In my last post I discussed my new poker game as well as the interface design I currently have. This blog post will expand on that, discussing some of the cons with my current design.
From professor Lennart Nacke's 'What is HCI' video lecture, there are 5 evaluation criteria to determine the usability of the interface. They are: time to learn, speed of performance, rate of errors by users, retention over time, and subjective satisfaction. Last week I talked about the reasons outlining why I believed it was a good design. After doing some surveys and asking a few people, it turns out that my design might not be as simple as I thought it was. Based on the feedback I've been getting, I believe the problem lies within the complexity of the game itself. People who have zero poker experience may have a difficult time with this game. They must learn how to play poker as well as having a grasp on the concept of using cheats in the game.
I also noticed the lack of words or instructions on the screen. For example, the user needs to tap on the poker chips in order to place bets; however, not many people knew that and simply thought the poker chips was just an image. The game currently relies heavily on the iDevice's gyroscope and accelerometer for interaction. As a result, it allows the user interface to be more clean and uncluttered. Although it is a good thing that the interface isn't filled with buttons and text, I think the interface has been over simplified to the point where new users are unable to figure out on their own what the heck they are supposed to do.
In the games industry, we've gone a long way and have seen a lot of different innovative interfaces over the years. From the first dials on Pong machines up to Nintendo's Wiimote, there have been many successful interfaces and just as many forgettable interfaces. The lecture on the history of game interfaces is found here.Apple's iPhone introduced a whole new interface when it was first launched, and touch screen games have been on the rise ever since.
Having stumbled upon a blog post for designing touch interfaces, the blog has given me some ideas on how to go about fixing up my game's interface. The new interface is currently a work in progress, so unfortunately I don't have a picture of that yet available. To give an idea, I think the buttons on screen need to have some words to supplement it and also look more like a button. Providing the player with more visual cues as to what each item does could go a long way in helping make the game more memorable at the end of the day.
Doing some surveys and getting negative feedback was a good thing for me. Quoting professor Nacke in his second lecture, "fail fast, so you can succeed sooner". As I tried to survey people that I believe would be likely to play the game once it was available, their feedback is very important. If they can't look at an image of the interface and have an idea of what the game is in the first few seconds, then I believe I still have work to do.
The second problem I've ran into is with the user interface on the iPad for a multiplayer game. How can I get the interface to work for everyone who is playing the game? Assuming there are people sitting all around the iPad, there will be a couple of people constantly looking at the iPad upside down when they try to look at information about other players. For those that missed this in my previous post, I was hoping to take advantage of the iPad's bigger screen. In a multiplayer game where everyone is close to each other, the iPad would serve as the table and everyone would see on their iPhone or iPod only their current hand and their available cheats. This idea was borrowed from the iPad version of EA's Scrabble app. To see an example of this in action, check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR8AB5rJn6I
At the moment, I think players will only have a problem when they try to look at the number of chips another player has. As for the cards themselves, they will not pose a big problem as they could be looked at from any way and they would be identifiable (assuming my art skills are okay). My current proposed solution to this is to put this information on each individual's iPhone or iPod. This information could be integrated or a button could be created to take players to a separate screen that will show this information.
Although I've been told many times that this game idea has already been done, there hasn't been anything quite like this on mobile devices yet. These days, it's hard for a starving student to have wildly successful, multi-million dollar games that are an original idea, AND have the resources necessary to develop the game and release it all on their own. This project is being done as I thought that although the game was slightly below average in terms of interface design and the human-computer interactions in it, it could have been done better; so I'm going to prove it. Touch devices have provided us with a new means of interacting with our gaming devices, and I believe that this game will showcase all of these innovative ideas with an entertaining game that will remain memorable for years after its release (and hopefully in a good way).
Over the next couple of weeks I will probably repeat the process of designing an interface, asking for feedback, and making some changes. Once I get an interface that gets some positive feedback, I will begin implementing the first prototype of the game. I will continue to provide updates and welcome any and all feedback. Unfortunately it's a bit hard to constantly provide prototypes of a mobile game for my readers to try out, so I will have to stick to posting pictures and video updates once the game starts taking shape.
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