Effects of Bend Gesture Training on Learnability and Memorability in a Mobile Game

Flexible displays are making their way into handheld devices. Users can benefit from ways of interacting with these devices using bends to activate a command. However, these devices may have a higher learning curve due to their complex degree of interaction. We developed a deformable device that detects bend gestures, and created a mobile game that is played using bends. We compared the effect of training on learnability and memorability through three conditions and attempted to validate the Guidance Hypothesis. Participants played the mobile game in two sessions and received one of the following: 1) training on how to perform bend gestures, 2) bend gesture training as well as what action mapped to the gesture, 3) no training. We found that mapping training produced similar outcome to no training, while gesture training led to a negative outcome. Our findings suggest training is not essential and learning by discovery is feasible.