Sketch
Early brainstorming sketch. Assembli started as an idea for a simulation game and evolved into a web app.
Portfolio of UX design and research.
Project in progress: Assembli, a group decision-making platform
Assembli is a web app that helps teams and organizations decide together. Members raise issues, discuss solutions, and settle them with ranked-choice voting. Everyone gets a say, without the long meetings.
Prototype
Build
Live, interactive demo of Assembli, still in progress.
Password: DecideTogether
Open the live demo ↗UX research
Does guiding users reduce or increase enjoyment?
The navigational pointer, a yellow arrow that moved with the player and pointed to the next destination.
- Question
- Many game designers avoid guidance as hand-holding. Flow theory predicts the opposite, because knowing where to go next helps people enjoy an activity.
- Method
- In a 2×2×2 controlled experiment, 314 participants each played one of eight versions of a custom 2D game. Each version added or removed a navigational pointer, a quest log, and humorous dialog.
- Result
- The pointer significantly increased enjoyment and players' sense of clear goals and navigation, optimal challenge, and continuous feedback (all p < .001). The largest effect was on clear goals and navigation (partial η² = .42). The quest log and humorous dialog had no significant effect.
- Role
- Principal investigator, co-authored with student researchers Uday Sai Reddy Ambati and Gregory Brandt.
A validated measure of enjoyment
Top of Table 1, factors after factor analysis and item reduction. This shows 7 of the 38 sources of enjoyment found.
- Question
- Popular player experience measures leave out sources of enjoyment such as humor, relaxation, and savoring. How can researchers and designers measure them?
- Method
- Dr. Schaffer built two questionnaires from the sources of enjoyment found in an earlier card-sorting study. They draw on flow theory, self-determination theory, and desire fulfillment theory. Factor analysis of a survey of 564 participants validated both.
- Result
- The Enjoyment Questionnaire measures game enjoyment, and the Sources of Enjoyment Questionnaire measures 38 of its sources. Every scale showed construct validity and internal consistency, with evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. A short version uses up to four items per factor.
18 publications, including CHI
18 publications on user engagement, motivation, and flow, including work presented at CHI and HCI International. Several of the 25 student researchers Dr. Schaffer has mentored are co-authors.
See all research →Directed projects
Over 91 student projects
As a professor, Dr. Schaffer has led over 91 student team projects in game development courses, from concept through delivery, and directed individual projects in web design and development. Their games and websites are on the Directed Projects page.
See directed projects →Six years of UX design and research in industry
Dr. Schaffer led user research and design at Kaiser Permanente, Human Factors International, and Ubisoft, improving user experiences for websites and games.