This thesis manuscript explores the use of video games as tools for conceptual exploration and academic research. The research question of how video games facilitate exploration is investigated... Show moreThis thesis manuscript explores the use of video games as tools for conceptual exploration and academic research. The research question of how video games facilitate exploration is investigated through nine chapters, including empirical studies such as user surveys, video game design artifacts, and user studies. Chapter 2 introduces relevant terminology and related work. Chapter 3 describes the creation of CURIO, a video game developed for classroom use that requires players to ask critical and original questions about topics a teacher defines, revealing the need to highlight information gaps to stimulate curiosity for conceptual exploration. Chapter 4 investigates what types of video games elicit curiosity for exploration through a survey, while Chapter 5 formulates a hypothesis on design patterns for exploration based on the survey results. Chapters 6 and 7 focus on implementing and validating design patterns for exploration and how they influence player behavior and experience. Chapter 8 reflects on the use of video games in research efforts. The final chapter summarizes insights and contributions, and provides directions for future research. Overall, the manuscript presents evidence that video games can effectively facilitate exploration and can be used as tools for academic research. Show less
Scientific practice is an activity that is data-intensive and widely supported by computerized systems, data repositories included. It is also an activity that is highly creative and, as such, can... Show moreScientific practice is an activity that is data-intensive and widely supported by computerized systems, data repositories included. It is also an activity that is highly creative and, as such, can benefit from a moment of openness, playfulness and exploration. Motivated also by recent developments in the field of Human Computer Interaction regarding play and games, this work investigates playfulness as a desirable attribute of a scientist's interaction with scientific data in repositories. Focus is on data repositories of a specific domain of science, i.e. the life sciences, and of a particular type of data, i.e. image data. Having introduced a new but relevant attribute for interfaces to scientific image repositories, i.e. playfulness, the question we ask is the following: What could playfulness with scientific images amount to and how do we design for it? Via case studies and reviews, we flesh out particular elements of play for exploration and implement artefacts, i.e. interfaces and games, that exemplify instances of playful interaction with image research material in collections. Show less
