Posts Tagged ‘usability’
Ian Marsh, creator of Tiny Tower, on user research, play-testing and F2P
Tiny Tower is the hit iPhone game which allows players to build and manage a towerblock and its residents (or ‘bitizens’!). Despite being free, Tiny Tower is continually in the top-grossing apps list due to it’s effective use of free-to-play mechanics.
I spoke to Ian Marsh, one half of Nimblebit, who have had numerous iPhone hits beyond their success with Tiny Tower, including Scoops, Pocket Frogs, Textropolis and more. Ian shared his insight into how understanding player behaviour affects the development of a popular iOS game, and the idiosyncracies of testing with free-to-play mechanics.
A small tower
Usability Fail – Worms (and Worms 2)
I’ve recently been getting back into both Worms and Worms 2 on the iPhone, largely due to the Bluetooth enabled multiplayer mode. Worms, for those who don’t remember was a hugely popular turn-based shooter in the nineties, and the 1995 original was the first game I bought on the PC!
Classic Worms
However the iOS port has made a huge usability sin with its misuse of icons. Today I’ll look at what the problem is, and how it could be resolved.
Perfect Dark – Game Usability from the 90’s
Recently I’ve been enjoying playing the Xbox Live Arcade port of Perfect Dark – I played this extensively as a kid (especially the multiplayer with it’s groundbreaking inclusion of computer-controlled bots!). However without the rose-tinted glasses, a number of obvious usability issues come to light.
Today I’ll look at the major usability problem in this game, and how it would be fixed if Perfect Dark was made today!
How to make an addictive social game
Unlike some ‘triple A’ game developers, web-based social game designers quickly recognised how important usability and user experience are to their success. With customers being able to easily access their content for free, without making a commitment to paying for their gaming experience up-front, it’s extremely important to attract and retain players in the first few minutes.
Today I’ll be looking at the first 5 minutes of a successful social game, and highlighting which elements have made this game successful. In the future we’ll look at some games which have missed the point, and hence lost a large proportion of their customer base. From this, we can learn how to make an addictive social game. Click to continue…
How to avoid ethical pitfalls when working with users
As I’ve mentioned before, an ideal research study on users would be done through observation of their behaviour without their knowledge. Since people’s behaviour changes when under observation, or when people think they’re being observed, this has a direct effect on the quality of the data recorded.
As promoters of user insight in design, it’s therefore unfortunate that recording people secretly is unworkable in most real world situations. Much more importantly, as an aspect of scientific research, recording people in this manner is unethical. Today I’ll be considering why this is so, and look at how to do ethics correctly.
Click to continue…
