Last week, Liam Mason, one of our PhD students from our School of Computer Science won the CHI best paper award. Well done Liam!

We spoke to Liam, to get an insight into his best paper titled “Including the Experiences of Physically Disabled Players in Mainstream Guidelines for Movement-Based Games”.

“In this chi paper titled “Including the Experiences of Physically Disabled Players in Mainstream Guidelines for Movement-Based Games”. We highlight how movement-based video games can be entertaining and have the potential to encourage players to be more physically active. However, current design guidelines for such games, are overwhelmingly geared toward non-disabled players, in this work we draw from interviews and an online survey with wheelchair users to contextualize and expand existing guidelines in this field.

This was my last paper submission to a conference as part of my PhD and I have had a very good run with papers being accepted throughout but no awards until this, so it is a really great way to finish my PhD.

This chapter of my work was the most challenging – some of these interviews were nearly 3 hours long! So getting an award for best paper really gives me the confidence for passing! But it’s important to note, I couldn’t do it without the expertise of my co-authors, we went through many many iterations, working all the way through lockdown so I really appreciate the effort they put in too!”

You can watch his favourite video on YouTube here, more information on the award can also be found on the CHI website.