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Game User Experience Evaluation pp 113–131Cite as

Evaluating User Experience Factors using Experiments: Expressive Artificial Faces Embedded in Contexts

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Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate on what kind of factors contribute to the general positive user experience (UX) while playing a game. The following chapter introduces an experimental setting to measure UX aroused by facial expression of embodied conversational agents (ECAs). The experimental setup enables to measure the implications of ECAs in three contextual settings called “still,” “animated,” and “interaction.” Within the experiment, artificially generated facial expressions are combined with emotion-eliciting situations and are presented via different presentation platforms. Stimuli (facial expressions/emotion-eliciting situations) are assembled in either consonant (for example, facial expression: “joy,” emotion-eliciting situation: “joy”) or dissonant (for example, facial expression: “joy,” emotion-eliciting situation: “anger”) constellations. The contextual setting called “interaction” is derived from the video games domain, granting an interactive experience of a given emotional situation. The aim of the study is to establish a comparative experimental framework to analyze subjects’ UX on emotional stimuli in different context dimensions. This comparative experimental framework utilizes theoretical models of emotion theory along with approaches from human–computer interaction to close a gap in the intersection of affective computing and research on facial expressions. Results showed that the interaction situation is rated as providing a better UX, independent of showing consonant or dissonant contextual descriptions. The “still” setting is given a higher UX rating than the “animated” setting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Digital Media, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg, Austria

    Michael Lankes

  2. ICS Group, Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), Toulouse, France

    Regina Bernhaupt

  3. Center for Human-Computer Interaction, Christian Doppler Laboratory “Contextual Interfaces”, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Salzburg, Toulouse, France

    Manfred Tscheligi

Authors
  1. Michael Lankes
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  2. Regina Bernhaupt
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  3. Manfred Tscheligi
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Correspondence to Michael Lankes .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), ICS Group, Toulouse, France

    Regina Bernhaupt

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Lankes, M., Bernhaupt, R., Tscheligi, M. (2015). Evaluating User Experience Factors using Experiments: Expressive Artificial Faces Embedded in Contexts. In: Bernhaupt, R. (eds) Game User Experience Evaluation. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15985-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15985-0_6

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15984-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15985-0

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