Heuristic Evaluation-Group:Group Phi-tus
From CS 160 Fall 2008
Contents |
Problem
We're evaluating "Formal Logic," which is a classy dining simulator game that tries to teach proper fancy dining techniques through gaming.
Violations Found
The best way to ensure that all violations are considered is to go through them all, one by one.
- [H2-1:Visibility of system status][severity: 0]
- The visibility of system status seemed to be adequate as there was never a case where a user might be confused as to whats going on after having clicked a button.
- [H2-2:Match system and real world][severity: 3]
- The interface that Team Ate used seemed to do a more than adequate job of ensuring that real world figures/ideas/metaphors/etc.. matched their system. The smiley face, for example, is a great indicator of success or failure. Also, the fork and knife cursor was a great way to match their system and the real world.
- [severity: 3] I found the controls to be quite awkward. The mapping just did not make sense to me even after several game plays. I did eventually get the hang of it but even still using perhaps a set of key stroked or even a different input for each action, rather than having left and right click mean multiple actions depending on where you are at in the process.
- [severity: 3] Left and right clicking is hard to be intuitive, especially if there is very little directional behaviors to imply a left or right click. For example, it may be intuitive to use the utensil in your left hand, and right click for the utensil in your right hand, but the screen faces the in-game character, meaning left and right are switched. Then, the left click must be used again to pass the salt, which makes clicking even less intuitive. A click and drag motion may be more intuitive than simple clicking.
- [H2-3:User control and freedom][severity: 2]
- [severity: 2]The title screen seemed to be the only one that afforded the user a way out/escape. The subsequent screens in the game had only an exit button -- not allowing the user to return to the home screen.
- [H2-4:Consistency and standards][severity: 0]
- There did not appear to be any consistency and standard heuristic violations
- [H2-5:Error prevention][severity: 2]
- There appeared to be adequate error prevention in the user interface. upon performing an incorrect task, the user was "guided" by the smiley face.
- [severity: 1]Errors were met with a buzzing that was rather disconcerting although it did let me know I was performing an incorrect task. However, I felt more like a lab rat than I was receiving a helpful hint.
- [H2-6:Recognition rather than recall][severity: 2]
- Its hard to judge this one due to the fact that this is a game and recall is inevitable and unavoidable. However, we should still point out that actions that the user must perform (like cutting the meat prior to eating) do require recall since it is not easily recognized how to perform a particular task without prior understanding as to how to perform it. On a plus side, since as the came proceeds, actions remain similar or identical so recognition rather than recall is used effectively.
- [severity: 2]I had to remember where I was in the eating process in order to remember if I was supposed to right click or single click. There was however, a good attempt to try to show you where you were in the process but it was still cumbersome to try to remember the next step. Perhaps this is just an implementation flaw that would be better recognized had there been time for a full implementation of the animation.
- [H2-7:Flexibility and efficiency of use][severity: 0]
- This heuristic does not really apply since this is a game and all actions must be performed in a particular fashion.
- [H2-8:Aesthetic and minimalist design][severity: 0]
- The user interface did not appear to have violated this heuristic.
- [H2-9:Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors][severity: 1]
- [severity: 1]Again, as stated in the H2-5 Error prevention, the smiley acted as the aid to diagnosing problems that occur. It did not appear that the interface itself had problems that could not be resolved easily.
- [severity: 1]It would have been great that when I did something wrong and got the "buzzing" to have perhaps been gently guided toward the correct steps or even a set of possible actions by maybe some kind of highlighting of objects or a popup.
- [H2-10:Help and documentation][severity: 3]
- [severity: 3]There was no evident help or documentation outside of the before-mentioned smiley face.
Summary of violations
Each of our violations has a corresponding rating of severity. It should be noted to the reader that these ratings are GROUP ratings and not individual ones.
Note: Each violation should have a corresponding SEVERITY RATING: choose from (cosmetic, minor, major, catastrophic)
| Severity | Count |
|---|---|
| 1: Cosmetic | ? |
| 2: Minor | ? |
| 3: Major | ? |
| 4: Catastrophic | ? |
| Heuristic | Severity | Count |
|---|---|---|
| H2-1 | 1 cosmetic | 0 |
| 2 minor | 0 | |
| 3 major | 0 | |
| 4 catastrophic | 0 | |
| Sub Total | 0 | |
| H2-2 | 1 cosmetic | 1 |
| 2 minor | 1 | |
| 3 major | 2 | |
| 4 catastrophic | 0 | |
| Sub Total | 4 | |
| H2-3 | 1 cosmetic | 0 |
| 2 minor | 2 | |
| 3 major | 0 | |
| 4 catastrophic | 0 | |
| Sub Total | 2 | |
| H2-4 | 1 cosmetic | 0 |
| 2 minor | 0 | |
| 3 major | 0 | |
| 4 catastrophic | 0 | |
| Sub Total | 0 | |
| H2-5 | 1 cosmetic | 2 |
| 2 minor | 1 | |
| 3 major | 0 | |
| 4 catastrophic | 0 | |
| Sub Total | 3 | |
| H2-6 | 1 cosmetic | 2 |
| 2 minor | 2 | |
| 3 major | 0 | |
| 4 catastrophic | 0 | |
| Sub Total | 4 | |
| H2-7 | 1 cosmetic | 0 |
| 2 minor | 0 | |
| 3 major | 0 | |
| 4 catastrophic | 0 | |
| Sub Total | 0 | |
| H2-8 | 1 cosmetic | 0 |
| 2 minor | 0 | |
| 3 major | 0 | |
| 4 catastrophic | 0 | |
| Sub Total | 0 | |
| H2-9 | 1 cosmetic | 4 |
| 2 minor | 0 | |
| 3 major | 0 | |
| 4 catastrophic | 0 | |
| Sub Total | 4 | |
| H2-10 | 1 cosmetic | 0 |
| 2 minor | 0 | |
| 3 major | 1 | |
| 4 catastrophic | 1 | |
| Sub Total | 2 | |
| Total | 19 | |
Recommendations
[Kevin's Recommendations]
Make game such that the game prepare you adequately enough prior to attending a fancy dinner party.
Possibly add more "fun factors" as I can see the game getting dull pretty quick (which, if I'm not mistaken, is the purpose of it being a game and not a tutorial).
Possibly make game more Challenging in a more creative way than passing bread and salt&pepper back and forth while trying to eat properly. You said something about “pacing a meal… How can this be done without some kind of indicator of how others are doing at the table in terms of their progress?
- pacing meter would solve this –but a bit dull counter-intuitive?
Still don’t see how the “confusion” of which fork to use has been solved…. Is this a future improvement?
Is there an incentive to replay game once finished, or is it like a tutorial that, once completed, there is no reason to continue?
Instead of just having the audio "buzz" sound when there is a illegal action, it could be very helpful for the smiley face to prompt user what's wrong which could help user to recognize the problem and suggest some possible solutions that could help user to recover from error.
The game kept crashing on me after I finished eating, too full?, so I don't know if there is actually an option to continue after finishing. Regardless, it wasn't clear how to actually complete the 2nd task as there are no modes and there was no way to eat a meal without interruptions; perhaps a coming feature? Also, there is a cup in the interface and as drinking is usually part of the dinning experience I was expecting to be able to drink out of the cup during my meal.
[Frank's Recommendations]
While I may feel that I will definitely pass the salt should I ever be asked to at a formal meal, I feel like I would still be lost as to which plate, which fork, or which glass to use or drink from in a formal setting. Addressing those issues may require large design changes, so that may not be feasible. However, while the game may be a little hectic with all the passing of items and "distractions," I feel like the idea of pacing a meal really throws things off the pace of the game as a whole. The player will try to finish the distractions as frantically and fast as possible, but then all of a sudden they have to switch gears to pace themselves to complete the presumed "objective" of the game: to finish the meal. It's similar to saying you have to complete this level of Mario in the fastest time possible, but it's one of those levels where the screen scrolls for you. As mentioned during the presentation, each level will have an additional distraction or level of complexity, but it seems more work to actually play the game than to simply read about etiquette in a book. If the fun factor could be upped a bit, I feel the game would be more successful.
