Mobile Video Games Research Articles

Associations between specific technologies and adolescent sleep quantity, sleep quality, and parasomnias

ObjectiveWe tested the hypothesis that weekday bedtime use of six technologies would be significantly associated with eight sleep parameters studied relating to sleep quantity, sleep quality, and parasomnias. MethodsIn our cross-sectional study, we previously administered validated age-appropriate questionnaires (School Sleep Habits Survey, Technology Use Questionnaire). Participating adolescents (n=738; 54.5% boys) were aged 11–13years and were from the Midlands region of the United Kingdom in 2010. ResultsFrequent use of all technology types was significantly inversely associated with weekday sleep duration (hours). Frequent music listeners and video gamers had significantly prolonged sleep onset (β=7.03 [standard error {SE}, 2.66]; P<.01 and β=6.17 [SE, 2.42]; P<.05, respectively). Frequent early awakening was significantly associated with frequent use of all technology types. The greatest effect was observed in frequent television viewers (odds ratio [OR], 4.05 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 2.06–7.98]). Difficulty falling asleep was significantly associated with frequent mobile telephone use, video gaming, and social networking, with music listeners demonstrating the greatest effect (OR, 2.85 [95%CI, 1.58–5.13]). Music listeners were at increased risk for frequent nightmares (OR, 2.02 [95%CI, 1.22–3.45]). Frequent use of all technologies except for music and mobile telephones was significantly associated with greater cognitive difficulty in shutting off. Frequent television viewers were almost four times more likely to report higher sleepwalking frequency (OR, 3.70 [95% CI, 1.89–7.27]). ConclusionsFrequent weekday technology use at bedtime was associated with significant adverse effects on multiple sleep parameters. If confirmed in other samples and longitudinally, improving sleep hygiene through better management of technology could enhance the health and well-being of adolescent populations.

An empirical evaluation of user interfaces for a mobile video game

In this paper we empirically test the effectiveness and enjoyability of three user interfaces used to play an iPod Touch scroll shooter video game. Mobile devices are currently undergoing a surge in market penetration both in business and with consumers. These devices allow for user interface options such as touch screens and accelerometers, which are novel to mobile platforms and to large portions of the general public. To explore the effectiveness and enjoyability of these user interface options, the game was implemented with an accelerometer based interface, a touch screen based interface involving simulated buttons and a touch screen based interface involving finger gestures. The game has been formally tested with 36 human subjects each playing the game with each of the three interfaces. We present statistically significant results that the accelerometer based interface was the preferred interface and the interface in which participants performed best. We hope manufacturers will consider using the approach used in this paper to test user interfaces in-house before releasing them, since, as we show, it is inexpensive to obtain statistically significant results. We propose heuristics for mobile user interface design based on an analysis of the results and suggest an avenue for future work.

Designing and remotely testing mobile diabetes video games

We have investigated game design and usability for three mobile phone video games designed to deliver diabetes education. The games were refined using focus groups. Six people with diabetes participated in the first focus group and five in the second. Following the focus groups, we incorporated the new findings into the game design, and then conducted a field test to evaluate the games in the context in which they would actually be used. Data were collected remotely about game usage by eight people with diabetes. The testers averaged 45 seconds per question and answered an average of 50 total nutrition questions each. They self-reported playing the game for 10-30 min, which coincided with the measured metrics of the game. Mobile games may represent a promising new way to engage the user and deliver relevant educational content.

How New Technologies Have (and Have Not) Changed Teaching and Learning in Schools

Information technologies have reshaped teaching and learning in schools, but often not in ways anticipated by technology proponents. This paper proposes a contrast between technologies for learning and technologies for learners to explain how technologies influence teaching and learning in and out of schools. Schools have made significant use of assessment and instructional technologies that help promote learning for all students, whereas technologies for learners, such as mobile devices, video games, and social networking sites, are typically excluded from school contexts. The paper considers how these contrasting models of technology use will come to shape schools and learning in a pluralistic society.

INVALID COMMAND

Recent studies of information and communication technologies as diverse as mobile phones, video games and computers have revealed the centrality of control issues to users. But although researchers have highlighted the centrality of control as a concept in understanding user experiences of digital technology, studies have not sufficiently prioritized the experience. Findings about control have been mostly tangential. We contend that a salient and central feature of our use of digital technologies is our experience of control, and a more robust understanding of this experience – and whether it is misplaced – is urgently necessary in our contemporary, highly networked society. In answer to this need, we have undertaken a qualitative study into user experiences of control. Our starting conjecture is that the more competent a technology's functional and perceived affordances, the greater the experience of user control. We draw on Rex Hartson's schema of technological affordances, which refer to the way in which technologies allow us to accomplish things in the world. Our findings indicate that Hartson's schema is useful as a starting point for categorizing different experiences of control, but needs to be modified and expanded. In addition to these two types of affordance, findings also indicate that users experience control issues in relation to what we term maintenance affordances, or the need to keep the technology going, and contextual affordances, or the abilities granted by the context of use.