Research Article
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User Experience Evaluation from a Player's Perspective: Casual Mobile Games

Year 2023, Volume: 14 Issue: 2, 1 - 13, 25.10.2023
https://doi.org/10.34231/iuyd.1345872

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the user experience of casual mobile games from a player's perspective. The study explores user experiences in many aspects, from the beginning of the game to the use of game controls, visual design and communication, and monetization. This research was conducted by asking questions about the purpose of the study to thirty-four participants through face-to-face interviews. The data collection process was conducted through extensive interviews and explanatory responses from the participants. The results showed that casual mobile game players shared their experiences in many aspects, from the training process to the game flow. The training process made a significant contribution the players' understanding of game mechanics. It has been observed that controls are generally easy to use; however, specific controls may present difficulties. Players highlighted the effects of visual design and interfaces on the game atmosphere. Communication and team collaboration have emerged as important factors in influencing players’ experiences. This study contributes to the field by presenting a versatile assessment of player experience in casual mobile games. A wide range of themes, from basic game mechanics to user interface and from communication to monetization, enhance the contributions of the study. This study has some limitations. The fact that the interviews were based on subjective responses indicates that generalization may be limited. In addition, it it is important to note that participants may have different gaming experiences, and the results may vary depending on these experiences.

References

  • Aggelopoulou, V., & Mavrommati, I. (2014). Mobile phone casual games design with appeal to children. In HCI International 2014-Posters’ Extended Abstracts: International Conference, HCI International 2014, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, June 22-27, 2014. Proceedings, Part II 16, 366-370, Springer International Publishing.
  • Arksey, H., & Knight, P. T. (1999). Interviewing for social scientists: An introductory resource with examples. Sage.
  • Boughzala, I., de Vreede, G. J., & Limayem, M. (2012). Team collaboration in virtual worlds: Editorial to the special issue. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 13(10), 714-734.
  • Cohard, P. (2019). Evaluation of serious game user experience: the role of emotions. Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, 22(2), 128-141.
  • Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011, September). From game design elements to gamefulness: defining" gamification". In Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, 9-15.
  • Elson, M., Breuer, J., Ivory, J. D., & Quandt, T. (2014). More than stories with buttons: Narrative, mechanics, and context as determinants of player experience in digital games. Journal of Communication, 64(3), 521-542.
  • Fitchat, L., & Jordaan, D. B. (2016). Ten heuristics to evaluate the user experience of serious games. International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanity Studies, 8(2), 209-225.
  • Hajinejad, N., Sheptykin, I., Grüter, B., Worpenberg, A., Lochwitz, A., Oswald, D., & Vatterrott, H. R. (2011). Casual mobile gameplay-on integrated practices of research, design and play. In DiGRA Conference.
  • Hashim, H. A., Ab Hamid, S. H., & Sabri, M. I. M. (2008). Analysis on types of mobile games played among the IHL students in Malaysia. WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications, 5(4), 349-355. Jørgensen, K. (2012). Players as coresearchers: Expert player perspective as an aid to understanding games. Simulation & Gaming, 43(3), 374-390.
  • Kosmadoudi, Z., Lim, T., Ritchie, J., Louchart, S., Liu, Y., & Sung, R. (2013). Engineering design using game-enhanced CAD: The potential to augment the user experience with game elements. Computer-Aided Design, 45(3), 777-795.
  • Landis, J. R., and Koch, G.G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159-174.
  • Moizer, J., Lean, J., Dell’Aquila, E., Walsh, P., Keary, A. A., O'Byrne, D., ... & Sica, L. S. (2019). An approach to evaluating the user experience of serious games. Computers & Education, 136, 141-151.
  • Özdemir, M. (2013). Resmi genel liselerin eğitsel amaçlarının ‘misyon’ cümlelerine dayalı olarak çözümlenmesi. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 28(1), 281-293.
  • Penttinen, E., Rossi, M., & Tuunainen, V. K. (2010). Mobile games: Analyzing the needs and values of the consumers. Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA), 11(1), 1-10.
  • Sellar, T. (2004). User experience in interactive computer game development. In Computer Human Interaction: 6th Asia Pacific Conference, APCHI 2004, Rotorua, New Zealand, June 29-July 2, 2004. Proceedings 6, 675-681, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
  • Shi, Y. R., & Shih, J. L. (2015). Game factors and game-based learning design model. International Journal of Computer Games Technology, 2015, 1-11.
  • Xudong, L., Meijiao, G., Kangqing, L., & Zhiwei, Q. (2016). Analyzing the influencing factors of mobile game consumption. In 2016 13th International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management (ICSSSM), 1-6.
  • Yıldırım A. ve Şimşek H. (2018). Sosyal Bilimlerde Nitel Araştırma Yöntemleri. Seçkin Yayıncılık, Ankara.
  • Zamri, K. Y., & Tan, H. K. (2022). Evaluating Educational Game via User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Elements. EDUCATUM Journal of Social Sciences, 8, 1-9.
  • Zhu, M., & Fang, X. (2014). Introducing a revised lexical approach to study user experience in game play by analyzing online reviews. In Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Interactive Entertainment, 1-8.

Bir oyuncunun gözünden kullanıcı deneyimi değerlendirmesi: Casual mobil oyunlar

Year 2023, Volume: 14 Issue: 2, 1 - 13, 25.10.2023
https://doi.org/10.34231/iuyd.1345872

Abstract

Bu çalışma, casual mobil oyunların oyuncu perspektifinden kullanıcı deneyimini derinlemesine değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Oyun başlangıcından başlayarak kontrollerin kullanımına, görsel tasarıma ve oyunda iletişimden monetizasyona kadar geniş bir yelpazede kullanıcı deneyimi ele alınmaktadır. Bu araştırma yüz yüze görüşme yoluyla otuz dört katılımcıya çalışmanın amacına ilişkin sorular yöneltilerek gerçekleştirilmiştir. Veri toplama süreci kapsamlı görüşmeler ve katılımcıların açıklayıcı yanıtları ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışma sonucunda, casual mobil oyun oyuncularının eğitim sürecinden oyun akışına kadar birçok yönüyle deneyimlerini paylaştığı görülmüştür. Eğitim sürecinin oyuncuların mekanikleri anlamalarına önemli bir katkı sağladığı belirtilmiştir. Kontrollerin kullanımının genellikle kolay olduğu, ancak belirli kontrollerin zorluklar yaratabildiği gözlemlenmiştir. Oyuncular, görsel tasarımın ve arayüzün oyun atmosferine olan etkisini vurgulamışlardır. İletişim ve takım iş birliği, oyuncuların deneyimini şekillendiren önemli faktörler olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu çalışma, casual mobil oyunlar bağlamında oyuncu deneyiminin çok yönlü bir değerlendirmesini sunarak alana orijinal bir katkı sağlamaktadır. Temel oyun mekaniklerinden kullanıcı arayüzüne, iletişimden monetizasyona kadar geniş bir yelpazede ele alınan temalar, çalışmanın katkılarını zenginleştirmektedir. Çalışmanın bazı sınırlılıkları bulunmaktadır. Görüşmelerin öznel yanıtlara dayanması, genellemelerin sınırlı olabileceğini göstermektedir. Ayrıca, katılımcıların farklı oyun deneyimlerine sahip olabileceği ve sonuçların bu deneyimlere bağlı olarak değişebileceği unutulmamalıdır.

References

  • Aggelopoulou, V., & Mavrommati, I. (2014). Mobile phone casual games design with appeal to children. In HCI International 2014-Posters’ Extended Abstracts: International Conference, HCI International 2014, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, June 22-27, 2014. Proceedings, Part II 16, 366-370, Springer International Publishing.
  • Arksey, H., & Knight, P. T. (1999). Interviewing for social scientists: An introductory resource with examples. Sage.
  • Boughzala, I., de Vreede, G. J., & Limayem, M. (2012). Team collaboration in virtual worlds: Editorial to the special issue. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 13(10), 714-734.
  • Cohard, P. (2019). Evaluation of serious game user experience: the role of emotions. Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, 22(2), 128-141.
  • Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011, September). From game design elements to gamefulness: defining" gamification". In Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, 9-15.
  • Elson, M., Breuer, J., Ivory, J. D., & Quandt, T. (2014). More than stories with buttons: Narrative, mechanics, and context as determinants of player experience in digital games. Journal of Communication, 64(3), 521-542.
  • Fitchat, L., & Jordaan, D. B. (2016). Ten heuristics to evaluate the user experience of serious games. International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanity Studies, 8(2), 209-225.
  • Hajinejad, N., Sheptykin, I., Grüter, B., Worpenberg, A., Lochwitz, A., Oswald, D., & Vatterrott, H. R. (2011). Casual mobile gameplay-on integrated practices of research, design and play. In DiGRA Conference.
  • Hashim, H. A., Ab Hamid, S. H., & Sabri, M. I. M. (2008). Analysis on types of mobile games played among the IHL students in Malaysia. WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications, 5(4), 349-355. Jørgensen, K. (2012). Players as coresearchers: Expert player perspective as an aid to understanding games. Simulation & Gaming, 43(3), 374-390.
  • Kosmadoudi, Z., Lim, T., Ritchie, J., Louchart, S., Liu, Y., & Sung, R. (2013). Engineering design using game-enhanced CAD: The potential to augment the user experience with game elements. Computer-Aided Design, 45(3), 777-795.
  • Landis, J. R., and Koch, G.G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159-174.
  • Moizer, J., Lean, J., Dell’Aquila, E., Walsh, P., Keary, A. A., O'Byrne, D., ... & Sica, L. S. (2019). An approach to evaluating the user experience of serious games. Computers & Education, 136, 141-151.
  • Özdemir, M. (2013). Resmi genel liselerin eğitsel amaçlarının ‘misyon’ cümlelerine dayalı olarak çözümlenmesi. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 28(1), 281-293.
  • Penttinen, E., Rossi, M., & Tuunainen, V. K. (2010). Mobile games: Analyzing the needs and values of the consumers. Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA), 11(1), 1-10.
  • Sellar, T. (2004). User experience in interactive computer game development. In Computer Human Interaction: 6th Asia Pacific Conference, APCHI 2004, Rotorua, New Zealand, June 29-July 2, 2004. Proceedings 6, 675-681, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
  • Shi, Y. R., & Shih, J. L. (2015). Game factors and game-based learning design model. International Journal of Computer Games Technology, 2015, 1-11.
  • Xudong, L., Meijiao, G., Kangqing, L., & Zhiwei, Q. (2016). Analyzing the influencing factors of mobile game consumption. In 2016 13th International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management (ICSSSM), 1-6.
  • Yıldırım A. ve Şimşek H. (2018). Sosyal Bilimlerde Nitel Araştırma Yöntemleri. Seçkin Yayıncılık, Ankara.
  • Zamri, K. Y., & Tan, H. K. (2022). Evaluating Educational Game via User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Elements. EDUCATUM Journal of Social Sciences, 8, 1-9.
  • Zhu, M., & Fang, X. (2014). Introducing a revised lexical approach to study user experience in game play by analyzing online reviews. In Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Interactive Entertainment, 1-8.
There are 20 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Digital Marketing
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Gökhan Akel 0000-0003-4353-7855

Publication Date October 25, 2023
Published in Issue Year 2023 Volume: 14 Issue: 2

Cite

APA Akel, G. (2023). User Experience Evaluation from a Player’s Perspective: Casual Mobile Games. İnternet Uygulamaları Ve Yönetimi Dergisi, 14(2), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.34231/iuyd.1345872