Pirate Kings User Testing - Research Paper Example

Pirate Kings User Testing Users Two male and two female users were involved in the testing. User was a 22-year-old female who used her smartphone mostly for staying in touch with her friends and acquaintances. She had limited experience with smartphone gaming, with the only games that she mentioned being True or False and Words with Friends, both on Facebook. User 2 was also a 22-year-old female student. She used her smartphone mostly to talk to people with Whats App and to call friends. She had a reasonable amount of gaming experience, and described Angry Birds as having taken over her life for a time. She had also played Words with Friends. User 3 was a 24-year-old male student. He used his smartphone mostly to call friends and interact with them on social media, and had played games like Subway Surfer and Candy Crush in the past. User 4 was a 20-year-old male student. He used his smartphone mostly for social media and Whats App. He had limited experience with games, with the only game he mentioned being Fun Run, which he described as boring. Process The process of carrying out the test was fairly simple. I sat on one side of a desk and invited the user to sit at the other side and take out their smartphone. While they did so, I read the first part of the introduction, asked them the warm-up questions, and took note of their answers regarding smartphone use, gaming history, and history of use with social media based games. After this, I explained about thinking aloud and read the rest of the introduction, and then instructed the user to download the app for the Pirate Kings game. Once this was done, we ran through the tests and I took notes. At the end of each session, I asked the user to summarize their experience and thanked them for their help. Before they left the room, I reminded them that they could uninstall the app any time they wanted. Findings The first task was for the user to complete the tutorial. All users were able to complete the tutorial with relative ease. All users also seemed to grasp the concept of attacking and using the shield fairly easily. All users found the wheel action fun and easy, although a few expressed disappointment at how important it was to the game. User 3 in particular questioned the point of a game where so much hinged on spinning the wheel, even though he was able to get a ship and lots of in-game money with it. The second task, customizing the island, was similarly completed by all users. Users 1, 3, and 4 all found the shop and customized their island with ease. User 2 had more difficulty, and it took her a few minutes to find out where the shop was located. Once there, however, she was easily able to purchase a nature item and ship. Several users expressed unhappiness that the ships did not move, and that the island was not more customizable. User 3 wondered what the point of buying a ship was if it didnt move, and wished a swimming pool was available in the shop. User 4 did not like the fact that individual items could not be customized, and commented "everyones island looks the same." All users enjoyed the daily bonus feature, although two had some level of difficulty and could not complete everything in this task. User 1 had difficulty finding the menu at first and User 3 was unable to locate the chest. All users liked that they got money for doing nothing, and thought that the amount was good. User 2 and User 4, who connected to the game through their Facebook accounts, seemed happy to receive extra spins for doing that. The final task was for the user to change their pirate flag. This was uniformly difficult across all users. Users 2, 3, and 4 were all unable to change their flag, and did not understand what the point of this task was in any case. In a few cases, the difficulty was from the interface, as users did not understand how to change the flag. But there were also technical difficulties as well, and even those users who understood how to change it immediately were unable to actually do so. User 1 was the only user who successfully changed her flag, and even there it was mostly accidental, as she found the change option by mistake. In general, most users had some level of difficulty with the interface of the game. This was because the game did not always respond to their swipes and presses. The lack of responsiveness made even the most simple of tasks almost impossible, and really frustrated some of the users. The flag task, as mentioned above, was the worst offender, but users also had trouble opening the menu and getting the game to respond to them in other areas, as well. When summarizing their experiences with the game, most users commented that the game had been fun, but that they did not see the point. User 4 in particular was very vocal in his complaints about the game mechanics, asking questions like "Is this for two year olds?" and "When do we play?" His final comment was that the game was "pointless in every single way." Both male users stated that they would never play the game again due to a lack of clear goals and game play that was too repetitive and simple. The two female users were slightly more positive, although both said they probably would not play it again. User 1 liked that you did not require a lot of skill to succeed at the game, a comment echoed by User 2. Analysis The game scored very high in learnability, with almost no users experiencing difficulties in figuring out how to spin the wheel, the essential part of the game. In fact, users learned to play almost too quickly, and in some cases became bored. Because of how easy it was to learn the game, and the simplicity of the majority of the games mechanisms, it was a high-efficiency game, with most users able to complete all required tasks very quickly. Although memorability was not explicitly tested, the high learnability of this games design suggests that it too will not be a problem, and that users will easily remember how to play if they were to return to the game after a long absence. Satisfaction fluctuated, in part because of the times when the games app did not respond to touch in ways that it should. It is hard to say if this is a design error or a technical problem, but the frequency with which some users ran into errors on basic tasks that they knew how to do suggests that the design could be improved. In general, though, the game scored well in usability, with the majority of users able to easily complete tasks and play the game. The one part where the game failed was in the flag section, where users repeatedly ran into errors, and felt very frustrated. The menu was also somewhat difficult to access for some users who were not used to playing other games frequently. Affordances and signifiers were well planned out, with the attack and shield mechanisms being intuitive and easy to use by all players. The wheel, as well, was almost instantly understood by each user, suggesting that how this element of the interface was designed mapped very well with users expectations of it. Despite the fact that the game was very easy to play, many users expressed dissatisfaction with it, and said they were not likely to play it again. This feedback had less to do with the actual design of the game, though, and more to do with a general feeling that there was a lack of clearly articulated goals for players of the game. The users felt that the wheel spinning was easy, but did not like that it was almost the entirety of the game. Users also sometimes expressed that they did not like the limits on customization, and the way that some things like the ships did not play an actual role in the game in any way. In terms of improvements, as a result, the main suggestion would be to increase the amount of gameplay that the game contains. Also, the island could be improved in design by being more customizable. The menu and flag changing were the two clearest parts of the interface that needed modification. A clearer mechanism has to be decided upon for changing the flag, given that all users had difficulty with this part of the game. Some users also experienced problems trying to find the menu as well, so a redesign of that element to make its function clearer would help make the game easier. For the most part, though, the designers of the game should look at ways they can extend their concept. The users who were tested all liked the game, but wanted more things to do, and would likely have experienced more satisfaction if there was something other than just wheel spinning involved in the game. Read More