Fun Experience Research Articles

Unveiling the nexus between duty-free shopping quality and tourism well-being: an examination of the mediating role of fun experience

ABSTRACT Shopping in duty-free stores plays an increasingly important role in tourism, but few studies have focused on the impact of tourists’ shopping experience and enjoyment on their satisfaction. This study aims to examine how shopping quality affects the well-being of tourists, with a specific focus on the role of fun experience (including hedonic engagement, sense of liberation, and sense of fun) as a mediator. This research fills a gap in the existing literature by carefully analysing how shopping quality and fun experiences enhance tourists’ well-being. A cross-cultural sample was surveyed using quantitative methods to ensure the results were universally applicable. Based on 514 valid questionnaires, the study uses Structural Equation Modelling to analyse the data and draw several conclusions. First, the study finds that shopping quality positively impacts tourists’ fun experience. Second, it confirms that fun experience is a significant source of well-being for tourists. Third, the study shows that fun experiences mediate between shopping quality and well-being. Finally, the research confirms that hedonic engagement and a sense of liberation are foundational to a sense of fun. These findings offer crucial insights for retail managers and marketers in developing strategies to enhance shopping experiences and improve consumer satisfaction and well-being.

‘Playing war’: Norwegian soldiers’ experiences of fun and responsibility in Afghanistan

This article discusses Norwegian soldiers’ experiences of fun in Afghanistan and probes the meaning of this experience and its condition of possibility. Challenging Western moralities of war, it shows that ‘fun in war’ can be experienced and represented as ordinary and commonsensical, but also ephemeral and immature. Moving beyond normative and functionalist approaches, it specifically highlights the importance of context, temporality, and soldiers’ sense of responsibility and innocence.

Landscape Design of ”Tjikoepa Inn” Agrotourism in Sukanagara District, Cianjur Regency

Abstract The population growth rate of Cianjur Regency, Indonesia, continues to increase with an annual growth rate of 1.26%. This population growth has consequences to the need of land requirement for settlements, so that the conversion of agricultural land is inevitable. To reduce the rate of the conversion, it can be pursued through the utilization of less productive land into multifunctional productive land, for example by building agro-tourism. One of the lands that has not been optimally utilized is a 3 hectare agricultural land owned by Tjikoepa Inn in Sukanagara, Cianjur Regency. The purpose of this research is to design the less productive of agricultural land into an agrotourism landscape that can meet the lodging and tourism needs of Cianjur Regency. The method used in this research is the description method through an approach of program-based landscape design. Agricultural activities and commodities are determined by the land owner. The design concept adopted is modern integrated agricultural tourism by considering low external input and sustainable agriculture (LEISA) that can maximize the potential of integrated farming that is educative and provides a more inspiring and fun experience for visitors ranging from children to adults. The space formed includes service area, culinary tourism area, agricultural tourism area (horticulture, plantations, livestock, and fisheries), outbound area, glamping area, conservation area, and place of view point. Visitors are pampered with all their senses along the way starting from the parking lot upto the highest level at the place of view point.

Longitudinal perceptions of gamified loyalty programs (GLPs): a mix of slot machines and entertainment toys

PurposeThis paper seeks to understand users' perceptions of their experiences in mobile applications (apps) with gamified loyalty programs (GLPs) that use rewards as the primary engagement vehicle. The research focuses particularly on the motivations to further interact with GLPs and the motivational changes occurring after successive interactions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted weekly open qualitative interviews over a month (four rounds of interviews) with five Portuguese active users of the mobile app Yorn Shake It, from Vodafone, which is a relevant case study to illustrate GLPs in mobile apps.FindingsParticipants' motivations to interact with the mentioned GLP are shaped by the reward incentive and users' perceptions of the gamified interactive experience. Motivational changes occur regardless of the presence of external contingencies and depend on contextual changes or perceived results of the gamified experience. This means that rewards also satisfy intrinsic needs, but users may remain connected to the system as long as fun experiences are provided without exhausting perceptions. Also, motivation may turn to reward contingencies when the challenge becomes boring.OriginalityThis is the first qualitative study explaining the perceptions of gamified experiences after continued participation, extending knowledge about the importance of a fair balance between the value and achievement of rewards and the entertainment of the challenge provided after continued exposure. The findings provide insights to GLP marketing managers and developers to better engage target audiences according to their needs and past experience, creating levels of challenges and fair rewards to maintain motivation and prevent abandonment after continued exposure.

Iranian children's memorable rural tourism experiences

Family traveling, especially to rural areas, may lead to appealing fun experiences for children and make them memorable. Memorable experiences of children from various aspects can be useful for policy makers and planners of destinations, parents and children. The effectiveness of travels and children's learning from traveling are among the most significant concerns of parents and tourism activists. So, identifying and understanding children's memorable experiences of traveling to rural areas of Iran that has various local cultures can influence filling such gaps as future destination planning, developing child-friendly rural destinations, family traveling, designing child-oriented tourism programs, and future generation's being loyal to local destinations. This study aimed to identify Iranian children’ memorable rural tourism experiences. The sample includes 37 children from ages 6 to 12. Interpretive phenomenology was used to conduct the study with the help of interviews and the analysis of the content of children's paintings. This study shows that children pay attention like adults to such elements as people, space, activities, objects, and social relations during their travel. Moreover, the conducted interviews resulted in 45 key notions categorized into 6 basic axes of memorable experiences: being exciting, being informative, being novel and unique, being gratifying, being socially involved, and negative experiences. This study provides insights on identifying and understanding the issues affecting the creation of memorable tourism experiences for children that travel to rural areas. The issues would help parents in taking child-oriented tourism travels, planners in designing child-friendly tourism destinations, and tourism service providers in delivering child friendly offerings.

Effects of Virtual Reality on Analgesia in Wound Care and Physical Therapy for Burn Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

ObjectivesThis systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) in alleviating pain and improving the experience of burn patients during wound care and physical therapy. DesignA systematic review and meta-analysis. Data SourcesPubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Database, and the Web of Science. Review/Analysis MethodsWe searched four electronic databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published from the earliest available date up to March 1, 2022. The primary outcome was worst pain intensity, while secondary outcomes encompassed pain unpleasantness intensity, time spent thinking about pain, and fun experience intensity. Risk of bias was evaluated using the Cochrane Collaboration's tool. ResultsThis study included 21 trials. The combined data revealed that the VR group experienced a significant reduction in worst pain intensity, pain unpleasantness intensity, and time spent thinking about pain compared to the control group. Moreover, VR treatment was associated with a significant increase in the fun experience intensity. Implications for nursingVirtual reality has the potential value of auxiliary analgesia in burn care, and exploring a more perfect scheme of VR-assisted analgesia is worthwhile. ConclusionsThe results of this meta-analysis indicate that VR can effectively reduce worst pain intensity, pain unpleasantness intensity, and time spent thinking about pain during wound care and physical therapy for burn patients. Additionally, it enhances fun experience intensity of the treatment period. Therefore, VR shows promise as a valuable complementary pain management intervention for burn patients.

Aktivitas Dinamis pada Appreciative Game “Warik the Adventurer” berbasis Finite State Machine

Serious games have become potential tools for education due to their advantage of giving a fun experience to the learner. Therefore, game experience is a fundamental element in serious game design. The game experience is mainly produced by the game activity, such as a quest or mission. However, in many serious games, the game activities do not have a clear design and concept, resulting in a poor playing experience which produce poor understanding of the material. Appreciative Game is a game that is based on Appreciative Learning concept. Appreciative Learning concepts could be used to design game activities. Appreciative Learning consists of four main stages. The stages are discovery, dream, design, and destiny. These four stages lay down the foundation of serious game activity. This study uses the Finite State Machine to produce intelligent agents in order to develop more dynamic game activity to enhance the game experience. We developed a 3D game called Warik the Adventurer as the testbed for this research. The game is about the cultural diversity in Indonesia. The game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) is used to evaluate the player experience. The GEQ resulted in an acceptable score of 3 out of 5.

The Utilization of Game-Based Quizizz Application in Learning Education Management for PGMI Students at IAIN Kudus

This research was motivated by the utilization of the quizizz application in learning education management to increase student learning interest in the PGMI study program at IAIN Kudus. The purpose of this study was to examine the utilization of quizizz applications by teaching lecturers in education management courses in the PGMI study program at IAIN Kudus. This research used a descriptive qualitative approach using the field research method with the research subjects being PGMI students in class C semester 3 at IAIN Kudus. The results of the study indicate that the utilization of quiziz applications in education management learning greatly supports students' understanding in education management courses, adds to the fun experience, and was motivated in learning, especially in education management courses. The implications of utilizing the quizizz application include: 1) Increasing Student Involvement, 2) Increased Understanding of Material, 3) Increasing Information Retention, 4) Stimulation of Student Creativity, 5) Increased Learning Motivation, 6) Efficiency of Time and Resources, 7) Increased Use of Technology in Learning, 8) More Effective Formative Assessment, 9) Increased Teacher-Student Interaction. The utilization of this game-based quzizz application greatly supports learning for both lecturers and students, and this is an attraction in the management of learning media effectively in the scope of higher education, especially at the IAIN Kudus campus, and becomes a motivation for renewal in the world of education to use learning media more effectively and creatively for the next period

Students’ Performance, Satisfaction, and Experiences in Graphic Organizer Integrated Online Instruction of Astronomy

This quasi-experimental study determined Graphic Organizer Integrated Online Instruction’s effectiveness in understanding astronomy concepts. Three groups of Secondary Science Education students from a state university in Central Visayas, Philippines, were exposed to text, both text and graphic organizers, and the latter only. Study findings revealed that students across the three groups obtained above-average performances and improved performance; these groups also showed no significant difference in the improved performance. Using graphic organizers yielded high retention and satisfaction among the students, as they were immersed in visual-verbal instruction, a valuable learning scaffold, and a fun experience. In conclusion, the use of Graphic Organizer Integrated Online Instruction was effective in improving student performance, retention, and learning experiences. Integrating these visual tools in online instruction is highly recommended for use at the undergraduate level in the new normal.

Predicting movies’ eudaimonic and hedonic scores: A machine learning approach using metadata, audio and visual features

In the task of modeling user preferences for movie recommender systems, recent research has demonstrated the benefits of describing movies with their eudaimonic and hedonic scores (E and H scores), which reflect the depth of their message and the level of fun experience they provide, respectively. So far, the labeling of movies with their E and H scores has been done manually using a dedicated instrument (a questionnaire), which is time-consuming. To address this issue, we propose an automatic approach for predicting E and H scores. Specifically, we collected E and H scores of 709 movies from 370 users (with a total of 3699 records), augmented this dataset with metadata, audio, and low-level and high-level visual features, and trained machine learning models for predicting the E and H scores of movies. This study investigates the use of machine learning models in predicting the E and H scores of movies using various feature sets, including audio, low-level and high-level visual features, and metadata. We compared the performance of predictive models using different combinations of features with the majority classifier as the baseline approach. The results demonstrate that our proposed machine learning-based models significantly outperform the baseline in predicting E and H scores, particularly when leveraging metadata features. Specifically, the random forest classifier achieved a 20% increase in ROC AUC compared to the baseline when predicting both the E score and the H score. These improvements were found to be statistically significant. Overall, our findings suggest that automated tools for predicting E and H scores in movies are promising alternatives to traditional questionnaire-based approaches.

Development of Platformer Game “Adventure Drake” Using Finite State Machine Method

Video game is one of the most popular hobbies out there, someone who have been played games always ended with fun experience and adrenaline rush. The people who enjoy this type of hobby so diverse starring with kids, teenager, and adult. With increasing technology playing game is not exclusive on desktop pc or game console, but now can be play on smartphone with android and IOS system operations, so they can play game wherever they want, and whenever they want. For that reason, the author with interested in designing game with the platformer genre using 2D technology and using finite state machine for controlling character animation Therefore author make research platformer game adventure drake using finite state machine, the itself game can be played by anytime at anywhere. The main reason to building this game therefore adding onto the collection Indonesia game’s and analyses the game with implementing finite state machine method. The result from building this game is great, the game success implementing both 2D technology and finite state machine.

Future MEDIC: Medical Student–Led Healthcare Career Exploration Program for Underserved Middle School Students

Future Medical Education and Development Introductory Course (Future MEDIC) is a medical student–led school program designed to inspire primary school students in underserved communities by sharing a passion for medicine and healthcare careers. Through hands-on activities—including physical examination workshops, an on-site airport introduction to flight medicine, and interactive demonstrations with a patient simulator—26 eighth-grade students were empowered to actively explore the world of healthcare. To assess the impact of Future MEDIC on students’ knowledge and interest in healthcare careers, we administered pre- and post-surveys, informal exit interviews, and participation prizes. Survey responses were analyzed with a Mann Whitney U test for significance. There was a significant increase (p = 0.01) from pre- to post-survey about “I enjoy learning about how the body works.” Yet there was also a significant decrease (p = 0.03) from pre- to post-survey about “In the future, I am interested in working in healthcare or medicine.” Despite enjoying the activities and content of the Future MEDIC program, students did not have an increased interest in entering the healthcare field. Although interest in entering the healthcare field was not increased, Future MEDIC was a rewarding and fun experience for students to partake in, and an opportunity to create a multidimensional view of the healthcare field.

Book review: all through the town: the school bus as educational technology

Book review: all through the town: the school bus as educational technology

Happiness Is ‘Being Yourself’: Psychological Safety and Fun in Hybrid Work

Our long-term research project is concerned with fun and humour at work and the impacts on employee happiness and well-being. In this study, we explore the relationship between workplace fun and psychological safety and their implications for a positive work context. Our research problem investigates two key questions: How do the experiences of psychological safety and fun at work intersect in hybrid work conditions? What are the implications for positive workplace relations? We present qualitative empirical data from our in-depth, ethnographic engagement in two corporate companies. Both companies recently transitioned to hybrid work modes, providing a relevant and contemporary context for our study. Our findings are generated from our structured, thematic analysis, eliciting themes of risk during transitions, unsafe fun, safety to be yourself, and leadership implications. These themes are discussed in relation to the extant literature, and we extend both fun and psychological safety theory by identifying a circular relationship between both constructs specifically related to the modern form of hybrid work. Implications are identified along with the potential for future research.

Tierschutz erLeben. Devising a “Comic Automaton” to Innovate Learning

Abstract: The ongoing German R&D project Tierschutz erLeben aims to improve the animal welfare learning experience, primarily for agricultural students. The knowledge domain is shaped by many interrelated facts, often about informed decision-making under specific circumstances and the possible consequences. Unsatisfactory frontal teaching prevails in the current praxis. In contrast, the abstraction level and the complexity are less demanding. 
 An interactive simulation close to reality is not necessarily a solution as it can be inefficient and incomplete, failing to cover all necessary facts. We are working on an innovative gamified approach based on the concept of interactive comics, which shall be more efficient than realistic simulations potentially encompassing all necessary facts. 
 In our sense, an interactive comic is a form of a simulation with a comic’s feel and look. We call it a Comic Automaton. As with every comic, our system presents only relevant story events, thus promoting efficiency. Textual descriptions, diagrams, and other means that help attain completeness are easily incorporated. A Comic Automaton is highly interactive. The immediate goal of the learner is to interactively and iteratively create a story about management in animal husbandry, where every decision is correct and substantiated. Accomplishing a complete, correct comic is an indicator of learning success and shall be an experience of fun and satisfaction. Decisions of the learner, including mistakes and lacuna of knowledge, will trigger automatic continuation of the comic. For example, a comic frame where the user decides not to feed enough milk to a calf will trigger an automatic new frame where the calf becomes weak and possibly even dies. 
 Especially in the field of animal husbandry, virtual exercises that might also have a bad outcome for the animals are very important. Without real animals coming to harm, important lessons can be learned from these mistakes. The details of the Comic Automaton are ongoing work. Two user-centred workshops were held so far to unfold further and test the ideas.

Improving reflective evaluations of sport through repeated experiences of fun—rationale, design, feasibility, and acceptability of the PlayFit Youth Sport Program

IntroductionAdolescents who drop out of sport often report that it had become less ‘fun’ and ‘enjoyable’ over time. Although preadolescent sport typically emphasizes experiences of fun, emphases on competition and elite performance often dominate during adolescence. We theorized that adherence to adolescent sport might be improved if the overarching goal were to maximize repeated experiences of fun during sport and, subsequently, increase reflective evaluations of sport enjoyment. To that end, this manuscript reports on the rationale and design of the PlayFit Youth Sport Program (PYSP), as well as its preliminary feasibility and acceptability. The main objectives were to evaluate the feasibility of recruitment strategies and data collection procedures and the acceptability of the intervention.SettingAn outdoor, multipurpose grass field at a south-central Pennsylvania middle school.MethodsA mixed-methods, single-arm feasibility trial lasting for 8 weeks (August–October 2021) offered 3-times per week for 1-h per session. The equipment, ruleset, and psychosocial environment of the PYSP sport games were modified to reduce several of the constraints theorized to impair experiences of fun during sport and hamper reflective evaluations of enjoyment afterward. ResultsEleven healthy, but sedentary adolescents in grades 5–7 completed the program. The median number of sessions attended (of 16 possible) was 12 (range = 6–13). Post-intervention, 9/10 respondents indicated that they ‘looked forward’ to the PYSP, 8/10 would recommend it to a friend, and 8/10 were interested in continuing the program. Ten of 11 participant guardians expressed interest in reenrolling their children if the PYSP were offered again. Some changes recommended were to improve recruitment via advertising the positive aspects of the program and “word of mouth” techniques, offering the program immediately following the school day, having contingencies for inclement weather, and minor changes to the sport equipment to improve the experience among the population the PYSP intends to attract.ConclusionsThe adjustments recommended in this preliminary work could be used to further refine the PYSP. A future efficacy trial could explore whether the PYSP may reduce attrition for adolescents who experience existing sport programs negatively by offering an alternative that better matches their unique needs and preferences.

Manajemen Nyeri Distraksi Berbasis Virtual Reality (VR)

This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) as a distraction technique in pain management. The method used in this research is a literature study through online databases: EBSCOhost, PubMed, and Scopus, with free full-text criteria, using English, publications in the last five years, and clinical trial or randomized controlled trial research designs. The results showed that there were 1,012 articles, with six pieces according to the inclusion criteria, which identified the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) in reducing pain, anxiety, vital signs, experiences, levels of satisfaction, and side effects. In conclusion, Virtual Reality (VR) can be a distraction method to reduce pain, anxiety, and patients' vital signs. VR produces a positive and fun experience that is also considered feasible and safe.
 Keywords: Distraction, Comfort, Pain, Virtual Reality

INFORMATION NEEDS FULFILLMENT OF K-POP FANS THROUGH THE USE OF LYSN SOCIAL MEDIA

Technology development eases the process for humans to fulfill information needs by giving birth to new media. One form of new media is social media. Nowadays, to meet humans' information needs, we can use many social media, one of them is Lysn. Lysn is a social media that only provides information about K-Pop. This research aims to describe the fulfilment of K-Pop fans' information needs through the use of Lysn, uses several supporting theories: mass communications, new media, social media, uses and gratifications theory, information needs, and fandom. This research uses a qualitative approach with a case study method. Research data were obtained from observation, in-depth interviews with four informants, documentation, and literature study. This research shows that K-Pop fans get the fulfilment of their information needs through Lysn. Information obtained from Lysn has succeeded in meeting the five needs of audiences in media. In addition, K-Pop fans also expressed their satisfaction with the information obtained from Lysn. Lysn's presence positively impacts the K-Pop fandom because it provides a fun experience and information that cannot be found in other media.

Emoji Prediction Using Bi-Directional LSTM

Messengers and social media dominate today’s internet usage across the globe. For the large population, a typical day starts with messages flooding on mobiles, from simple good morning wishes, business meeting invites, reminders, and schedules for the day and the list is endless. A striking feature of today’s digital communication is the variety of emojis used, without which text communication almost look incomplete. Emojis are graphic symbols/logograms used with text communication to enhance the effectiveness of emotions and set an undertone that makes texting a more fun experience for the users. Emojis are the visual language of the new generation. They give consumers a means to communicate their feelings while reducing the quantity of text that needs to be typed by the sender. Every social media and messenger platform like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and many more have its own emoji set. To lure more and more users, many new emojis are added day by day. Predicting and suggesting emojis based on the text, emotion and user patterns to the user is an important feature of today’s messengers and social media applications. If you start typing a message, relevant emojis will be displayed from which users can choose an emoji, further enhancing the user texting experience. This process is done using natural language processing and machine learning techniques. In this paper, we study emoji prediction techniques and propose an emoji prediction model using bi-directional LSTMs. We compare emoji prediction NLP techniques, including RNN, LSTM, LSTM networks, and Bi-LSTM. Based on our implementation, we suggest that the bi-directional LSTM model is the most effective technique. Our model outperforms many baseline approaches with an accuracy of 94% when tested on a CodaLab Twitter data set with 60000 rows and two columns. Our study shows the effectiveness and efficiency of bi-directional LSTMs for text-based systems for communication.

Learning from Fun Leadership Experiences

The low appeal of nursing is currently a challenge in Finland and many other countries. Retaining factors that would keep nurses within the field have been discussed, as have attracting factors that would draw new workers to the field. Finnish discourse often focuses on the heaviness of nursing, shift work, bad leadership and low work wellbeing. The last can be influenced by many things, such as the use of humor. Workplaces can learn to use positive humor, which raises spirits and increases a sense of community. The purpose of this study was to survey fun workplace experiences in the social and health care field and what was learned from them. As there has been little research on the use of humor in social and health care work in Finland, the aim of this study is to increase knowledge and discussion of the topic. The study was conducted in 2016-2017 by collecting narratives (N=34) from master’s degree students in Leadership. The data were analyzed through inductive content analysis. Fun experiences in personnel leadership showed and reinforced social capital and a sense of community at the workplace. The sense of community included developing workplace community skills, maintaining a sense of togetherness, advancing workplace well-being and doing activities, spending time and using professional skills together. Learning from fun experiences through reflection was formed from leadership that increases workplace well-being. This consisted of four categories: reinforcing a fun work atmosphere, reinforcing togetherness, appreciative leadership and the multiplicity of the supervisor’s role. Positive humor can be used to advance workplace well-being and personnel retention. Keywords: leadership, humor, work well-being, experience-based learning, Finland