I got published in Develop Magazine

You can read the article here. Enjoy!

I'm also going to start re-publising/linking some of the other articles I've written that are scattered throughout the net. Watch this space...

Change blindness and Plants Vs Zombies

For all you following my twitter feed (it's @GameUXTwit by the way) you may remember about 3 months ago I posted about an issue I found with the Plants vs Zombies tutorial:

Found a UX issue with the #PlantsVsZombies tutorial whilst showing it to the GF's Mum. Strangely pleased to find fault in a masterpiece.

The problem

Below is a screenshot from the iPad tutorial:

It's fairly clear what you're being asked to do. As it says, tap on the seed packet to pick it up. Then the below screen appears:

Quite a significant change yes? Once more, it's obvious what's needed... but is it? Only if you know where to look. Both sets of instructions are placed in the same position in the screen. Unless the player specifically looks to see if the instructions have changed they may not realise. This is what occurred when I showed the game. The player suffered from change blindness.

Change blindness is where people fail to spot large changes in their visual field simply because they are not paying attention to that area as the change occurs. Essentially if you're not looking directly at the area in a screen when it changes, it gets very hard to see these changes. You can see some change blindness examples here, but the most famous example is this exercise here. For all you who are passe with this, here's a more modern version.

This means that unless the player is aware the instructions have changed, or chooses to look/reread the instructions in the second screen there's a risk they may not notice the change, and so be unsure what to do next.

The solution

There's actually a fairly easy fix - remove the potential of change blindness occurring by deliberately moving the location of the text between each message/screen. See the mock ups below:

The text moves between screens, highlighting the change in instructions. Simple - but the issue should be resolved. Further testing would ideally be performed, to ensure the solution does fix the issue, and to ensure no further issues have been introduced by using this fix.

Additional - apparently as well as change blindness there's such a thing as change deafness. Game designers take note! In fact I'm sure you could take advantage of both in a horror game.

Thanks for reading! :)

Assassins Creed Brotherhood game usability review

I've recently got into Assassins Creed Brotherhood in quite a significant way. So much so I played it all the way to the dreaded red ring of death! It's official I liked a game so much I played it till my XBox killed itself.

This has meant I've not really been able to pull my thoughts together as completely as I should have done, as the game's no longer available to me. In spite of this, here's my Assassins Creed Brotherhood game usability findings:

• Confusing story
• In some missions the game adds arbitrary additional rules that restrict the payers freedom and control
• Clumsy introduction to controls
• Poor combat
• Poor map icons/controls

Still as I say - I killed my XBox for this game, it's great. I can't wait for November - bring on Assassins Creed Revelations! 

Confusing story
One of the main reasons I play games is for their (admittedly often poor) stories. Assassins Creed Brotherhood (ACB) left me totally cold. It carried on directly from where AC2 left off, and having had no contact with AC2 I was baffled by what was going on on-screen.

There was a very short, confusing attempt to get players up to speed, but I feel it was very much aimed at previous players picking up this game after a break. No help for newbies! There could have been an option to see an extended version for new players, as it was they were left in the cold.

The end result was that I really couldn't have cared less about the characters - I didn't even understand who half of them were, what their relationship to me was, or why I should care what happened to them.

It also meant that I avoided the missions which advanced the story like the plague. I couldn't be bothered to do these people's busywork and it didn't entertain me as much as the rest of the possibilities available to me in Rome.

Arbitrary additional rules that restrict freedom
One of the complaints I've heard regularly about the previous games is the repetitive nature of the missions. I really didn't think it suffered from this too badly, but I did object when the game decided to apply arbitrary rules.

I'd be given a mission, say, go kill this man, but the game would then also apply a new restriction - for example don't kill any other guards. This restriction wasn't auditory, but was flashed up in small text to the side of the screen. Instructions placed away from where I'm attending (the center of the screen) are hard to notice, so it took me a long time to realised these restrictions were there. I only discovered the problem when I was forced to restart the mission after popping a nearby guard for fun.

It's was a real irritant, as it placed a seemingly arbitrary restriction on the game. If the story provided some explanation for these restrictions I would have been more willing to accept them, but they really just gave the impression of arbitrarily increasing the difficulty.

Strangely, the game sometimes offered these types of restrictions in a way that worked very well - as optional added achievements in a mission. Note the word 'optional'. For full marks ("full synchronisation") the player can complete the mission whilst fulfilling this secondary mission, but it's not mandatory. This is a much better approach to take, highlighting the more difficult 'route' for more skilled/committed players.

Clumsy introduction to controls 

The game introduced the controls remarkably badly! There's no denying the complexity of the controls, and the game just a few half-hearted attempts to introduce them before throwing the player into the deep end. Once more this could be a symptom of assuming the player had played the previous game.


An example - the 'leap of faith' (a signature move for the game), where the player jumps from the top of a building and landing safely (usually in a haystack). I was asked to perform one as Desmond, before the game explained how it was done. It was explained later in the game - too late! I'd wasted quite a bit of time doing a little dance precariously over a drop, sitting, standing, jumping on the spot, swinging at thin air, etc. Must have been very entertaining,


The game really needed more care to be taken in introducing it's controls to new players.

Poor combat

This is a complaint that the Assasins Creed series generates regularly. Fighting really felt a bit like a duck shoot. I'd be surrounded by enemies, and they'd all queue politely take turns to fall on my sword.

I think the designers should have a close look at Batman Arkham Asylum to see a game that handles combat really well. It felt more responsive, and free flowing than that available in ACB.

Poor map icons/controls
A more minor issue - but an irritating one for me. When wandering Rome I often had to go through the menus to look at the map. When I say often, I mean 'once every 10 seconds or so' (I'm pretty poor at pathfinding). 


There's several issues with the map, the first with it being so hard to get to. To open it up you need to pause the game, move to the third item down, select, and then zoom in (about 6 button presses). I was just looking in the manual for a suitable button for a shortcut and I've just realised there is one, the select button... doh!


Even some of the map icons are poor - the same icons are used to show unsold locations and locations on a different level. I spent a long time trying to find mysterious unpurchased locations.


The maps also quickly get covered in an array of icons - 90% are not useful at any one time. It could be useful to give the player the ability to hide groups of icons at a time (for example hide all the purchased locations), but keep the unsold. Or hide all the icons except missions.

Conclusions
When ACB was released there was a massive marketing push, suggesting Ubisoft the publisher hoped to market to new players. However, the game is quite difficult for new players to use. I don't feel these issues I've highlighted would sit well with the new players picking up the game for the first time. This could have been easily addressed with a few small changes. Much more attention should have been paid to the usability of the game, especially it's initial introduction to both the story and controls. 

Having said all this - I really enjoyed the game. It's great fun and gives you so much freedom. I'll certainly be playing the next one (especially now I've worked out the controls...). 

iPhone Scrabble apps

Round 1... FIGHT!

A quick review on the difference between the big 2 iPhone Scrabble apps - Newtoy Inc.'s Words With Friends and EA Nederland's Scrabble.

Functionality
The 2 Scrabble games have surprisingly large differences in the game modes they offer.

Words With Friends offers:

• Online play (either with friends or with a random stranger). Notifications are sent to the phone to let the player know when the other player has played.
• 'Hotseat' play with another person on the same phone. 

Both of these modes are 2 player only.
Scrabble offers:

• 'Hotseat' play with up to 4 other players.
• Single player against the computer.
• 2 player multiplayer, using a local wifi. 2 separate iPhones with the Scrabble app are required to play this mode.

Both offer useful game modes. In fact my Scrabble habits mean I keep both on my phone for the differing modes offered. Words With Friends online remote play is great. It means I can play with friends no matter when/where they are (I'm having an exciting game with a friend in America right now). The notifications are a nice touch as it means it's hard to forget about a game (even if it does play havoc with my work!).

Scrabble's ability to play against the computer is great for when I just want to play several turns in a row then and there. Words with Friends must be played with another person... making it a slow game (much like real scrabble really). I also make heavy use out of the 'hotseat' play, as it means many people can get involved at once.

One of the more surprising inclusions is Scrabble's 'online' play, needing a local wifi connection and 2 phones. This is very restrictive, and even when this is the case, it's just easier to use the 1 phone!

Experience/Usability
While both apps have advantages and disadvantages with regards to their functionality, there's 1 clear winner with the user experience of the apps.

Words with Friends is so much more engaging than Scrabble. This is apparant throughout your interation with the app:

• The most obvious difference is the responsiveness of the touch controls. Using Words with Friends the pieces flow around the screen responding to your every touch. Scrabble seems sluggish and unresponsive in comparison.
• Words With Friends allows you to have several concurrent games being played at any 1 time. I'm not what the limit is, but I've never hit it. Scrabble, on the other hand only allows 1 game to be ongoing at any one time. Half way through playing against the computer, but want to play hotseat with your friends? Which do you want more?
• In order to continue a game using Scrabble required 3 'clicks'. Words with Friends needs 1. It's so much quicker to pick up a your phone and get playing. This is particularly unforgivable as Scrabble can only save 1 game at a time anyway, it's pretty obvious what game I want to play!
• Both offer the 'shuffle' ability - shake the phone to see your pieces jumbled up. The aim is to give you inspiration for your next move. With you shuffle using Scrabble you need to shake the phone fairly hard (I thought the app didn't offer the feature at all at first!). The pieces drop off the screen, returning in a different order. Removing them from the screen is a mistake. When this first occurred I thought I'd swapped all my letters! Words with Friends shuffles much more easily, a small flick of the wrist is all that's required. During the shuffle the letters remain on the screen. Significantly reducing the risk of mis-interpreting what's occuring.
• Finally, the visibility of Words with Friends is is so much greater than Scrabble, which has tried to stick with the 'Scrabble' style. While this works with the board game. It's less successful on a small screen.

Which is easier to read?

• It's not a one-way street though. Words with Friends MUST have signal before it can be opened. You can't plan your next move on the tube. A real irritant. I'm surprised it doesn't save your move for when signal returns... or at least allow you to look.
• BONUS NEW FACTS - Another finding I couldn't reproduce earlier. Blank tiles. To place a blank tile using the Scrabble app the user must scroll through the alphabet using left and right arrows. This may take some time. However using the Words with Friends app the screen is replaced with the alphabet. 1 press is all that's required.
   Much faster = happier player.

 

1 app requires 1 click, 1 can take up to 26!

Conclusion
Of the 2 applications, Words with Friends is a much better experience to play with. Throughout the whole interaction, it shines with a polish Scrabble can't even approach.