The influence of user interface design on task performance and situation awareness in a 3-player diner's dilemma game

To understand the influence of user interface on task performance and situation awareness, three levels of user interface were designed based on the three-level situation awareness model for the 3-player diner's dilemma game. The 3-player diner's dilemma is a multiplayer version of the prisoner's dilemma, in which participants play games with two computer players and try to achieve high scores. A total of 117 participants were divided into 3 groups to participate in the experiment. Their task performance (the dining points) was recorded and their situation awareness scores were measured with the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique. The results showed that (1) the level-3 interface effectively improved the task performance and situation awareness scores, while the level-2 interface failed to improve them; (2) the practice effect did exist in all three conditions; and (3) the levels of user interface had no effect on the task learning process, implying that the learning rules remained consistent across different conditions.