Evaluating a Game-based and a Web-based User Interface Using Skin Conductivity Signals and Gamers and Non-Gamers Preferences

There is a growing research interest in how video games influence individuals, with many studies highlighting the positive aspects of gaming to players, with multiple benefits, including task switching, working memory, visual short-term memory, mental rotation, etc. In our work, we examine if the benefits found in previous research influence how users interact with computers and in particular user interfaces (UIs). To this end, we designed two interfaces for the same car renting application, one incorporating game UI elements -that are specifically used in video games- and the other as a conventional version of the same web application that follows the UI design of similar websites. A lab experiment was conducted where the participants (n=51) used the UIs to book a car. The experiment examined the differences between gamers and non-gamers concerning efficiency (measured by time to complete a task), stress events during the use of the interfaces (measured by a sensor indicating skin conductance response), users’ evaluation of the UIs, and user preference on which interface was more satisfying to use. Results indicated that there were no significant differences between gamers and non-gamers in efficiency, the users’ evaluation of the UIs, and the number of stress events for both UIs tested, but there was a significant difference in the user preference regarding which UI was more satisfying to use, with gamers selecting the web-based UI while non-gamers the game-based one.