Building Context Box UI User Testing

User test form design

Team 4,5, & 6 collaborated on user testing for the buildings context box for a more complete result, as described in the wiki here, the context box is a UI element that shows information about a building when it's selected, team 4 & 5 worked on making the backed UI component and designing its layout, team 6 made additions to the context box, wherein they added relevant backend code and UI elements to spawn new units and level up certain buildings such as barracks.

User testing was conducted by first asking the users some demographic questions, these include their:

Age Group: 16-19, 20-25, 26+
If they play video games: yes/no
If they play, how often: Likert scale from 1-5, 1 (Never) & 5 (Always)
Genres of games played

We then proceeded to demonstrate the context box in game and ask questions about its discoverability, design, and ease of use, the users were asked to rate their experiences on a scale of 1-5 and allow them to provide any additional feedback.

Users responded to these question in the following Google Form

Results

Results and analysis of the user tests from a pool of 14 respondent, mostly from the 20-25 age group, majority (57.1%) play video games but not very often and they don't play strategy games (RTS, Grand Strategy, etc...). From the results it evident that our designs were consistent with the rest of the game, however, the colour scheme and buttons need improvement.

Design

Design related question were a large part of the user tests, they focused on design consistency, visibility and the color scheme, users were asked the following questions:

Is the information displayed in the context box clearly?
- 1 - 5, Clear - Unclear
The size of the context box is appropriate?
- 1 - 5, Appropriate - Inappropriate.
The design of the context box is consistent with the game's overall design?
- 1 - 5, Consistency - Inconsistency
The colour combination of the context box is good or bad?
- 1 - 5, Good - Bad
The colour of the context box is consistent with the game's design?
- 1 - 5, Consistency - Inconsistency

A majority of the users found that the designs were consistent, good visibility of relevant information and fit into then game's art style, however some felt like it did not fit the games genre and had certain expectations of its art style, one user highlighted the following:

Is the game still set under the sea? If so, the bubbles and seaweed make sense in the context box, but otherwise they're not quite consistent.

Others were not very clear on what the buttons did and found that their design didn't fit into the game style and a majority did not like the colour combinations.