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The ExerCube: Participatory Design of an Immersive Fitness Game Environment

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Book cover Serious Games (JCSG 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 11243))

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Abstract

Exergames have advanced from a trend of the entertainment industry to serious training applications. Nowadays body-centered games can be played at home, as well as in the gym, and provide an effective and motivating workout experience for the player. However, existing solutions often lack a symbiotic and user-centered design approach encompassing the three exergame design levels: the player’s body (input movements), the controller (input device) and the game (story, game mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics). Consequently, existing systems exhibit weaknesses like motion sickness or a lack of audio-visual and narrative design of the physical and virtual play space. As such, the player’s game experiences remain limited. Our work contributes to the sustainable establishment of fitness games as effective and attractive training tools. In this paper, we introduce the “ExerCube” and the design, evaluation, and subsequent re-design of the early stage prototype. The “ExerCube” is a fitness game setting for adults, which affords immersive gameplay experiences while engaging in a playful motor-cognitive and -coordinative functional workout. Our findings show that the preliminary “ExerCube” prototype was usable and well received by the target audience. We report insights about the target audience’s preferences and identify avenues for the implementation of dual flow-based game mechanics, the optimization of the training concept and hardware, as well as for the further development of the game scenario.

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Acknowledgment

Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken thanks Sphery Ltd., Koboldgames, Roman Jurt and Ronnie Gaensli for the excellent collaboration in developing the “ExerCube”. Authors further thank Şahin Yilmaz for his support in preparing and processing the quantitative evaluation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Subject Area Game Design, Department of Design, Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland

    Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken

  2. HCI Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Elisa D. Mekler

Authors
  1. Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken
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  2. Elisa D. Mekler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Stefan Göbel

  2. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Augusto Garcia-Agundez

  3. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Thomas Tregel

  4. Staffordshire University, Stoke on Trent, UK

    Minhua Ma

  5. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge

  6. SINTEF Technology and Society, Trondheim, Norway

    Manuel Oliveira

  7. Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Tim Marsh

  8. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Polona Caserman

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Martin-Niedecken, A.L., Mekler, E.D. (2018). The ExerCube: Participatory Design of an Immersive Fitness Game Environment. In: Göbel, S., et al. Serious Games. JCSG 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11243. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02762-9_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02762-9_28

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02761-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02762-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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