Current Research
My research focusses on understanding and improving our interactions with our environment, in particular our virtual world. One of the challenging characteristics about interactions in the virtual world, and games in particular is that they are not fixed experiences. Instead, as their interactive nature dictates, the game experience changes during playing and the experience is dependent on people’s expectations as well as their achievements. During game-play people try to reach their goals. While at times these goals are reached, at other times people have to start over again. As people act and react, they will leak information and provide signals that helps us measure and understand peoples real-time experience during game play. Taking a broad perspective on the game experience in our studies we aim to link behavioural indicators (including postural data, and force measurements) to game experience dimensions, including frustration, flow, and boredom, but challenge and fun as well. In our studies we place these measures side by side to self report measures of the game experience after the game has been played, and physiological measures, tapping how in-game and after-game experiences are linked. In the current project, involved with MS and CVA patients we further hope to combine this desire for understanding, and measuring people’s internal states through real-time measurement systems to develop a training rehabilitation program that would be motivating by itself. Ultimately I (and many others) would hope to get people to train not because they have to, but because they want to, and maybe even because while doing them they forget their sometimes troubled physical state.
Previous Research
FUGA: The Fun of Gaming
From 2007 to 2009 I have beeen involved in the European funded FUGA project. Working together with my colleagues we have developed and tested several measurement techniques tapping into people’s internal experience of a game-play. The techniques used include self-report, continuous self-report, behavioural, postural, and physiological measures which we have, or are currently writing up inarticles. Part of our findings have already been presented at various conferences. See Publications for a view on selected articles, or go to the GameXPLab website for a view on the work done at the GameXPLab.
Public acceptance of novel technologies
During my PhD research I focussed on attitude formation processes underlying public acceptance of nover energy technologies. Here I researched the influence of several characteristics of people’s attitudes (e.g. their attitude strength) and characteristict of contextually activated information on the formation of attitudes. The research shows that being unfamiliar with a novel object leaves people suceptible to suggestions provided in the environment. In the thesis “ ‘From Bio-what?’ to ‘Bio-watt!’ ” the processes underlying these effects is described in more detail.
Social interaction in the build environment
In previous research I have focussed on social interactions in high rise residential buildings and the surrounding areas. In this research a study was undertaken to investigate the interplay between people and the environment on interaction patterns. This research was conducted in collaboration with TU Delft.
