User Experience Is All There Is

Twenty years ago, we published an article in the first issue of the i-com entitled “Usability ist nicht alles” (Burmester et al., 2002), that is, “Usability isn’t everything”. This was certainly a provocative title. For most German researchers and practitioners of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) usability was all there is and all that was ever needed to guarantee humane technology. Back then, we profoundly disagreed. We were convinced that there is more to the quality of interactive technology than mere effectiveness and efficiency. Now, twenty years later it seems safe to say that we had a point. Let’s take this as an opportunity to take a brief and utterly anecdotal look back, to take stock of the current perspective on designing the (user) experience, as well as to discuss some future opportunities and challenges.

Gamification Reloaded

Gamification can help to increase motivation for various activities. As a fundamental concept in HCI, gamification has connections with various fields involving mixed reality, health care, or education. This article presents the expertise of 106 gamification specialists who participated in four workshops called “Gam-R — Gamification Reloaded.” The extraction of current and future trends in gamification is the result of this. Four general topics, four in-depth topics, and seven emerging fields of application for gamification are depicted and enriched with the current state of research to support interested academic scholars and practitioners. Technical and less technical areas, which are the fields of work and research in gamification, are demonstrated. Some areas are already trending, while others are just beginning to show a future trend.

Augmented Reality for Future Mobility: Insights from a Literature Review and HCI Workshop

There is a growing body of research in the field of interaction between drivers/passengers and automated vehicles using augmented reality (AR) technology. Furthering the advancements and availability of AR, the number of use cases in and around vehicles rises. Our literature review reveals that in the past, AR research focussed on increasing road safety and displaying navigational aids, however, more recent research explores the support of immersive (non-)driving related activities, and finally enhance driving and passenger experiences, as well as assist other road users through external human-machine interfaces (HMIs). AR may also be the enabling technology to increase trust and acceptance in automated vehicles through explainable artificial intelligence (AI), and therefore help on the shift from manual to automated driving. We organized a workshop addressing AR in automotive human-computer interaction (HCI) design, and identified a number of challenges including human factors issues that need to be tackled, as well as opportunities and practical usages of AR in future mobility. We believe that our status-quo literature analysis and future-oriented workshop results can serve as a research agenda for user interface designers and researchers when developing automotive AR interfaces.

Computer-Supported Cooperative Work – Revisited

Due to the COVID-19 lockdowns and the related mandated work for home, we have seen a massive increase of the use of collaboration tools in various work settings in the last 18 months. Whereas this might have been a new terrain for some, IT-supported work and the related research domain Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) have been around for decades. In this article we briefly review what CSCW has to offer for the currently increasing demand in setting up remote collaboration – and share our own observations about what happened when collaboration tools have been introduced in the pandemic. As a summary, we present some learnings from the experience – both for the current state of CSCW research and for future work.

Interactions with Artificial Entities Reloaded: 20 Years of Research from a Social Psychological Perspective

Twenty years ago, we reflected on the potential of psychological research in the area of embodied conversational agents and systematized the variables that need to be considered in empirical studies. We gave an outlook on potential and necessary research by taking into account the independent variables behavior and appearance of the embodied agent, by referring to the dependent variables acceptance, efficiency and effects on behavior and summarizing moderating variables such as task and individual differences. Twenty years later, we now give an account on what has been found and how the field has developed – suggesting avenues for future research.

Changing Things so (Almost) Everything Stays the Same

The deployment of mixed reality systems in professional settings demands adaptation of the physical environment and practices. However, technology-driven changes to the environment are problematic in some contexts. Specifically, face-to-face advisory services rely on scripted material routines using specific tools. This manuscript explores challenges encountered during the development of LivePaper, a mixed-reality system for supporting financial advisory services. First, the article presents a range of design requirements derived from existing literature and multiple years of research experience concerning advisory services and physical collaborative environments. Second, it discusses technical and design challenges that emerged when building LivePaper along with those requirements. Third, the article describes a range of technical solutions and new design ideas implemented in a working system to mitigate the encountered problems. It explores potential alternative solutions and delivers empirical or conceptual arguments for the choices made. The manuscript concludes with implications for the advisory services, the systems used to support such encounters, and specific technical guidance for the developers of mixed reality solutions in institutional settings. Overall, the article advances the discourse on the application of technology in advisory services, the use of mixed-reality systems in professional environments, and the physical nature of collaboration.

Education in the Digital Age: A Driving Force or a Lost Place

Teaching and learning using computer systems has a long tradition. This contribution will discuss major challenges and changes of the last 20 years to derive consequences and ideas for the next 20 years. The development of digital educational technologies will be outlined and the deficiencies and potentials of learning with digital systems and environments will be discussed. Finally, a media framework that enables for post-constructivist learning in the 21st century will be presented. The contribution focuses on interactive media in the context of schools, laying the foundation for digital competences for higher education and workplaces.