Smile Catcher: Can Game Design Lead to Positive Social Interactions?

摘要

Our hectic and increasingly digital lives can have a negative effect on our health and well-being. Some authors have argued that we socialize less frequently with other people in person and that people feel increasingly lonely. Loneliness has been shown to significantly affect health and wellbeing in a negative way. To combat this, we designed a game, Smile Catcher, which encourages players to engage in in-person, social interactions and get others to smile. Participants wear a device that takes regular pictures of what is in front of them and the system analyzes the pictures captured to detect the number of smiles. The game was evaluated with a two-week study that sought to determine if game design can increase positive social interactions and thereby people's well-being. Our results show that users increased their frequency of positive interactions as a result of playing our game. Contribution Statement: This paper describes a unique game that improves well-being by encouraging positive social interactions.