The Impact of Health-Related User Interface Sounds on Player Experience

Abstract

Background: Understanding how sound functions on informational and emotional levels within video games is critical to understanding player experience of games. Interface sounds, such as player-character health, are a pivotal component of gameplay across many video game genres, yet have not been studied in detail. Method: To address this research gap in interface sounds, we present two studies: The first study examines the impact of the presence or absence of playerhealth sounds on player experience. The second explores the impact of the types of sound used to indicate player health. We use mixed methods with qualitative and physiological measures. Results: Our results reveal that despite the presence of visual cues, sound is still important to game design for conveying health-related information and that the type of sound affects player experience.

Player Enjoyment in Video Games: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Effects of Game Design Choices

“…Five articles investigated the effects of the visual interface, namely the visual point of view (first person or third person) (Bateman et al, 2011;Cicchirillo, 2020), the level of graphical fidelity (Gerling et al, 2013), or the amount of contextual information displayed (Teruel et al, 2018) and its visual integration into the game world (diegetic design) (Marre et al, 2021). Four articles investigated the effects of the auditory interface, namely the presence of music (Cassidy & Macdonald, 2010;Klimmt et al, 2019), the presence of sound effects (Ballard et al, 2021;Robb et al, 2017). Finally, one article investigated the effects of systems that combine a head-mounted display with motion-based controllers, such as in VR gaming systems (Sekhavat & Zarei, 2018).…”

Multimodal Interaction of Contextual and Non-Contextual Sound and Haptics in Virtual Simulations

“…Jørgensen [16], as well as Lipscomb and Zehnder [17], tested the effects of having sound on and off during video game play using verbal self-reporting, and showed that sound influenced players' perceptions of play. Robb et al [18] found that interface sound played an important role in conveying information to game players. Psychophysiological studies have also shown sound to have an impact: Hébert et al [19] found that playing video games with music/sound on led to higher cortisol levels than playing the same games with the sound off.…”

Large-Scale Analysis of Visualization Options in a Citizen Science Game

“…Additionally, previous research has explored how a user interface conveys information in games, such as through sound [14] and "immersive" (i.e., diegetic) displays [9]. Researchers have also recently begun exploring the user experience of data visualizations in general [16].…”