Physiological User Research On the Usability of Psychophysiological User Research for the Games Industry
3rd Annual Games User Research Summit of the IGDA GUR SIG
Lennart Nacke @acagamic
Download from http://phd.acagamic.com
Quantitative measures of gameplay experience
• Physiological responses
• Behaviour metrics
• Questionnaires
• Logging
Quick Hitlist
1. GSR
2. EMG
3. Cardio (EKG,HR,BVP)
4. EEG
5. Other brain imaging
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
Continuous Recording
• Not interrupting play • Don’t break experience • No memory bias • Wearing sensors
1
Physiological success metric • Link between ideal
experience and physiological responses
• Financial success games • Critical success games
4 Street Fighter IV (Capcom) Screenshot
Context Influence • Human body • Real world • Sensitivity
5
CC by The World According To Marty (Flickr)
Three activity components • External physical • Internal emotional • Internal cognitive
6 CC by familymwr (Flickr)
Noise and confounds • Signal-to-noise ratio • Experimental protocol • Record with more sensors
7
CC by Andrew Morrell Photography (Flickr)
Record ALL the data • Better analysis through
correlation with metrics • Used mixed methods to
get subjective results in addition
10 Screenshot by Anders Drachen and Alessandro Canossa
User eXperience
• Volatile/Feeling
• Knowledge/Learning
Kahneman’s
memory of experiences
Peak-end rule
End of event more important for encoding of experience
CC by Pink Sherbet Photography (Flickr)
Our 2 selves “We choose between memories of experiences” (Kahneman)
• Experiencing
• Remembering
CC by Robert Snache - Spirithands.net (Flickr)
Takeaway
Emotional experiences are important in games for financial and for critical success, but most important for memorability.
Keep in mind the complexity of physiological recording and analysis. This approach will only yield meaningful results if it is used correctly and with care. There is no quick fix.
THANKS! ASK ME ANYTHING
[email protected] @acagamic (Twitter) facebook.com/hcigames
Images © Lennart Nacke unless different CC license noted on Slide
Top Related