Academic methods for usability evaluation of serious games: a systematic review

In the last years, there has been an increasing interest in the design of video games as a tool for education, training, health promotion, socialization, etc. Usability, which is a key factor in any video game, becomes even more important in these so-called Bserious games^, where the users’ special characteristics should be considered, and the game efficacy depends on the users’ adherence and engagement. However, evaluation of the usability of this kind of games requires a redefinition of techniques, methods and even terminology. In this paper, we elicit six research questions and conduct a systematic review of the scientific literature, which resulted in the selection of 187 papers that contained the most relevant responses. The conclusions of this systematic review illustrate the general status of current academic usability evaluations of these games and the main trends in the selection of methodologies and how are they applied. This view may be a very valuable foundation for future researchMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación PROCUR@-IPT-2011-1038-90000

Evaluation of a usability testing guide for mobile applications focused on people with Down syndrome (USATESTDOWN)

Usability testing of mobile applications involving people with Down syndrome is an issue that has not been comprehensively investigated. There is no single proposal that takes on board all the issues that could potentially be taken into account to deal with the specific needs of people with Down syndrome. We propose a guide for a usability testing process involving participants with Down syndrome. This guide is called USATESTDOWN. It is based on a literature review and experience gained at a number of workshops where people with Down syndrome used mobile devices. This paper briefly describes USATESTDOWN and its application at a special employment centre called PRODIS with 10 participants

Usability and accessibility evaluation of the digital doorway

The Digital Doorway (DD) is a non-standard computer system deployed to promote computer literacy amongst the underpriviledged communities in South Africa. Since its inception there has been no usability evaluation of the software installed on the DD. This study investigate the applicability of standard involved two cycles of design research phases to develop a set of multi-category heuristics for evaluating a selection of interfaces and applications installed on the DD. The heuristic evaluation method was found to be an appropriate method for the evaluating the usability of the software as well as the direct accessibility support provided on the DD. As a triangulation exercise the heuristic evaluation was complementary role of using a combination of evaluation methods.ComputingM. Sc. (Information Systems

UsaGame – A new methodology to support user- centered design of touchscreen game applications

Dissertação para Obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão IndustrialTouchscreen mobile devices growth resulted in an explosion of the mobile applications. Focusing on touch mobile game applications this study aims to fulfill a research gap, creating appropriate usability guidelines for these applications. Concerns about usability, touch technologies, mobile devices and game testing, provided the background needs for this study. Initial game application tests allowed for the creation and implementation of such proposed usability guidelines into a support checklist (UsaGame), designed to help applications developers. An evaluation test was performed with 20 users in order to assess the validity of the proposed guidelines. Results from the test of the two builds from the same game application allowed comparisons that led to the assessment of the importance of some of the guidelines implemented into the application. Results suggested a usability improvement on the game application implemented with the guidelines. Furthermore results allowed commenting on all proposed usability guidelines

User Experience in Virtual Reality, conducting an evaluation on multiple characteristics of a Virtual Reality Experience

Virtual Reality applications are today numerous and cover a wide range of interests and tastes. As popularity of Virtual Reality increases, developers in industry are trying to create engrossing and exciting experiences that captivate the interest of users. User-Experience, a term used in the field of Human-Computer Interaction and Interaction Design, describes multiple characteristics of the experience of a person interacting with a product or a system. Evaluating User-Experience can provide valuable insight to developers and researchers on the thoughts and impressions of the end users in relation to a system. However, little information exists regarding on how to conduct User-Experience evaluations in the context of Virtual Reality. Consecutively, due to the numerous parameters that influence User-Experience in Virtual Reality, conducting and organizing evaluations can be overwhelming and challenging. The author of this thesis investigated how to conduct a User-Experience evaluation on multiple aspects of a Virtual Reality headset by identifying characteristics of the experience, and the methods that can be used to measure and evaluate them. The data collected was both qualitative and quantitative to cover a wide range of characteristics of the experience. Furthermore, the author applied usability testing, think-aloud protocol, questionnaires and semi-structured interview as methods to observe user behavior and collect information regarding the aspects of the Virtual Reality headset. The testing session described in this study included 14 participants. Data from this study showed that the combination of chosen methods were able to provide adequate information regarding the experience of the users despite encountered difficulties. Additionally, this thesis showcases which methods were used to evaluate specific aspects of the experience and the performance of each method as findings of the study

Sensitivity analysis in a scoping review on police accountability : assessing the feasibility of reporting criteria in mixed studies reviews

In this paper, we report on the findings of a sensitivity analysis that was carried out within a previously conducted scoping review, hoping to contribute to the ongoing debate about how to assess the quality of research in mixed methods reviews. Previous sensitivity analyses mainly concluded that the exclusion of inadequately reported or lower quality studies did not have a significant effect on the results of the synthesis. In this study, we conducted a sensitivity analysis on the basis of reporting criteria with the aims of analysing its impact on the synthesis results and assessing its feasibility. Contrary to some previous studies, our analysis showed that the exclusion of inadequately reported studies had an impact on the results of the thematic synthesis. Initially, we also sought to propose a refinement of reporting criteria based on the literature and our own experiences. In this way, we aimed to facilitate the assessment of reporting criteria and enhance its consistency. However, based on the results of our sensitivity analysis, we opted not to make such a refinement since many publications included in this analysis did not sufficiently report on the methodology. As such, a refinement would not be useful considering that researchers would be unable to assess these (sub-)criteria