Fun Systematically

 

Alan Dix

alan@hcibook.com
www.hcibook.com/alan/

 

position paper at panel on "Funology" at ECCE-12, York, UK, 12th September 2004

download: full paper (PDF, 127K), slides (PDF, 249K)

Full reference:
A. Dix (2004). Fun Systematically. Proceedings of Twelth European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics, ECCE-12, D.J. Reed, G. Baxter, M. Blythe (eds.), pp. 9-10.
http://www.hcibook.com/alan/papers/
ECCE-fun-2004/
Download:
Full paper (PDF, 127K)
Slides at 6 per page (PDF, 249K)
See also ...
ECCE conference web site
Version at uiGarden in English and Chinese (chinese title)
Alan's pages on Fun and Experience
 


send a virtual cracker

 

third edition out now!!

abstract

This position paper looks at two examples where the study of fun is at very least systematic, and quite possibly scientific. In the first, Virtual Crackers, a systematic process of 'deconstructing experience' identifies the individual aspects of an experience (pulling crackers), which are then used to reconstruct a new experience in a new medium (the web). In the second, a generic question about the relationship of fun and engagement is studied through the mutation of examples, slowly changing particular abstract attributes. Neither process is perfectly automatic nor even reproducible, but both exhibit structured methodologies to find results. Scientific? You decide.

Keywords: Fun, enjoyment, engagement, design, deconstructing experience, virtual crackers

         

Alan Dix 9/10/2004