A research process for designing ubiquitous social experiences

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates a research process focusing on the unpredictable collective and individual user behaviours which can emerge in ubiquitous social games. The fundamental premise of our research is that emergent interactions can both enrich the user experience and inform the design process of ubiquitous social applications, revealing creative opportunities. Rather than a side effect from the deployment of an innovative technology, emergence becomes the focal point of investigation of the paper. In light of the proposed design research process, we present the emergent phenomena observed in three mixed reality game applications and reflect on what we learned.

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Index Terms

• Computing methodologies

  • Computer graphics

    • Graphics systems and interfaces

      • Virtual reality

• Human-centered computing

  • Collaborative and social computing

    • Collaborative and social computing systems and tools

      • Synchronous editors

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • Interaction paradigms

      • Mixed / augmented reality

      • Virtual reality

• Information systems

  • Information systems applications

    • Collaborative and social computing systems and tools

      • Synchronous editors