Tim Marsh

Bio: Tim Marsh is an academic researcher from Griffith University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Game mechanics & Narrative. The author has an hindex of 15, co-authored 53 publications receiving 717 citations. Previous affiliations of Tim Marsh include Universities UK & James Cook University.

Evaluation for the design of experience in virtual environments: modeling breakdown of interaction and illusion.

Abstract: New and emerging media technologies have the potential to induce a variety of experiences in users. In this paper, it is argued that the inducement of experience presupposes that users are absorbed in the illusion created by these media. Looking to another successful visual medium, film, this paper borrows from the techniques used in "shaping experience" to hold spectators' attention in the illusion of film, and identifies what breaks the illusion/experience for spectators. This paper focuses on one medium, virtual reality (VR), and advocates a transparent or "invisible style" of interaction. We argue that transparency keeps users in the "flow" of their activities and consequently enhances experience in users. Breakdown in activities breaks the experience and subsequently provides opportunities to identify and analyze potential causes of usability problems. Adopting activity theory, we devise a model of interaction with VR - through consciousness and activity - and introduce the concept of breakdown in il...

Experience in serious games: between positive and serious experience

Abstract: This paper discusses the conceptual, practical and ethical considerations towards the development of a framework of experience to inform design and assessment of serious games. Towards this, we review the literature on experience in interaction design, HCI, and games, and identify that the dominant focus for design has been, and still remains, on positive and fun experience. In contrast, anything other than positive experience is often loosely and sometimes inappropriately lumped together under the broad label "negative experience" which can imply bad experience and something to be avoided, while at the same time suggesting it's not useful to design. While work in HCI and the games literature begins to address experience beyond positive, it just scratches the surface. By turning to drama, performance, literature, music, art and film that has shaped experiences and emotion beyond the positive and fun for many years, we describe what experience beyond positive looks like, show how it is not always "uncomfortable" and how it can be classed as entertainment, and argue for the more appropriate term "serious experience". We propose that the focus for design of interaction and serious games should be an appropriate rhythm between positive and serious experience. Finally, we discuss the importance of the take-away message and positive and serious experience in serious games to linger or resonate post-encounter for players in order to encourage reflection and fulfill purpose, and describe associated ethical concerns and make recommendations for designers, evaluators and practitioners in order to safeguard players/users.

Staying there: an activity-based approach to narrative design and evaluation as an antidote to virtual corpsing

Abstract: Interactive mediated environments (e.g. virtual reality/environments, computer games, the Internet, multi-media, interactive television) have the potential to induce experience in users. Engagement, involvement, agency, immersion and presence are widely used terms to describe the situation in which the inducement of experience in users of these media occurs. Implied in these terms is that experience presupposes that participants are absorbed in the illusion of interacting within the context created by these media. Without absorption, users' attention is shifted from the mediated to the real world, disrupting the illusion. Deriving from an acting term (UK) to denote falling out of character, virtual corpsing is used to describe this shift in attention. So instead of talking about `being there' this chapter focuses on maintaining the illusion and is referred to herein as staying there. This is a consequence of two things, firstly, transparency of equipment and secondly, continuity of interacting within the social and cultural environment depicted virtually. Extending concepts from activity theory, this chapter describes a conceptual framework to inform and guide analysis and design of interactive mediated environments. To this end, models and tools are developed in which to reason about human practice and experience in mediated environments from low-level operations through actions/tasks to a holistic activity-based scenario/narrative perspective characterised by objective and motive. The degree to which objective outcome coincides with the motive that stimulates the user to a mediated encounter provides a measure of success. Furthermore, stimulating mediated encounters may generate new motives, encouraging users to stay there.

Presence as experience: film informing ways of staying there

Abstract: Experience and the activities that provide it are associated with the virtual places where they were encountered, and this may instill in our imagination an illusion of an environment other than where an interactive mediated environment (a virtual environment, virtual reality, or computer game) resides (home, work, or on the move). Appropriate and/or stimulating experience may encourage users to continue, or become engaged in, pursing activities in a mediated environment. The term staying there is used to describe this situation of engagement. Conversely, if experience from use does not match up or deliver on expectations or purpose, or it is dull, boring, or uninteresting, then it may not hold user's attention and can potentially shift attention from the mediated to the real world. This paper describes the background work towards the development of a framework of experience with the aim of informing analysis and design of interactive mediated environments (IMEs) to induce/evoke stimulating experience in users and to encourage them in "staying there." informed from filmmaking, three levels of experience are explored: voyeuristic ("joy of seeing the new and the wonderful"), visceral (thrill of spectacle and attractions), and vicarious (transfer of emotion through another person, being, or object). With varying degrees of emphasis, story is experienced by spectators through one or a combination of these three to provide meaning. Drawing a parallel between developments in film and IMEs, situations, circumstances, features, and elements of IME design are identified that can induce/evoke these experiences in users. As well as informing analysis and design of experience of IMEs, this may provide an alternative way to reason about engagement and presence.

Serious Games as New Educational Tools: How Effective Are They? A Meta-Analysis of Recent Studies.

Abstract: Computer-assisted learning is known to be an effective tool for improving learning in both adults and children. Recent years have seen the emergence of the so-called ‘serious games (SGs)’ that are flooding the educational games market. In this paper, the term ‘serious games’ is used to refer to video games (VGs) intended to serve a useful purpose. The objective was to review the results of experimental studies designed to examine the effectiveness of VGs and SGs on players' learning and engagement. After pointing out the varied nature of the obtained results and the impossibility of reaching any reliable conclusion concerning the effectiveness of VGs and SGs in learning, we stress the limitations of the existing literature and make a number of suggestions for future studies.

Co-creation in virtual worlds: the design of the user experience

Abstract: Emerging virtual worlds, such as the prominent Second Life, offer unprecedented opportunities for companies to collaborate with co-creating users. However, pioneering corporate co-creation systems fail to attract a satisfying level of participation and engagement. The experience users have with the co-creation system is the key to making virtual places a vibrant source of great connections, creativity, and co-creation. While prior research on co-creation serves as a foundation for this work, it does not provide adequate guidance on how to design co-creation systems in virtual worlds. To address this shortcoming, a 20-month action research project was conducted to study the user's experience and to identify design principles for virtual co-creation systems. In two action research cycles, a virtual co-creation system called Ideation Quest was created, deployed, evaluated, and improved. The study reveals how to design co-creation systems and enriches research on co-creation to fit the virtual world context. Practitioners receive a helpful framework to leverage virtual worlds for co-creation.

Halo: a technique for visualizing off-screen objects

Abstract: As users pan and zoom, display content can disappear into off-screen space, particularly on small-screen devices. The clipping of locations, such as relevant places on a map, can make spatial cognition tasks harder. Halo is a visualization technique that supports spatial cognition by showing users the location of off-screen objects. Halo accomplishes this by surrounding off-screen objects with rings that are just large enough to reach into the border region of the display window. From the portion of the ring that is visible on-screen, users can infer the off-screen location of the object at the center of the ring. We report the results of a user study comparing Halo with an arrow-based visualization technique with respect to four types of map-based route planning tasks. When using the Halo interface, users completed tasks 16-33% faster, while there were no significant differences in error rate for three out of four tasks in our study.

Portable Electronic Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Displaying Structured Electronic Documents

Abstract: A computer-implemented method, for use in conjunction with a portable electronic device with a touch screen display, comprises displaying at least a portion of a structured electronic document on the touch screen display, wherein the structured electronic document comprises a plurality of boxes of content, and detecting a first gesture at a location on the displayed portion of the structured electronic document. A first box in the plurality of boxes at the location of the first gesture is determined. The first box on the touch screen display is enlarged and substantially centered.