Looking for definition of engagement (HCI) in Finnish
When you want to find an equivalent of engagement in Finnish, you better don’t consult a dictionary. It becomes a truly linguistic journey.
First of all, I am not looking for meaning of engagement as a promise to marriage. I am after the meaning of the word in the domain of HCI, computing and gaming. As in ‘I was so engaged playing 8-puzzle that I forgot I am controlling it using my eyes only’. Or as in ‘We build a interactive system that is more engaging than just viewing the animation passively.’
It turns out that Finnish does not have a good translation –single word– describing the multidimensional meaning of ‘engagement’. Here are terms that we found corresponding only partly with the umbrella term of engagement:
aktiivisuus, aloitteellisuus, innostuneisuus, sitoutuneisuus, osallistuminen
None single of them is engagement. It would be interesting to do a study that would measure how much each of these terms describe/contributes to the original engagement. Something like ‘Rate the game in the following dimensions’. Any proposals?
Even that my finnish is bad, I know what are you looking for while seeking or researching into digital game experience. There are several finnish researchers, into game research however all of them write in English. But there are game magazines in Finnish and there you can find exactly what you are looking for. Nevertheless, they have the similar problems as well:
http://gameslices.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/aakoo-going-game-journalism/
What I would recommend you is to use an equivalent expression, what you are looking for is the “flow of the game experience”. Into gaming this expression goes beyond engagement, actually it implies immersion into the activity, and I wouldn’t be surprise that is what you are looking for.
Just my two cents into this :)
ah! btw, about the study that you propose, there are plenty of those studies already. Huge game community and psychologist researchers are into this. Just ask which game, (console, mobile, virtual worlds) . Papers can be found in game and culture journal, or DiGRA & Future Play conference, inclusive in ACM.
if you are interested, I have information about it :) inclusive we can do something together ;)
What if instead of spending time trying to translate things into Finnish, we try again to convince everyone in the world to speak Esperanto? :)
Hei, luin sattumalta tätä pohdintaa engagement-sanasta. Aika hyvä suomennos voisi olla “koukuttavuus”. It’s a bit unofficial word, but very describing. It means how much something gets you hooked and how well it takes your full attention. Another – and a horribly long word – is “mukaansatempaavuus”, a noun from “temmata mukaansa” = rivet (Elokuva tempasi hänet mukaansa He was riveted to the movie).
Just a try :)
Laura, thanks for the comment and suggestions. Koukuttavuus sounds like an option too.
There is some discussion as to whether and how immersion and engagement are related — mostly in gaming. Koukuttavuus sound like somewhere in the middle, what do you think?