Prototyping and Game Design

Lingo

the special vocabulary of a particular field of interest

• outside immediate work group: lingo is bad
• helps efficiency within small group

Groupthink

The tendency for groups to think in harmony

• $\Rightarrow$ valuable opinions may get lost
• counteracting groupthink: test with actual users early and often
• but what if I don’t even have a prototype?

Take away lesson

Don’t forget main goal over detailed discussions (happens especially in big companies)

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Paper Prototyping

• interactive prototyping using a visibly mocked-up paper interface
• participant (“clicking”), computer (showing cards), interviewer (watching, making notes)
• playing out interactions as if they were real

For DualPanto: Fingers replace paper

Storyboard

sequence of sketches that show what will be going on.

• walkthrough of specific use case = path through the UI including the involved data
• arrows / motion tend to represent a future state (unlike speed lines in comic books)

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Tutorials

• should be brief ($\approx$ 4 min / lesson)
• should be task-oriented, not functionality-oriented
• should show an actual example
• should provide good help: desired function $\to$ tools $\to$ solution (intention and big picture of the program)

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Progressive Disclosure (Levels)

improve usability by presenting only the minimum data required for the task at hand

A few decades ago

• one could sell shrink-wrapped software with a collection of tutorial videos $\Rightarrow$ first user value after hours / days

Today (the 2020’s)

1. software has to have low entry barriers (e.g. web-based)
2. it has to deliver value in the first few seconds and always stay net positive in terms of value generated for the user (switching to a competitor takes only seconds)

Gaming industry

• has always been using levels, to lower entry barrier and give instant sense of accomplishment
• games are like onions (consisting of shells)
• great inspiration for productivity app design

Level Design Algorithm:

1. Design the final level
2. List the game elements users need to know by then
3. rank these game elements by relevance
4. create a sequence of levels, each of which introduces one additional game element

DualPanto examples

Drawing app:

• first level should make user draw a simple shape (e.g. a triangle)
• but they can already do this on paper, DualPanto allows creating complexity by showing users, what was drawn previously
• $\Rightarrow$ first level should make user finish a drawing using a simple shape (e.g. triangular roof on top of a square house)

Breakout:

• removing all or even one brick is quite complex
• hitting things back is a fun game itself (see pong)
• $\Rightarrow$ first level should make user reflect the ball by moving the paddle

(Game difficulty) balancing

tweaking parameters, scenarios, and behaviors in a video game to match the player’s ability at that moment in the game, in order to avoid making the player bored (if the game is too easy) or frustrated (if it is too hard)

• learning about the game tends to be fun itself
• but learning rate (just as game difficulty) has to be carefully designed $\Rightarrow$ constant learning rate

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Speech Output and Input

• serializability: if something can be done in audio + speech, it should be done this way $\Rightarrow$ DualPanto apps should not be (almost) fully serializable
• a word is worth a thousand icons: use speech output to identify specific objects (instead of different sound)

Functionality blind users need:

1. a sense of where they (“me” handle) and the opponents (“it” handle) are
2. information on events happening, such as collisions $\Rightarrow$ haptics + sound / speech out
3. allow player to trigger events, such as invoking power-ups $\Rightarrow$ speech input

DualPanto Toolkit provides utilities for implementation

Discoverability

Discoverability, in the context of product and interface design, is the degree of ease with which the user can find all the elements and features of a new system when they first encounter it

Guessability study

a prototype of an interactive system, that is intentionally designed to require user input, yet not to respond

• conducted to gather data on how users would naturally interact with the system
• typically to then (re)design the system so as to behave in a guessable way

Take away lesson

A combination of haptics + sound + speech makes DualPanto app better $\Rightarrow$ please think of those three when you design, and find the best combination