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Pokemon GO is a location-based augmented reality mobile game based on the Pokemon franchise. After the game was launched globally in July 2016, it quickly became the most successful mobile game in both popularity and revenue generation at the time, and the first location-based augmented reality game to reach a mainstream status. We explore the game experiences through a qualitative survey (n=1000) in Finland focusing on the positive and the negative aspects of Pokemon GO as told by the players. The positive experiences are related to movement, sociability, game mechanics, and brand while the negative experiences emerge from technical problems, unequal gaming opportunities, bad behavior of other players and non-players, and unpolished game design. Interestingly, the augmented reality features, safety issues or the free-to-play revenue model did not receive considerable feedback. The findings are useful for academics and industry practitioners for studying and designing location-based augmented reality game experiences.

Smart spaces with multiple interactive devices and motion tracking capabilities are becoming more common. However, there is little research on how interaction with one device affects the usage of other devices in the space. We investigate the effects of mobile devices and physical interactive devices on gestural interaction in motion-tracked environments. For our user study, we built a smart space consisting of a gesture-controlled large display, an NFC reader and a mobile device, to simulate a system in which users can transfer information between the space and personal devices. The study with 13 participants revealed that (1) the mobile device affects gesturing as well as passive stance: (2) users may stop moving completely when they intend to stop interacting with a display: (3) interactive devices with overlapping interaction space make unintentional interaction significantly more frequent. Our findings give implications for gestural interaction design as well as design of motion-tracked smart spaces. acceptedVersion

Social network games on Facebook have become a popular genre of video games. Social network integration and the free-to-play revenue model make them easily accessible but also easy to discard. In such an ecosystem, the quality of the game plays an important part. Improving playability is one method for achieving higher quality game experiences which might in turn lead to better retention and monetization. In this work-in-progress paper, we examine 12 social games and present the ten most common problem categories featuring game usability, gameplay and platform related playability problems.

Research of playability heuristics to be used with usability inspection methods in videogame evaluations has been active in recent years, and there are multiple playability heuristic sets available. However, they differ quite a lot from each other, and it is still unknown how well they support inspectors and help to describe the identified playability problems in a game. In this paper, we present a study in which 36 novice inspectors were divided into two identical groups, and they evaluated a mobile game using one of the two playability heuristic sets. In the second task, the inspectors analyzed playability problems that were collected from the game, and assigned heuristics to describe the problems. The results show that a playability heuristic set needs to cover the main aspects of playability in order to be effectively used during the evaluation. The results of this work will help in developing a playability heuristic set that makes expert review an effective method for evaluating videogames.

In addition to functionality and usability, interactive products are increasingly expected to provide pleasurable experiences to their users. Playfulness is a part of these experiences. However, playfulness can manifest in many different ways as humans are inherently playful by nature. This poses challenges for designing for playfulness. To tackle this broad field, we have developed the Playful Experiences (PLEX) framework. The two-fold purpose of the PLEX framework is to be a conceptual tool for understanding the playful aspects of user experience (UX), and be a practical tool for designing for such experiences through established user-centered design (UCD) methods. In this paper we present an overview of our work during 2008--2010 on designing for playful experiences. After introducing and summarizing previous studies, we motivate the reasons for designing for playfulness by framing PLEX within the domains of user experience and emotional experience. Then, we briefly discuss the creation and evaluation of the PLEX Cards and its associated techniques as practical design tools based on the PLEX framework, followed by a concrete design case where these tools have been used. We also present the development of the PLEX Design Patterns for actual design solutions for playfulness. Based on this work, we propose the PLEX framework as a powerful tool for understanding playful experiences, and for providing inspiration to design interactive products that elicit playfulness.

Context plays a critical role in the user experience (UX) of mobile products. In UX studies, context is often seen as a single entity such as mobile context or car context. More fine-grained categorization of contextual factors is needed when we want to understand how context affects user experience. The purpose of our study was to adapt existing context and experience categorizations, and try out in practice how well these are suited for analyzing the user experience of mobile products. We conducted a ten-day field study where 21 participants reported their experiences of personal mobile products by writing experience reports. The reports were analyzed by using eight context categories to identify the contextual factors. Among these factors we determined the triggering context, which has the major influence on the most meaningful user experience described in a report. Our results show that having a detailed categorization for analyzing contextual factors is valuable for understanding how context affects user experience. This becomes practical in identifying the most meaningful user experiences among the reported ones. We propose that triggering context analysis should become a part of user experience studies of mobile products.

User experience (UX) has been under extensive research in recent years. However, current UX models do not address in detail what the users' experiences are when they are interacting with products. In our research, this question is explored by evaluating personal products in everyday use. In the study, 21 participants reported their experiences by writing experience reports over a period of ten days. These reports were analysed with a set of playful experience categories which enabled us to articulate -- i.e., to identify and name -- the core experience in each report. We found three types of experience in the reports; interaction, context and product experiences. With regards to the playfulness, the results showed that playful experience categories can largely explain the UX of personal mobile products. Our findings will help UX research and experience-driven design to focus on the most pleasurable aspects of user experiences.

Selecting an evaluation method for product evaluations depends on many issues, such as the development stage of the product, time schedule, resources, and money that can be invested on the evaluation. The user testing and expert review methods are probably the most common ones when productivity software is being evaluated. Conducting a playtesting with players is commonly used by game designers, but the expert review method has not received that much attention, although it has proven to be an efficient and useful method. In this paper, we present a comparison study of the playtesting and expert review methods in mobile game evaluation. Our objective is to compare the effectiveness of the expert review method with playtesting. Results indicate that the expert review method is able to identify playability problems as accurately as playtesting, but in addition, it identifies problems that are crucial for the playability of the game.

This workshop aims to explore different approaches and challenges in studying playfulness as a mode of interacting with mobile technology. Researchers, designers and developers with interest in this theme are welcome to participate in a full day activity of demos, presentations and discussions. In particular, our emphasis is on how to introduce, explore and understand playful interaction in mobile applications used in the wild.

Mobile phones have traditionally been utilized for personal and individual use. In this paper we explore shared co-located interactions with mobile phones. We introduce a phone-based application that supports ad hoc brainstorming sessions. The prototype allows a workgroup to create, edit and view virtual mind-map notes on any table surface. The prototype encourages people to use the devices interchangeably and thus engage in social interactions. Evaluations show that participants were able to easily create mind maps and that the prototype supports different strategies in mind-map creation.

Traditional augmented reality UI views are restricted to the visible surroundings around the user. In this paper we present a concept that enables viewing and accessing geospatial data from all around the Earth, by pointing with the device towards a physical location. We describe a prototype of the concept and share the results of the first user experience study conducted with the prototype. We also discuss our future research directions.

Achievement systems are reward structures providing additional goals for players, and thus extending the play time of videogames. In this paper, we explore how applications other than games could benefit from achievement systems, and how users perceive this additional content in a service. For this purpose, we added an achievement system to a geo-tagged photo sharing service called Nokia Image Space. The results suggest that there is some potential in achievement systems outside the game domain. The achievements triggered some friendly competition and comparison between users. However, many users were not convinced, expressing concerns about the achievements motivating undesirable usage patterns. Therefore, an achievement system poses certain design considerations when applied in nongame software.

The expert review method is not yet widely adopted in game evaluations, although it has been used successfully in productivity software evaluations for years. In order to use the method effectively, there need to be playability heuristics that take into account the characteristics of the videogames. There are a few playability heuristic sets available, but they have several differences, and they have not been compared to discover their strengths and weaknesses in game evaluations. In this paper, we report on a first study comparing two playability heuristic sets when evaluating the playability of a videogame. The results indicate that the heuristics can assist the evaluators in evaluating both the user interface and the gameplay aspects of the game. However, playability heuristics need to be developed further before they can be utilized by the practitioners. Especially, the clarity and comprehensibility of the heuristics need to be improved, and the optimal number of heuristics is still open.

One of the interesting features in pervasive multiplayer games is that gaming can be blended into other daily activities. However, the players' current context creates challenges for this parallel activity and therefore, the game design should enable the players to participate in the game whenever it is suitable for them. In this paper, we present initial results from a study which explored one game design solution for this challenge, namely asynchronous gameplay. We wanted to find out how asynchronous gameplay was used and what the players' attitudes were towards this new playing style. The results indicate that the players received asynchronous gameplay positively and that asynchronous gameplay does not diminish the player's opportunities for winning the game.

A mobile device provides an attractive tool for creating and sharing audio-visual stories. Earlier research has shown that the users enjoy creating digital stories with their mobile devices. However, designing editor interfaces that support creation of rich audio-visual presentations has been a major challenge due to the constrained input and output capabilities of mobile devices. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of the Mobile Multimedia Presentation Editor, an application that makes it possible to author sophisticated multimedia presentations that integrate several different media types on mobile devices. Based on a user study, we present design principles for multimedia presentation editors on mobile devices. We describe an application design that supports these principles and so demonstrate that editing of sophisticated multimedia presentations is feasible on mobile devices. We report evaluations which indicate that the editor application was easy to use and supported the creativity of the mobile users well.

Multi-player games are engaging because of social interaction and competing with real players. Currently, many digital games are multi-player or have multi-player features. When evaluating the playability of multi-player games, we need to consider player-to-player interaction. In this paper, we introduce and describe playability heuristics for mobile multi-player games that complement the playability heuristic model that we have presented earlier. Multi-player heuristics have been developed by identifying playability problems in game evaluations and comparing these findings to game design guidelines and other studies found in the literature. The results indicate that the presented multi-player heuristics correspond to issues that are addressed to be important in multi-player games.

The growing amount of location-based public postings will challenge the current visualization and access methods of location-based information. The aim of our work is to provide a clear overview of location-based postings and to support easy access to information the user is interested in. We designed a prototype using a semi-transparent heat map over a map view to visualize posting density on the area of interest. Automatically extracted keywords and dynamic time selection support the search and filtering of location-based public postings. Based on our evaluation, users found the heat map as a familiar abstraction of the location based information. Clustering and displaying the salient words as keywords over the map view was considered to be especially useful.

Expert evaluation is a widely used method for evaluating the usability of software products. When evaluating games, traditional usability heuristics lack comprehension and cannot be directly applied. In this paper, we introduce playability heuristics that are specifically designed for evaluating mobile games. Heuristics form a core model that can be used in any mobile game evaluation. The model consists of three modules: Game Usability, Mobility, and Gameplay. The mobile context has some unique characteristics, which require special attention during the evaluation. These characteristics are described in mobility heuristics. Mobile devices also set some of their own requirements for general usability and these issues are described along with game usability heuristics. These heuristics have been developed by using an iterative design process of a mobile game. In addition, we have validated the heuristics and evaluated five mobile games by using them with the expert evaluation method. The results indicate that playability problems, which violate game usability or mobility heuristics, are quite easy to identify. Gameplay problems are harder to find, but gameplay heuristics help in evaluation and focus on different aspects of the gameplay.