Influence of Different Types of Vibrations on Technical Acceptance of a Mobile Game Aiming for Hedonic Satisfaction

Abstract

Rapid increases in the smartphone gaming industry have made in-game usability increasingly important. However, industrial usability is still focused on performance although high performance is not necessarily a goal in actual games. Mobile gamers largely want to increase their hedonic satisfaction. So already established usability guidelines can fail in mobile gaming. Focusing on vibrations as a haptic feedback, this study analyzed the influences of intensity and length of vibrations on user perceptions based on the technology acceptance model aiming for hedonic satisfaction when mobile gaming. A smartphone game was modified to generate seven types of vibrations for a human factors experiment with 70 subjects and administered a questionnaire to measure their perceptions of the game influenced by the vibrations. The results show that including vibrations significantly increases the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and cognitive concentration in the game. The stronger vibration intensity significantly improves user perceptions of the usefulness and cognitive concentration, whereas the length of vibration is not a critical factor as long as vibrations exist.