Basic Usability Techniques

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Asking questions is a vital part of conducting a playtesting session, but there are other methods for eliciting good responses. Some of these include techniques commonly employed in usability labs. Usability research involves real people using products and giving their feedback before those products are marketed to the public. In the next sections we've listed three techniques that you can apply to game testing.

Don't lead

You'll learn the most from your testers by quietly observing them play. If a playtester asks a question, respond by asking them to describe what they think they should do. If they reach an impasse while playing, then you've identified something important that needs to be fixed.

Quantitative data

In addition to taking notes on what players like and don't like, on what they pick up quickly and have difficulty grasping, use feedback forms to generate data that shows trends. After a playtest session, you can use this quantitative data to prioritize the severity of issues.

Some game companies work with professional usability experts who may employ more sophisticated methods and use special facilities for playtesting. If you have the budget, this can be extremely beneficial. Not only do professional labs tend to produce superior results, but you can learn from the process and apply some of their methodology to your in-house playtesting sessions.

Ask testers to think out loud

It's easy to see where testers have problems by observing them. However, it's often harder to understand why. Ask your testers to explain to you what's going inside their heads as they play. Their commentary will provide a window into the game and will help you figure out solutions to problems you might not even know existed. Most people aren't used to thinking out loud, so you may have to help them get started.

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