TY - JOUR U1 - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed) A1 - Oberhauser, Roy A1 - Lecon, Carsten T1 - Towards Gamifying Software Structure Comprehension in Virtual Reality JF - Mechatronic Systems and Control N2 - As the size of software program code bases in software development projects increases, insight into and comprehension of their underlying dependency structures presents a challenge for programmers. The increasing availability of virtual reality (VR) systems brings VR-based visualization of program code structures into practical reach for software developers and could support program comprehension and insight. However, the complete visual immersion with VR presents a cognitive burden and potential distractions. Applying gamification to such a VR visualization capability has hitherto been insufficiently investigated as to its potential motivation and program comprehension factors. This paper describes and evaluates a VR digital gamification approach for program code called VR Gamified Immersion in Software structures (VR-GaImS), which applies digital gamification to a multi-metaphor VR visualization of software program structures. The results of a preliminary empirical investigation utilizing our prototype indicate its potential to increase enjoyment and motivation, focus attention, and encourage the exploration of software structures. Y1 - 2019 SN - 2561-1771 SS - 2561-1771 U6 - https://doi.org/https://dx.doi.org/10.2316/J.2019.201-2873 DO - https://doi.org/https://dx.doi.org/10.2316/J.2019.201-2873 VL - 47 IS - 2 SP - 7 S1 - 7 PB - Actapress ER -