Gamification for crowdsourced data collection in mobile usability field studies

Abstract

Larger smartphones have become increasingly commonplace, sometimes blurring the boundaries between phones and tablets. Most UI guidelines and usability studies are rarely updated and are still based on smaller screens or one-handed operations, which can be tiresome on large devices that may require different, or even two-handed postures. Past usability studies have successfully proposed crowd-sourced data collection systems, using mobile applications published on app stores. This work aims to investigate how similar systems can benefit from gamification elements in order to accelerate data collection and to produce accurate results over relatively short periods. An Android game is presented, which challenges users in short 30-second games, collecting performance of users operating the touchscreen using different device grips and postures. The preliminary analysis of the first 60.000 touch interactions is discussed and shown to be coherent with expected results.