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Using Heuristics to Evaluate the Overall User Experience of Video Games and Advanced Interaction Games

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Book cover Evaluating User Experience in Games

Part of the book series: Human-Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

This chapter describes an approach to evaluating user experience in video games and advanced interaction games (tabletop games) by using heuristics. We provide a short overview of computer games with a focus on advanced interaction games and explain the concept of user-centred design for games. Furthermore, we describe the history of heuristics for video games and the role of user experience of games in general. We propose a framework consisting of three sets of heuristics (game play/game story, virtual interface and tabletop specific) to detect the most critical issues in video games as well as advanced interaction games. To assess its applicability, we compare the results of expert evaluations of five current games with the user experience-based ratings of various game review sites. In the conclusion, we provide an outlook on possible extensions of our approach.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://wii.nintendo.com/

  2. 2.

    http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

  3. 3.

    http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Products/SMART+Table/

  4. 4.

    http://www.neonracer.net/

  5. 5.

    http://mi-lab.org/projects/penwars/

  6. 6.

    http://mi-lab.org/projects/comino

  7. 7.

    http://mi-lab.org/projects/incretable

  8. 8.

    http://mgsuserresearch.com/

  9. 9.

    http://www.GameSpot.com

  10. 10.

    http://www.cost294.org/

  11. 11.

    http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/50134

  12. 12.

    http://www.teamfortress.com/

  13. 13.

    http://www.sacred2.com/

  14. 14.

    http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax

  15. 15.

    http://www.racedrivergrid.com

  16. 16.

    http://siedler.de.ubi.com/

  17. 17.

    http://www.metacritic.com/

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Usability Research and Engineering, Vienna, Austria

    Christina Koeffel, Arjan Geven & Manfred Tscheligi

  2. Media Interaction Lab, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, Hagenberg, Austria

    Wolfgang Hochleitner, Jakob Leitner & Michael Haller

  3. ICT&S Center, Universität of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Manfred Tscheligi

Authors
  1. Christina Koeffel
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  2. Wolfgang Hochleitner
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  3. Jakob Leitner
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  4. Michael Haller
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  5. Arjan Geven
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  6. Manfred Tscheligi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christina Koeffel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Recherches en, Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), Université Toulouse III, route de Narbonne 118, Toulouse CX 4, 31062, France

    Regina Bernhaupt

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Koeffel, C., Hochleitner, W., Leitner, J., Haller, M., Geven, A., Tscheligi, M. (2010). Using Heuristics to Evaluate the Overall User Experience of Video Games and Advanced Interaction Games. In: Bernhaupt, R. (eds) Evaluating User Experience in Games. Human-Computer Interaction Series. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-963-3_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-963-3_13

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