Abstract
As collaborative digital tools and shared-screen applications proliferate, it has become essential to examine how group dynamics and physical layout jointly influence user experience. In this work, we explored how the combination of spatial setting and gender composition shapes interaction in a two- player digital game. Eleven dyads (22 participants) — composed of female–female, male–male, and mixed-gender pairs — played a self-developed iPad table-tennis game under two contrasting conditions: seated face-to-face at the same table and playing remotely from separate rooms. Following each match, they completed a 21-item questionnaire adapted from the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) to capture perceived engagement and related factors. A two-way ANOVA showed a clear interaction on game interest. Mixed-gender pairs, for example, displayed a noticeable drop in enthusiasm when moving from the face-to-face setup to remote play, while same-gender pairs reported stable interest across contexts. Main effects also emerged: female–female dyads tended to give higher ratings for engagement and novelty, whereas male–male groups expressed greater appreciation for the visual aesthetics of the interface. These contrasts were supported by Bonferroni- adjusted post-hoc analyses. Field notes and video review revealed richer spoken exchanges and more synchronized emotions in the face-to-face setting, especially among mixed-gender pairs — a pattern hinting at their stronger reliance on visible gestures and subtle non-verbal cues. Taken together, the results suggest that elements such as gesture visibility and the ease or inhibition of verbal responses are key to shaping collaborative play. For designers of future shared or remote collaborative systems, factoring in gender composition alongside spatial design will therefore be critical.
Keywords
Gender composition; Collaborative user experience; Multi-user interface; Digital collaboration
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.574
Citation
Zhou, M., Shi, W., Wang, J.,and Ono, K.(2025) Beyond the Interface: How Dyad Gender Composition Shapes UX Across Collaborative Scenarios, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.574
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 3 - Design, Art & Technology
Beyond the Interface: How Dyad Gender Composition Shapes UX Across Collaborative Scenarios
As collaborative digital tools and shared-screen applications proliferate, it has become essential to examine how group dynamics and physical layout jointly influence user experience. In this work, we explored how the combination of spatial setting and gender composition shapes interaction in a two- player digital game. Eleven dyads (22 participants) — composed of female–female, male–male, and mixed-gender pairs — played a self-developed iPad table-tennis game under two contrasting conditions: seated face-to-face at the same table and playing remotely from separate rooms. Following each match, they completed a 21-item questionnaire adapted from the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) to capture perceived engagement and related factors. A two-way ANOVA showed a clear interaction on game interest. Mixed-gender pairs, for example, displayed a noticeable drop in enthusiasm when moving from the face-to-face setup to remote play, while same-gender pairs reported stable interest across contexts. Main effects also emerged: female–female dyads tended to give higher ratings for engagement and novelty, whereas male–male groups expressed greater appreciation for the visual aesthetics of the interface. These contrasts were supported by Bonferroni- adjusted post-hoc analyses. Field notes and video review revealed richer spoken exchanges and more synchronized emotions in the face-to-face setting, especially among mixed-gender pairs — a pattern hinting at their stronger reliance on visible gestures and subtle non-verbal cues. Taken together, the results suggest that elements such as gesture visibility and the ease or inhibition of verbal responses are key to shaping collaborative play. For designers of future shared or remote collaborative systems, factoring in gender composition alongside spatial design will therefore be critical.