2019/10/01 by Radek Ošlejšek, Radek Oslejsek, Vit Rusnak +6
Computer Science · Decision Sciences · Psychology · #Cluster analysis #Data Visualization and Analytics #Domain (mathematical analysis) #Educational Games and Gamification #Field (mathematics) #Flag (linear algebra) #Instant #Preference #Scientific Computing and Data Management #Usability #Visual feedback #Visualization #cs.HC
paper · pdf · doi:10.1109/vizsec48167.2019.9161386
11 pages
openalex publication_date 2019/10/01 · openalex created_date 2019/12/26 · arxiv created 2020/08/27 · arxiv updated 2020/08/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Capture the Flag games represent a popular method of cybersecurity training. Providing meaningful insight into the training progress is essential for increasing learning impact and supporting participants' motivation, especially in advanced hands-on courses. In this paper, we investigate how to provide valuable post-game feedback to players of serious cybersecurity games through interactive visualizations. In collaboration with domain experts, we formulated user requirements that cover three cognitive perspectives: gameplay overview, person-centric view, and comparative feedback. Based on these requirements, we designed two interactive visualizations that provide complementary views on game results. They combine a known clustering and time-based visual approaches to show game results in a way that is easy to decode for players. The purposefulness of our visual feedback was evaluated in a usability field study with attendees of the Summer School in Cyber Security. The evaluation confirmed the adequacy of the two visualizations for instant post-game feedback. Despite our initial expectations, there was no strong preference for neither of the visualizations in solving different tasks.