Whack-a-Ball: An Exergame Exploring the Use of a Ball Interface for Facilitating Physical Activities

Sedentary lifestyles have posed threats to people’s physical and mental well-being worldwide. Researchers developed exergames to address people’s sedentary lifestyle by encouraging body movement through an entertaining game approach. Our research proposed an innovative ball interface and evaluated the effects of the ball interface on physical activities with and without extra weights. We conducted a user study with 14 participants to evaluate their experiences and physical activities elicited in three interface conditions: Mouse, Ball, and Weighted Ball.We collected participants’ heart rate (HR), Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), and Self-Assessment Manikin ratings (SAM), and conducted a semi-structured interview.We found that both the Ball and Weighted Ball conditions facilitated moderate-intensity workouts and more physical activities than the at-rest and the Mouse conditions. However, we didn’t observe any significant improvement of physical activities in the Weighted Ball condition compared to the Ball condition. Our research contributes to the exergames research field and HCI community by bringing more understanding and insights towards the ball interface, including participants’ acceptance and experiences, the ball interface’s effectiveness of fostering physical activities, and design considerations for future research.