Archive for February, 2012

Play testing

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Designing Games for Non-Gamers: Rapid Prototyping as a Design Methodology by Dennis Paiz-Ramirez, Sarah Chu, Allison Salmon, and Belinda Gutierrez

A short but good read. I photocopied it and handed it out to the GameOn team. Playtesting has such a nicer sound than usability testing. Below are some of the what I considered the best takeaways.

  • Quick prototypes paired with frequent playtests allowed us to address any misconceptions we had about our target audience.
  • Questions we asked during playtesting were: 1 – Can players determine the goal of the game? 2 – Does the game retain players’ interest? 3 – Do game scenarios make sense?
  • Tutorials: we gave players information about the interface as it became necessary for gameplay.
  • We learned that the tutorial should be explicit about what players can do in the game and should explain what happens when a player performs a game action. We also need to allow users to skip the tutorial and explore the game if they feel comfortable doing so.
  • Keep [tutorial] content focused on the goal of the game.
  • Highlight the game’s main goal first.
  • Conduct frequent playtests.

Referenced
User Experience, Volume 10, Issue 4, 4th Quarter 2011 www.UsabilityProfessionals.org
p 11-13

Some morning Sketching fun

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

20120216-074223.jpg

Sometime when I’m writing, instead of an outline I’ll just start sketching while thinking the problem I’m facing.

Here are this mornings sketches while thinking of gamification.

LOVE take as much as you need

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

20120215-074951.jpg
This just tickles me in just the right way. I saw this sign/ad on W Madison street in Chicago.