What Is the User Experience?


What Is the User Experience?

User experience : The term sounds suspiciously like a couple of strung-together buzzwords you'd expect to see on poor advertising copy. Obviously, that's an impression we'd rather dispel as quickly as possible, so let's attempt to "debuzzify" the term by describing exactly what we mean.

We define the user experience as the total package presented to the player when she plays the game. It is the combination of three distinct areas of the design ”the visual element, the audio element, and the interactive element ”and is concerned with their impact on the user interface. The following sections give a brief pr cis of what we'll be covering in more detail.

NOTE

To read more details on user experience, see The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett ( 2003 New Riders Publishing).


The Interactive Element

The interactive part of the user experience is concerned with the way the player interacts with the game. This is tied in closely with the visual aspect but is more concerned with the "feel" part of "the look and feel." Here, we are concerned with the functional aspects of the user interface ”the navigational pathways through the system ”and the physical controller setup. How the interface looks is considered only as far as it affects the usability.

The Visual Element

The visual element concerns the "look" part of the "look and feel." Here, we consider the overall impact of the artwork and how it meshes and combines to present an overall consistent picture to the player. This is closely related to the interactive experience ”one has a direct influence on the other ”but we will attempt to discuss the areas separately and explain where there is crossover between the two.

The Audio Element

Often, the audio parts of a game are not considered in as much depth as the visual "in-your-face" areas of the game. However, audio is just as important for both atmosphere and player feedback as the visual components . Even though sound is often in third place after the visual and interactive elements, the fact that many games are unplayable without it clearly indicates the importance of sound. (Although, strictly speaking, no game should be designed that necessitates sound. That unfairly discriminates against the hearing impaired.)



Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design
Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design
ISBN: 1592730019
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 148

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