user testing typhon
- Introduction
- Target audience analysis
- Justification for existence
- User Testing Design
- Low fidelity sketches
- User Testing “Typhon” <--You're Here
- Animation
- Appendix
Referring to the Justification for existence of the final boss we argued that introducing an antagonist in the final scene of the game seems a more reasonable approach to end the Atlantis Sinks game. This is because participants want to experience the feeling of being victorious, winning the final battle by defeating the main villain [Appendix: User Interviews - Final Boss].
Consequently, as seen in the Figure 3 when the high fidelity art was produced, we needed to further investigate whether the designed version corresponds to the user expectations. In simple words, we wanted to know whether the designed version of "Typhon" will truly be perceived as a prime evil in the game, and if not, what could be done better.
We conducted additional user testing sessions in the form of a questionnaire where we used open ended questions, as well as a quantitative type where participants needed to rate on a scale from 1 to 10 [Appendix: User Testing Details - “Typhon” High Fidelity Design]. Data from the questionnaire provided insights to the following questions:
Yes, according to the insights provided by the majority, the high fidelity concept is perceived as an evil main monster, boss, an enemy who wants to destroy Atlantis.
As shown in Figure 4 we asked participants to rate on a scale from 1 to 10 whether they think that our main boss concept accurately resembles the main theme of the game. Almost 90% of respondents think that it is thematically correct design concept. In addition to the quantitative data, we asked participants to explain the reason for their choice. Derived data from qualitative analysis points to these associations: mythology, underwater Atlantis, trident, mystical, Greece, sea life.
3. Evaluate whether people will perceive our design concept as a primary villain, an antagonist in the game or it's just one more secondary character?
First, we wanted to identify who is the strongest character in the game. As seen in Figure 5, almost 80% of respondents perceive our design concept as the most powerful entity.
In addition, when we asked participants to express whether they think the concept is horrifying or strikes fear, as seen in Figure 6 almost 75% agreed that it indeed feels dangerous. As one user puts it: “It has a very godly presence hence you wouldn't expect that creature to care for humans or have a moral code.” and another confirms this assumption by stating that: “This image of a centaur with a dragon head still looks terrifying”.
Psychologically, it seems that users associate red color schemes with danger. As one participant mentioned: “Red & pointy horns means danger”. In comparison, green color strikes no fear and makes people feel comfortable as one user states: “I do not feel endangered by the green dragon”. Thus, we can infer that dark gray and deep red color palettes could be used not only to design enemies but such colors can also be referenced in other places (buildings, obstacles, towers) that require attention or if we need to make them distinctive.
Based on the above user feedback, the red colour scheme was chosen over the green colour scheme for the final boss. Additionally, a distinctive lined grey belly was added on the body so the enemy's body would more closely resemble that of a dragon's. This change was made as a couple of users were confused about what the body of the enemy represents and made the following comments: 1) "Is it a dragon or demon?"; 2) "I think you should focus more on the body... add some other elements [because] it's not clear what your character is made of?... looks like a dragon". One user also suggested making the head of the dragon more intimidating ("the dragon face looks a bit cute so not super intimidating..."); however, this opinion was classified as an outlier as the majority of users associated words like "intimidating", "scary" and "angry" with the character so the dragon head was not modified.
Below is the design of the final boss enemy after changes were made:
To summarize, insights from the qualitative and quantitative analysis derived from the questionnaire show that the high fidelity design concept is indeed associated with the final boss or the primary evil in the game. Moreover, it strikes fear, feels dangerous and perceived as the strongest enemy. Finally, the concept has strong ties with Atlantis' theme and accurately resembles those times not only from a user's point of view but also from historical.