Experience Evaluation: Usability Evaluation

Why do we need experience evaluation?

At the early stages of a project, ordinary players might struggle to objectively assess the overall feasibility and enjoyment of a game due to the incompleteness of certain elements in the game. Even experienced game developers can be influenced by the shortcomings in art design or the overall experience, which could affect their judgment of the project as a whole.

So, how can we conduct effective evaluations at the early stages of development to avoid making mistakes? In this case, we can try performing an experience evaluation.

Experience evaluation is an assessment based on past relevant project experiences, originating from heuristic evaluation in user experience. One of the most well-known sets of evaluation criteria was proposed by Nielsen and Molich. In this class, we focus on experience evaluation based on the mobile game playability heuristic evaluation proposed by Korhonen and Koivisto, adjusting it to better suit most types of games.

The goal of experience evaluation is to invite experts to evaluate the project based on evaluation criteria in the early stages of game development, helping developers understand the project’s strengths and weaknesses, thus enabling early adjustments to reduce time and cost for future revisions.

The key points in experience evaluation include two aspects: usability evaluation and playability evaluation.

Usability Evaluation mainly targets the evaluation of interface and interaction design. Although this aspect is not directly related to the game’s entertainment value, it affects how players explore and experience the game’s mechanics. Excellent interaction design should minimise the difficulty players face in understanding the interface, allowing them to easily and efficiently engage with the game.

Playability Evaluation focuses on the relationship between the game’s objectives and the player’s actions. As we mentioned in game system analysis, game goals motivate players to engage with the game. Clear game objectives help players plan their actions effectively. Game objectives can be broken down into macro and micro objectives, as well as explicit and implicit objectives.

For example, in online games with a free combat mode, there can be macro objectives such as the main storyline and micro objectives like completing individual tasks; explicit objectives are clear tasks, while defeating other players in free combat is an implicit objective. Generally, a game should include clear micro objectives, along with either explicit or implicit macro objectives. The former provides players with adequate feedback on their actions and strategies, while the latter gives players motivation to continue playing.