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How Does It Play Better? Exploring User Testing and Biometric Storyboards in Games User Research

Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Lennart Nacke, John Gregory, Nick Collins, and Geraldine Fitzpatrick. 2013. How Does It Play Better? Exploring User Testing and Biometric Storyboards in Games User Research. In Proceedings of CHI 2012. Paris, France. ACM, 1499-1508. doi:10.1145/2470654.2466200

PDF DOI BibTeX

@article{mirza2013does,
Abstract = {Improving game design is a hard task. Few methods are available in games user research (GUR) to test formally how game designs work for players. In particular, the usefulness of user tests (UTs) for game designers has not been fully studied in the CHI community. We propose a novel GUR method called Biometric Storyboards (BioSt) and present a study demonstrating how a Classic UT and a BioSt UT both help designers create a better gameplay experience. In addition, we show that BioSt can help designers deliver significantly better visuals, more fun, and higher gameplay quality than designing without UTs and that classic UTs do not provide this significant advantage. Our interviews support the idea that BioSt provides more nuanced game design improvement. The design implication is that a game designed with the BioSt method will result in high gameplay quality.},
Address = {Paris, France},
Author = {P. Mirza-Babaei, L. E. Nacke, J. Gregory, N. Collins, and G. Fitzpatrick},
Doi = {10.1145/2470654.2466200},
Img = {http://hcigames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/How-Does-It-Play-Better-Exploring-User-Testing-and-Biometric-Storyboards-in-Games-User-Research.png},
Journal = {Proceedings of CHI 2013},
Pages = {1499-1508},
Publisher = {ACM},
Title = {How Does It Play Better? Exploring User Testing and Biometric Storyboards in Games User Research},
Url = {https://hcigames.com/download/how-does-it-play-better-exploring-user-testing-and-biometric-storyboards-in-games-user-research},
Year = {2013},

Abstract

Improving game design is a hard task. Few methods are available in games user research (GUR) to test formally how game designs work for players. In particular, the usefulness of user tests (UTs) for game designers has not been fully studied in the CHI community. We propose a novel GUR method called Biometric Storyboards (BioSt) and present a study demonstrating how a Classic UT and a BioSt UT both help designers create a better gameplay experience. In addition, we show that BioSt can help designers deliver significantly better visuals, more fun, and higher gameplay quality than designing without UTs and that classic UTs do not provide this significant advantage. Our interviews support the idea that BioSt provides more nuanced game design improvement. The design implication is that a game designed with the BioSt method will result in high gameplay quality.