Gladly, I had finished most of the project before the user testing – although it turned out that as soon as the uncertainty a user brought into the system arose, bugs followed.
Since my final project is built upon my midterm, I invited people outside the class to conduct user testing to avoid any pre-perceived knowledge about the system. The two samples also came from different backgrounds that varied in terms of their familiarity with video games, contributing to the comprehensiveness of my user testing.
On balance, I would say the tests were successful in terms of conveying the gist mechanism of the project – from the PVE experience to the presence of the robotic hand. Both participants have (almost) no issue in carrying out the experience (although the fact that people always stumble at how to config the game when pressing the keyboard persists, and a bug related to flow control popped up).
Other suggestions I collected include (but are not limited to):
- The purpose of the robot hands is a bit vague at the beginning. In the final presentation, with the aid of a larger screen and closer installation of the robot hands, this should be more obvious.
- The meaning of ‘X’, ‘tactic engine.’ More prominent notification is applied.
- The static AI difficulty may not be exciting enough (from a video game player). The gradual increase of AI difficulty is now applied.
- The pace of the interaction is a bit quick – the same input to control the game stages may cause accidental/undesired input. This is solved by adding buffer time between stage changes.
- The game objective could be a bit unclear – given some will skip the instruction or skim through. Another global notification in the game is added.
- The enemy may be too small on the screen. It is now moved closer to the player on the z axis.