Interaction, gender and videogames

June 2011
Interaction, Gender & VideogamesInteraction, Gender & Videogames
Carina S. González González
cjgonza@ull.es
@carina211
First International Symposium Communicability, Computer Graphics and
Innovative Design for Interactive Systems (CCGIDIS 2011): Córdoba (Andalucía)
Spain ::June 28 – 29, 2011

June 2011
Index
I. Some data about Gender & IT
II. Gender HCI & UCD (User Centered Design)
III. Videogames
IV. Gender & Videogames
V. Interaction & Gender & Videogames
Examples
VI. Conclusions
Index
I. Some data about Gender & IT
III. Videogames
IV. Gender & Videogames
V. Interaction & Gender & Videogames
Examples
VI. Conclusions

June 2011
The digital gal between men and women is reduced in 11% in Spain
28/04/2011
The digital gal between men and women is reduced in 11% in Spain
28/04/2011

June 2011
http://www.e-igualdad.net/observatorio-igualdad
I. Some data about Gender & IT…I. Some data about Gender & IT…

June 2011
-The first digital gap persist.
-The women access level is a 9,2 % lower than men
-The first digital gap persist.
-The women access level is a 9,2 % lower than men

June 2011
Second digital gap
.
• Lower intensity of incorporation of women into the ICT
• Significant difference between users: regular and occasional.
• Women connect 10% less often than men.
• When the tasks are more technical or more complex, the gap
increases.
• Significant differences in the Internet use:
– Men: the consumption and leisure.
– Women: social welfare (employment, health or education).
• Spanish women has a lower degree of effective integration of ICT
– They use a smaller percentage, less intense and less skills.
Second digital gap
.
• Lower intensity of incorporation of women into the ICT
• Significant difference between users: regular and occasional.
• Women connect 10% less often than men.
• When the tasks are more technical or more complex, the gap
increases.
• Significant differences in the Internet use:
– Men: the consumption and leisure.
– Women: social welfare (employment, health or education).
• Spanish women has a lower degree of effective integration of ICT
– They use a smaller percentage, less intense and less skills.

June 2011
Third digital gap.
• In advanced applications (mobile Internet) the women
uses 50% less than men.
• In advanced applications (TV, radio and Internet phone)
the difference is 25%.
• On this general situation of inequality, affect personal
conditions (age, education, education, status in the labor
market), and socioeconomic factors (contextual,
household size, income level), which reinforcing gender
differences in many occasions .
Third digital gap.
• In advanced applications (mobile Internet) the women
uses 50% less than men.
• In advanced applications (TV, radio and Internet phone)
the difference is 25%.
• On this general situation of inequality, affect personal
conditions (age, education, education, status in the labor
market), and socioeconomic factors (contextual,
household size, income level), which reinforcing gender
differences in many occasions .

June 2011
The 82% of young people participate in the social net and there no
significative differeces between men and women
The 82% of young people participate in the social net and there no
significative differeces between men and women

June 2011
The e-generation breaks the traditional dichotomy:
more women “love” the IT
The e-generation breaks the traditional dichotomy:
more women “love” the IT

June 2011
The IT are no neutral about the gender and it is necessary open new
horizons where women can bring their own look
The IT are no neutral about the gender and it is necessary open new
horizons where women can bring their own look

June 2011
Information Society Knowledge Society
Gender, IT, Internet
Cultural changes
Life Long Learning
Open Knowledge
Inclusive Digital SocietyInclusive Digital Society
Democratization of information
and knowledge
Empowerment and participation

June 2011
Gender open movementGender open movement
• Presence and participation: 1,5% women in
open source and 28% in privative software
• Resources and activities: hierarchical
asymmetry value of activities: production code
(masculine) / other complementary activities
• Relations and norms of coexistence: more
aggressive communication style. Sexualization
of online relationships. "Mimicking" of the
majority male behavior to be considered part of
the "club".
Fuente: INE, 2010

June 2011
Differential trends
-Motivations: Usability of projects and support
to people who are new to open source
-Work Styles: affect the internal / external
communications. Greater level of self.
-Some results: influence in the relational, the
productivity and the organization of events.
Gender open movementGender open movement

June 2011
Open knowledge and Open ContentOpen knowledge and Open Content
• The production of open knowledge and
open content allow the visibility,
recognition, contribution, sharing and
socializing for equality.

June 2011
Nowadays (2011), the women presence in the social nets is the 33,3%
while the men presence is the 66,7%.
Gender andGender and
social netssocial nets

June 2011
Fuente:
Hoja de datos “Redes sociales en España 2011 – Estadísticas” (Google docs. Última actualización: 2
de enero de 2011)
Gráficos “Redes sociales en España” (Google docs. Última actualización: 2 de enero de 2011)
<Datos, Estudios e Informes de interés>
Fundación Telefónica. “La Sociedad de la Información en España 2010” (ene. 2011). [Último acceso:
19/01/2011]
Elogia & IAB. II Estudio sobre redes sociales en Internet (nov. 2010). [Último acceso: 02/01/2011]
Red.es. Informe Anual de Contenidos Digitales 2010 (2010). [Último acceso: 19/01/2011]
Fundación Orange. Informe eEspaña 2010 (2010). [Último acceso: 02/01/2011]
The Economist. “A special report on social networking. A world of connections” (ene. 2010). [Último acceso:
11/02/2010]
The cocktail analysis. “Informe de resultados Observatorio Redes Sociales 2ª oleada” (ene. 2010). [Último
acceso: 11/02/2010]
Fundación Telefónica. “La Sociedad de la Información en España 2009” (dic. 2009). [Último acceso:
11/02/2010]
Leiva Aguilera, Javier. Redes sociales: situación y tendencias en relación a información y documentación
(2009). [Último acceso: 02/01/2011]
iab Spain Research. “Estudio sobre redes sociales en Internet” (nov. 2009). [Último acceso: 11/02/2010]
comScore. “Social Networking Sites Account for More than 20 Percent of All U.S. Online Display Ad
Impressions, According to comScore Ad Metrix” (sep. 2009). [Último acceso: 11/02/2010]
Nielsen. “Social Networking’s New Global Footprint” (mar. 2009). [Último acceso: 11/02/2010]
Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE). Disponible en: http://www.ine.es/prensa/np570.pdf [Último acceso:
11/02/2010]
INTECO. “Estudio sobre la privacidad de los datos personales y la seguridad de la información en las redes
sociales online” (feb. 2009). [Último acceso: 11/02/2010]

June 2011
Designing IT from gender perspectiveDesigning IT from gender perspective

June 2011
Designing the Interaction
What is a User-Centered Approach?
II. Gender HCI & UCD

June 2011
• Gender HCI (*) is a subfield of HCI that focuses on the
design and evaluation of interactive systems for
humans, with emphasis on differences in how males
and females interact with computers.
• The main areas of interest are:
– Effects of confidence and self-efficacy on interactions with
software
– Design of gender-specific software
– Design of interfaces and to study its effect.
– Design of gender-neutral problem-solving software.
(*) Beckwith, L. and Burnett, M. Gender: An important factor in end-
user programming environments?, In Proc. Visual Languages and
Human-Centric Computing Languages, IEEE (2004), 107-114.

June 2011
Researchers of Gender HCI had studied the field from
different perspective:
• Preferences and opinions of actors and cognitive differences
between males and females has been studied (Arroyo, 2003,
Arroyo et al, 2006; Bandura, 1977, Halpern, 2000).
• Stimulus’ influence and attraction of technological tools has been
analyzed (Beckwith 2005, Beckwith et al, 2004, 2006, Burnett et
al, 2004, Beckwith et al, 2006).
• Validators to analyze the semantic structure of web pages and
videogames has been developed (Casell y Jenkins, 1998, Van
Slyke et al, 2002).
• There are several studies about effects of software interfaces on
different user profiles (Dillon and Watson, 1996, Kucian et al,
2005, Nuñez, 2003).

June 2011
• Until recently, research has not considered whether the design of
problem-solving software affect males and females differently.
• Attention to gender differences is important in the design of
software.
• Evidence from other domains, such as psychology and marketing,
strongly suggests that females process information and problem solve in
very different ways that males do.
• Some research has shown that software is unintentionally designed for
males.
• Needs of half the population for whom the software is intended are
potentially being ignored.
•McDonough, J. P. (1999). Designer selves: Construction of technologically mediated identity within graphical,
multiuser virtual environments. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(10), 855-869.
•Beckwith, Laura et al., "Effectiveness of End-User Debugging Features: Are There Gender Issues?" Proc. ACM
Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM Press, Apr. 2005, pp. 869-878.
•Beckwith, Laura et al., "Tinkering and Gender in End-User Programmers' Debugging," Proc. ACM Conf. Human
Factors in Computing Systems, ACM Press, Apr. 2006, pp. 231-240
•Beckwith, Laura y Margaret Burnett, "Gender: An Important Factor in Problem-Solving Software?" Proc. IEEE
Symp. Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing Languages and Environments, IEEE Press, 2004, pp. 107-
114.

June 2011
¿How HCI can help to design software more
suitable/adaptive to the gender characteristics?
– a) using UCD as methodology
– b) analysing and modeling user characteristics
– c) designing adaptive/usable/accesible interfaces

June 2011
• Some findings on gender differences
research:
1. Differences on information processing, comunication and
problem solving applied to software design.
2. Females has specif skills and use preferences on software in
mathematics, programming, videogames, etc.
3. Related with user interface design or usability (*)
(*) Yu-chang Hsu (2007). Better educational website interface design: the
implications from gender-specific preferences in graduate students. British
Journal of Educational Technology
Pearson, J. & A. Pearson (2008). "An Exploratory Study into Determining
the Relative Importance of Key Criteria in Web Usability: A Multi-Criteria
Approach."

June 2011
• We need more empirical evidences about how males
and females interact with computers
– Human factors (cognitive, phisical, ergonomic, etc.)
– Categorization of information (gender differences in the
labeling and structuring of information);
– How women think the task on the web;
– How women think on design and style’s guide; and
– How women cooperate, collaborate or interact on the net.
• Another important need is to elaborate a recomendations
guide about gender differences to software designers.

June 2011
Gender HCI & UCD &
Videogames
III. VIDEOGAMES

June 2011
III. VIDEOGAMES
http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2011.pdf

June 2011
III. VIDEOGAMES
The 25,4% of adults in Europe play
videogames (more than 95 millons).
ISFE (Interactive Software Federation of Europe) 2011.

June 2011
Different gamers!!
The software should be adapted to different users profiles to improve the user experience
Usability techniques
User Centered Design
III. VIDEOGAMES

June 2011
III. VIDEOGAMES
Videogames are interactive systems but are specials (entertainment)

June 2011
31
Usability can not be applied directly to characterize the gamer experience
III. VIDEOGAMES

June 2011
III. VIDEOGAMES
• González Sánchez, José Luis. Jugabilidad y Experiencia del Jugador. Tesis doctoral.
Universidad de Granada. 2010

June 2011
Design of videgames centered on the player
III. VIDEOGAMES
• González Sánchez, José Luis. Jugabilidad y Experiencia del Jugador. Tesis doctoral.
Universidad de Granada. 2010

June 2011
Design of videgames centered on the player
Mechanic
Story and narrative Interactvity
III. VIDEOGAMES

June 2011
IV. GENDER & VIDEOGAMES

June 2011
• Since the design programs of today focus on user-centered design,
and users of video games are increasingly female, then perhaps the
way things are done in video game design has changed over the
past 10 years. But not.
• The people designing the games are still mostly male.
– Sony Online Entertainment announced a scholarship program aimed at
getting more girls into video game design because there still aren’t very
many women game designers.
• The content of many video games are still male-oriented.
– The list of best-selling video games are all mostly masculine themes.
• So, it appears that the video game design industry hasn’t really
changed that much at all over the past 10 years, even though their
users have.
V. Interaction, Gender & Videogames
4,390,000,000 Google results of “games” and 1,060,000,000 of “videogames”

June 2011
• Several researchers explored what girls seek in
videogames, and implications for video game
designers.
• Among the implications were collaboration vs.
competition preferences, and use of non-violent
rewards versus death and destruction as rewards
• Gorriz, C. and Medina, C. Engaging girls with computers through
software games. Communications of the ACM, (2000), 42-49.
• Cassell, J. Genderizing HCI, MIT Media Lab, (1998).
• Cassell, J. and Jenkins, H. (Eds.), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat:
Gender and Computer Games, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, (1998).
• Guía de claves sexistas para el desarrollo de software (2010).
http://www.e-igualdad.net/taller-igualdad/guia-claves-sexistas-
desarrollo-software

June 2011

June 2011
• It is necessary offered to students in all stages of education software
that meet their needs and ways of doing, with models of
open behavior, developing actions to think, argue and resolve
situations, reasoning and response profiles non-violent character,
applications or games based on respect and rules of coexistence,
human rights and to encourage the learning of ethical standards and
values of equality.
• Digital educational products are generally traditional patterns
distribution of male and female roles, as still happens in many
school textbooks.
• The contents should be designed so as not to geared only to women
but both sexes.
• To avoid transmitting women-only messages or images and by
contrast, men to share responsibility and assume the distribution of
tasks.

June 2011
• Intelligent and Adaptive Multimedia Interfaces in Education
– Special Educational Needs and Users
• Dyslexia
– Assesment and Treatment assisted by computers with voice recognition, adaptable interface
and inference engine for support desicions.
• Down´s Syndrome
– A ITS for Teaching Elementary Mathematics
» Inference Engine with Fuzzy Logic and Interface with XML templates .
– Basic Concepts
– Engineering Courses
• Developing of new tools (HEVAH, SIMDE, SIJEM, MNEME, SCOMAX, SCOMIN,
SIENA) using adaptive tests, simulation and conceptual maps.
• Natural Interfaces and Augmented Reality (AR)
– Computer Vision Techniques
• Detection of attention and motivation through eye tracking
• Control of mouse’s point
• Detection if shapes and movements and proyection of images in movement (real time)
• Emotional and social factors on videogames in online courses.
• Integrating of Neverwinter Nights with MoodleNeverwinter Nights with Moodle
• Ananilys of videogames motivational factors
About my work…
Intelligent and Adaptive Multimedia Interfaces in Education
Could be adapted to support gender differences

June 2011
Intelligent and Adaptive Multimedia Interfaces
in Education
3D Agent controled by
Bayesian Nets
&
Test Manager System
HEVAH & PORTAD

June 2011
Natural Interaction and AR
Motion& Body Tracking and Special Effects
ULL Patent Pending ES200901210
Proyecto de Investigación Actimel Mirror Effect. DANONE.
2008-2009
Different user profiles Different interaction-user experience

June 2011
Educational videogames

June 2011
Some references
• Carina Gonzalez, D. Guerra, H. Sanabria, L. Moreno (2009). Automatic system for the detection and analysis of
errors to support the personalized feedback . Expert Systems with Applications. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2009.05.027
• Carina González y Francisco Blanco. “Emociones con Videojuegos: incrementando la motivación para el
aprendizaje”. Revista: Teoría de la Educación. Monográfico 2008 - 9 (3): "Videojuegos". Editorial: Ediciones
Universidad de Salamanca. Noviembre 2008.
• Carina González y Francisco Blanco. “Integrating educational 3D games in Moodle as affective interface”.
Revista: Simulation & Gaming. Editorial: SAGE. Vol. 39. Nº3. 399-413. September 2008.
• Carina S. González, D. Guerra, M. Noda, A. Bruno, H. Sanabria, L. Moreno. “Diagnóstico automático de errores
aritméticos y ayudas adaptadas para niños con síndrome de Down”. Revista: Revista da Sociedad Brasilera de
Educación Matemática: SBEM RS. Nº 8. 77-88. Noviembre 2007.
• L. Moreno, C.S. González, I. Castilla, E.J. González, J.F. Sigut. "Applying a Constructivism and Collaborative
Methodological Approach in Engineering Education". Computers and Education Journal, Volumen 47 (3). 891-
915 Fecha: 2007.
• L. Moreno, C.S. González, I. Castilla, E.J. González, J.F. Sigut. “SIMDE: An Educational Simulator of ILP
Architectures with Dynamic and Static Scheduling". COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING
EDUCATION. Fecha: 2007.
• A. Bruno, M.A. Noda, R.M. Aguilar, C.S. González, L. Moreno, V. Muñoz. Título: "Analisis de un tutorial inteligente
sobre conceptos lógicos-matemáticos en alumnos con Síndrome de Down". Revista: Relime, Volumen: 9 (2).
211-226, Año: 2006.
• González C.S., Estevez J., Muñoz V., Moreno L., Alayon, S.SICOLE: Diagnóstico y tratamiento computarizado de
la Dislexia en español.. Revista: PIXEL-BIT. REVISTA DE MEDIOS Y EDUCACIÓN. Nº 24. Fecha: Junio de
2004. http://www.sav.us.es/pixelbit/marcoabj24.htm
A. Bruno, C. González, L. Moreno, M. Noda, R. Aguilar, V. Muñoz. Teaching Mathematics to Children with Down
´s Syndrome. AIED'2003 (Arificial Intelligent in Education). Workshop "Advanced Technologies for Mathematics
Education" . Sydney Australia.. July, 2003.
• Moreno L., González C., Muñoz V., Estévez J., Aguilar R., Sánchez J, Sigut .J., Piñeiro J. “Integrating Multimedia
Technology, Knowledge Based System and Speech Processing for the Diagnostic and Treatment of
Developmental Dyslexia”. Intelligent Tutorial Systems.Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2363 Springer Verlag
(Eds.). ISBN 3-540-43750-9. Fecha: 2002.
• Autores: Moreno L., González C.S., Aguilar R.M., Estévez J.I., Sánchez J.L., Barroso C. “Adaptive Multimedia
Interface for Users with Intellectual and Cognitive Handicaps”. Intelligent Tutorial Systems. Lecture Notes in
Computer Science 1839. Springer Verlag. ISBN 3-54067655-4. 2000.
•

June 2011
ConclusionsConclusions
• We must to impulse the presence and participation of
women on the Internet, social nets, creation of open
content (knowledge) and creation of technology, it also
include the videogames.
• We must to take into account the gender differences
and culture in the design of the technology to equity
and to reduce the digital gap.
• We need change the cultural paradigms because the
interfaces are not free of gender assumptions.
• We must to impulse the presence and participation of
women on the Internet, social nets, creation of open
content (knowledge) and creation of technology, it also
include the videogames.
• We must to take into account the gender differences
and culture in the design of the technology to equity
and to reduce the digital gap.
• We need change the cultural paradigms because the
interfaces are not free of gender assumptions.

June 2011
“Technology is not a single device but society itself, a
reflection of the wishes, desires and needs of
individuals and groups involved in it"
(M. Castells, 2001)
“Technology is not a single device but society itself, a
reflection of the wishes, desires and needs of
individuals and groups involved in it"
(M. Castells, 2001)

Interaction, gender and videogames

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