Call for Workshop Participation

Methods for Evaluating Games – How to Measure Usability and User Experience in Games?

held in conjunction with the 4th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology (http://www.ace2007.org/) on June 12th in Salzburg, Austria

see the Workshop Timetable

download detailed workshop description

[Workshop Aims & Goals]
Today there is no common agreement what kind of (usability evaluation) methods can and should be used to enhance the design of games. Various aspects can contribute to the evaluation of games. But several questions arise:

• What kind of evaluation concepts and methods actually are used in the industry, and what are their limitations?
• Do today’s evaluation concepts and methods address industry needs?
• What factors of game experience are measured and have to be measured ?
• User experience and usability will be especially influenced by input and output devices/modalities and interaction techniques. How can we evaluate new forms and developments of interaction techniques in gaming – for example emotion or eye-movement as input for games, ambient displays or virtual environments as output?
• Is there a common framework of methods that are appropriate to evaluate the user experience in games? Or are current approaches just focused on several aspects of user experience - not on a general concept of user experience?
• What are the proc and cons of available  methods and what are the innovations potentials toward other methods?
• What can the (HCI) community do – to support a classification of methods used in that area?

 

 [Submission]

The workshop is intended for researchers and practitioners. We aim to address a wide range of professions and areas like game design and development, media entertainment, designers, user experience researchers, product designers and industrial designers, academics working in the field of user experience evaluation methods. The workshop addresses people from any field dealing with evaluation methods either for evaluation usability, user experience or related concepts like fun. We especially encourage the submission of use-cases showing the limitations of currently applied methods.
Workshop attendees will submit a 4-page position paper related to methods used during game evaluation, specifically addressing possible shortcomings. Before the workshop the organizers will identify the application domains and methods used. Participants will be asked to present a 5 min statements in one of the defined groups. Then all the position papers within the group will be discussed. The workshop is closed with a final discussion rounds on possible next steps to enhance the methodological development in the area of gaming.
The positions papers will be made available on a website, forming the basis for a white paper on current evaluation methods for user experience in games. The white paper is intended to serve as a basis for a planned edited book on new trends in evaluating games.
This workshop aims to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to lay the basis for a common framework in evaluating the user experience of games.

Submission should be made online using the ACE conference submission tool.

 

[Important Dates]:

* 30 March 2007: Submission of position papers
* 15 April 2007: Notification of acceptance
* 20 April 2007: End of early registration
* 12 June 2007: Workshop

[Publication]:

Accepted position papers will be published on the workshop website.
Depending on the outcomes of the workshop and the interests of the workshop attendees, the organizers may also coordinate further publications.

[Workshop Organizers]:

Regina Bernhaupt, ICT&S Center, Salzburg University, Austria
Manfred Eckschlager, ITragnarion Studios, Spain
Manfred Tscheligi, ICT&S Center, Salzburg University, Austria