The most challenging UIUX work is in video games. I almost want to stop there and say, “That’s it, that is the whole post.” It is not like I get paid by the word, nor do you click on any of the books or random items I link here with the hope of stealing nickels from the Bezos. Okay, a few of you clicked—enough for me to get paid once in the many years of writing. Thank you for that.
When I was designing my own mobile games, I had a small office located above a Starbucks. I played a game of my own there because a decade or so ago, there was a pretty easy way to get a third of your coffee from Starbucks for free. I remember explaining this to a friend of mine. His wife used to work at Starbucks, and the brand loyalty was so deeply etched into her soul that she got angry at my cheeky stunt and punched me in the arm. If I do not post the sneaky trick everyone in your town is talking about, I fear the internet will punch me.
Enough about Starbucks hacking.
In addition to intermittent free Starbucks coffee, I also went there to test whether my games were good. I would go to the staff or occasional regular that I recognized and thrust a test phone into their hands. “Here is my game!” I would proclaim loudly, “tell me what you think!”
You can guess what happened next: Nothing at all. People would invariably freeze up for two reasons. The first is that they did not know what to do. The second is that they were afraid of doing the wrong thing.
This was my introduction to user testing. I quickly learned I should add animations to my mobile games to help drive decision-making and button pressing. This was the first of many places where I added subtle pieces of animation to help unfreeze people in possession of one of my mobile games. I should have learned this lesson years before while playing Bejeweled. If you stared at their match three board long enough without finding three in a row, it would give you a subtle hint that there was a possible match. I confess to being so focused on getting that dopamine fix from counting to three that I may have missed the learning moment.
This is an essential thing for game developers to learn. Okay, there two things game developers should learn. First, you should always try to put your game into “n00b” players’ hands to see whether your game explains itself without you, the developer, talking. Your players might not survive by their wits alone. Second, player testing is incredibly valuable. The more people who play your game who satisfy the requirement of being “not you,” the better off your final product will be.
That’s it. That is the whole post.
See you all soon!
