From solving usability problems towards experience-driven design in mobile games
Tarasova, Kseniia (2023)
Tarasova, Kseniia
2023
Master's Programme in Computing Sciences
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-06-19
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202306036484
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202306036484
Tiivistelmä
Affected by Apple's data tracking privacy changes and macroeconomic turbulence, the mobile games industry is facing a fundamental shift from the previously dominating free-to-play business model to subscription-based games. The success of subscription games relies on providing an outstanding user experience to the players. The present research describes the process of improving the existing mobile game to cater to the needs of players in a subscription model.
Experience-driven design is one of the methodologies in the human-computer interaction discipline, emphasizing the importance of the user's intended experience and using it to guide the design process. This research aims to transfer the experience-driven design approach to the context of mobile games and provide user experience designers with clear starting points and guidance for setting experience goals.
The present study describes an experiment of setting immersion and approachability as leading experience goals for guiding the improvement process of the existing game. The inspiration for the experience goals was derived from player motivations based on the previous audience study, secondary analysis of the existing internal and player feedback, game reviews, primary analysis of the usability evaluation findings, and accessibility evaluation of the game.
For experience goal evaluation, the design of the in-game dialogue feature was refined with immersion and approachability in mind. Comparative prototype testing featuring a playtest and post-test interviews were used to evaluate the renewed feature design with four participants. The initial comparative prototype testing findings helped identify a sense of control as an additional feature-specific goal critical to the experience of the game's narrative during the first minutes of gameplay.
These findings suggest that further experience goal evaluation must include later phases of the player journey, such as scaffolding and endgame, to examine how the experience goals evolve over time. The initial comparative prototype testing allowed to prepare a groundwork for the experience goal evaluation that will be performed outside of the scope of this research due to the production delay.
In the big picture, the research on experience-driven design in mobile games enhances understanding of user experience and supports the creation of innovative design strategies for engaging, enjoyable, and meaningful experiences for the players.
Experience-driven design is one of the methodologies in the human-computer interaction discipline, emphasizing the importance of the user's intended experience and using it to guide the design process. This research aims to transfer the experience-driven design approach to the context of mobile games and provide user experience designers with clear starting points and guidance for setting experience goals.
The present study describes an experiment of setting immersion and approachability as leading experience goals for guiding the improvement process of the existing game. The inspiration for the experience goals was derived from player motivations based on the previous audience study, secondary analysis of the existing internal and player feedback, game reviews, primary analysis of the usability evaluation findings, and accessibility evaluation of the game.
For experience goal evaluation, the design of the in-game dialogue feature was refined with immersion and approachability in mind. Comparative prototype testing featuring a playtest and post-test interviews were used to evaluate the renewed feature design with four participants. The initial comparative prototype testing findings helped identify a sense of control as an additional feature-specific goal critical to the experience of the game's narrative during the first minutes of gameplay.
These findings suggest that further experience goal evaluation must include later phases of the player journey, such as scaffolding and endgame, to examine how the experience goals evolve over time. The initial comparative prototype testing allowed to prepare a groundwork for the experience goal evaluation that will be performed outside of the scope of this research due to the production delay.
In the big picture, the research on experience-driven design in mobile games enhances understanding of user experience and supports the creation of innovative design strategies for engaging, enjoyable, and meaningful experiences for the players.