interactive ALICE: user experience in a mixed reality wonderlaND experience

Interactive Storytelling in a Mixed Reality Environment: The Effects of Interactivity on User Experiences
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This study of the Interactive Alice installation (an experience crafted across 6 stages, each inspired by the Alice in Wonderland novel), suggests that immersion (the sense of being in the story world) is influenced more by the duration/intensity, rather than type of interaction. 
 
LITERATURE REVIEW
The paper starts with a review of recent research, which suggests that 1) An increased sense of presence, does not necessarily increase engagement (in terms of the user’s active interest in and interaction with the application), 2) That a user’s experience is changed by what they do during an event, shaped in turn by the type of interactions available to them.  3) At the same time, responsive technologies like sensors can heighten the sense of interaction and engagement, even in a situation with limited choices in terms of the way that the story unfolds.  4) Also, the sequencing of unfolding events is important, as it creates a dramatic and emotional rhythm/effect.
 
STUDY METHODS
This study involved a survey of the user experience of 18 – 33 year olds in the 3rd stage of the Interactive Alice installation entitled Eat Me, Drink Me which is situated in a white cube where users land after ‘falling’ through the rabbit hole.   The room appears to be locked with different sized doors (projected onto the cube, which is a sort of VR cave with reactive audio and video effects).  There are also sensors embedded in the floor, and movement sensitive physical props (such as a bottle of liquid that says ‘drink me’) are also on display.  Some rooms were more responsive and more interactive than others.  The simulated responses to the participant’s efforts to open a door also varied according what each particiant had previously eaten, or drunk.  Responses included sentences like “Sorry! You’re way too big.”, or  “No use. Haha! I forgot to tell you. I’m locked.” 
 
When the participant was the right height and had already found the key the virtual door opened, revealing the exit.
 
Through a combination of observation and survey the researchers measured for the participant’s sense of presence, agency (the ability to take meaningful action), satisfaction and also observed different sets of user behaviours in each different context.
 
RESULTS
Results showed that whilst short interactions in and of themselves created a sense of purpose, and satisfaction, nevertheless the type of interaction users experienced did not seem to influence their sense of satisfaction, or presence in the interaction. 
 
The researchers noticed clear differences in the users’ behaviours. ‘The participants that were immersed in a non-responsive environment (NIE) were more active and tried out more interaction possibilities (touch, walk, look around). The participants who experienced minimum stimuli in a non-interactive environment (NIMS) were less active, more observant. The participants in the non-interactive environment (NIE) seemed more likely to become confused and frustrated, while the participants in the interactive environment (IE) seemed satisfied every time they found something to do and experienced a feedback result.
 
 
Please cite this article as: M. Nakevska, A. van der Sanden, M. Funk, J. Hu, M. Rauterberg, Interactive Storytelling in a Mixed Reality Environment: The Effects of Interactivity on User Experiences, Entertainment Computing (2017),
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2017.01.001