Results

Much buzz has surrounded the recent release of Halo 3, and much of it has focused on Bungie’s and Microsoft’s usability efforts. Wired.com ran an article earlier this fall describing the usability process that Halo 3 went through prior to release. The game was tested by hundreds of participants, and their reactions to every aspect of game play were monitored through one-way mirrors by psychologists and usability experts. These in-depth studies were conducted to ensure that the game was not too difficult to be fun, intuitive, and would provide fans with a consistent experience across the brand.

This marriage between applied psychology and usability is becoming more common in the corporate world, and it is the very essence of providing a user-centered product. Heuristics and error prevention are wonderful tools to use in web development, but they do not ask or answer the essential questions of human behavior. Is your application fun to use, is it easy to figure out, does it frustrate the user, or does it aid him/her in accomplishing something desirable? How does a user feel when using this site? At ease or infuriated? Indifferent or engaged?

Because Halo 3 is a wildly popular game and expectations were high for the end of the trilogy, the developers had to be sure they had the tools to answer these questions. With psychologists monitoring every move, participants tested all levels of the game, providing data both verbal and visual to the psychologists. For example, if the main character “Master Chief” was getting killed by evil aliens too quickly or at the same point in the game, the experience would not be much fun for players. The data collected by psychologists suggested that players were dying at certain points because they couldn’t find ammunition stockpiles or didn’t see an approaching cliff. They solved these problems with simple graphics tweaks to keep the game fun for players.

One of the other overall strategies of the Halo developers was to limit bloody, intense battle scenes to 30 seconds. This is another example of applying psychological principles to create highly usable applications. Experts are divided about the actual average length of an adult’s attention span, but they generally agree that it is shrinking. Though interested in the game, Bungie assumes that users cannot concentrate on the intensity of a battle for much longer than 30 seconds and still enjoy themselves.

By employing psychological testing on their newest product, Bungie and Microsoft have another critical success with Halo 3. Using the methods and tools of psychology can explain not only when users are succeeding or failing, but also why. It takes into account what they feel when they visit your site: frustration, peace, anger, fun, or satisfaction. We could all take a page from the gaming world’s book in creating applications that seek to entertain and ensure the satisfaction of the user.

Monday, December 3rd, 2007 Both comments and pings are currently closed.

By Haley January Eckels