Spatial Mapping of Physical and Virtual Spaces as an Extension of Natural Mapping: Relevance for Interaction Design and User Experience

Pietschmann, Daniel; Ohler, Peter

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-21067-4_6

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Recent developments of gaming technology focused heavily on virtual reality gaming where players use NUIs together with head-mounted displays. Both from a technological and from a psychological perspective, this combination should be considered more carefully, because the effects of NUIs could change drastically in this environment through the phenomenon of spatial mapping (Pietschmann & Ohler, 2015). In this extension of natural mapping, users act within the same physical space that they perceive through the display technology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The notion of the mental model is core to understanding NUIs, and for our purposes mental models are understood as an individual’s held (cognitive) associations between situations, objects, and events of a given environment (Johnson-Laird, 2004). Ideally, NUIs allow users to make assumptions about in-game interactions, quickly access their own held library of stored scenarios and situations, and finally select and activate one or more of these mental models to the task at hand (Pietschmann & Ohler, 2015; Tamborini & Skalski, 2006). At this stage, the controller becomes a transparent technology facilitating attention allocation to the game events rather than its controls and increasing the sense of self-efficacy, immersion, and consequently enjoyment.…”

Section: Naturally Mapped Controllers (Nuis) and User Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, the intuitiveness of NUI interaction depends heavily on the type of task performed (Pietschmann & Ohler, 2015; Rogers et al, 2015). In contrast to virtual reality applications, wherein natural interaction is often achieved by complex setups that were designed for a specific and singular task (e.g., a high-end flight simulator), video game controllers must be useful for a wide variety of different games.…”

Section: Naturally Mapped Controllers (Nuis) and User Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Natural in the eyes of the (be)holder: A survey on novelty and learning effects in the enjoyment of naturally mapped video game controllers.

Liebold

Bowman

Pietschmann

2020

Psychology of Popular Media

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Video games can be understood as a series of interesting decisions, and the game controllers are key to making those decisions. Advances in gaming technology have encouraged the development of natural user interfaces (NUIs), which should provide a superior user experience as players are able to use preexisting mental models from physical interaction rather than learning an abstract mapping schema. However, anecdotal and previous empirical research suggest the opposite-gamers prefer more familiaralbeit-abstract gamepad controllers. Because the exact nature and mechanism of this preference remains open for investigation, we suggest two rivaling mechanisms related to novelty and learning. Comparing self-identified gamer regarding their last gamepad and NUIs experience in an online quasi-experimental survey design (N ϭ 248), participants in the current study had less experience using NUIs, resulting in lower self-efficacy and enjoyment. Learning effects (via experience with a controller), rather than novelty effects (via exposure to a unique controller), seem to be the most relevant mechanism to understanding how controllers impact game enjoyment. However, both controller novelty and learning effects were significant mediators of the link between controller type and perceived controller naturalness. Our data suggest that perceptions of "natural" do not only depend on technological features of a user interface, but also on the user's previous experiences with the device. As such, users need to build robust mental models of the controllers through experience, which over time become more natural with increasing proficiency. Public Policy Relevance StatementRecent developments in consumer virtual reality technologies, such as head-mounted displays and motion controllers, aim to allow natural interaction with video games and other virtual environments. These developments assume that "naturalness" is a property of the technology itself, although our data suggest that naturalness very much depends on the user's experience with the controller and the perception of the interaction. With video games, traditional handheld gamepads were perceived as more natural than so-called natural user interfaces-a function of player's learned experiences with the former.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Naturally Mapped Controllers (Nuis) and User Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%