PDP userbility testing report

For this assignment we were set the task to usability test a small group of people playing a section of a video game and providing 2 questionnaires about their experiences. We decided to look at how people reacted and learnt from tutorials from a game as it familiarises the player with the game and teaches them how to play it, so it’s a very important topic to study. As a group we decided to use Call of Duty 4’s kill house training level, the reason for this choice was that it was short and educated the player accordingly. Other games were suggested such as; Mirrors Edge and Fable 2 but Call of Duty 4’s tutorial system was a lot more effective on the player.
After selecting Call of Duty 4, we each played through the level individually and noted down what would be useful questions to ask the players that would aid our study. The entry and exit questionnaires were completed and we tested over 20 subjects a few days after as the work was fresh in our heads, they were given the first questionnaire, played the game and then filled in the questionnaire. Only the players who had limited console experience were monitored by a member of the team to see if any extra information could be recorded. Throughout doing this assignment we had frequent team meetings which were recorded by Glenn.
Similarly to the SWOT analysis, we looked at our team strengths, weaknesses and possible obstacles that we may encounter during the assignment. Since the last assignment went well we stuck to the similar roles we had such as me being team leader. As well as creating and finalising the questionnaire (with help from the team) I made sure we had enough candidates to test and to make sure that they were a varied group of people.
Anthony also got some family members to test with varied age ranges which helped our data collection a lot to get a more accurate conclusion of the positives and negatives of Call of Duty 4’s tutorial system. After all of the candidates were tested Jacob organised all the results and placed them into pie charts to show our results simpler when it came to analysing them in the report. We decided to add the team players opinion of the tutorial system and reasons for choosing it, that way it justifies why we all chose it as well as displaying our teamwork. Time management was a factor we all had to consider as we all have had a lot of work over the course of this assignment, team meetings helped the team out greatly; we could see the work progress as well as help each other out if any of us were stuck. The most satisfying part of the assignment was presenting the viva, I think that it went very well, all of work was in and we answered any questions confidently.
As we had other assignments we started this assignment as soon as possible. I looked at different forms of usability testing, luckily Left 4 Dead had an in depth interview with the design team and they discussed how they tested for the game and I implemented some of their methods into our questionnaire and helped me start it. We handed a brief on a Monday; the people were tested by the Wednesday so we had more time for our assignments and reflecting on our results. We planned it out well as the team meetings were also deadlines for certain sections of work to be completed, that way progress could be recorded and those who were lagging behind and under achieving were singled out. Luckily the all of my team members were very prompt with their work, as was I, so the results and the report could be refined.
As soon as the work was completed we planned to show our work in viva form to the lecturer, that way we could all have our say on the project as well as backing it up using the document. Everyone had knowledge about the whole documents content, including each other’s work so we could refer to it and show how we worked well as a team.
As we all worked hard at the assignment completing it was simple. The assignment was printed out and put in the folder ready to be presented in our viva with the lecturer. It was hard to do the report as it’s a large piece of writing and it was difficult to assign tasks between the group members. I think all of the team members worked well together, team work was crucial to ensuring the assignment gets complete, communication was good and after every team meeting we’d grow in confidence not just as a work team but as friends which helped us relax under pressure and trust each other to complete their own work set. If we were to do this assignment I think some form of demonstration of the tutorial in the viva would have helped back up our points as well as maybe a video recording of some of the subjects play through the tutorial. Overall the assignment went very well, its drag on and we all did our work so it was in for the deadline.

Learning styles

What kind of learner are you?

Over time people have been baffled why students and others learn in certain particular ways. So far many theory's have been discovered to help people find out what types of learning they adapt to more efficiently opposed to other methods. Two methods will be explained in this leaflet: Kolb's theory, discovered by David A. Kolb and the VAK learning style

A = ACTIVIST (Concrete Experimentation)
• focuses on involvement in experience and personal response to real situations
• prefers specific, concrete things; enjoys the uniqueness and complexity of reality rather than generalisations, theories and laws
• intuitive, trusts feelings rather thinking
• good at relating to people
• open minded; good in unstructured, real life situations

R = REFLECTOR ( Reflective Observation)
• focuses on understanding the meaning of situations and ideas by careful observation and description
• approaches learning in an impartial, tentative way
• seeks understanding as opposed to practical application
• good at seeing implications, at appreciating different points of view.
• patent, impartial, thoughtful

T = THEORIST (Abstract Conceptualisation)
• focuses on logic, ideas, concepts
• trusts thinking rather than feeling
• likes building general theories, rather than concentrating on the unique and specific
• good at planning, dealing with abstract issues; often good with figures
• precise, rigorous, analytical, likes structure

P = PRAGMATIST (Active Experimentation)
• focuses on actively influencing people and changing situations
• approaches learning in practical way (what works'') rather than for understanding (what is true?)
• likes doing rather than observing
• good at task oriented learning
• risk taker, goal oriented, change effector


My Learning Styles
I took the Kolb's learning theory to see my own learning style and would also check the accuracy of his study; would these results really reflect my personality?
I took the first series of questions honestly in my stride ranking them 1 to 4 which seemed pretty easy although I already saw a pattern emerging on what questions would be better to answer which could be alarming to those who aren’t willing to trust in their own answers.
The majority of my 4's were in the P section which showed me that I have an outstanding learning style. In order of popularity my results were:
P = 21
A = 16
R = 14
T = 7
I plotted it on the four co-ordinates on the grid, just as instructed, which displayed my outstanding pragmatist section followed by the activist then decreases slowly to the small reflector and theorist axis. Through reading the pragmatist and activist learning descriptions (my strongest two results) I learn that the theory's do reflect me as person as well and a learner.

The table below displays my results on the grid, as you see the “extreme” points reflect my results.


After doing this method I was encountered with another graph this time I have to get my co-ordinates by taking my theorist results from my activist results and also taking my reflector results away from my pragmatist results, in which then I had to plot these points as co-ordinates on another grid



The grid indicates that I’m a LOGICAL (Assimilator) learner. It reflects the way i work and at the same time it couldnt be more worng, i do like to collect information and be in total control of thing to ensure they dont go wrong. However i also work well with my team, ensure everybody bonds well to make everyone friend as opposed to “collegues”.




Another learning style I took was a VAK learning style.
A = Visual learning style has a preference for seen or observed things, including pictures, diagrams, demonstrations, displays, handouts, films, flip-chart, etc. These people will use phrases such as ‘show me’, ‘let’s have a look at that’ and will be best able to perform a new task after reading the instructions or watching someone else do it first. These are the people who will work from lists and written directions and instructions.

B = Auditory learning style has a preference for the transfer of information through listening: to the spoken word, of self or others, of sounds and noises. These people will use phrases such as ‘tell me’, ‘let’s talk it over’ and will be best able to perform a new task after listening to instructions from an expert. These are the people who are happy being given spoken instructions over the telephone, and can remember all the words to songs that they hear!

C = Kinaesthetic learning style has a preference for physical experience - touching, feeling, holding, doing, and practical hands-on experiences. These people will use phrases such as ‘let me try’, ‘how do you feel?’ and will be best able to perform a new task by going ahead and trying it out, learning as they go. These are the people who like to experiment, hands-on, and never look at the instructions first!

These we’re my results;
A’s = 8
B’s =6
C’s = 16

Through looking at both results I got from both learning style tests, they pretty much define the way I work. Both Kinaesthetic and Pragmatist learn styles have very similar definitions. So far in the games design 1 unit i have been team leader for all team projects, that way I can get hands on with problems that we encounter. However i do have traits in other field in both learning styles such as “Visual” in VAK, and “Activist” in Kolb’s learning styles.

p.s. i had some image uploading issues Craig, will also email you the document

pdp: core skills personal development