Testing your games: Survey for Game Usability

  • Article

Ok, you have been working on your game, maybe you turned into for a grade at school, or you got it up on AppHub.  Your best friend doesn’t want to talk about the game, seriously, they walked away from you the last time you brought it up.  How do you know your game is actually playable or fun?

If you are designing games for Windows Phone 7, AND you want people to look at your game, you need to consider the “usability” of the game. 

How would you do this?

  • One way would be to have your friends play the game and then have them answer questions on Survey Monkey, you don’t want them to talk to you directly as they may want to depress you.  Or maybe they do.   But if they use the anonymous approach the answers may more truthful.

Ask questions that use the following “Heuristics” with respect to just the game usability, you will need to convert the “heuristics” to useful questions.

Visual design:

  1. Audio-visual representation supports the game
  2. Screen layout is efficient and visually pleasing
  3. Device UI and game UI are used for their own purposes
  4. Indicators are visible
  5. The player understands the terminology

Game Navigation and character control:

  1. Navigation is consistent, logical, and minimalist
  2. Control keys are consistent and follow standard
    conventions
  3. Game controls are convenient and flexible
  4. The game gives feedback on the player’s actions
  5. The player cannot make irreversible errors
  6. The player does not have to memorize things
    unnecessarily
  7. The game contains help

Source: ACM Digital Library

Title:

Playability heuristics for mobile games

Authors:

Hannu Korhonen Nokia Research Center, Tampere, Finland

Elina M. I. Koivisto Nokia Research Center, Tampere, Finland