Chenyang Huang
© Chenyang Huang

PLAYERS EXPERIENCE

identify players, First Player experience, playtest, Player interview

PLAN AHEAD

The biggest challenge for this project is dealing with frequent revisions and updates.


This app contains a large number of pages and features. After the product was shipped, it kept getting updated every 2-4 weeks, which usually included one or two new features and a lot of revisions.


So, building and maintaining a set of navigation maps is very important to me. It helps me keep track of all the changes, as it is equally important to ensure everyone on the team is on the same page.


These maps help the UI development much more smoothly.


PROBLEM SOLVING



Problem: After the product shipped for two years, the complexity of the navigation system continued to grow. Adding a new icon, tab, or button to the main page becomes problematic.


The lagger issue is that frequent changes to the main page will affect users' behavior. They will feel unfamiliar and confused.



Solution: Inspired by the Adobe suites I used daily, I came up with a long-term solution to add "sidebars" to the main menu.


Result:

1, With this drop-down menu, those frequently used icons can be stored here. It gives the user some convenience without diving into the sub-menu.

2, We can always add new features here because this drop-down menu can be hidden. It will keep the main pages clean.

3, We can feature some popular items here, increasing exposure.


WIRE FRAME

This an example of wireframe I did for bounty Conract event.

PROTOTYPING

I will do prototyping using Adobe XD or Fingama. It’s a great way of showing idea.

QA TEST SHEET

Once the systems is built, I will provide a QA test sheet for the QA team for debugging.

Description text underneath an image

Player Personas

Mythic Heroes is targeting players around 35. It’s a casual, mid-core RPG game. They usually has a high income and little time. Casual games like Candy Crush and Coin Master take up most of the mobile game market in North America. However, there are very few mid-core games.


What's the catch ？


1.The new player will spend little time understanding the game. I don't meant to make the game easy but to provide enough information for the player to understand the game.


2. Provide the players with as much convience as we can. Don't force the player do things repetitively, like collecting rewards , level up, equip and remove euipment.





USABILITY TESTING

( I can't show the company data due to the NOA)

The schedule is usually tight during game production. However, we will always run into trouble if we don’t test the design with at least 5 people on a mobile device. Here is some test we will do regularly.


Player Interview: Throughout the production, every 1-2 weeks, we will bring 5 people from outside the studio to test the product before its release. These people are carefully selected from different backgrounds, such as game preference, genders, countries, ages, and occupations.


After the test, we will watch them play and interview them after. We will try to ask more specific questions to test how much they understand the specific system, such as:


1. Do you know when the event will end?

2. Do you know if you can carry these event currencies to the next season or not?

3. Do you know where to get more gems?

4. What is the quickest way to switch a weapon from one character to another?


Data Analysis: The analyst will place checkpoints on each page to track the player's behavior. For example, how long the player spends on each page and which page or step they take before quitting the game. This information will help us address the issues. 

issues I frequently found by research:

1. text too small or too big

2. confusing display of icon, button, text

3. button too big or small or misplaced

4. not enough contrast on color or brightness

5. mistranslate of certain language

6. confusing system navigation

7. annoying red dots, animation, dialogue

8. icon without tooltips, buttons with error messages