User Research Findings

I am still trying to figure out what exactly my final project should be on and how I’m going to do it in terms of software. I do know that I would like to do some kind of historical reenactment game.

Even though I’m smoothing out the rough edges of my final project ideas, this exercise of interviewing subjects was beneficial in my thought-process. I was able to interview two 20-somethings from the background of history and computer science/computer games to get their opinions about the two fields and why.

Their responses proved valuable as I am now taking away comments that will help me build a better project. A couple of examples are as follows. Both subjects liked computer games where they were familiar with the characters. This could help them relate to the character and their personas more and be more invested in the game and the outcome. Topics that are interesting to the interviewees drew them into either the game or the historical exhibit/museum. Based on their backgrounds the two interviewees were able to offer up information that made me think twice about my initial idea.

As I move forward in fine-tuning my final project idea, there are a few aspects that I should keep in mind based on these two interviews:

• Choose historical topics that will be interesting to a wide variety of people. Perhaps conduct a short survey to gauge whether the audience liked that disaster/topic in the game.
• Choose characters that people will be familiar with or give them a personality/life that the human audience will be able to relate to and want to be a part of on their journey through the game
• Engaging colors
• Some kind of teamwork in the game would be beneficial
• Exhibition space/layout/navigation in the game is important
• Historically accurate and interactive

I am excited to do more research for this project in terms of historical and gaming research to build this game. I will keep the interview answers in the back of my mind to always think about your audience and whether or not they will benefit from it. Whether it is intentional or not, any feedback is good so that you can improve. I would like to interview the same people again in the future after my project is done to get their feedback and see if their thoughts have changed since this interview.