Early analysis of the first user test

We have finished our first user test regarding how UI designers - without breaking player immersion/engrossment - can make up for the loss of sense of direction that occurs when connecting the player to an in-game avatar via visuals, audio and haptics. As Erik has described earlier, the test participants played through three Mirror's Edge sessions with different types of navigational aid (1. Runner Vision, 2. Time trial checkpoint beacons, 3. No aid at all) and one Bioshock session experiencing the navigational aid of Bioshock (an overlay compasse arrow giving very detailed guidement). After each session, the participants answered questions regarding ease of navigation, immersion and diegesis, as well as ranking the four different UI solutions according to 1) usability (to what extent the navigational aid made it easier to navigate) and 2) immersion/engrossment (to what extent the navigational aid strengthened the game experience).

Looking at the results, a number of interesting trends can be noticed.

Spatial and non-diegetic UI elements does not necessarily break the immersion
When questioned about the fact that the navigational aid was something not visible to the player's in-game avatar, none of the participants (five persons participated) stated that this was an issue with Runner Vision and the Bioshock arrow, and only one person felt that the ME checkpoint beacons was out of place. The art style of Mirror's Edge and general UI/HUD conventions within the FPS genre was mentioned as factors preventing the UI elements from breaking the experience. Issues connected to the navigational guidance was instead concerning inconsistency, or the information being either to ambiguous or to unambiguous.

Spatial representations can strengthen the game experience
When questioned about if Runner Vision strengthened the game experience, three out of five participants answered yes and only one person was taken out of the experience, irritated when he misstook other red details in the game geometry for runner vision. When answering the same question for the Bioshock arrow, no player thought that these approaches had a strengthening effect. The same could be said for the ME checkpoint beacons, suggesting that spatial UI navigational elements does not automatically increase immersion. It does however indicate that if done right (for example in the style of Runner Vision), spatial representations can strengthen the game experience.

Being dumbed down spoils the game experience
When told to rank the four different approaches to navigational guidance according to 1) usability and 2) immersion/engrossment, every single test participant selected not having a navigational aid at all as the approach that strengthened their game experience the most, stating that it gave a larger sense of freedom and gave a more rewarding experience when finding the right way through the environments on their own. The Bioshock arrow and the ME checkpoint beacons, both generally ranked high when considering the extent in which the navigational aid made navigation easier, was the approaches least preffered from a immersion/engrossment point of view. As previously mentioned, the participants had issues with the navigational guidement being either too ambiguous or too unambiguous, which suggests that players do not want to be told explicitly where to go and what to do, but they do need to be hinted.

This suggests that considering the informational content of a UI element might be just as important as the way it is presented. Sense of freedom might be just as important as sense of direction. There is a fine line between providing too ambiguous and too unambiguous information, which should be considered by UI designers.

Sense of direction connected to spatial UI representations
The hypothesis we set out to answer with this user study was the following: if player navigation within the game geometry is important for a game, it is also important to maintain a high sense of direction for the players, which can be achieved with spatial information and/or signifiers. We didn't explicitly ask the test participants any question about their "sense of direction" within the game per se, but we did ask them how easy it was for them to navigate through the environments using the different approaches to navigational aid. While the navigational UI elements eased player navigation, the players seemed to prefer exploring the game environments without navigational aid, stating that it gave a larger sense of freedom and gave a more rewarding experience when finding the right way through the environments on their own. Hence, we might have to rethink this hypothesis, alternatively the hypothesis should be tested using a different test strategy.

Of course, we have to take into account that the players only experienced a small part of the games tested, and for a quite small period of time. The results might be different if the test participants had experienced several hours of gameplay rather than the first ~20-30 minutes of the game. However, one might also argue that these initial 20-30 minutes is the time a game has to convince the player to explore the game further and keep on playing, fortifying the test results.