First user test, observations

Apart from feedback in the form of answers from the questions asked to the participants in our first user test, a few interesting observations could be done during the Mirror's Edge play sessions (it should be pointed out that these observations was not a part of the planned test).

1. In situations when sense of direction was lost, players tried to interact with doors not colored red by Runner Vision, resulting in a slightly confusing situation.

2. With Runner Vision turned off, participants interacted with the environments using a poorer range of actions than with Runner Vision turned on. None of the five participants made use of the springboard technique to launch themselves into higher jumps, allthough the opportunity was given on at least two places. The persons taking part in the test also had trouble discovering the "swing on crossbar" affordance, despite having experienced it during the games tutorial just 5-10 minutes earlier.

3. Some players experienced a slight inconsistency with Runner Vision vs other geometry colored red. In one case the red communication tower in the introductory level became the center of attention of one participant, when he was supposed to run for the helicopter to finish the level; the helicopter was judged to be hostile as the player could not see that its splints were colored red, and he instead searched for a way to reach the clearly red tower. Another participant initially thought that he was supposed to interact with(wallrun) red walls. The same player thought a orange/red colored flag was confusing.

These three observations justifies, if not proves, our spatial interaction hypothesis: with an increased level of player interaction within the game geometry, it becomes increasingly important to separate affordances allowed by the geometry/rules from those that are deducable from the geometry but not actually existing within the game world.. which can be done using signifiers and spatial UI elements.