For my seconds impulse activity I chose this talk from the Game Developers Conference 2015. In this talk Celia Hodent talks about some ways in which our brain influences how we play games and how errors in the design and improve the quality of the design by utilizing UX methods.
I specifically chose this talk for several reasons. For one I was just curious about the topic and I believe that knowing a bit about neuroscience and how to properly use UX methods will help me in my master’s thesis. Furthermore, I know that GDC is a well-known and respected resource and so I was confident that I would learn something from it. I personally really enjoyed the talk and am excited to share my thoughts about it. The talk was quite dense and so I won’t go into detail about every little thing. Furthermore, I will also sometimes put some extra notes for me into brackets. The talk is structured into several parts and I will also keep the same structure in my blogpost.
Introduction
The talk titled “The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Design” by Celia Hodent, presented at GDC 2015, explores how understanding the brain can help game designers create better user experiences. Hodent then starts off with a small experiment which challenges our understanding of how logical we think we are.
Perception
Information is organized through a 3-level process which can be either top→down or bottom→up.
- Cognition
- Perception
- Sensation
She brings the example of simple stripes representing Street Fighter characters which would be an example of information that is only meaningful if you have the context/knowledge for it.
She then talks about UI in games, namely in League of Legends and Far Cry 4. She uses these examples to talk about Gestalt theory and perception. Namely, the laws of proximity and similarity are discussed. I found the Far Cry 4 example especially interesting as it is a good example of what not to do and I learned a lot from it.
She then goes on to talk about FFF, Form Follows Function. Good experiences should have good level of affordance and should avoid multistability (where it can be interpreted in different ways). Examples that are mentioned here are iOS app icons, e.g. the camera and mail icon is based on real world examples / stereotypes which can help the user to easily identify the function.
One aspect of the talk that was very interesting for me was her example of ability icon testing for an early pre-alpha build of the game Fortnite. She goes into detail how the testing was done and what results very gleaned from it. The test was split into two questions users had to answer:
- what is the form of the icon? what can you see?
- what is the function of the icon? what does this icon do?
Some icons may be very recognizable and fulfill the first question correctly but may be totally misleading when it comes to the meaning/function. Previously I had never heard of test likes this being done in this way and setting and even though the test was very simple a lot of information could be gathered from it.
When designing one should also keep in mind that perception isn’t always equal to reality. What the player perceives is what matters. One example for this is that players had a hard time hitting the zombies in Fortnite. The first idea as to what the problem might be was that they are too quick and their heads too small. However, during testing they found out that the actual problem was the zombies pathfinding and not their speed or size. So often times the most obvious solution may not address the underlying problem.
Memory
Memory works in three phases:
sensory memory (attention) → working memory (encoding) → long-term memory (storage)
One aspect to consider is time. The forgetting curve by Ebbinghaus shows how long people are generally able to store and recall information. When designing an experience like video games where people may play a couple hours, then take a break for several days and then return, it is important to keep this in mind. Because of this users may feel a discrepancy when they return to their game where their level of mastery may feel like it has been downgraded. Games like Assasin’s Creed help the player by e.g. displaying the controls in the right hand corner so the player does not have to remember the controls and can always see them when he*she returns to the game after a break.
Hodent also talks about learning and tutorials. By charting the features they needed to teach the players in a table and prioritizing their order, they were able to make informed decisions on how the tutorial should look like. Through testing they were able to ideate on it an create an affective and efficient onboarding experience.
She recommends to verify ones hypotheses in UX tests early on and use analytics later in the process.
Attention
Hodent goes on to explain that multitasking is a myth and things can be easily missed if they happen at the same time – humans operating on a spotlight basis. Colors and shapes can help direct the players gaze to important information. In many shooter games when the player gets hit the direction the projectile came from is indicated by a red arrow close to the center of the screen. However, in Unreal Tournament 3 this wasn’t very effective because the UI was already filled with the color red. The same problem happened in Fortnite where the enemy health bars were red. They were later changed to orange to reduce the “red overload” as she calls it.
When it comes to learning the deeper the player processes the information the better he*she learns/retains. Some technical terms in this context are:
- Context = learning by doing
- Meaning = worthwhile now (for player’s life/mission/goal)
- Narrative = immerses the player, can create deeper meaning
Ideally players would be learning by doing with a strong context and meaning. Learn then do would not be advisable as it lacks the agency and does create a shallow learning experience.
Conclusion
The brain is a machine that, even though we believe ourselves to be logical and objective, is affected by multiple biases and limitations. The understanding of these patterns and the way our brain operates allows us to create better experiences for the end user. And even if we keep in mind that the player’s brain is heavily biased we, as designers, should also keep in mind that our brain is just as biased.
I really enjoyed listening to this talk by Celia Hodent. I especially found the part about UI icons and how to test them very insightful and will definitely be able to use this information for my own testing which I plan to do as part of my master’s thesis.