Games User Research

I’ve recently finished reading Game Usability: Advancing the Player Experience, edited by Noah Schaffer and Katherine Isbister, which (as its title may suggest) tries to give a complete overview of the field of usability within computer games. Game usability is a relatively new topic, yet all the key figures of the field are included in…

This one may be hard to illustrate, but it should be one of the first items on the checklist for developers, and is often missed. Let’s use a scenario to illustrate it, painting vivid pictures in your mind! You’re sat in a lecture, and the topic is domestic life in 14th Century Catalonia (We don’t…

Part of a series on iPhone Game Design Issues. For an introduction Textropolis, the word guessing game by Ian Marsh. Click on the app, and after a short load screen you’re playing the game – no menu options (obviously you can get back to the menu, but the game assumes, correctly, that most players will…

Part of a series on iPhone Game Design Issues. For an introduction The physical shape and size of buttons are ideally ergonomically placed to make the controller comfortable, and prevent gaming being a painful experience. They should also be placed in places that become intuitive to the user – gamers, like touch typers, should be…

Part of a series on iPhone Game Design Issues. For an introduction Text messages are handled by the iPhone OS, and appear as a pop up box that can be dismissed, with minimal interruption of the game (and hence needs no input from a developer). However receiving a call will shut down the game and run the…