Harmonizing Interoperability – Emergent Serious Gaming in Playful Stochastic CAD Environments

Abstract

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) applications often promote memorable experiences for the wrong reasons. With numerous options coupled with poor user experience due to their complex functionality, the learning curve is often steep and overwhelming. There is little in way of invoking creativity as the CAD system is largely a platform to convey established geometry. Gameplay on the other hand tends to be regarded as memorable and formative experiences. Intuitive, imaginative, stimulating are attributes that spur natural creativity. If games are profoundly imbued for purposeful play, thriving on tacit and explicit knowledge of the user, a CAD system carefully stylized with ludic mechanisms could potentially be highly productive. This paper provides a framework for design synthesis on embedding serious game (SG) system models and applications in CAD systems. Various experiments were conducted to investigate user experiences, interface interactions, and engineer affect whilst carrying out design tasks in a game-based CAD UI. The emerging scenarios suggests the transformative approach transcend knowledge and understanding of relationships in CAD use and learning, play and interoperability associated with game mechanisms that enhance creativity and innovation.

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