Primary User Group

Navigation / Quick Links

• Save State Design Introduction
• Primary User Group <--You're Here
• Justification for existence
• User test to identify location
• Save State Design – Welcome Screen
• Save State Design Gameplay screen
  • Sprint 1 Design Gameplay screen
  • Sprint 2 Design Gameplay screen
• Final Design Style
• User testing session - final design
• Appendix
  • User Test – Save State Location
  • Sprint 1 Save State Design Gameplay screen
  • Sprint 2 Survey Save Game Icon Design
  • Sprint 2 Survey Load Game Icon Design
  • Insights from Final User Testing Session

To identify who our users are and whether they would derive any value from implementation of the Save and Load game state we referred to the target audience analysis from the Sprint 2 phase where we looked beyond traditional characteristics of the user group like age, location, favorite device [1]. Instead, we tried to understand values, struggles and motivations [2]. As a result, we identified several types of potential users among which was the “Super Swiper” user group, also known as a “The Time Fillers” [3] – people who have casual interaction with video games. To build on top of existing research into target audience we created a persona – fictional character that closely resembles the needs of “super swipers”. This persona served as a ground base for the research when we were looking for an audience to conduct user tests and interviews related to the save and load state functionality.

Persona Profile

Original Photo

• Name: Carla Lewis
• Quote: “I play games only in my spare time. I don’t want to be distracted from my life”

Brief Story

Carla is happily married for 10 years and mostly spends her time with 2 children Elisa 8 and John 9. In her youth, Carla used to be a vivid gamer but now work and family occupy most of her time. She doesn’t consider herself a gamer anymore and has little to no interest in gaming content. She mostly plays to pass the time, for example, waiting for a friend or while driving in the bus therefore she would never spend a lot of money on hardware. She has couple of favorite games in which she plays all the time. Carla likes fun and simple retro games with quickly accessible and easy to understand interface. Games she likes require little strategic thinking like solving simple puzzles or building a world because they remind her of the games she used to play in the past. She also enjoys games with an interesting storyline. She hates complicated games because they require a decent amount of time to learn and understand.

Demographic:

• Age: 36
• Sex: Female
• Occupation: Full time job in marketing
• Degree: Master of Business and Economics
• Country: Sydney, Australia
• Personality: hectic, ambitious, adventurous, extrovert, fun

Interests:

• Travel, outdoor camping, and hiking
• Watching movies at home with family
• Spending time with her best friend in the café
• Listening to fantasy and history audiobooks

Motivations in game Accomplishment, completion, basic strategy, storyline

Goals

1. To play a game with an interesting story
2. To have a sense of accomplishment
3. Play simple games that require little to no experience

Pain Points

• Too complicated games that require strategic thinking or complex interface
• Boring games with no immersion into the story
• Lack of familiarity with the game UI can cause frustration
• Hates when the progress is lost, and she must start over

Needs

• Continue playing the game in her spare time when nobody is at home
• Game that can be played for a short time without the need to spend countless hours
• Retro game with good graphics and quality sound
• Have a simple game interface which require little to no understanding

In conclusion, once we identified our primary user group, the next step was to evaluate whether the above persona need an actual save state in the game

Reflection: One of the reasons why we focused on researching persona is to understand whether our user group needs a Safe State functionality. Second reason, however, was to simply help and assist other teams in their pursuit to design or introduce the feature that would be enjoyable and useful for players. They can save time by referring to the persona and target audience analysis and allocate more resources to other tasks at hand.

References [Appendix]

[1] J. Gardner, “Storylines,” SubStance, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 53–69, 2011, doi: 10.1353/sub.2011.0008 https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/stable/41300188?sid=primo

[2] GlobalWebIndex Q3 2019, Gaming Category, “An exploration of how the gaming landscape is changing” https://www.gwi.com/hubfs/Downloads/Gaming-trends-2019.pdf

[3] Activision Blizzard Media, “Modern Gamer Personas” https://www.activisionblizzardmedia.com/content/dam/atvi/ab-media/gamer-identity/Gallery_of_the_Gamer_-_Modern_Gamer_Personas.pdf