Posts Tagged ‘user experience’
The 5 secrets to happy players with Agile Games Development
Agile software development offers a fantastic opportunity to integrate user insight into the game development process, leading to better games. In this post, I’ll cover the main methods that can be used to integrate user insight into agile games development, and why this is important.
UX Updates: What’s going on (Writing Workshop, Flash Games and a Conference!)
Just a short update this week, as it’s been a busy few weeks of exams, travel and more. So, a few things to look out for:
I’m going to the “UX Writing Workshop” by Cennydd Bowles and Martin Belam in two weeks. The workshop promises to give tips on how to improve my blog writing skills. So, expect this blog to be much more compelling and readable from then on!
Also, when I manage to get the pre-loader working, I’ll be able to share the flash game I’ve been working on. Hopefully next week if I find the time!
Lastly, I’m excited to share that myself and Pejman Mirza-Babaei will be presenting our paper “Playing to Win?” at the Multi.player conference. We’re on on the Friday, and will be covering the links between social interaction and biometric responses in co-located gaming (i.e. shouting at your friends during Mario Kart!). I’ll update with more information soon.
Heres a picture of a duck. Its nose is a dog:
Quack
Have a great week all!
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…
