or VR pen, revealing the potential for non-contact physiological monitoring within immersive environments. Finally, we demonstrate a use case of a VR stethoscope, where a standard VR controller is repurposed to estimate heart and respiratory rates.

Periodic Fable in the Wild is a gamified experience that aims to contextualise basic concepts about the Periodic Table and organic chemistry through Augmented Reality, gamification and mechanisms that integrate real-world compounds/objects within the system. The app uses a pedagogical situated learning approach allowing preteens (9 to 13 year-old) to explore physical spaces, gather atoms, and recreate chemical compounds while interacting with molecular structures. By adapting the learning content to the user’s real-world context, we aim to enhance knowledge transfer, making the experience more meaningful, relatable, and engaging.

Our ancestors communicated stories through tapestries, using them to adorn both public and private spaces. Traditionally, these tapestries were static artworks hanging on walls without any interaction from the audience. Nevertheless, textiles offer a versatile medium, which can be crafted from various materials and colours and manipulated to produce unique, touch-responsive textures. Our vision is to integrate the tactile capabilities of weaving with capacitive sensor technology to create a media-immersed interactive art installation that explores the negative impact of noise pollution on marine life ecosystems. Marine animals, particularly cetaceans, heavily rely on sound for communication, navigation, and hunting, and noise pollution can disrupt these essential functions. By harnessing the storytelling potential of tapestries and the power of capacitive sensors connected to microcontrollers, we developed a storytelling experience with a unique embodied interface that aims to educate the general audience about pressing issues such as marine noise pollution.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a empirically validated treatment for anxiety and depression. By identifying negative thinking patterns (cognitive distortions), individuals are able to reevaluate and reframe thinking patterns for better mental health. Building on previous research in digital health interventions, we explore the use of games and VR for increasing awareness of cognitive distortions. CBT-Darts is an immersive VR game where players match statements to cognitive distortions by throwing darts at balloons. By mixing a physical and cognitive task, we hope to create an engaging and fun way to teach how to identify cognitive distortions.

Financial literacy is essential for personal and national economic well-being, demanding attention in today’s dynamic society. However, a concerning trend persists where individuals may lack basic financial knowledge; this is common even among individuals with a high level of education. This gap is especially concerning for young adults, as it prevents them from making informed decisions, managing finances effectively, and securing a stable future. This paper presents the development and pilot evaluation of a serious puzzle game prototype to enhance financial literacy among young adults. The pilot evaluation (N=7) explores various game mechanics to deliver engaging financial education. Initial findings indicate promising potential for serious puzzle games in facilitating financial literacy. The research aims to contribute insights into pedagogical strategies and game design enhancements, fostering informed decision-making and economic stability among young adults.

Horror video games have often been criticized for their negative and unrealistic depiction of mental health, primarily through their portrayal of characters with mental illnesses. Such representations can perpetuate stigma and misconceptions about mental health issues. However, there has recently been a growing interest in accurate portrayals of these characters and how playing these video games could also elicit empathy and mental health awareness. In our study, we explored how a psychological horror game such as Silent Hill 2 could foster empathy and mental health awareness through individual interviews with 11 participants. Our findings revealed that participants gained a deeper understanding of mental health issues and empathy towards characters struggling with mental illnesses by interacting and controlling them. Participants had a greater attachment to the characters' inner struggles and their gameplay was experienced as cathartic. Moreover, our findings highlighted the potential of psychological horror to serve as a platform for character-driven narratives, showcasing how engagement with such games elicited empathy among participants. We contribute to an exploratory understanding that can assist game designers and writers in crafting narratives within the Psychological Horror genre that foster empathy and mental health awareness.

Creativity Support Tools (CSTs) have grown exponentially in the HCI field. However, this growth has always leaned towards divergent thinking, thus neglecting convergent thinking. We confirm this information based on a preliminary review between 2012 and 2022 in the ACM Digital Library. Our findings confirm that researchers and practitioners have been primarily interested in developing tools to support idea generation, minimizing studies on evaluating and selecting ideas. We focused our research on four major points: i) the domain of the tool, ii) the type of system and interface developed in the tools, iii) the methodology used, and iv) the creative context of the tools. Based on this information, we contribute six guidelines to support the improvement of existing CSTs and the development of new CSTs.

Betting on new and promising ideas is fundamental for innovation in various sectors, helping the world that faces so many adversities. To increase these ideas, the stages of evaluation and selection of ideas in the creative processes need to be improved and not neglected. To minimize this problem and contribute to the scientific advance in the creativity-oriented HCI, we present a tool for selecting ideas used after brainstorming sessions. Our prototype is inspired by the conclusions of an observational study that we conducted with six students in a classroom, in which the students' objective was to plan the making of a video for a social institution that helps the neediest people.

The lives of informal caregivers can get so busy and overwhelmed that they stop caring for themselves. A simple daily mobile phone reminder may be enough to restore some of their self-care. In this study, we explore the effects of reminders in the lives of informal caregivers, specifically in the Mindful Self-Care Scale subdomains. We found positive effects in the Supportive Relationships and the Mindful Relaxation subdomains with medium effects. Despite not being statistically significant, the Mindful Awareness and the Self-Compassion and Purpose subdomains have low enough p-values for us to argue that they may create positive effects if coupled with extra call-to-action features. This should be explored in future studies. The Supportive Structure subdomain seems to have no relation or be affected in any relevant way by the reminders.

The purpose of this paper is to present and briefly describe a web-based tool for processing and visualizing in a suitable way the available data from satellite laser altimetry missions, in particular data from ICESat and ICESat-2. This new tool, called ICEComb, allows to access all data contained within each data granule of the datasets of both missions, visualize the data interactively on a geographic map, store data locally, and process and explore data in an efficient, detailed and meaningful way, thus providing an easy-to-use environment for satellite laser altimetry data analysis and interpretation.

Abstract With virtual reality (VR) industries and research focusing on gaming, training and, somewhat, in healthcare, there seems to be a lack of VR as simpler form of relaxing leisure, despite its potential. When emotions are targeted, there appears to be a focus on visceral ones like jump scares, panic, high adrenaline, fears and anything related to bad feelings and instinctive reactions. This study explores and proves that VR can effectively relax the user. We conducted an experiment where the users were exposed to VR-based natural sceneries, and we measured its effect on their positive feelings and relaxation levels. We found evidence, with a high degree of significance, of an increase in calmness and a reduction of arousal and energy. This effect is present in short sessions. We also explored the possibility of VR sunsets affecting our subjects’ circadian rhythm.

While mobile devices have become ubiquitous, illnesses derived from poor lifestyle habits are on the rise. However, our understanding of design mechanisms that induce healthier behavior change through mobile devices is still limited. Using the BCT Taxonomy, and online user reviews as an indicator of experience satisfaction, we make a three-folded contribution to designing interactive systems for behavior change: (i) a systematic review of applications for physical activity and healthier eating habits, coding BCTs; (ii) sentiment analysis performed on 20492 review sentences of these apps; and (iii) design implications regarding the implementation features for each BCT cluster, considering the highest-scored features in terms of sentiment analysis. Positive expressions referred to the framing/reframing technique. Contrarily, negative expressions were mostly related to reward and threat. Findings from this study can be used to benchmark interactions between users and behavior change interfaces, and provide design insights to support positive user experiences.

Ten years ago, Thaler and Sunstein introduced the notion of nudging to talk about how subtle changes in the 'choice architecture' can alter people's behaviors in predictable ways. This idea was eagerly adopted in HCI and applied in multiple contexts, including health, sustainability and privacy. Despite this, we still lack an understanding of how to design effective technology-mediated nudges. In this paper we present a systematic review of the use of nudging in HCI research with the goal of laying out the design space of technology-mediated nudging - the why (i.e., which cognitive biases do nudges combat) and the how (i.e., what exact mechanisms do nudges employ to incur behavior change). All in all, we found 23 distinct mechanisms of nudging, grouped in 6 categories, and leveraging 15 different cognitive biases. We present these as a framework for technology-mediated nudging, and discuss the factors shaping nudges' effectiveness and their ethical implications.

Anxiety disorders are one of the most prevalent mental health conditions, affecting more than 280 million people worldwide. This paper presents a novel approach to assistive technologies for mental health. In our approach, the paired combination of a wearable device --- in the form of a scarf --- and an accompanying mobile app, helps mitigate anxiety symptoms whenever they start to arise. This approach differs from conventional ubiquitous technologies developed for dealing with mental health, both in the role the mobile app plays in the process and in the way the intervention is delivered to users. SCAARF offers a more subtle, less obtrusive method for coping with anxiety. We discuss the results of an initial (three-week-long) evaluation of SCAARF with anxiety-suffering users. Qualitative results suggest that the SCAARF mobile app is effective in helping users relax and cope with anxious states of mind.

course Share on Approaches and challenges to virtual and augmented reality in health care and rehabilitation: a short course Authors: Joaquim Jorge U Lisboa U LisboaView Profile , Pedro Campos U Lisboa U LisboaView Profile , Daniel Simões Lopes U Lisboa U LisboaView Profile Authors Info & Claims SA '19: SIGGRAPH Asia 2019 CoursesNovember 2019 Article No.: 124Pages 1–85https://doi.org/10.1145/3355047.3359418Published:17 November 2019Publication History 0citation206DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations0Total Downloads206Last 12 Months20Last 6 weeks3 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

Creative industries' workers are becoming more prominent as countries move towards intellectual-based economies. Consequently, the workplace needs to be reconfigured so that creativity and productivity can be better promoted at shared workspaces. We report on a study based on diaries, interviews and probes, with 8 creative industries' professionals at a co-working space, with the goal of understanding their advantages and disadvantages, and causes for cognitive disruptions. Findings indicate that temperature, noise and coworkers' requests are the main causes for disruptions in the work processes. The insights are used to inform the design process of SENSE-SEAT, a seat with embedded sensors and tangible actuators, as a contribution to reimagining the role of tangible and embedded interaction in intelligent furniture. We are currently at a prototyping stage, with 3D prints and 3D renders and we explain the design process and outlining the early results.

The Proceedings of the ACM (PACM) was initiated by ACM in 2015 as overarching framework for publishing high quality computer science research. The goal for these new journals is to provide an alternate journal publication model for rigorous research papers that have traditionally been presented at major ACM conferences. PACM titles cross multiple intellectual communities, and each separate PACM is designed to represent a broad, but consistent, reach area. This is the first issue of the Proceedings of the ACM on Human Computer Interaction (PACMHCI), which represents the varied topics and communities that compose the broader study of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The rich heterogeneity of this field can be expressed as deep ethnographies of information use in context, to experiments showing the effectiveness of interface designs, to the production of new technologies that push the limits of how we interact with computers, and much more. The production of PACMHCI will focus on content associated with major research communities that are supported by the ACM Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction (SIGCHI). Individual issues will be largely associated with separate research communities, who may then also select papers from the issue for presentation at their major conferences. These research communities provide the volunteers and editors necessary to provide the rigorous review and editorial process that will define this journal. Those editors will serve on the overall board for ACMHCI, to help bridge our diverse communities. Leveraging our research communities allows us to provide high-quality reviewing while maintaining the quick processing of work that is important in this quickly moving field. This inaugural issue of PACMHCI represents work from the Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS) community. EICS gathers researchers that aim to improve the ways we build interactive systems. Building interactive systems is a multi-faceted and challenging activity, involving a plethora of different actors and roles. This is particularly true in the domain of HCI, where we continuously push the edge of what is possible, where there is a crucial need for adequate processes, tools and methods to build reliable, useful and usable systems that help people cope with the ever-increasing complexity of work and life. The primary goal of the EICS research community is to create novel and high quality contributions in this direction. Although there are only three articles in this first issue, our pipeline for future issues is promising. In the first submission cycle, 41 papers were submitted and, of those, 22 were asked for major revisions. We expect a good number of those 22 papers to be ultimately accepted over the coming months. We are grateful to our newly-formed Editorial Board consisting of more than 70 experts for lending their support and knowledge to the new journal. More information about PACMHCI can be found at http://pacmhci.acm.org/.

The CMIS workshop proposes to bring together researchers who are interested in improving collaborative experiences through the combination of multiple interaction surfaces with diverse sizes and formats, ranging from large-scale walls, to tables, mobiles, and wearables. The opportunities for innovation exist, but the ISS, CHI, CSCW, and other HCI communities have not yet thoroughly addressed the problem of bringing effective collaboration activities together using multiple interactive surfaces, especially in complex work domains. Of particular interest is the potential synergy that one can obtain by effectively combining different-sized surfaces and sharing information between devices.

Minority groups are the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. In addition, the poverty level in the U.S. is the highest it has been in the last 50 years. We argue that the community needs more research addressing this user segment, and we present a novel study about how underserved youths react when presented with different UI designs aimed at promoting creative writing. The act of creative writing per se can become the driver of change among underserved teenagers, and researchers should strive to discover novel UI designs that can effectively increase this target group's productivity, creativity and mental well-being. Using MS Word as baseline, our contribution analyzes the influence of a Zen-like tool (designed by the authors and called Haven), a nostalgic but realistic typewriting tool (Hanx Writer), and a stress-based tool that eliminates writer's block by providing consequences for procrastination (Write or Die). Our results suggest that the Zen characteristics of our tool Haven were capable of conveying a sense of calm and concentration to the users, making them feel better and also write more. The nostalgic Hanx typewriter also fared very well with regard to mental well-being and productivity, as measured by average number of words written. Contrary to our initial expectations, the stress-based UI (Write or Die) had the lowest productivity levels.

The usage of multimodal user interfaces has revolutionized many different activities. However, most of the interactive technologies deployed in real world engineering contexts are still difficult to use, especially when engineering teams need to collaboratively visualize and review large-scale 3D CAD (Computer-Aided Design) models. This is the case of the oil platform industry, which necessarily involves the review and manipulation of large CAD models. In this paper we present a novel solution, based on multitouch and accelerometer input, which was designed and evaluated in close cooperation with researchers and engineers of a large oil industry company. We evaluated two different conditions: using multitouch-only input and using multitouch coupled with accelerometer-based input. Statistical analysis of quantitative data suggests that the second condition is faster and less error-prone than simply using multitouch-only input. Additionally, qualitative data showed that users perceive the multitouch-only interface as being more accurate, but more difficult to understand and use.

Featuritis or creeping featurism is the tendency for the number of features in a product (usually software product) to rise with each release of the product. Most of the time featurism adds unnecessary complexity to a software product. Therefore, some software designers have recently embraced a minimalistic approach to creating their products by presenting users with very focused, simple software that allows them to conduct their tasks in a distraction-free user interface. However, they achieve this at the expense of cutting down on features, i.e. functionality. Our contribution's value stems from a design approach that overcomes this major difficulty, and is capable of presenting a distraction-free user interface that is also extremely powerful from a functionality perspective. We illustrate and evaluate our approach through a novel distraction-free diagramming tool called Delineato. The user interface presents the user with the tools needed at the right time to avoid cluttering and leads to significant performance increases when compared to other tools.

Despite all the effort dedicated to bringing better User-Centered Design (UCD) tools to market, current studies show that the industry is still dominated by tools that do not support the activities and workstyles of designers. Also, there is a growing need for interaction design tools aimed at software engineers, a problem related to bringing usability into the software engineering processes. We propose a new workstyle model that can be effectively used to envision, design and evaluate a new generation of innovative interaction and software design tools, aimed at integrating usability and software engineering. We illustrate the effectiveness of our model by describing a new tool, called CanonSketch, that was built in order to support UCD in terms of the dimensions in our workstyle model. We also describe an evaluation study aimed at contrasting paper prototyping with our tool as well as the level of workstyle support.