Playability heuristics for mobile games | Proceedings of the 8th conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services (original) (raw)

Published: 12 September 2006 Publication History

Abstract

Expert evaluation is a widely used method for evaluating the usability of software products. When evaluating games, traditional usability heuristics lack comprehension and cannot be directly applied. In this paper, we introduce playability heuristics that are specifically designed for evaluating mobile games. Heuristics form a core model that can be used in any mobile game evaluation. The model consists of three modules: Game Usability, Mobility, and Gameplay. The mobile context has some unique characteristics, which require special attention during the evaluation. These characteristics are described in mobility heuristics. Mobile devices also set some of their own requirements for general usability and these issues are described along with game usability heuristics. These heuristics have been developed by using an iterative design process of a mobile game. In addition, we have validated the heuristics and evaluated five mobile games by using them with the expert evaluation method. The results indicate that playability problems, which violate game usability or mobility heuristics, are quite easy to identify. Gameplay problems are harder to find, but gameplay heuristics help in evaluation and focus on different aspects of the gameplay.

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MobileHCI '06: Proceedings of the 8th conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services

September 2006

320 pages

Copyright © 2006 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 12 September 2006

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  1. evaluation
  2. heuristics
  3. mobile games
  4. playability
  5. usability

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Hannu Korhonen

Nokia Research Center, Tampere, Finland

Elina M. I. Koivisto

Nokia Research Center, Tampere, Finland