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Exploring Rulebook Accessibility and Companionship in Board Games via Voiced-based Conversational Agent Alexa

Published: 10 July 2023 Publication History

Abstract

The inaccessibility of rulebooks hinders the rule learning experience of board game players who are blind or have low vision (BLV). We conducted two qualitative studies to explore the design of conversational agents (CAs) that can support BLV players’ learning and provide companionship. In Study 1, we recruited 14 BLV participants and identified their rule learning challenges, with emphasis on cognitive load, and co-designed functional and social characteristics in Amazon Alexa that can support rule learning and offer companionship. We then developed a new Alexa skill and had 9 BLV participants evaluate our skill against the Alexa skill for the game Ticket to Ride (Study 2). We generated four design principles for CAs to support board game rule learning for BLV people: conciseness, pausing capacity, customization, and companionship.

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  • (2024)Internationalisation of Board GamesReference Module in Social Sciences10.1016/B978-0-443-13701-3.00372-8Online publication date: 2024

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    DIS '23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference
    July 2023
    2717 pages
    ISBN:9781450398930
    DOI:10.1145/3563657
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    Published: 10 July 2023

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    Author Tags

    1. accessibility
    2. board games
    3. companionship
    4. conversational agents

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    • National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

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    DIS '23: Designing Interactive Systems Conference
    July 10 - 14, 2023
    PA, Pittsburgh, USA

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    • (2024)Conan's Bow Tie: A Streaming Voice Conversion for Real-Time VTuber LivestreamingProceedings of the 29th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces10.1145/3640543.3645146(35-50)Online publication date: 18-Mar-2024
    • (2024)Internationalisation of Board GamesReference Module in Social Sciences10.1016/B978-0-443-13701-3.00372-8Online publication date: 2024

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