Game usability : advice from the experts for advancing UX strategy and practice in videogames

453 Pages·2022·14.093 MB·English

by  Katherine Isbister (editor), Celia Hodent (editor)

Game Usability

Game Usability
Advice from the Experts for Advancing UX
Strategy and Practice in Videogames
Second edition
Edited by Katherine Isbister and Celia Hodent
S econd edition published 2022
b y CRC Press
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a nd by CRC Press
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© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Katherine Isbister and Celia Hodent; individual chapters, the
contributors.
F irst edition published by CRC Press 2008
C RC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, L LC
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Library of Congress Cataloging - in - Publication Data
[Insert LoC Data here when available]
ISBN: 978-0-366-24248 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-366-19923 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-10938-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003109389
Access Support Material for Chapter 4: w ww.routledge.com/9781032069951
Contents
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter 1 : Introduction: What’s New in This Edition and How to Read This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
K atherine Isbister and Celia Hodent
PART I UX and Usability
Chapter 2: Advancing Game UX Maturity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Celia Hodent
Interview: With Anouk Ben-Tchavtchavadze, Senior UX Designer at Riot Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Interview: With Mike Mariano, Senior UX/UI Designer at Roblox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Interview: With Laura Taylor, Senior UX Designer, Unity Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Chapter 3: Usability and Game Feel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Steve Swink
Interview: With Jenova Chen, President and Creative Director for Thatgamecompany . . . . . . . . . . . 58
PART II Techniques
Chapter 4: Games Research Evolution at Microsoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
R andy Pagulayan, Daniel V. Gunn, Deborah Hendersen, Melissa Boone,
JJ Guajardo, Jessie Thomas, and Dennis Wixon
Chapter 5: Try One Yourself: A Guide to Running a Practice User Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
Katherine Isbister
Chapter 6: Heuristic UX Evaluation of Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105
Noah Schaf er
Chapter 7: L et the Game Tester Do the Talking: Think Aloud and Interviewing to
Learn About the Game Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115
Jettie Hoonhout
Chapter 8: How Bias Af ects Games—and What You Can Do About It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
Melissa Boone
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Chapter 9: Working With Game Analysts and Data Scientists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
Gaelle Arlaut
Chapter 10: Physiological Measures for Game Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161
Regan Mandryk and Madison Klarkowski
PART III Fitting Into Business Processes
Chapter 11: I ntegrating UX Practices Into the Production
Pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
Heather Chandler
Interview: W ith Nana Wallace, Senior Director, User Research at PlayStation (US),
and Rob Johnson, User Research Manager at PlayStation (UK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200
Interview: With Joe Florey, Senior User Researcher at PlayStation (UK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Interview: With Alexandra Perry, Producer at Media Molecule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205
Interview: With Tobi Saulnier, Founder and CEO of 1st Playable Productions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .208
PART IV Deeply Understanding Players—Strategies for Inclusion
Chapter 12: Trust and Safety and Fair Play in Video Games: Intentionally
Designing Positive Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
Carlos Figueiredo
Chapter 13: Accessibility Then and Now: History, Myths, Considerations, and Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . .239
Ian Hamilton
Chapter 1 4: Reframing Inclusion: The Case for Allyship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .261
Jessica Murrey
I nterview: With Tülay Tetiker McNally, Director of Inclusive Design and Product
Development at Electronics Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .275
I nterview: W ith Trinidad Hermida, Founder & CEO, The Hermida Company LLC
and Co-Founder, Mr. Augmented. Former Head of Diversity
and Inclusion at Niantic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .280
I nterview: W ith Jessica Zammit, UX Researcher at Mighty Kingdom, and Director
at Represent Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .284
I nterview: W ith Kishonna Gray, Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois
at Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .289
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Interview: With Nick Yee, Co-Founder of Quantic Foundry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293
Interview: With Roppyaku Tsurumi, Japanese Game Producer and Designer, by Kenji Ono,
Game Journalist, IGDA Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .299
Interview: With Kate Edwards, CEO and Principal Consultant of Geogrify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .304
PART V Platform and Context Specif c Advice
Chapter 15: Mobile Game Usability: Design and Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311
Holly Grothues, Andrea Abney, Ryan Boughter
Chapter 16: Designing for “Everyone”: The Triumph of Casual Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .339
Nicholas Fortugno
Chapter 17: The Design of Virtual and Augmented Realities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .351
Alexandria Heston
Chapter 18: The Esports Experience: Fan, Player, and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .377
Laura Levy, Sven Charleer, Taylor Dale Wright
Interview: With Erin Drake Kajioka, Senior Staf Interaction Designer at Google . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .400
I nterview: With Nicolas Pouard, Vice President, Strategic Innovation Lab, Ubisoft . . . . . . . . . . . . .404
I nterview: With Phylissa Li, Principal Design Architect at Roblox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408
PART VI Conclusions
Chapter 19: (Re)Discovering the Rich History of Games User Research: An “Undisciplined”
Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .413
B ridget Hapner and Carly A. Kocurek
I nterview: With Yvonne Rogers, Director of UCLIC, University College London . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .427
Chapter 20: How to Keep Up With What Is Happening and Last Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .431
Celia Hodent and Katherine Isbister
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .433
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Contributors
Andrea Abney is a senior UX leader with over a decade of experience in games and entertainment. Her
roots in mobile user testing go back to conducting research on the f rst line of Samsung Galaxy phones.
From there, she made the move to games with user research roles at Disney Interactive and Scopely,
contributing to chart-topping titles like Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Star Wars: Commander, and Star
Trek Fleet Command. Though her specialty is mobile research and design, she has worked on the user
experience of everything from console games to medical devices to a castle (yes, really). Andrea holds a
master’s degree in HCI from DePaul University.
G aelle Arlaut is a data scientist based in the Bay Area. She holds an engineering degree from France
and became an early employee at Criteo, a personalized advertising company, which later allowed her to
move to the United States in 2009. In 2012, she started working on mobile gaming at Disney Interactive,
where she supported franchises including Tap Revenge and Pixar (e.g., Nemo’s reef) and then focused on
Star Wars (Tiny Death Star, Star Wars Assault team or Star Wars Commander) and Marvel franchises (like
Marvel Avengers Alliance). Afterwards she led several game analyst teams at Zynga (in particular slots and
mid-core games) before heading the analytics division at Glu Mobile (Design Home, Tap Sports Baseball,
Diner Dash Adventures, Disney Sorcerer’s Arena, etc.), recently acquired by Electronic Arts. She is currently
managing data scientists working on AI/AR at Facebook.
Melissa Boone is Senior Research Manager on the Xbox Research & Design team at Microsoft. Melissa
holds a BA in psychology from Spelman College and a PhD in sociomedical sciences from Columbia
University. Before joining Microsoft, Melissa conducted research on the ef ects of stereotyping,
discrimination, and bias on people from marginalized populations. Since joining Xbox Research & Design
in 2015, Melissa has worked on several titles within the Halo and Minecraft franchises, as well as research
investigating inclusion and diversity in games and gamers. Currently, Melissa manages research across
several of Xbox’s f rst-party game studios and services; she also leads Xbox’s research on accessibility and
inclusive design.
Ryan Boughter is a seasoned games UX leader having spent over a decade focusing on the free-to-play
space. He has led, developed, and implemented UX design and strategy for several studios, most notably
Kabam and Scopely. He has seen the industry from its f edgling web days to its overwhelming inf uence
on mobile today. During that time, he has shipped several top grossing and award-winning titles (such as
K ingdom of Camelot, Star Wars: Uprising, and W WE Champions) and built multiple world-class, international
UX teams. Ryan has a BA in religious studies, which has almost nothing to do with this bio.
H eather Chandler is a video game producer with 24 years and counting under her belt in the game
industry. She has led teams at Epic Games, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Activision. She has launched over
40 games across all gaming platforms and has worked on popular franchises including Fortnite, Star Trek,
and Ghost Recon. Heather is currently working on a game about the ocean called Beyond Blue. She also
combined her passion for team building and games to start an escape room called Whole Brain Escape
in her hometown of Apex, NC. She is a strong advocate for STEM education and committed to providing
opportunities to students of all ages to get involved with technology.
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