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阐述人种志和定性研究对游戏开发的意义

发布时间:2013-06-20 11:37:31 Tags:,,,,

作者:Robertson Allen

人种志和定性研究具有访问并融入用户环境中的潜力,同时也能够发现人类与技术相互动的全新方法。基于这种方式,人种志代表的是推动初步研究去专注于实验室外部内容并深入真实环境中的整体观点。但是这并不是说人种志比实验室研究更厉害,而是说它是一种能够生成不同定性数据的方法。这种数据通常都不在实用性测试的关注范围内,而用户和技术也经常被当成一个封闭系统中的两个重要组件。

人种志和定性实验室研究能够互补,并且潜在代表着更强大且值得信服的例子(对于开发者而言)。作为一种定性研究方法,人种志总是能够利用那些“黏糊的”数据,即将提供令人信服的叙述和有关媒体使用的例子。用户也能够使用各种方法(如日志)去描述自己的媒体经历。通过访问,参与观察以及与目标用户社区的长期交流,研究者便能够从细节到总体而了解用户,如此他们便能坚固用户与开发周期了,并将用户的看法即时传达给设计师。

qualitative user research(from vimeo)

qualitative user research(from vimeo)

我所思考的一些有关人种志的一般研究问题是特别关于那些在实验室环境中无法回答的问题:

设计师的目的是否与我们每天在真实环境中使用的应用,游戏或硬件相匹配?如果不是的话,同样游戏或应用的未来设计(游戏邦注:或有效匹配这种特殊用户需求的不同游戏或应用)是否与这种未知应用的使用相一致?

怎样的用户社区是围绕着环境应用或游戏而形成的,这些社区将如何影响并发展未来的设计和开发?

一开始用户是如何做决定去使用一款应用?围绕着任何特定应用的各种媒介生态是什么,并且如何使用一种应用鼓励或相关的其它内容的使用?

如何将新兴或具有竞争性的区域,国家和种族市场中的观看,游戏和沟通媒介实践整合到现有和未来的应用,游戏和平台上?

在特定环境中该使用怎样的设计措施去创造能够迎来更广泛用户的社交应用或媒体平台,并且这些用户不希望看到任何歧视女性或其它种族群体的语言的使用。

我认为我们必须注意到,尽管这些问题是娱乐应用的开发与完善,但是人种志也能够呈现出有效的方法在之后分析功能和设计。考虑到互动环境产业中迭代和持续开发周期的不断加快,我们必须确保人种志研究足够灵活,同时能在任何阶段整合并影响应用开发周期。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

The importance of qualitative user research for game development

by Robertson Allen

Ethnographic and qualitative-oriented research has the potential to access and contextualize user environments while also discovering new and emergent ways that people interact with technology. In this way, ethnography presents a holistic point of view that moves the primary research focus outside of the lab test space and into lived environments. This is not to say that ethnography is a better approach than lab studies, but is rather an approach that yields very different qualitative data. This kind of data is often outside of range of focus, for example, of usability testing, in which the user and the technology are typically considered as the two key components of a closed system.

Ethnography and more quantitative-oriented lab studies can reinforce one another, and potentially present more powerful and convincing cases to developers. As a qualitative research method, ethnography draws on “squishier” data that is able to provide convincing narratives and case examples of media use. Users are also able to narrate their own media experiences through methods, such as journaling. Through interviews, participant observation, and long-term communication with target communities of users, researchers are able to understand users from a bottom-up perspective, and, by keeping one foot in this arena and the other squarely in the development circle, translate user perspectives to designers.

Several examples of general research questions that I think ethnography is particularly positioned to answer include questions that are, to a degree, unanswerable in lab environments such as:

Does the intent of the designers match the way in which the application, game, or hardware is actually being used in an everyday, lived context? If not, how might the future design of the same game or app—or a different game or app that meets these particular user needs more effectively—be informed by this kind of unforeseen use of the application?

What communities of users have formed around an entertainment application or game, and how can future design and development be informed by, and nurture the growth of, these communities?

How do users make a decision to use an app in the first place? What are the various media ecologies that surround any given application, and how might the use of one app encourage or be related to the use of others?

How can existing media practices of viewing, playing, and communicating in emerging or competitive regional, national, and ethnic markets be leveraged and incorporated within existing and future applications, games, and platforms?

What design measures can be taken in specific contexts to make a social app or media platform more welcoming to a wider variety of users, who might be discouraged from participating by the use of offensive language against women or other diverse groups?

I think that it is important to note that though these sets of questions are geared toward the development and improvement of entertainment applications, ethnography also presents a useful method for postmortem analysis of features and designs. Given the increasingly iterative and continuous development cycle in the interactive entertainment industry, ethnography is flexible enough to intervene and inform the application development cycle at any stage.(source:gamasutra)


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