Before conducting the pre-study for our research, we conducted a pre-pre-study. The main goal of this was to plan the pre-study properly in order to prevent problems and improve our game. Other goals were:

• Finding out the average play time of the participants (Since we will conduct the pre-study on the World Usability Day in the Techbase we plan to test a lot of guests and it wouldn´t make sense to test them more than about ten minutes).
• Testing parameters as distance between the obstacles, amount of distances, height of jumps, speed, base latency, latency variance.
• Finding optimal position for camera to record the users. The result of the camera position is pictured in the second image: the screen has to be visible, the hands of the participant and the face in order to capture emotions.

Before starting the tests, the participant got an introduction. First, we explained why there is a camera and that the videos will be deleted as soon as the data is interpreted. We asked the participant to do thinking aloud during the tests and tell us their thoughts on the game. Then a training sequence followed, during which the play mode was presented without latency so that the participant can get used to the Pusher 1.0 and the game. They could play as long as the wanted and as soon as they told us that they´re ready, the study started.

Two testers: one in front of the laptop, started the game and one who gave instructions.

• table, chair, display
• Pusher 1.0
• tripod for camera
• Camera: Sony Alpha 6000
• wide-angle lens sigma f1.4 16mm

7 participants in the age between 22 and 29 have been tested.

We learned several thing for the pre-study:

• There should be a “game over” screen / writing
• The bounding box of the dinosaur is too big
• The level indicator has to be bigger so it will be readable on the camera → we can better reproduce which level the participant is playing
• The camera should be placed on the left side because most of the participants use their right hand to play the game → the finger will be better visible on screen
• The variables we need for the study design of the pre-study (c.f. following blog entry)