Hi my name is Tanay, and I'll be presenting our work on Juicy Haptic Design.
Here are two versions of a simple breakout cell game. On the right is the "juicier" version, which
includes many popular visual juice effects such as screen shake particle effects and animations.
But it's missing something very important -- it's missing haptic feedback. Let's add some.
First, we add simple haptic feedback on collisions to create this. Note that the game does not
actually produce audio feedback; instead, this presentation video represents haptic feedback
as audio feedback. Next we crank up the haptic juice to create this. The haptic feedback here
is far more expressive and abundant. So now, before I take a deeper dive, here are some key
takeaways from this presentation. First, even simple vibrotactile feedback can improve player
experience in games and second, juicy haptics may be a useful design concept for hapticians.
For some background, juiciness refers to excessive positive feedback in games, and some past research
has linked it to improved player experience. However, most previous works on juiciness do not
include haptic feedback, much less study its role and design. To this end, we study juicy haptics.
We define it as excessive positive haptic feedback with the intention of improving user experience
in games and other interactive media. We limit our designs of juicy haptics to haptic embellishments,
which are haptic feedback that reinforce information already provided through other means
such as through visual feedback. Notably, haptic embellishments do not influence game mechanics.
We pursue two research questions: first, what principles and concepts are effective
for designing appealing haptic embellishments? And second, what is the added value of juicy haptics
implemented as haptic embellishments to player experience? For the first research question,
we assemble ten preliminary design principles for haptic embellishments. Here's a glimpse of
examples of all ten principles -- please see the full paper for more details. For concreteness,
we will dive into one of the principles follow through and focus only on its haptic component.
Here's an example of a follow-through visual clip with no haptics. Now, we add simple haptic
feedback that does not follow-through. Finally, we add haptic feedback with follow-through.
Next, we report two user studies on newer iPhones equipped with linear resonant actuators also
called LRAs. Study 1 is on user preference for each of the principles of haptic embellishments.
Study 2 measures the added value on player experience from juicy optics that are implemented
with haptic embellishments. In essence, study 1 looks at the principles in isolation, while Study
2 considers them in context, holistically. In the interest of time, I will only report the key
result from Study 1. Controlling for the visual condition, we found that haptic embellishments
designed with the following brightened principles improved user preference ratings.
In Study 2, we created 6 breakout style games with varying levels of
juicy haptics and visuals. Each participant experienced two levels of visual feedback
crossed with three levels of haptic feedback for a total of six different game conditions.
The highest juicy levels were implemented with haptic embellishments designed with successful
principles from Study 1. For example, we build anticipation with haptic feedback as the ball
animates in, and we play a follow-through haptic effect after the ball hits the paddle.
Controlling for visual feedback, we find that the inclusion of juicy haptics
can enhance self-reported enjoyability, aesthetic appeal, immersion, and meaning. However,
we do not find significant differences between the two levels of juicy haptics.
A deeper dive into the result shows that players were polarized about the high juicy condition:
some complained that the juicy condition was "too much" and a bit "over the top".
These mixed results are consistent with some prior studies on juiciness that do not include haptics.
We conclude that the inclusion of haptic feedback can improve player experience, so its design
should be given serious consideration. Finally, juicy haptics and the principles can serve as a
useful preliminary framework, especially for novice hapticians, but it is wise to exercise
some moderation. We encourage future researchers to continue to refine these frameworks. Thank you!