Researcher Summary
As a gaming advocate, it excites me to witness the emergence of an immersive gaming era. The VR/MR/AR technology (a.k.a. immersive interfaces) redefines how people interact with computing systems; they have the potential to revolutionize how people play, live, communicate and collaborate over the next few years.
My interest lies in applying human-computer interaction (HCI) principles and the game design elements to better design user interaction and user experience (UX) in immersive applications. I have been driven to answer whether immersive interfaces can: 1) benefit users or players such that they can interact with virtual objects as if they were real; 2) enhance collaboration and the sense of co-presence beyond face-to-face interaction; 3) give us superpowers beyond our cognitive capability; and 4) utilize game design elements to aid us with learning and retention and engage us to exercise more or make rehabilitation fun.
By answering these questions, I aim to: 1) improve human or player performance through novel 3DUIs e.g. reduce cognitive load; 2) enrich UX e.g., improve co-presence in remote collaboration or immersive multiplayer online gaming; 3) enhance human or player capabilities e.g., superpower ability to scale up/down or experience supernatural abilities; and 4) better understand how these technologies can impact various domains such as education, health and our society, which in turn can be used to improve design.
Ongoing research into immersive interfaces within various industries to solve industry-specific problems has enriched the field with complementary insights, which I believe will lead to a convergence of a unified idea that can solve multiple problems at once.