User Testing for Polish Tasks ( special effects, transition animation, and sound effects)

Sprint4 - Team 7: User Testing for Polish Tasks ( special effects, transition animation, and sound effects) (After Designing)

Background

Players in Atlantis Sinks will identify the NPC that resulted in the continent's sinking. Our team focus on implementing the eviction menu, which allows players to choose an NPC they believe to be a traitor.

In the previous three sprints, our team achieved the most basic features for the player eviction menu, such as designing the entire window, displaying the NPC information on the card, and several prompt windows for different functions (confirmation box, detailed information/clues window, and win/lose prompt window to display the selection results). The game now features a full eviction menu function and win-lose condition for selecting and evicting traitors.

In sprint 4, our team is making an effort on several polish tasks, including the sound effects (when entering the menu, reading NPC clues, and popping up correct/wrong prompt boxes), special effects (the celebration will be triggered when the correct prompt box pops up; the special effect indicating "bad situation" will be triggered when the incorrect prompt box pops up), and transition animations (Once the user has chosen an NPC, the transition animation of the corresponding NPC will be shown in the eviction process.) Based on those newly added features, our team tried to raise the attractiveness of the game and enable players to experience the game plot more immersively and make the game more "juicy",

In order to gather feedback on the aesthetic and functional outcomes of the initial design, as well as possible additional improvements for future development, this user testing will test and evaluate the UI design and fundamental interaction flow of the above-mentioned polishing tasks (based on the eviction menu). The feedback and suggestions gathered from this user testing are beneficial and will help us refine the original design concept and game development in the future.

Introduction

This user test aims to ascertain the respondents' satisfaction and opinion with the transition animation, special effects, and the sound effects present design. These tests primarily examine how the newly added features are clear and enjoyable. (Note: For development and optimization, data from user testing may also be sent synchronously to developers.)

Test Plan

Two Design Methods for the Transition Animation

Plan A (using the corresponding NPC):

In Plan A, transition animations will show the selected NPC character in the picture (process).To avoid repeated testing, designer only drew two different characters for different situations (prince for correct selection and Metis for wrong selection) in the user testing phase. The two different situations are shown below:

For Correct Selection

Process1	Process2	Process3	Process4

For Wrong Selection

Process1	Process2	Process3	Process4

The Different Gesture for Process3

Plan B (using undefined figure):

In Plan B, the transition animation shows an unidentified figure wearing a grey cape. The undefined character will be banished by the player in the transition animation. Until the end of the eviction animation, a stop-motion screen will show the player's selected character and the results of the selection. If the player selected the correct traitor, it would display the image of the correct NPC being tied up, if not, it will display the image of the player's "dispirited", as shown in the pictures below.

Eviction process

Process1	Process2	Process3

selection results:

Wrong selection	Correct selection

The Different Gesture for Process3

Users (testing participants): people from other Teams in the studio, other students with an interest in this game, and potential users.

1. Tasks:

• Click the Menu Icon and enter the interface of the Eviction Menu, click on one NPC/eviction card

(Purpose: To check whether the sound effect of the detailed information/clues pop-up window meets the user's satisfaction)

A/B Testing

(let users experience the eviction process of Plan A and Plan B respectively, under the same scenario) Note: The same scenario means that the time constraint and the interactive process are the same.

For Plan A

• Click the SELECT button below the prince card to trigger the situation of the correct selection.

(Purpose: To evaluate whether users can understand the transition animation (plan A) of a correct selection and users' satisfaction with the sound effect and special effects on the win prompt box)

• Click the SELECT button below the Metis card to trigger the situation of the incorrect selection.

(Purpose: To evaluate whether users satisfy the transition animation (plan A) of a wrong selection and users' satisfaction with the sound effect and special effects on the lose prompt box)

For Plan B

• Repeat the previous two tasks in Plan A to trigger the correct and incorrect selection situations, respectively.

(Purpose: To evaluate whether users are satisfied with the interactive process of transition animation in Plan B)

2. Get feedback: The questionnaire form was used to collect basic data and feedback. Additionally, online interviews were undertaken to supplement data gathering and analysis on outlier data considered critical or low-scoring.

Process

The testing method included 15 participants, who represented a range of groups, including:

• Members of other teams at the same studio
• Team members' classmates and acquaintances

1.Test tasks:

Respondents (Users) are required to complete the four tasks listed in the Test plan; the method and outcomes will be recorded. Ten of them were tested using Zoom screen sharing online. Five users were evaluated in person.)

2.Questionnaire: After completing the specified tasks, all respondents (users) will be asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding their experience with them.

3.Online interviews: After collecting and analyzing all questionnaires, we supplemented our survey results with online interviews and chose three respondents who were most likely to provide specific suggestions or ideas.

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Questionnaire

The questionnaire was distributed to all fifteen participants in the test.

The user testing questionnaire(google form)

The user testing questionnaire(Tencent questionnaire)

Online Testing and Interviews

The purpose of the interview was to elicit more concrete replies and suggestions to the particular question. And the majority of respondents will be interviewed online (via zoom) due to situational restrictions.

Important Questions

Questionnaire

Analysis and Summary

Questionnaire analysis

Q1 reflects the degree of satisfaction with the art style of the transition animation.

Many people (46.7) are unsatisfied with the current design (including neutral). 40% of participants were only marginally satisfied (those who chose 4). Only 13.3%(two participants) were satisfied with the design of the initial transition animation. This data means that participants may expect us to make some improvements in our initial design concept, such as adding some patterns or improving the drawing quality to make transition animations clearer. This feedback let us discover that additional factors may influence players' satisfaction with the art style. The online interview will further discuss the interviewees' feedback that related to specific design methods and color matching, which will be addressed in the analysis. This will improve the design of the transition animation.

Q2 primarily surveys which design method of transitional animation is more favored by users.

A large number of respondents (66.7%) feel that PlanA (making the transition animation shows the corresponding NPC after players select a NPC) is make them easier to understand what happens after clicking the select button. And PlanB (the transition animation that includes the undefined character to illustrate the NPC eviction process) makes the interaction process not so clear that players are not aware of what happens to the selected character. This is probably due to that:

1. When players choose a specific NPC, if the transition animation only shows the eviction process of an unidentified character, the player cannot smoothly relate the transition animation to the action they just took when selecting a specific character.

2. If the selected NPC profile could appear in the transition animation, players will understand that the transition animation illustrates that the NPC (players chosen) is evicting, the interaction process will be more clear, and players will be more immersed in the storyline of the game rather than can't figure out what happened.

These data properly indicate several potential suggestions about the design method of the transition animation, which will be further investigated in online interviews.

Q3 mainly investigates users' satisfaction with the interaction of the newly added features (sound effects, special effects, transitional animations) in sprint 4 .

More than half of the participants (53.4% chose 4 or 5) were satisfied with the new features added during this sprint. However, almost half are still not satisfied with the initial design, combined with the analysis of transition animation design method in Q2, this may be caused by the user's inability to understand the process: they are not able to understand what the transition animation is illustrating because there is no corresponding expulsion transition animation for each NPC with the initial design idea.

Therefore, we will further determine a more specific promotion plan through interviews to make the transition animation more enjoyable and more closely combined with the plot. Besides, the added sound effects and special effects will also be investigated further in the interview.

Q4 is about the potential optimization methods that can be implemented in the future.

Through collecting statistical data on participants' expectations for different optimization aspects, we can determine which parts may be implemented in future.

According to the data collected, illustrating the penalty mechanism of selecting the wrong traitor is most favored by the participants (93.3%); in order to make the eviction gameplay more visual and interactive, it may also be necessary to add a dialogue session to allow player engage in communication with the right traitor (the prince) to get a clearer understanding of what needs to be done next in order to get through the game; the function of classifying the collected information in the detailed information/clues window also could help players complete the traitor selection task. Therefore, these 3 improvements will be considered for implementation in the further game development process.

Interview analysis

An interview was employed in addition to the questionnaire to elicit additional particular information for the data results.

Regarding the transition animation, the following feedback has been collected:

• 1. Combining Q2 of the questionnaire and interview participants' different thoughts and feelings on Plan A and Plan B. In the case of plan B, the presence of an unidentified character in a transition animation left the user with no idea about the undefined character. (the masked figure with the cape never appears in the game), so it usually took a while for the participants to understand the content of the transition animation. Therefore, most people prefer the design of Plan A and let the characters they choose appear in the transition animation correspondingly. When the user sees the corresponding character, they can quickly understand the content of the transition animation and become more immersed in the story and interaction of the game. Therefore, the designers used Plan A so that the eight different NPC characters would have corresponding transition animations. The animations of the remaining characters will be supplemented.
• 2. For the different poses of Process3 NPC characters, the player was not satisfied with two NPC positions (the NPC being pulled down to lie on the ground and keeping the standing position). For the NPC character lying on the ground, some users thought it was pretty rude and, therefore inappropriate for the final design of the transition animation. For the standing position, some users are less able to tell the difference between Process2 and process3. Through discussions with participants, we drew a rough draft of Process3 with NPC characters sitting on the ground. Some interviewees were more satisfied with the sitting gesture of NPCs. Hence, the designer will draw the sitting pose for 8 different NPC characters to improve the image of Process3
• 3. For Process3, the player wants to see the process that the player character drags away the selected NPC character. Therefore, the designer will change the position of the player facing away from the screen to face the screen and move the image of Process3 through the code to create the feeling that the player is dragging the selected NPC to move.
• 4. Some of the participants offered some aesthetic suggestions, such as adding shadows to the character to make the image more realistic and using different transitional colors to make the clothes and hair of the characters more realistic and beautiful.

The following feedback is about the sound effects:

• 1. When we were testing the sound effect, some users felt that the sound effect of the clue window was inconsistent with the display effect. This is because the sound effects last a relatively long time, but the window pops up instantly. Some users have suggested that the duration of the sound effect should be the same as the duration of opening the information/clues window. Therefore, the developer in our team will use code to implement the animation effect to make the opening and closing of the clue window with a duration of 0.7s.
• 2. The users think there are no obvious issues with the design of sound effects except that the sound is a little low, so our developers will turn up the volume to a more appropriate level.

The following feedback is about the special effects of the win/lose prompt window:

• For the special effect of the win/lose prompt box, our team decided to implement the particle effects by codes directly. The majority of responses are satisfied with the special effect. Several participants mentioned that it is better to adjust the color and position of those special effects slightly. Hence, our developer will fine-tune the details of the effects to achieve a better picture

Summary

During this sprint, the bulk of polish tasks are implemented. (such as the transition animation to illustrate the eviction process after players select one NPC, sound effects when players trigger different windows, and the special effects for the win/lose window). At the initial design stage, we found several issues and deficiencies in the design. Eventually, the following issues above have been optimised and addressed before their delivery to developers during this sprint:

1. The designers will complete transition animations for eight different NPC characters.

2. The designer will upgrade the Process 3 image in transition animation (NPC character sitting on the ground, and player Angle facing the screen)

3. The developers will implement transition animations for each of the eight NPCs in the game. The corresponding NPC character appears in the transition animation for each particular NPC selected by the player.

4. The developers will use code to move the picture of Process3 that transitions the animation to achieve the effect of the player dragging the NPC character.

5. The developer will adjust the sound volume of sound effects to the appropriate level.

6. The developers will fine-tune the location, size, and color of the special effects on the win/lose prompt window.

Future Testing/Evaluation

The further user testing will be based on the information gleaned from this test and feedback. We've planned the future testing and evaluation that may be needed to ensure that the team's efforts are well-aligned with what needs to be accomplished in the future:

• illustrate the penalty mechanism of selecting the wrong traitor in the eviction menu.
• Use categories to present clues and information, such as items, pictures, text, etc.

(Note: The specific functionalities that may be accomplished based on the task's progression and studio collaboration.)

1. Get in touch with pertinent Teams that could work together to exchange ideas and strategies.
2. Through brainstorming and discussion, take into account the practicality of the implementation and the difficulty of the integration.
3. Determine whether the built-in player eviction menu can currently live up to user expectations (e.g., whether the error prompt can be triggered normally, whether the user feels that the interaction process can be made clearer with the aid of the error prompt, whether the feedback of the selection result can be presented effectively, etc.).
4. Talk with the appropriate teams and determine if any adjustments are necessary.
5. Request feedback on the design, interaction flow, and functionality from the studio's other students as well as from friends or potential users.