Post on 19-Feb-2017
Towards a PX frameworkAnders Drachen, Lennart Nacke
Content
What is UX and PX?
Games: not productivity tools
Towards a PX framework?
Background
User experience in games is gaining momentum (or no EPEX11)
Past decade a ton of new research and industry attention
Research touches upon a number of fields (HCI, CS, Neuroscience, Media, Psychology, AI, Informatics, Data Mining,Physiology etc.)
What is PX?
Terminology? (non-existent)
Player Experience – User Experience in Games – Gameplay Experience – Game Experience – Play Experience….
Let´s please just agree on something – anything!
Here we use play experience
What is PX?
PX is something that occurs before, during and after we play games …
Most interest in the ”during” - PX in runtime:
Wow this is cool! I´m bored …S¤&% run! Run! Run!Mhmmm … night elves …… deep concentration …
What is PX?
ISO 9241-210 defines user experience as:
"a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service".
User experience is subjective and focused on the use of something.
What is PX?
Additional ISO notes:
User experience includes all the users' emotions, beliefs, preferences, perceptions, physical and psychological responses, behaviors and accomplishments that occur before, during and after use -> temporal factor.
Three factors that influence user experience: system properties, user state and the context of use.
What is PX? Example: John is
playing RIFT in a net café - what affects his PX?
Context: The physical properties of the café
Social: The influence of other people present physically and those in the RIFT environment
John
RIFT
What is PX? Temporal: the duration fo play and when he
plays, constraints on time (10 minutes to server maintenance…)
Infrastructural: Server breakdowns, network outages
Task: The specific task of playing RIFT is an example of a two-way task
System: The RIFT GUI, game system and the cafés hosting system
What is PX?
The sum of experiences: Using one aspect of RIFT will impact on the
experience of other aspects. The overall PX is not just a sum of small
experiences – some enhance each other, some are more important to John, etc.
PX is the end result of all of these incluences = emotional state and attitudes of the user (towards RIFT)
(often at a given point in time, e.g. after a playtest).
What is PX? But wait, there is more!:
Aspects outside the specific interaction period potentially important: Brand recognition, pricing, peer opinions, etc.
Often research focus on: PX during interaction (emotion evaluation) long-term/episoidic PX (attitudes)
Methods to evaluate these temporal levels vary – as do design approaches
What is PX?
That is a lot of things to consider when playtesting or evaluating a game!
And now it get´s worse …
Games are different beasts than productivity applications: PX is king.
PX optimized, complex,time
How are games different?
PX optimized
Focus on entertainment, not productivity (usability)
Every aspect of a game must be made to optimize PX
Usability likely assists PX
How are games different?Complexity
Contemporary commercial games can be massively complex pieces of software
Thousands of potential user actions
Users can even change games! (modding)
How are games different?Time
The temporal dimension is central, both for design and assessment – measures of PX are heavily influenced by the temporal dimension
Towards a PX framework
The challenge is clear – how to proceed?
Towards a PX framework
Knowledge from UX, UX design and usability
Theoretical models of PX – none are inclusive of all aspects
Empirical research – hard data on PX - but situation-specific
Towards a PX framework
Get the pieces organized …
Important dimensions:
Time
Abstraction
Agents
Towards a PX frameworkTwo important agents in play:
Designer creates the game with the intent of creating an experience
Player interacts with the game and experiences something, but framed in the context of use etc.
Towards a PX framework3 levels of abstraction:
System: Concretely graspable and technical game system experience
Player: Individual player experience that influences and is influenced by the perceptive and operational actions of the player
Context: Processed experience. Abstract experience level, shaped by the player interacting with others, technologies, brands, etc.
Towards a PX framework
Time operatesat all levels of abstraction
Past experiences influence the present
Current experiences influence the future
Towards a PX framework
Assemblingthe dimensions
Towards a PX framework
And we still have not talked about the actualElements of PX (emotions,attitudes , flow, etc.)
EngagementFunFlowChallengeEmotionAttitudes…
Thank you