Abstract
Socially aware persuasive games that use immersive technologies often appeal to empathy, prompting users to feel and understand the struggles of another. However, the often sought-after standing in another's shoes' experience, in which users virtually inhabit another in distress, may complicate other-oriented empathy. Following a Research through Design approach, we designed for other-oriented empathy - focusing on a partaker-perspective and diegetic reflection - which resulted in Permanent; a virtual reality game designed to foster empathy towards evacuees from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. We deployed Permanent 'in the wild' and carried out a qualitative study with 78 participants in the Netherlands and Japan to capture user experiences. Content Analysis of the data showed a predominance of other-oriented empathy across countries, and in our Thematic Analysis, we identified the themes of 'Spatial, Other, and Self -Awareness', 'Personal Accounts', 'Ambivalence', and 'Transdiegetic Items', resulting in design insights for fostering other-oriented empathy through virtual reality.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
Place of Publication | New York |
Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
Number of pages | 13 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781450367080 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2020 |
Event | 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Honolulu, United States Duration: 25 Apr 2020 → 30 Apr 2020 |
Conference
Conference | 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | Honolulu |
Period | 25/04/20 → 30/04/20 |