Balancing fun and learning through a user interface: A case study of Wii game

Abstract

Designing a user interface is important because the user interface determines the level of physical and mental engagement of the user resulting in their level of learning. This paper investigated how physical engagement through a different user interfaces is associated with fun and learning and presented a theoretical physical engagement model called, PEM, developed based on an empirical user study. The PEM model describes how a game user interface is associated with the level of fun and learning, particularly in playing a full body engaged game. There are many different types of games but the Wii Tennis, an embodied interactive game, was chosen as an instance of full body engaged game. A user study with 32 participant’s age ranged from 21 to 40 years old revealed that there is a positive correlation between both fun and learning and the level of physical engagement through two different user interfaces. The results of the study showed that the extent of fun and learning are associated with the physical engagement of the player through an interface. As an implication from the study, the result recommend that the level of user engagement is realized by an effective user interface, and the level of physical engagement is determined by the level of authenticity bridged by the user interface.