A recent piece of design research offers food for thought for interactive graphics and multimedia designers. Scientists at California University, Los Angeles have discovered that interactive software can cause trauma simply by apparently ignoring users.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to monitor brain activity during a simple ball throwing game, they managed to provoke feelings of social exclusion amongst participants. The game was designed so that a virtual ball is thrown to a player. After a while the computer begins to only play with other virtual players and ignores the human participant (who has been told that he or she is playing with other, real but unseen, players). The study showed that, when ignored, the area of the brain associated with pain lights up as if the human participant had been physically hurt. Something to think about for web site designers, 3D and interactive designers.
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