Understanding Location-based Information Sharing in a Mobile Human Computation Game

Dion Hoe-Lian Goh, Khasfariyati Razikin, Alton Y. K. Chua, Chei Sian Lee, Keng-Tiong TanWee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information

Mobile Human Computation Games

• Mobile Human Computations Games (HCGs) are mobile games that harness the element of fun from games and information is generated as a byproduct of gameplay.

• HCGs draw upon the need for generating useful information that cannot be easily automated.

• Contributing location-based information is a labor intensive process.

• However, games offer entertainment that could serve as a motivation.

• By exploiting the entertainment value in games, players are able to have fun while performing computations.

Mobile Human Computation Games

• Work on mobile HCGs– Research on mobile content and gaming applications

have focused on design and motivations of usage.– Understanding actual usage and usability issues are

also crucial.– Outcome translates to better designed application

that benefit users and sustain usage.

Research objectives

• Extend current research through design and implementation of SPLASH (Seek, Play, Share).

• Evaluate SPLASH to shed light on actual usage and perspectives of the application.

Outline

• SPLASH (Seek, Play, Share)• Methodology• Results• Discussion• Conclusion

SPLASH (Seek, Play, Share)

• Media-rich location-based comments– Comment

encapsulates text, images and ratings in addition to author, date and location.

– Comments could be related to a place or a unit.

– Places are arbitrary geographic areas while units are smaller division of places.

SPLASH (Seek, Play, Share)

• Virtual rooms for sharing, playing and social interaction– Establishes a sense of

community among users.

– Serves as a community-owned space where users are able to decorate with items purchased from a virtual store.

– Comments are accessed from the rooms through the comment boards.

SPLASH (Seek, Play, Share)

• Mini-games offer fun and entertainment– Short games that do not

require players to be engaged for a significant length of time.

– An information mini-game uses nearby content to help users learn about their location.

– A casual mini-game offers pure entertainment for users.

SPLASH (Seek, Play, Share)

• Socializing with other users– Each user is

represented by an avatar.

– Virtual rooms provide a space for users to socialize.

– An alternative way is by adding other users as friends and posting comments on friends’ profile page.

SPLASH (Seek, Play, Share)

• Rewards system to promote further usage– Users are able to earn

in-game currency, called gold, when contributing information.

– Badges are awarded to users when various milestones are achieved.

– Public scoreboards rank users based on different accomplishments.

Methodology

• User study– Aim: Elicit actual usage and users’ perspective of

SPLASH.– Used diaries and questionnaires to draw out relevant

information.– Participants were asked to accomplish information

creation and seeking tasks using SPLASH for six days.

Methodology

• Online diaries– Objective: Record the usage of SPLASH.– Questions drew out the conditions that the

participants were in while doing their tasks, such as:• Time the task was executed.• Location where the task took place.• Situation the participants were in.• Issues encountered.

– Participants completed their diaries at the end of each day.

Methodology

• Post-study questionnaires– Objective: sought participants’ perceptions of

SPLASH features and functionality.– Items in the questionnaire were related to usability

of eight main categories of SPLASH’s functionality.– The participants rated the questionnaire at a scale of

1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).– Qualitative comments about SPLASH were also

elicited to determine the participants’ likes and dislikes.

Methodology

• Study structure– At the start of the study, participants were given a

tutorial to familiarize themselves with SPLASH.– During the tutorial,

• Tasks that they had to do were made known.• Mobile devices that were preloaded with SPLASH were

loaned out to the participants.• Web-based diary application was introduced.

Participants

• 40 participants took part in the study, of which 25 were male participants.

• Demographics– Between 20-45 years old (M = 26.3 years old, SD = 5).– Mix of undergraduate and graduate students.– Half had Computer Science background and rest were from

diverse backgrounds.• Mobile behavior

– Regular mobile phone users.– Often use their mobile phones to play games and navigate

using map applications.– Rarely used mobile Internet access and mobile social

networking applications.

Usage activities: Types of activities

Activities coincided with commuting hours and free time

"before sleeping“

"resting"

"after lunch while chatting with friends"

"in the train"

"on the bus“

Usage activities: Period of activities

Evening

LunchtimeCommuting hours

Places of usage

Application was used either for leisure or during interstitial periods

Situations of usage

SPLASH provides participants with something to do in order to kill time.

"waiting for food"

"waiting for the bus"

"on the train"

"stuck in traffic jam"

"watching television“

Types of content contributed

"Japanese food here is good"

"feeling sleepy:(:( having loads of wrk to do:(:( god pls help me...."

"nice and romantic place"

"tg", "abc"

"waiting for meeting"

"very crowded train"

"I just won balloon shooter“

Usability: General features

General Mean SD

Virtual room 3.21 0.86

General navigation

3.04 0.68

Map navigation 3.03 0.78

• Virtual room: found the virtual room to be intuitive to use as they were able to interact with the items.

• General navigation: While many found it to be easy to do so, some felt that the features could be further improved as they had problems with the response of the device touch screen display.

• Map navigation: found SPLASH’s map to be easy to navigate as they were familiar with maps on other applications.

"The virtual room is interesting with items that I

am able to interact with“

"Hard to navigate... problem with the display's

responsiveness“

Usability: Information sharing features

Information sharing

Mean

SD

Sharing mechanism

3.58 0.77

Comments 3.38 0.63

• Information sharing mechanism: information sharing was easy as they were able to communicate with friends.

• Comments: liked the idea that it was related to a real location.

"... easy to communicate with friends“

"People can post their comments with location

information... that's fun"

Usability: Gameplay features

Gameplay Mean SD

Avatar 4.23 0.57

In-game currency

4.08 0.74

Mini-games 2.71 0.50

• Avatar: enjoyed using the avatar due to its uniqueness.

• In-game currency: easy to understand concept and knew the various ways to earned.

• Mini-games: did not find it favorable. – Felt that there was a lack of

variety and challenge in the games.

– There were issues with the responsiveness of the mobile device touch screen that caused the less tolerant participants to feel frustrated.

"I like the avatar best as it is different from other

social applications"

"Can earn gold through playing games and

sharing information"

"... mini-games not challenging enough“

Discussion

• Games in SPLASH encourage participants to contribute location-based information as the participants’ interest continued to be sustained.

• Used during leisure time and pockets of free time and information sharing activities occurred more consistently throughout the day than gameplay activities.

• Usability findings indicated that SPLASH was able to support the objectives of information sharing with gameplay on mobile device.

• Types of content shared goes beyond sharing comments about food and shopping and included comments that contained the participants’ current emotional state.

Design implications

• Address the twin challenges of overall usability design and game design by consult and adhering to establish game design guidelines.

• Different types of games could be included to accommodate varying interests of users.

• Implement a mechanism that scopes viewing of shared content to users’ social network as they may be more valuable.

• Tasks may not be completed due to interruptions and measures should be put in place in order to accommodate them.

• Users should be informed that while they are playing games in SPLASH, they are also contributing to content that could be beneficial to others to persuade them to contribute more.

Future work

• Studies that involve users with different profiles (e.g. more diverse age groups, and working backgrounds) or in specific domains (e.g. tourism) could understand more on users’ behavior and perception of SPLASH.

• More could be done with other methodologies such as observations, fieldwork or data logs to elicit the actual usage and perceptions.

• Compare between SPLASH and other non-gaming mobile application to understand users’ attitudes and behaviors.

Thank You