Johannes Eschner
, Yuhan Guo
Fishing for Papers: A Serendipitous Knowledge Discovery Game
In VisGames 2026: EuroVis Workshop on Visualization Play, Games, and Activities. June 2026.
[
paper]
Information
- Publication Type: Conference Paper
- Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
- Date: June 2026
- ISBN: 978-3-03868-307-0
- Publisher: The Eurographics Association
- Open Access: yes
- Location: Nottingham
- Lecturer: Johannes Eschner
- Event: EuroVis 2026 - 28th EG Conference on Visualization
- Editor: Fellner, Dieter
- DOI: 10.2312/visgames.20261002
- Booktitle: VisGames 2026: EuroVis Workshop on Visualization Play, Games, and Activities
- Pages: 6
- Conference date: 8. June 2026 – 12. June 2026
- Keywords: Human-centered computing, Visualization, Computer games, Information Retrieval, Applied computing, Information Systems
Abstract
Fishing has long been used as a metaphor for information-seeking. In the context of literature research, we may see a query act as bait, with the researcher observing what papers “bite”. Taking this analogy literally, we created an open-ended fishing game for literature exploration. Our game aims to support serendipitous knowledge discovery in a playful, relaxing way. In our game, the player uses a virtual bait, the Keyworm (a set of keywords), to catch papers from a Pond (the paper pool for a given venue). To engage players in serendipitous discovery, we introduce a serendipity measurement that categorizes papers into varying levels of rarity. Players are encouraged to iteratively experiment with different keywords to navigate the paper corpus and catch unexpectedly interesting papers. Our game employs the cozy game design principles to provide a relaxing and enjoyable way for visualization researchers to explore the visualization literature. We evaluated the game in playtests with six researchers and made it available as an online demo: https://fishing-for-papers.github.io/game/.Additional Files and Images
Weblinks
BibTeX
@inproceedings{eschner-2026-fpa,
title = "Fishing for Papers: A Serendipitous Knowledge Discovery Game",
author = "Johannes Eschner and Yuhan Guo",
year = "2026",
abstract = "Fishing has long been used as a metaphor for
information-seeking. In the context of literature research,
we may see a query act as bait, with the researcher
observing what papers “bite”. Taking this analogy
literally, we created an open-ended fishing game for
literature exploration. Our game aims to support
serendipitous knowledge discovery in a playful, relaxing
way. In our game, the player uses a virtual bait, the
Keyworm (a set of keywords), to catch papers from a Pond
(the paper pool for a given venue). To engage players in
serendipitous discovery, we introduce a serendipity
measurement that categorizes papers into varying levels of
rarity. Players are encouraged to iteratively experiment
with different keywords to navigate the paper corpus and
catch unexpectedly interesting papers. Our game employs the
cozy game design principles to provide a relaxing and
enjoyable way for visualization researchers to explore the
visualization literature. We evaluated the game in playtests
with six researchers and made it available as an online
demo: https://fishing-for-papers.github.io/game/.",
month = jun,
isbn = "978-3-03868-307-0",
publisher = "The Eurographics Association",
location = "Nottingham",
event = "EuroVis 2026 - 28th EG Conference on Visualization",
editor = "Fellner, Dieter",
doi = "10.2312/visgames.20261002",
booktitle = "VisGames 2026: EuroVis Workshop on Visualization Play,
Games, and Activities",
pages = "6",
keywords = "Human-centered computing, Visualization, Computer games,
Information Retrieval, Applied computing, Information
Systems",
URL = "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2026/eschner-2026-fpa/",
}