Games User Research

Games User Research
Title Games User Research PDF eBook
Author Anders Drachen
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 549
Release 2018
Genre Computers
ISBN 0198794843

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Games live and die commercially on the player experience. Games User Research is collectively the way we optimise the quality of the user experience (UX) in games, working with all aspects of a game from the mechanics and interface, visuals and art, interaction and progression, making sure every element works in concert and supports the game UX. This means that Games User Research is essential and integral to the production of games and to shape the experience of players. Today, Games User Research stands as the primary pathway to understanding players and how to design, build, and launch games that provide the right game UX. Until now, the knowledge in Games User Research and Game UX has been fragmented and there were no comprehensive, authoritative resources available. This book bridges the current gap of knowledge in Games User Research, building the go-to resource for everyone working with players and games or other interactive entertainment products. It is accessible to those new to Games User Research, while being deeply comprehensive and insightful for even hardened veterans of the game industry. In this book, dozens of veterans share their wisdom and best practices on how to plan user research, obtain the actionable insights from users, conduct user-centred testing, which methods to use when, how platforms influence user research practices, and much, much more.

Computational Interaction

Computational Interaction
Title Computational Interaction PDF eBook
Author Antti Oulasvirta
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 433
Release 2018
Genre Computers
ISBN 0198799608

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This book introduces a new perspective on how to design user interfaces called "Computational Interaction". This new method applies principles of computational thinking (abstraction, automation and analysis) to inform our understanding of how people interact with user interfaces.

Meaningful Inefficiencies

Meaningful Inefficiencies
Title Meaningful Inefficiencies PDF eBook
Author Eric Gordon
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 201
Release 2020-01-21
Genre Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN 0190870168

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Public trust in the institutions that mediate civic life-from governing bodies to newsrooms-is low. In facing this challenge, many organizations assume that ensuring greater efficiency will build trust. As a result, these organizations are quick to adopt new technologies to enhance what they do, whether it's a new app or dashboard. However, efficiency, or charting a path to a goal with the least amount of friction, is not itself always built on a foundation of trust. Meaningful Inefficiencies is about the practices undertaken by civic designers that challenge the normative applications of "smart technologies" in order to build or repair trust with publics. Based on over sixty interviews with change makers in public serving organizations throughout the United States, as well as detailed case studies, this book provides a practical and deeply philosophical picture of civic life in transition. The designers in this book are not professional designers, but practitioners embedded within organizations who have adopted an approach to public engagement Eric Gordon and Gabriel Mugar call "meaningful inefficiencies," or the deliberate design of less efficient over more efficient means of achieving some ends. This book illustrates how civic designers are creating meaningful inefficiencies within public serving organizations. It also encourages a rethinking of how innovation within these organizations is understood, applied, and sought after. Different than market innovation, civic innovation is not just about invention and novelty; it is concerned with building communities around novelty, and cultivating deep and persistent trust. At its core, Meaningful Inefficiencies underlines that good civic innovation will never just involve one single public good, but must instead negotiate a plurality of publics. In doing so, it creates the conditions for those publics to play, resulting in people truly caring for the world. Meaningful Inefficiencies thus presents an emergent and vitally needed approach to creating civic life at a moment when smart and efficient are the dominant forces in social and organizational change.

Feature Papers ”Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives”

Feature Papers ”Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives”
Title Feature Papers ”Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives” PDF eBook
Author Joost van Hoof
Publisher MDPI
Pages 646
Release 2021-08-17
Genre Medical
ISBN 3036512276

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The "Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: States of the Art and Future Perspectives" publication presents contemporary, innovative, and insightful narratives, debates, and frameworks based on an international collection of papers from scholars spanning the fields of gerontology, social sciences, architecture, computer science, and gerontechnology. This extensive collection of papers aims to move the narrative and debates forward in this interdisciplinary field of age-friendly cities and communities.

Positive Psychological Intervention Design and Protocols for Multi-Cultural Contexts

Positive Psychological Intervention Design and Protocols for Multi-Cultural Contexts
Title Positive Psychological Intervention Design and Protocols for Multi-Cultural Contexts PDF eBook
Author Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl
Publisher Springer
Pages 454
Release 2019-06-11
Genre Psychology
ISBN 3030200205

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This volume presents innovative and contemporary methodologies and intervention protocols for the enhancement of positive psychological attributes in multicultural professional and organizational contexts. Most methods, models and approaches that underpin positive psychological interventions are confined to clinical samples, closed systems or monocultural contexts, which restrict their applicability to particular contexts. Extensive practical intervention protocols, designs and methods which usually accompany first draft intervention papers are condensed into brief paragraphs in final manuscripts or removed in their entirety. This, in turn, reduces their potential for replicability or adoption by consumers, practitioners, or industry. This volume develops guidelines for enhancing positive psychological attributes, such as positive moods (e.g. positive affect; life satisfaction), strengths (e.g. gratitude; humour), cognitions (e.g. hope; optimism) and behaviours (e.g. emotional regulation; positive relationship building) within various multicultural contexts. Thereby, it shows how positive psychology interventions can be replicated to a wide-range of contexts beyond those in which they were developed.

Positive Computing

Positive Computing
Title Positive Computing PDF eBook
Author Rafael A. Calvo
Publisher MIT Press
Pages 299
Release 2014-11-28
Genre Computers
ISBN 0262028158

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A case for building a digital environment that can make us happier and healthier, not just more productive, and a theoretical framework for doing so.

Dying in a Transhumanist and Posthuman Society

Dying in a Transhumanist and Posthuman Society
Title Dying in a Transhumanist and Posthuman Society PDF eBook
Author Panagiotis Pentaris
Publisher Routledge
Pages 127
Release 2021-11-25
Genre Social Science
ISBN 1000479560

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Exploring both the intrapersonal (moral) and interpersonal (ethical) nature of death and dying in the context of their development (philosophical), Dying in a Transhumanist and Posthuman Society shows how death and dying have been and will continue to be governed in any given society. Drawing on transhumanism and discourses about posthumanity, life prolongation and digital life, the book analyses death, dying and grief via the governance of dying. It states that the bio-medical dimensions of our understanding of death and dying have predominated not only the discourses about death in society and the care of the dying, but their policy and practice as well. It seeks to provoke thinking beyond the benefits of technology and within the confinements of the world transhumanists describe. This book is written for all who have an interest in thanatology (i.e. death studies) but will be useful specifically to those investigating the experiences of dying and grieving in contemporary societies, wherein technology, biology and medicine continuously advance. Thus, the manuscript will be of interest to researchers in a broad range of areas including health and social care, social policy, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, and, of course, thanatology.