Software Usability and Design Usability of Games Jeff Offutt http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~offutt/ SWE 205 Software Usability and Design Sources: Gaming Usability 101, Blake Snow Game Usability: Advancing the Player Experience, Isbister and Schaffer, 2008 Games User Research, Jakob Nielsen, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/game-user-research/

Don’t Make Me Think! Users are happy to think about their tasks But not about how to use your UI ! UIs should be Self-evident Obvious Self-explanatory When users think “what is this?” the UI has failed 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Doesn’t work with multi-player synchronous games Always Save Games Never ask players if they want to save their games Of course they do! No pop-ups or dialog boxes are needed Just display “saving …” on screen Don’t overwrite level data … keep tabs on their progress and give them access to previously visited areas Remember: Games have “players,” not “users” Doesn’t work with multi-player synchronous games 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Starting Games Always say “press any button” to start a game If you say “press start,” the player will have to think … “where is the start button?” And is already intimidated Players want to think about game strategy, not the UI Semantic knowledge, not syntax 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Customize Controller Buttons Always let players remap controller buttons to suit their preferences Some players like the mouse on the left, not the right Some like to use the buttons in a particular way, similar to another game they play Make button customization visible … for example, in the pause menu 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Always Let Players Skip Stories Some players love the story aspect of games Some view them as barriers between them and real interactive aspects Just like some students hate lectures but enjoy projects Decreases speed of use And nobody wants to go through a 5 minute story the 10th time they play the game … Encourage repeat customers, don’t discourage them Make it easy to skip or speed up story scenes, tutorials, and credits 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Use Only Needed Controller Buttons Some game systems have lots of controller buttons Players can remember … about 7 ! That number is smaller under pressure If you use all buttons, players will constantly have to think “which button?” Use the buttons you need, and ignore the rest Decreases time to learn Increases speed of use Decreases the rate of user errors 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Players Need to Control Accessibility Subtitles can be great … if the players have trouble understanding English But they are intrusive and reduce the speed if the player’s English is good Let the players turn off the subtitles and other accessibility options 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

No “Kobayashi Marus”! The Kobayashi Maru is a test in Star Trek that had no solution That is, a no-win solution Game attacks where the players cannot escape are unfair and frustrating They will often be the last scenario many players ever see because they quit the game and do not return 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Make Tutorials and Help Available in Game Where else can newbies start? Inexperienced players need help What do to next ? How to find something ? What medium-range goals should I set ? A “click here if you’re not sure what to do” option is very comforting But do not interfere with experienced players 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Let Players Quit at Anytime and save when they do!!! Players need to stop and start at anytime Only letting them save at pre-defined checkpoints forces them to think : “should I lose my current progress or be late to my date?” Don’t punish players for quitting … don’t treat it as a loss Also, if they die, give them an option to continue Multi-player games are different—an individual who quits hurts the entire team Let social forces work—game rules do not need to enforce behavior 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

Provide a Free Trial Few players will buy a game unless they can try it first Common techniques : Reduced functionality is free (fewer levels, single-player, easy mode, …) Ad version is free; pay to remove ads In-game purchases with real cash Automatically deletes after N plays Limited number of games per day, week, or month 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt

This is just a beginning, Summary All the principles we have learned through the semester can be “instantiated” for games Most of this list follows directly from these principles Learning strategy is fun … learning syntax is not Consider why Go and Chess are so incredibly popular Compare 2048 with threes This article is interesting : http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/30/threes-vs-2048-when-rip-offs-do-better-than-the-original-game/ This is just a beginning, not all there is to know 18-Nov-18 © Jeff Offutt