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.