Despite its potential gaze interaction is still not a widely-used interaction concept. Major drawbacks as the calibration, strain of the eyes and the high number of false alarms are associated with gaze based interaction and limit its practicability for every-day human computer interaction. In this paper two experiments are described which use smooth pursuit eye movements on moving display buttons. The first experiment was conducted to extract an easy and fast interaction concept and at the same time to collect data to develop a specific but robust algorithm. In a follow-up experiment, twelve conventionally calibrated participants interacted successfully with the system. For another group of twelve people the eye tracker was not calibrated individually, but on a third person. Results show that for both groups interaction was possible without false alarms. Both groups rated the user experience of the system as positive.

These findings may motivate safety experts to evaluate whether their implementation of human redundancy is vulnerable to social loafing effects.

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A non-negligible proportion of seniors rarely uses new technology. Far too often, these rather tech unexperienced seniors struggle with new soft- or hard-ware, that do not provide easy access. As a result, some seniors avoid or completely desist to further use “these modern technologies” and consequently miss out on the benefits of digital age. Game-inspired design is supposed to be a promising way to overcome some perceived barriers of seniors by providing hedonic value during early interaction. Previous research has shown that game-inspired design is suitable to motivate seniors’ use of Health-IT. To investigate its potential to facilitate the use of information and communication technology (ICT), an experimental study was conducted. The study investigated the appeal of various gamification features, which were embedded in a prototype of an ICT learning software and compared it to a non-gamified version of the software. Results indicate that the concept of gamified ICT learning software appeals to seniors in general, but that the acceptance of different gamification features is quite diverse. A clear-cut superiority of adding gamification to the software was not found. After interacting with both software versions, seniors in around equal parts preferred either the non-gamified version, the gamified version, or could not decide. Those seniors that clearly favored the gamified version were particularly fond of continuous positive feedback and receiving rewards for each task they have accomplished. Whereas the remaining seniors rather disliked the intensive endorsement through these two features and decided against the gamified version, albeit they liked many of the other game features. Our results underline the necessity of following a user-centered design approach when developing game-inspired applications, and the need for an individualized use of gamification elements to meet the needs of the heterogeneous group of senior users.

*All authors contributed equally to the manuscript and are displayed in alphabetic order.The present study addresses effects of human redundancy on automation monitoring and cross-checking. Thirty-six participants performed a multi-task, consisting of three subtasks that mimic basic work demands of operators in a control room of a chemical plant. One of the tasks was to monitor and cross-check a highly reliable and safety-critical automated process. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: (1) "Non-redundant": participants worked on all tasks alone as the only responsible operator. (2) "Redundant": participants were informed that a second crewmate would work in parallel on the automation monitoring task and that they both were responsible for ensuring safe operation of the automation. Results provide evidence for social loafing effects in automation cross-checking. Participants working redundantly with another crewmate were found to cross-check the automation significantly less than participants, who were working alone. Even if the combined team performance of the participants working in the redundant condition was considered, the number of cross-checks did not significantly differ from the performance in the non-redundant condition. This result suggests that human redundancy can induce social loafing effects which fully compensate a possible reliability gain intended to be achieved by this measure. It challenges the often stated assumption that "four eyes see more than two" and shows that human redundancy does not necessarily lead to enhanced safety in automation monitoring.