Last week, we play tested our (and our classmates’) paper prototypes. First of all, it must be said that we have some really talented and creative classmates. We had a lot of fun and were able to get tons of really good feedback on our project, for which we were really appreciative.
- The instructions were not very clear. It seems that the layout, with the different instructions in different areas meant that users skipped certain aspects, thus playing the game incorrectly.
- The pulley wasn’t immediately intuitive for at least two testers. One grabbed both ends with one hand and pulled the whole machine, another pulled down on both hangles with both hands.
- When sitting, users naturally started sliding their feet instead of stomping like we’d hoped. Taping the footsteps onto the floor remedied that issue with future testers.
- Most users missed the idea that they had to lean forward and back in response to the “faster” and “slower” commands. Some because the directions for that were in the bottom left corner, others because they assumed that stomping and moving their arms controlled the speed.
- Some didn’t know they were controlling the zombie, they assumed that they were the human on the bike.
- The general combination of movements was fun for users once they got the hang of it.
- Visual indicators for progress would go a long way in user comprehension (speed meters, point counters, progress bars).
- One user suggested that we build a space to walk into, like a platform or something, to make the experience more immersive.
Our team met this week for over an hour to talk about our next steps. We created a columned list of the areas we had to address for the code as well as the hardware and other components. As next week is Thanksgiving break, we’ve decided take advantage of the extra free time to meet a couple of days and work on the code and shop for components.
We’ve also decided to take a trip to a hardware store where we can buy supplies we’ll use in fabricating our console; since we don’t have a car, we’ll just use Uber to get our stuff back to ITP, which indirectly affects the cost of the project. In the end, most of our discussion revolved around what we wanted to change and newly incorporate after our play testing last week.
