Abstract
Game developers have begun applying formal human-computer interaction (HCI) principles in design. Desurvire et al [2] adapted a set of Heuristics for productivity software to games. The resulting set, presented at CHI 2004, was Heuristics to Evaluate Playability (HEP). Generalization of these heuristics is required to make them applicable to a multiple of game genres and game deliveries. This follow-up study focused on the refined list, Heuristics of Playability (PLAY), that can be applied earlier in game development as well as aiding developers between formal usability/playability research during the development cycle. Heuristics were formed based on their efficacious scores on the popular game review website, metacritic.com. Fifty-four gamers rated High and Low ranked games on 116 potential heuristics. Implications for how these Heuristics will help developers improve game quality are discussed. PLAY has been found useful in design evaluation and elf-report survey format.
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Keywords
- Usability
- Heuristics
- playability
- play testing
- design guidelines
- video games
- computer games
- games
- evaluation
- usability
- user testing
- HCI design principles
ACM Classification Keywords: H.5.1 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]
References
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Desurvire, H., Wiberg, C. (2009). Game Usability Heuristics (PLAY) for Evaluating and Designing Better Games: The Next Iteration. In: Ozok, A.A., Zaphiris, P. (eds) Online Communities and Social Computing. OCSC 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5621. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02774-1_60
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02774-1_60
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