In order to improve the user experience, you have to start by observing customers interacting with your product. The first step to improving your own UX (and reaping the business benefits) is to conduct a usability assessment of your product, software or website. This process uncovers the most common problems. Often, usage analytics indicate UX issues
Summary: Game testing researches the notion of fun. Compared with mainstream UX studies, it involves many more users and relies more on biometrics and custom software. The most striking findings from the Games User Research Summit were the drastic age and gender differences in motivation research.
User experience (UX) design focuses on enhancing user satisfaction by improving how we interact with the websites, applications and devices in our lives. In other words, UX makes complex things easy to use. While the term “UX” is relatively new, the concept of user-friendly design has been around for generations. “Good design is good business,” the
Summary: UX teams are responsible for creating desirable experiences for users. Yet many organizations fail to include users in the development process. Without customer input, organizations risk creating interfaces that fail. A website’s (or product’s) success depends on how users perceive it. Users assess the usefulness and ease of use of websites as they interact with
A new study has revealed that gamers are more likely to experience feelings of aggression from playing a game when it is too difficult or when the controls are too complicated to master. In comparison, the research found there was “little difference” in levels of aggression when the games themselves depicted violence. Overwhelmingly, the deciding
Read the manual before using the interface. (Kinect Adventures) (Yes, it’s a *cute* manual, but these are still instructions to memorize.) Summary: Inconsistent gestures, invisible commands, overlooked warnings, awkward dialog confirmations. But fun to play. Kinect is a new video game system that is fully controlled by bodily movements. It’s vaguely similar to the Wii,
Konami recently sent us a copy of their new title, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. After testing the game, it was clear that the game could be a case study to highlight the difference between usability and user-experience (UX).
A critique of a common method used in video game usability research Many video game usability practitioners employ a method to test usability within video games, called the ‘RITE’ method, short for Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE). Pioneered at Microsoft Games Studios and Microsoft Research, the RITE method has been adopted by many usability
