Usability Testing

Gaming, Psychology, Usability, Web Design

What Do Your Customers Think of Your Product?


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In order to improve the user experience, you have to start by observing customers interacting with your product. The first step to improving your own UX (and reaping the business benefits) is to conduct a usability assessment of your product, software or website. This process uncovers the most common problems. Often, usage analytics indicate UX issues

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Development, HCI, Usability

Good UX Is Good Business: How To Reap Its Benefits


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User experience (UX) design focuses on enhancing user satisfaction by improving how we interact with the websites, applications and devices in our lives. In other words, UX makes complex things easy to use. While the term “UX” is relatively new, the concept of user-friendly design has been around for generations. “Good design is good business,” the

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Gaming, HCI, Psychology, Usability

UX Without User Research Is Not UX


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Summary: UX teams are responsible for creating desirable experiences for users. Yet many organizations fail to include users in the development process. Without customer input, organizations risk creating interfaces that fail. A website’s (or product’s) success depends on how users perceive it. Users assess the usefulness and ease of use of websites as they interact with

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Gaming, HCI, Psychology, Serious Games, Simulations, Usability

Study Reveals Real Reason Behind Gaming Aggression


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A new study has revealed that gamers are more likely to experience feelings of aggression from playing a game when it is too difficult or when the controls are too complicated to master. In comparison, the research found there was “little difference” in levels of aggression when the games themselves depicted violence. Overwhelmingly, the deciding

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Gaming, HCI, Usability

Kinect Gestural UI: First Impressions


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Read the manual before using the interface. (Kinect Adventures) (Yes, it’s a *cute* manual, but these are still instructions to memorize.) Summary: Inconsistent gestures, invisible commands, overlooked warnings, awkward dialog confirmations. But fun to play. Kinect is a new video game system that is fully controlled by bodily movements. It’s vaguely similar to the Wii,

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Gaming, HCI, Psychology, Usability

What’s Wrong With the RITE Method?


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A critique of a common method used in video game usability research Many video game usability practitioners employ a method to test usability within video games, called the ‘RITE’ method, short for Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE). Pioneered at Microsoft Games Studios and Microsoft Research, the RITE method has been adopted by many usability

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