Obstacle Animation User Testing
Animations for the obstacles and enemies were created by team 2 in sprint 2. The animations would be implemented during sprint 2 and appear instead of the static images of the asteroid, robot and UFO enemies. To ensure the animations were aligned with what users required in the game a user testing session of the draft animations designs was held.
Due to the type of user information and feedback we wanted we decided to conduct user questionaries and then interviews. The user testing session went as follows:
- Allow the user to view the animation for as long as they’d want.
- Give them a questionnaire and leave them alone to fill it out
- Gather all user questionnaire and analyse for trends in data.
- Interview a user with questions related to the trends found in the questionnaire data.
After all users int the testing session (5) had completed looking at the animations they were presented the below questionnaire (see appendix section) to be completed in private.
Once the questionnaire was completed be all participating, they were collected and randomly shuffled as to keep test user confidentiality.
Analyses of the questionnaire was then taken place and key areas of improvement were highlighted. And formed the basis of the interview questions which were then created.
One user was then selected to perform a quick interview with (as only one user was able to be interviewed due to user time constraints).
After the users had finished viewing the animations in game and had completed the questionnaires. The answers of the questionnaires were compiled. The average user score across all questions was found to be a 7.84/10. This was a very pleasing score for the team and indicated that there was a lot of communication between the users and the design team which enabled such a high mark.
Breaking do the average scores for each question however showed that Question 4 was the lowest score having a 5.6. Not only this but was drastically lower than the second lowest score of 7.6 which was held by question 1. Due to this, the team decided that questions regarding how polished and professional the animations were should be the focus point of the interview as this would help explain the low score for question 4.
After performing the interview, it was then highlighted that the users found the animations to lack in different colours and shades. This made the animation, whilst fitting the theme of the game not feel completed or polished as it needed to be to be the final version.
Interviewer: Thank you for taking our questionnaire and for participating in our testing session, did you have any initial thoughts of the animations when you first saw them in game?
Interviewee: I think what you and your team have achieved is really something! I have no idea how I’d make an animation. I liked how creative they were and the UFO was my favourite.
Interviewer: Thank you we tried really hard and that why we’re conducting these sessions so the final copy is as good as possible. You said you liked how creative they were, did you have anything that would make them better?
Interviewee: I found the actions in the animation’s kind of jumpy. Like for example the flame would jump from one side to the other instantly like it’s teleporting.
Interviewer: Thank you for highlighting that, this kind of feedback is exactly what we want so thank you. For us to fix it we’d add animation frames to make it a bit smoother. Did you have anything else?
Interviewee: Not a problem. The pictures used to create the animations as well seemed simple like they didn’t have a vast array of colours on them. Such as the UFO which only had one colour the tractor beam.
Interviewer: I see, and is this an issue across all animations or just the UFO
Interviewee: The UFO was the one that caught my eye but they could all benefit from a bit of colour. Don’t get me wrong it definitely fits with the theme and all that but I just think it would look more professional if it was maybe a different shade or transparent or something.