Topic models help digital humanists explore large archives, but their outputs are sparse word lists that still require expert interpretation. Large language models (LLMs) can draft topic interpretations, yet their usefulness for end users and exploratory sensemaking remains unclear. We report a feasibility study on a German twentieth-century cultural heritage archive, Ortslinien (OL). Using BERTopic, we identified recurring topics and produced three German interpretations per topic: a peer-proofread digital humanities (DH) expert baseline, GPT-4o, and LLaMA-3. In an online survey (N = 111), participants rated interpretations on coherence, relevance to top words, informativeness, readability, interpretive value, and theme, and ranked the best overall match. GPT-4o led on most dimensions, while the human expert outperformed LLaMA-3 on interpretive value; disciplinary background moderated several judgments. We discuss implications for designing human–AI co-interpretation workflows for scalable, user-facing archive exploration.

Exergames promise enjoyable physical activity through gameplay, yet players often face barriers that undermine engagement, safety, and retention. To date, knowledge about which barriers are encountered by end-users of commercial exergames and which mitigation strategies are used is limited. To address this gap, we conducted an online survey with 174 participants and provide a comprehensive organization of 60 reported barriers across six categories: physical, mental, social, environmental, technological, and game design. Key barriers include space limitations, social discomfort, addictive gameplay, and injuries. Our analysis reveals that while players try to mitigate barriers through ad-hoc strategies, issues like embarrassment, addiction, and harassment remain difficult to overcome. These findings highlight the need for more adaptive game designs, including dynamic spatial adjustments, personalized pacing mechanisms, and supportive social features. This work advances the understanding of exergame barriers and their impact and offers actionable insights for designing more inclusive and resilient movement-based games.

Exergames combine motivating game elements with bodily movement to encourage physical activity. However, onboarding players to perform correct movements remains a challenge, especially in virtual reality (VR) environments where safety and performance are critical. Drawing inspiration from sports training and learning sciences, we contrast two onboarding approaches: (i) trial-and-error and (ii) observational learning via a novel self-model tutorial. In this tutorial, players temporarily lose agency and observe their own avatar performing the movements, leveraging VR’s unique affordances for embodied experiences. To explore which of these two approaches yields a better performance and player experience, we conducted a between-participants study (N = 60), comparing them against a baseline condition without a tutorial. Our findings show that the self-model tutorial not only improves players’ performance but also increases the perceived ease of control and progress feedback. We discuss tradeoffs and implications for the design of future onboarding experiences in VR exergames.

Insufficient physical activity is a major challenge in our aging society. Although exergames can provide enjoyable exercise opportunities for older adults, it remains unclear which display technology is best suited to reach this goal. This paper compares two popular exergame technologies with different immersion levels: (i) a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR-HMD) and (ii) the ExerCube, a commercial projection-based system. We conducted a within-participants study ( N =34) with older adults to evaluate player experience, presence, cybersickness, game performance, and physical exertion. Both display types provided a comparably high player experience and physical exertion that can benefit older adults’ physical well-being. The VR-HMD offered superior presence, while the ExerCube led to higher performance and physical activity. Our findings advance the understanding of how different exergame technologies affect older adults’ experiences. We present research and design implications to guide the future development of age-appropriate exergames.

Many people struggle to exercise regularly, raising the risk of serious health-related issues. Extended reality (XR) exergames address these hurdles by combining physical exercises with enjoyable, immersive gameplay. While a growing body of research explores XR exergames, no previous review has structured this rapidly expanding research landscape. We conducted a scoping review of the current state of XR exergame research to (i) provide a structured overview, (ii) highlight trends, and (iii) uncover knowledge gaps. After identifying 1318 papers in human-computer interaction and medical databases, we ultimately included 186 papers in our analysis. We provide a quantitative and qualitative summary of XR exergame research, showing current trends and potential future considerations. Finally, we provide a taxonomy of XR exergames to help future design and methodological investigation and reporting.

Immersive virtual reality (VR) exergames blend playful environments with physical activities. In such games, providing continuous cues, i.e., real-time indications of how the movements are being performed, can guide players and improve the execution of movements. However, research about how continuous cues impact player performance and experience in VR exergames remains sparse. To this end, we conducted a within-participants study (N=32) with four conditions: (i) no, (ii) audio, (iii) visual, and (iv) audiovisual cueing. The results show that both unimodal and bimodal cueing improve the player experience without causing cybersickness, while bimodal cueing improves pose accuracy. We provide three main design implications for VR exergames: (i) considering the granularity of cues, (ii) exploring different continuous cue designs, and (iii) underlining the use of continuous cues in other immersive experiences.

Systematic reviews (SRs) are vital to gathering and structuring knowledge, yet descriptions of their procedures are often inadequate. In human–computer interaction (HCI), SRs are still uncommon but gaining momentum, which prompted us to explore how SRs are reported at CHI—the flagship HCI conference venue. To assess the reporting quality of CHI reviews that aim for a systematic approach, we conducted an umbrella review and applied reporting guidelines for SRs (PRISMA and ENTREQ) to our corpus. We contribute the first exploration of how well SRs at CHI meet guidelines for reporting quality, showcasing strategies for improvement in reporting and conducting SRs especially in the domains of appraisal, synthesis, and documentation (i.e., protocol development). Finally, we present guiding questions for HCI researchers and practitioners for reporting SRs, as well as suggestions for best practices.

Virtual Reality (VR) exergames can increase engagement in and motivation for physical activities. Most VR exergames focus on the upper body because many VR setups only track the users’ heads and hands. To become a serious alternative to existing exercise programs, VR exergames must provide a balanced workout and train the lower limbs, too. To address this issue, we built a VR exergame focused on vertical jump training to explore full-body exercise applications. To create a safe and effective training, nine domain experts participated in our prototype design. Our mixed-methods study confirms that the jump-centered exercises provided a worthy challenge and positive player experience, indicating long-term retention. Based on our findings, we present five design implications to guide future work: avoid an unintended forward drift, consider technical constraints, address safety concerns in full-body VR exergames, incorporate rhythmic elements with fluent movement patterns, adapt difficulty to players’ fitness progression status.

Consumer social virtual reality (VR) applications have recently started to enable social interactions at a distance. Yet it is still relatively unknown if and to what extent such applications provide meaningful social experiences in cases where in-person leisure activities are not feasible. To explore this, we developed a custom social VR application and conducted an exploratory lab study with 25 dyads in which we compared an in-person and a virtual version of a co-located multiplayer scenario. Our mixed-methods analysis revealed that both scenarios created a socially rich atmosphere and strengthened the social closeness between players. However, the lack of facial animations, limited body language, and a low field of view led to VR’s main social experiential limitations: a reduced mutual awareness and emotional understanding compared to the in-person scenario. We derive implications for social VR design and research as well as game user research.

Virtual reality (VR) games intensify storytelling experiences by letting players take the role of a character. However, in contrast to films, novels, or games, VR experiences often remain centered around one single character without using the potential of complex multiprotagonist plots. Our work engages in this critical topic by investigating the design of immersive and natural transitions between different characters. First, we conducted a scoping review to identify existing multiprotagonist VR games (N=18) and grouped their used transition techniques into four categories. Based on these findings and prior research, we designed two transition techniques (Static Map vs. Rebodying) and conducted a between-participants (N=36) study to explore their effect on user experience. Our results show that Rebodying outperforms Static Map regarding the perceived realism, acceptance, and spatial understanding of the character transitions. Both conditions do not differ significantly in terms of cybersickness. Finally, we provide future directions for developing, improving, and exploring of multiprotagonist transition techniques in VR games.

Tile-based locomotion (TBL) is a popular locomotion technique for computer, console, and board games. However, despite its simplicity and unconventional movement, the transfer of TBL to virtual reality (VR) as a game platform remains unexplored. To fill this gap, we introduce TBL for VR on the example of two techniques: a controller and a feet-based one. In a first user study, we evaluated the usability and acceptance of the techniques compared to teleportation and touchpad locomotion. In a second exploratory user study, we evaluated the user experience of both TBL techniques in a maze and a museum scenario. The findings show that both techniques provide enjoyment and acceptable usability by creating either a relaxing (controller-based) or a physically active (feet-based) solution. Finally, our results highlight that TBL techniques work particularly well for small, constrained spaces that allow users to focus on exploring details in the nearby environment (important for games) in contrast to large open spaces that require faster locomotion, like teleportation.

Researchers reference realism in digital games without sufficient specificity. Without clarity about the dimensions of realism, we cannot assess how and when to aim for a higher degree of realism, when lower realism suffices, or when purposeful unrealism is ideal for a game and can benefit player experience (PX). To address this conceptual gap, we conducted a systematic review using thematic synthesis to distinguish between types of realism currently found in the digital games literature. We contribute qualitative themes that showcase contradictory design goals of realism/unrealism. From these themes, we created a framework (i.e., a hierarchical taxonomy and mapping) of realism dimensions in digital games as a conceptual foundation. Our themes and framework enable a workable specificity for designing or analyzing types of realism, equip future work to explore effects of specific realism types on PX, and offer a starting point for similar efforts in non-game applications.

Virtual reality (VR) multiplayer games increasingly use asymmetry (e.g., differences in a person’s capability or the user interface) and resulting interdependence between players to create engagement even when one player has no access to a head-mounted display (HMD). Previous work shows this enhances player experience (PX). Until now, it remains unclear whether and how an asymmetric game design with interdependences creates comparably enjoyable PX for both an HMD and a non-HMD player. In this work, we designed and implemented an asymmetric VR game (different in its user interface) with two types of interdependence: strategic (difference in game information/player capability) and biometric (difference in player’s biometric influence). Our mixed-methods user study (N=30) shows that asymmetries positively impact PX for both player roles, that interdependence strongly affects players’ perception of agency, and that biometric feedback—while subjective—is a valuable game mechanic.

Developers of interactive systems have a variety of interaction techniques to choose from, each with individual strengths and limitations in terms of the considered task, context, and users. While there are taxonomies for desktop, mobile, and virtual reality applications, augmented reality (AR) taxonomies have not been established yet. However, recent advances in immersive AR technology (i.e., head-worn or projection-based AR), such as the emergence of untethered headsets with integrated gesture and speech sensors, have enabled the inclusion of additional input modalities and, therefore, novel multimodal interaction methods have been introduced. To provide an overview of interaction techniques for current immersive AR systems, we conducted a literature review of publications between 2016 and 2021. Based on 44 relevant papers, we developed a comprehensive taxonomy focusing on two identified dimensions – task and modality. We further present an adaptation of an iterative taxonomy development method to the field of human-computer interaction. Finally, we discuss observed trends and implications for future work.

Cognitive-physical exercises can reduce the progression of dementia. However, traditional methods often induce problems (e.g., lack of motivation), whereas the success of recent virtual reality (VR) exergames such as Beat Saber may provide a playful, motivational, and immersive alternative. Yet, until now, it remains unclear which game mechanics, concepts, and designs work best for people with dementia, and how to implement exergames for and with this user group. In this paper, we adapted a human-centered design approach to address the specifics of developing VR exergames for people with dementia. This includes semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and contextual inquiries to better analyze the user requirements. Based on our analysis, we present Memory Journalist VR - a novel VR exergame specifically designed for people with dementia in a participatory design process. We report the qualitative evaluation based on the feedback gathered in five focus group sessions. Finally, we discuss the lessons learned, which provide important insights for the design of future VR exergames for people with dementia: (i) creating social gaming activities with a focus on shared aspects, (ii) support of an inverse game flow channel addressing decline and variance in cognitive-physical abilities, and (iii) ensuring a safe VR exergame experience.