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A Comparison of Input Devices for Gaming: Are Gamepads Still Useful in PC Environment?

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Intelligent Human Computer Interaction (IHCI 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13184))

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Abstract

As the PC has emerged as a new video game platform since its rapid performance progress, the cross-platform compatibility has grown to prominence for developers and designers. Besides, the number of users who want to use their gamepads, which is the conventional input devices of video game consoles, has been gradually increasing. This study was designed to compare the performance and usability of two input devices, the gamepad and the keyboard-mouse setup, the traditional setup used by most PC users, by task type and difficulty level. The goal of this study is to explore the interface design guidelines for each device. In this study, we measured the reaction time for the performance and the perceived workload for usability. The results indicated that the keyboard-mouse setup showed higher performance than the gamepad in general, and that the difference by the difficulty level was intensified in the physical task group. However, this tendency was not found in the cognitive task group. The keyboard-mouse setup also showed lower mental demand and physical demand than the gamepad. This result suggests that designers should not require too many simultaneous inputs when designing interfaces for gamepads, and that users should understand the characteristics of each device, in order to choose the one appropriate for their intended goals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive Engineering Lab, Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Yunsun A. Hong & Soojin O. Peck

  2. Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Ilgang M. Lee

Authors
  1. Yunsun A. Hong
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  2. Soojin O. Peck
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  3. Ilgang M. Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yunsun A. Hong .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Jong-Hoon Kim

  2. University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Madhusudan Singh

  3. Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Javed Khan

  4. Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, India

    Uma Shanker Tiwary

  5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Marigankar Sur

  6. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Dhananjay Singh

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Hong, Y.A., Peck, S.O., Lee, I.M. (2022). A Comparison of Input Devices for Gaming: Are Gamepads Still Useful in PC Environment?. In: Kim, JH., Singh, M., Khan, J., Tiwary, U.S., Sur, M., Singh, D. (eds) Intelligent Human Computer Interaction. IHCI 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13184. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98404-5_38

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98404-5_38

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-98403-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-98404-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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