Enjoyment and Engagement in Tangible Spatial Games

Funded by NSERC

Are tangible interfaces really more enjoyable and engaging? In this comparative study, we are investigating this claim which underlies much technological development in learning based tangibles. Specifically, we are empirically investigating children’s objective and subjective experiences of playing jigsaw puzzles using three interface styles: physical, graphical and tangible. We have developed an innovative tangible tabletop jigsaw puzzle game specifically for this study.

Papers

• Xie, L., Antle, A.N. and Motamedi, N. Are tangibles more fun? Comparing children's enjoyment and engagement using physical, graphical and tangible user interfaces. In Proceedings of Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction, ACM Press (2008), 191-198.
• Xie, Z. Comparing Children's Enjoyment and Engagement Using Physical, Graphical and Tangible User Interfaces. (MSc. Thesis)

Video

• Video Descriptor: Enjoyment and Engagement Jigsaw Puzzle User Study using traditional, GUI and EventTable TUI interfaces [High resolution Windows Media Player 37 MB]

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