Research for Design of Playful Mobile Services for Social Experiences between Nearby Strangers

Having positive interpersonal interactions is a fundamental human need and source of well-being. While fulfilling this need is usually associated with strong ties, research has shown that meaningful social experiences are not limited to those. This research explores the largely untapped social potential of nearby strangers and ways that mobile services can be designed to take advantage of these social opportunities. Play and playfulness appear to be particularly worthwhile ways to achieve this end: play is meaningful in itself (i.e., does not require an external goal) and takes place outside the context of real life. In addition, playful design tends to make digital services more engaging. This research focuses on playfulness as a design quality and explores the social implications of playful mobile services for nearby strangers. This doctoral thesis asks two research questions: What kind of social experiences emerge between nearby strangers from the use of playful mobile services? How can playful mobile services be designed to encourage social experiences between nearby strangers? The research contributes to the field of human-computer interaction and provides insights into mobile service design through six research articles. Two of the studies charted expected experiences with early-stage mobile application concepts for playful interaction between nearby strangers. One of these concepts was further developed into a fully functional mobile application, and a large-scale, in-the-wild study was arranged to explore the actual social experiences it generated. Two of the studies investigated social experiences between nearby strangers in the context of commercial mobile games. The sixth study explored the design space of playful interactions between nearby strangers through co-design workshops. The playful mobile services investigated in this research were found to induce various behaviors that resulted in social experiences between nearby strangers. Examples of such behaviors are the active exploration of the outside world, community building, communicating and collaborating with strangers, and interacting in crowds. I found that playful and social experiences such as competition, surprise, curiosity, inspiration, and benevolence motivated individuals to use these services

Understanding familial locative play: exploring parent online social learning to play Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go is a hybrid reality game (HRG) that research suggests is played by families in the context of joint media engagement. Yet, the game interface itself provides little information about how to approach the game. Given this and the fact that many parents play this HRG with their young children, we examine the process of parent online social learning to play Pokémon Go. Drawing on an original study of Pokémon Go conducted between August and November 2019, including a Facebook survey on a non-probabilistic purposive sample, and semi-structured interviews with a range of parents who play this HRG with their children, the aim of this article is to explore parent online social learning as a path to optimising in-game performance. In the main, we found that the frequency with which parents followed tips provided by individuals online related inversely to how well they knew them and was differentially linked to the sources of information parents used. We nuance these findings with insights from the interviews

Playfulness and progression in technology-enhanced social experiences between nearby strangers

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Social gaming: A systematic review

Digital games often constitute a shared activity where people can spend time together, communicate and socialize. Several commercial titles place social interaction at the center of their design. Prior works have investigated the social outcomes of gaming, and factors that impact the experience. Yet, we lack a comprehensive understanding of how social gaming has been approached and explored before. In this work, we present a systematic review covering 263 publications, gathered in February 2021, that study gaming experiences involving more than one person, with a focus on the social element that emerges among partakers (players and/or spectators). We contribute with a systematized understanding of (1) how the topic is being defined and approached, (2) what facets (mainly in terms of outcomes and determinants of the experience) are being acknowledged and (3) the methodologies leveraged to examine these. Our analysis, based on mixed deductive and inductive coding, reveals relevant gaps and tendencies, including (1) the emphasis in novel technologies and unconventional games, (2) the apparent negligence of player diversity, and (3) lower ecological validity associated with totally mediated evaluations and a lack of established constructs to assess social outcomes

Designing Location-based Games : How to support players’ social interaction, physical activity and learning about their local environment

The earliest academic studies on location-based games (LBGs) were conducted in the early 2000’s, but the recent upsurge in the popularity and success of commercial LBGs has created a need to re-examine the genre in light of new empirical evidence. In 2016, Pokemon GO brought the LBG genre into a spotlight by being downloaded hundreds of millions of times and generating over 4 billion USD in lifetime revenue to date. Since then, new games such as Jurassic World: Alive, The Walking Dead: Our World and The Witcher: Monster Slayer have emerged. Understanding phenomena related to LBGs is important for various stakeholders from game designers to urban designers and educators. In this dissertation we take an inductive approach to LBG design by gathering evidence from popular commercial LBGs with six original research articles (Studies I-VI). The studies focus on game mechanics that are unique to the LBG genre, and how reported positive outcomes of playing LBGs can be tied to these mechanics. Through the six studies we derive a game mechanics -focused design framework for LBGs, which we name the Triune PoI System, where PoI stands for point of interest. The system consists of three central components: exploration, discovery and navigation, and at the heart of these lies moving to trigger gameplay. The Triune PoI System highlights the importance of LBGs to provide multimodal motivation for players to move and play, and the crucial importance of the playing locations, the PoIs for scaffolding positive outcomes. We demonstrate how the following benefits of playing LBGs (1) physical activity; (2) social interaction; and (3) learning and discovery; are ultimately tied to the Triune PoI System (Studies I-IV). We also investigate the effects of aggressive marketing and LBG game mechanics on players’ well-being (Study V). Here we identify that aggressive marketing can exhaust players, but that the overall LBG playing intensity had a strong significant association with psychological well-being in our sample. We also demonstrate that nostalgia and imagination play crucial roles in scaffolding perceived meaningfulness of playing LBGs (Study VI). Finally, we propose that the popularity of LBGs may be explained by them embodying aspects of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that are missing in the urban way of living. TIIVISTELMÄ Varhaisimmat akateemiset tutkimukset paikkatietoon pohjautuvista peleistä julkaistiin jo vuosituhannen alussa, mutta pelien viimeaikainen suosio ja kaupallinen menestys antavat aihetta tarkastella paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien suunnittelua uuden empiirisen todistusaineiston valossa. Vuonna 2016 julkaistua Pokémon GO:ta on ladattu satoja miljoonia kertoja ja sen suosion inspiroimana on julkaistu sellaisia paikkatietoon pohjautuvia pelejä kuin Jurassic World: Alive, The Walking Dead: Our World sekä The Witcher: Monster Slayer. Näiden pelien ja niihin liittyvien ilmiöiden ymmärtäminen voi olla hyödyllistä monille eri tahoille, kuten pelisuunnittelijoille, kaupunkisuunnittelijoille ja koulutuksesta vastaaville. Tässä väitöskirjatutkimuksessa lähestytään paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien suunnittelua induktiivisesti kuuden alkuperäisartikkelin avulla. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään mitkä ovat paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien keskeisimmät pelimekaniikat ja miten raportoidut positiiviset vaikutukset nivoutuvat niihin. Tulokset osoittavat, että suosittujen paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien keskiössä on ns. "Triune PoI System", joka koostuu 3+1 komponentista: tutkiminen, löytäminen ja navigointi; sekä liikkuminen. Toisin sanoen pelaajat lähtevät tutkimaan ympäristöään, löytävät sieltä mielenkiintoisia kohteita ja navigoivat niiden luokse. Lisäksi pelien keskeisenä elementtinä on pelkästä liikkumisesta palkitseminen. Tutkimuksessa osoitetaan, että liikunta, sosiaalinen vuorovaikutus ja oppiminen on suosituissa peleissä, kuten Pokémon GO:ssa, keskeisesti sidottu Triune PoI Systemiin. Lisäksi selvitetään mitä vaikutuksia kaupallisten paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien markkinoinnilla ja mikrotransaktiomekanismeilla on pelaajien hyvinvointiin. Tutkimuksessa havaitaan, että markkinointi saattaa väsyttää pelaajia, mutta kokonaisuutena paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien pelaamisella ja hyvinvoinnilla on tilastollisesti merkitsevä vahva yhteys. Lisäksi osoitetaan, että nostalgia ja mielikuvitus tukevat tunnetta pelaamisen merkityksellistä. Lopuksi ehdotetaan, että paikkatietoon pohjautuvien pelien suosiota saattaa selittää niiden tarjoamat metsästäjä-keräilijä-elämän aspektit, joista urbaanissa miljöössä elävät ihmiset jäävät arkielämässään paitsi

The Investigation of Augmented Reality Marketing Tool Creation and Adaptability in Retail

This research paper investigates the potential integration of Augmented Reality (AR) into marketing strategies for small businesses, with a focus on how AR games can influence customer purchase journey. The research examines the concept of flow within AR experiences, emphasizing playfulness and perceived enjoyment as key factors in influencing consumer behaviour. The research work employs Research though Design (RtD) methodology to first create three prototype and use self-evaluation as a key method to evaluate the prototypes. This research paper demonstrates the prototype development and evaluates the prototype development process, investigating the practical application of AR for engaging retail customers. It also highlights the potential for AR to revolutionize retail environments. The research paper discusses the ethical implications of AR technology, including the discussion on the authority to augment spaces and the manipulation of consumer behavior. This research paper underscores the commercial potential and persuasive power of AR games in the retail sector, advocating for ethical practices in their deployment

Design Framework for Social Interaction with Location-based Games

Location-based games invite players to have new forms of meaningful social interactions with others and provide opportunities for players to engage with their own neighbourhood’s public space. Earlier research on user requirements for such games have identified seven different activity types that have proven to initiate social interaction and capture real life exchanges for meaningful play-based social experiences. Yet, current understanding on what makes these games successful in such endeavours is still insufficient. This study furthers current understanding on the effects of location-based games for social interaction in local communities: it studies the forms of social interaction that the previously identified seven types of game activities elicit by analysing the nature and types of the exchanges they trigger. Based on this analysis, a design framework is proposed to 1) analyse existing location-based games and describe the forms of social interaction they trigger, and 2) help practitioners design new game activities that target specific forms of social interaction. This contributes to the enhancement of current understanding on the impact that these games can have in local communities, and on the way they can be better designed and used to promote social exchanges that are desired by players

Dynamics of Social Play

Digital games have become a social medium. Players are often socially motivated to play games and actively seek out games that offer social interactions. Early studies on games such as World of Warcraft demonstrate that players can form meaningful bonds within the game. Catering to this trend, most game titles now include multiplayer experiences in their gameplay. Despite the growing popularity of social elements within play, we still have little empirically-founded guidance on how to effectively design for social experiences. If we want to design for social play, we have to understand what makes games social. What are the properties of play that are responsible for facilitating social ties between players? We address this question by synthesizing the exiting literature on design recommendations for social play into identify overarching properties of play that we think are the most prolific in literature: cooperation and interdependence. We perform two experimental studies demonstrating how games facilitate trust between players and how cooperation and interdependence are crucial properties of social play. Furthermore, we validate our framework in a field study, investigating the experiences within games that predict in-game social capital. We demonstrate that interdependence and toxicity are strongly linked to the social capital our participants experience in their gaming communities. We also illustrate how in-game social capital is negatively associated with feelings of loneliness and positively associated with need satisfaction of relatedness outside of the context of play. Overall, our findings emphasize how strongly the experiences within the game affect the social ties that emerge from play, suggesting that informed design choices are crucial for the success of social games. This dissertation also contributes to the ongoing debate about the effects that in-game relationships have on the player’s mental health—we show a strong positive link between in-game social capital and markers for psychological well-being. It is easy to disregard in-game relationships, as they are fundamentally distinct from the in-person ones we think of as natural. Yet we cannot ignore the emergence of digital games as a social medium. The more we understand the underlying elements of social play, the better we can design games that bring people closer together

Designing Pleasurable Robotic Experiences to Support Connectedness for Seminar Attendees

People attend seminars to get to know other individuals in the field and gain expert knowledge while networking and socializing. Although networking is beneficial to build a relationship with others, some people find it to be challenging. The challenge is in the fact that not everyone contributes to conversations or they are too shy to approach strangers and break the ice. There are different ice-breaker solutions developed to make the process easier for event attendees to socialize with unfamiliar people. For example, there are wearable technologies available that use proximity sensors to connect people with similar interests at events. Mobile phone applications are also very popular to use and make it possible for event attendees to connect before or after events. Similarly, interactive tabletops can also be ice-breakers and assist people to connect through multi-user interactions. However, social robots have not been studied in event context, although previous work has shown that they can be used as facilitators and mediators for connectedness in general. In this thesis, we have used a social robot called Pepper to study how robots can act as facilitators of social connectedness among strangers at events and create pleasurable and positive user experiences for event attendees. While there has been few earlier research in social connection using virtual assistants and social robots, physical social robots have never been studied as facilitators of connectedness at events. In order to identify if social robots can act as facilitators of connectedness, and create pleasurable and positive experiences for seminar attendees, we have conducted a pilot study and two field trials with overall 55 participants. In our pilot study (n=12), our goal was to gather feedback from university staff and students on the topic of social robots as facilitators of connectedness. In the field trials, we gathered information and feedback from the target users on the two concepts we implemented in the Pepper robot to address their needs and requirements. The concept for the first field trial was a Welcoming application to give information on the seminar. And the second concept for the second field trial was a simple two player game for event participants to play and connect to each other. In the first field trial (n=31), we took insights from our pilot study and conducted a field study with seminar attendees to gather feedback from the real users on a Welcoming application. For the second field trial (n=12), we created a prototype of an interaction concept called Color Game based on the feedback gathered from the earlier studies, and evaluated it at an event. The empirical research of this thesis includes surveys, interviews, and observations through qualitative and quantitate methods of data gathering and analysis. The findings suggest that social robots have the potential of becoming facilitators of connectedness at events, and participants had mostly positive and pleasurable experiences evoked by social robots and concepts during the events. Social robots can become acceptable ice-breakers at events by providing the attendees with fun and entertaining activities, such as games. Most participants expressed having fun and joyful interactions with the robot, and their experiences with the evaluated applications were positive . Positive experiences made it possible for attendees to accept social robots as ice-breakers and as means to connect and become familiar with strangers during events. Although in the study we found out that the majority of participants were interested in social robots, it is important for robotic platforms to follow certain guidelines to create better interactions and experiences for users. Thus, we have created a list of design implications which can be used for future developments of social robotic as ice-breakers at events, and also to contribute to the field of human-robotic interaction