Article

Playability heuristics for mobile games

Authors:

Hannu Korhonen,

Elina M. I. KoivistoAuthors Info & Claims

MobileHCI '06: Proceedings of the 8th conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services

Pages 9 - 16

https://doi.org/10.1145/1152215.1152218

Published: 12 September 2006 Publication History

Abstract

Expert evaluation is a widely used method for evaluating the usability of software products. When evaluating games, traditional usability heuristics lack comprehension and cannot be directly applied. In this paper, we introduce playability heuristics that are specifically designed for evaluating mobile games. Heuristics form a core model that can be used in any mobile game evaluation. The model consists of three modules: Game Usability, Mobility, and Gameplay. The mobile context has some unique characteristics, which require special attention during the evaluation. These characteristics are described in mobility heuristics. Mobile devices also set some of their own requirements for general usability and these issues are described along with game usability heuristics. These heuristics have been developed by using an iterative design process of a mobile game. In addition, we have validated the heuristics and evaluated five mobile games by using them with the expert evaluation method. The results indicate that playability problems, which violate game usability or mobility heuristics, are quite easy to identify. Gameplay problems are harder to find, but gameplay heuristics help in evaluation and focus on different aspects of the gameplay.

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Cited By

Oliveira RLins FCorreia Neto J(2024)Avaliação de Usabilidade de Jogos Educacionais para pessoas com a Síndrome de Williams-BeurenRevista Brasileira de Informática na Educação10.5753/rbie.2024.245232(181-212)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.5753/rbie.2024.2452
Pessoa LMartins LHsu Mde Freitas R(2024)ZoAM GameBot: A Journey to the Lost Computational World in the AmazoniaJournal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 10.1145/365730317:3(1-21)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3657303
Iyer RNdulue CMeier SOrji R(2024)Smartphone Games Heuristics (SmGH) – Towards a Standard Set of Platform-Centric Heuristic for Smartphone Games EvaluationInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.2356911(1-22)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2024.2356911
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Index Terms

Playability heuristics for mobile games
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image ACM Other conferences

MobileHCI '06: Proceedings of the 8th conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services

September 2006

320 pages

ISBN:1595933905

DOI:10.1145/1152215

General Chairs:
Marko Nieminen
Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
,
Mika Röykkee
Nokia Research Center, Finland

Copyright © 2006 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 12 September 2006

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MobileHCI06

MobileHCI06: Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services

September 12 - 15, 2006

Helsinki, Finland

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Oliveira RLins FCorreia Neto J(2024)Avaliação de Usabilidade de Jogos Educacionais para pessoas com a Síndrome de Williams-BeurenRevista Brasileira de Informática na Educação10.5753/rbie.2024.245232(181-212)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.5753/rbie.2024.2452
Pessoa LMartins LHsu Mde Freitas R(2024)ZoAM GameBot: A Journey to the Lost Computational World in the AmazoniaJournal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 10.1145/365730317:3(1-21)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3657303
Iyer RNdulue CMeier SOrji R(2024)Smartphone Games Heuristics (SmGH) – Towards a Standard Set of Platform-Centric Heuristic for Smartphone Games EvaluationInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.2356911(1-22)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2024.2356911
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