This book reflects the move in Human Computer Interaction studies from standard usability concerns towards a wider set of problems to do with fun, enjoyment, aesthetics and the experience of use. Traditionally HCI has been concerned with work and task based applications but as digital technologies proliferate in the home fun becomes an important issue. There is an established body of knowledge and a range of techniques and methods for making products and interfaces usable, but far less is known about how to make them enjoyable. Perhaps in the future there will be a body of knowledge and a set of techniques for assessing the pleasure of interaction that will be as thorough as those that currently assess usability. This book is a first step towards that. It brings together a range of researchers from academia and industry to provide answers. Contributors include Alan Dix, Jacob Nielsen and Mary Beth Rosson as well as a number of other researchers from academia and industry.

Sylvia thought her best friend, Lilly, could do no wrong. Sylvia always had viewed Lilly and herself as model citizens. When Sylvia heard Lilly making fun of Duncan, a boy in her class who had Autism, those views completely changed. She found herself hurt by this event and questioned their friendship. Lilly's comment shed light on behaviors Sylvia never thought she was capable of. As Sylvia explored how her grandmother's mental illness affected her family, she realized her friendship with Lilly was at risk.

How should we understand and design for fun as a User Experience? This new edition of a classic book is for students, designers and researchers who want to deepen their understanding of fun in the context of HCI. The 2003 edition was the first book to do this and has been influential in broadening the field. It is the most downloaded book in the Springer HCI Series. This edition adds 14 new chapters that go well beyond the topics considered in 2003. New chapter topics include: online dating, interactive rides, wellbeing, somaesthetics, design fiction, critical design and participatory design methods. The first edition chapters are also reprinted, with new notes by their authors setting the context in which the 2003 chapter was written and explaining the developments since then. Taken with the new chapters this adds up to a total of 35 theoretical and practical chapters written by the most influential thinkers from academia and industry in this field.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Convergence and Hybrid Information Technology, ICHIT 2012, held in Daejeon, Korea, in August 2012. The 102 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 196 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on communications and networking; soft computing and intelligent systems; medical information and bioinformatics; security and safety systems; HCI and data mining; software and hardware engineering; image processing and pattern recognition; robotics and RFID technologies; convergence in information technology; workshop on advanced smart convergence (IWASC).

The Cambridge Workshops on Universal Access and Assistive Technology (CWUAAT) are a series of workshops held at a Cambridge University College every two years. The workshop theme: “Designing inclusion for real-world applications” refers to the emerging potential and relevance of the latest generations of inclusive design thinking, tools, techniques, and data, to mainstream project applications such as healthcare and the design of working environments. Inclusive Design Research involves developing tools and guidance enabling product designers to design for the widest possible population, for a given range of capabilities. There are five main themes: Designing for the Real-World Measuring Demand And Capabilities Designing Cognitive Interaction with Emerging Technologies Design for Inclusion Designing Inclusive Architecture In the tradition of CWUAAT, we have solicited and accepted contributions over a wide range of topics, both within individual themes and also across the workshop’s scope. We ultimately hope to generate more inter-disciplinary dialogues based on focused usage cases that can provide the discipline necessary to drive further novel research, leading to better designs. The aim is to impact industry and end-users as well governance and public design, thereby effectively reducing exclusion and difficulty in peoples’ daily lives and society.

The kinetic theory of gases as we know it dates to the paper of Boltzmann in 1872. The justification and context of this equation has been clarified over the past half century to the extent that it comprises one of the most complete examples of many-body analyses exhibiting the contraction from a microscopic to a mesoscopic description. The primary result is that the Boltzmann equation applies to dilute gases with short ranged interatomic forces, on space and time scales large compared to the corresponding atomic scales. Otherwise, there is no a priori limitation on the state of the system. This means it should be applicable even to systems driven very far from its eqUilibrium state. However, in spite of the physical simplicity of the Boltzmann equation, its mathematical complexity has masked its content except for states near eqUilibrium. While the latter are very important and the Boltzmann equation has been a resounding success in this case, the full potential of the Boltzmann equation to describe more general nonequilibrium states remains unfulfilled. An important exception was a study by Ikenberry and Truesdell in 1956 for a gas of Maxwell molecules undergoing shear flow. They provided a formally exact solution to the moment hierarchy that is valid for arbitrarily large shear rates. It was the first example of a fundamental description of rheology far from eqUilibrium, albeit for an unrealistic system. With rare exceptions, significant progress on nonequilibrium states was made only 20-30 years later.

Reclaiming fun as a meaningful concept for understanding games and play. “Fun” is somewhat ambiguous. If something is fun, is it pleasant? Entertaining? Silly? A way to trick students into learning? Fun also has baggage—it seems inconsequential, embarrassing, child's play. In Fun, Taste, & Games, John Sharp and David Thomas reclaim fun as a productive and meaningful tool for understanding and appreciating play and games. They position fun at the heart of the aesthetics of games. As beauty was to art, they argue, fun is to play and games—the aesthetic goal that we measure our experiences and interpretations against. Sharp and Thomas use this fun-centered aesthetic framework to explore a range of games and game issues—from workplace bingo to Meow Wolf, from basketball to Myst, from the consumer marketplace to Marcel Duchamp. They begin by outlining three elements for understanding the drive, creation, and experience of fun: set-outsideness, ludic forms, and ambiguity. Moving from theory to practice and back again, they explore the complicated relationships among the titular fun, taste, and games. They consider, among other things, the dismissal of fun by game journalists and designers; the seminal but underinfluential game Myst, and how tastes change over time; the shattering of the gamer community in Gamergate; and an aesthetics of play that goes beyond games.

Those who want a quick answer when confronted with I'm bored! -- or want some new ideas when spending quality time with their children -- can now choose from more than 115 fast, fabulous, fun activities in eleven categories. Colorful sidebars feature jokes, trivia, riddles and facts that are sure to arouse any child's curiosity. For anyone wanting to build strong bonds with their child...and have fun doing it!

Is this your card? Aspiring magicians will love this book full of card tricks. Simple text, step-by-step instructions, and supporting photos show readers how to perform tricks. Plus, readers will learn basic information about magic and famous magicians.