Redesigning Synchronous and Asynchronous Activity in a Mixed Reality System

Abstract

Treball fi de màster de: Master in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media

Supervisor: Sena Beste Ercan

Co-supervisor: Narcís Parés Burguès

This Master’s thesis focuses on redesigning DragonIce, a full-body MR, Mixed Reality, experience originally developed by the FuBIntLab to study Interpersonal Synchony, IPS, among groups of four children, with the purpose of fostering prosocial behaviors in children on and outside of the spectrum. Its design is grounded in theories of embodied interaction, which emphasize the role of physical movements and the role of the environment in shaping cognitive processes. While promising results were achieved in previous studies, several usability challenges were also encountered. Additionally, the asynchronous version of DragonIce unexpectedly fostered high levels of synchrony, contrary to its intended purpose. To address these challenges, this thesis proposes a redesign of DragonIce, focusing on three key areas: the improvement of the visual feedback to better guide user interaction; the introduction of a handheld interactive object to better to separate navigation and interaction; and adjustments in the pacing of the asynchronous version to better differentiate between versions. When combined, these design changes aim to refine the interaction design and improve the perception of synchrony in the synchronous version while reducing it in the asynchronous one. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed design improvements, two experimental phases were conducted. An initial iterative testing phase to analyse the effects of each modification, and a final user trial phase to evaluate the differences between the final versions of the synchronous and asynchronous modes. The findings in the iterative testing helped refine the redesign of DragonIce for the final experiment. The results of these final user trials showed that both behavioural and perceived synchrony significantly increased in the synchronous mode compared to the asynchronous one, confirming the effectiveness of the redesigned interaction. The findings aim to inform future MR systems that use embodied interaction to foster IPS and highlight the potential of the use of MR systems in this field.