Study 7’s criteria was that we must take an idea, concept, or technique used in a previous study, and develop it further. Focusing on keeping user interaction for 5-7 minutes.

During class a few weeks ago, we brainstormed things which can maintain our attention for extended periods of time. The primary thing I took out of this session was that we like to have a challenge in front of us to complete. We become “hooked” when we have a goal to achieve or a reward at the end. For me, doing a sodoku is both a therapeutic and frustrating activity. It provides a great sense of accomplishment when completed, however infuriating annoyance when you get stuck. This is what I hoped to achieve with my study.

I decided that the puzzle i would focus on was a maze. A simplistic, get from one end to the other type maze. The concept developed with the previously mentioned emotions in mind. I designed the study so that if you were to let go of the drawing when you hadn’t completed the maze, the computer would let off an annoying sound and the word “boo” would appear. On the contrary, if you were to complete the maze successfully, the computer reads “yay” and plays a funny, celebratory jingle.

On a technical level, I used “Loadbang” to make the setup automatic. When opened, the maze is immediately shown empty and the songs and triggers are turned on. The main difficulty i encountered was trying to have both sounds available to play depending on where the mouse was “unclicked”. The solution was found through the use of “gswitch2” which caused some issues initially, but was resolved.

Overall, my study “aMAZEing” successfully sustains user interactions for several minutes (depending on how quickly they solve the puzzle). When testing my product with friends, the fastest completion I saw was 3mins and the longest was 7.2mins. I would deem this study, a success!