Measurement Method For User Experience Of Mobile Games

In recent years,with the popularity of smart mobile devices.the number of mobile game players increase rapidly and playing mobile games has become an important way for people to relax and make fun in their spare time.To fulfill people's increasing need for mobile games,a great number of firms have been devoted to developing various kinds of mobile games.However,there are only few mobile games that are really popular.One of plausible reason is that many mobile games do not have a good user experience.Prior research has suggested that the user experience of mobile games can directly affect players' game preference and purchase decision.Thus,to make a really popular game,firms must always follow user-centered design guidelines and strive to improve the level of user experience of mobile games.At present,user experience has been widely concerned by scholars and design circles,and there are also some research achievements in user experience measurement.However.there are few researches on user experience of mobile games,and some literatures provide subjective measurement methods.The game user experience is a dynamic process,and includes different stages from watching the home page of mobile games to the game interface navigation,as well as the battle interaction,which reflecting the user's different cognitive process and experience content.Therefore,it is the key to improve the level of mobile game user experience to divide the user experience of mobile games into stages,and study the subjective and objective user experience measurement method suitable for the characteristics of different stages according to the experience content.Based on the characteristics of mobile games,this study explored the measurement methods applicable to mobile game user experience from the perspectives of players'psychology,behavior and physiology.The user experience process of mobile phone games was divided into three stages:home page perceptual experience,navigation interactive experience and battle interactive experience,and various measurement modes such as subjective measurement,electroencephalogram ERP/EEG technology,eye tracking technology,functional near infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS)and behavioral performance were used to study user experience measurement methods suitable for different stages.This study provided theoretical basis and method support for game companies to conduct user experience evaluation of mobile games.The detailed contents of this study are as follows:(1)Questionnaire development of perceptual experience and interactive experience for mobile games.In this study,five popular mobile games in the mobile game market were selected as research objects.Based on the existing literature on the visual aesthetic evaluation of product appearance,usability of APP navigation interface and playability,a questionnaire for measuring perceptual experience of mobile games was developed.According to flow theory and GameFlow model,this study developed an interactive experience questionnaire.Among them,the perceptual experience questionnaire contains 4 dimensions and 14 items,and the interactive experience questionnaire contains 6 dimensions and 22 items.The developed questionnaire passed the reliability and validity test,and was verified by other mobile game products,that further proving the usability of the questionnaire.(2)Players' perceptual experience for the home page of mobile games was measured based on ERP technology.The self-developed home page of mobile games was used as the stimulus material in the experiment,which was divided into three groups:high perceptual experience,medium and low.Scenery pictures were used as the target stimulation,and mobile game pictures were used as the non-target stimulation.The ERP signals were recorded and analyzed when.the subjects were browsing the home page of mobile games with different perceptual experience under the condition of low attention.The results showed that the home page of mobile games with high perceptual experience would induce a large amplitude of P2 and N2 in the anterior scalp.The analysis of the relationship between ERP indicators and subjective perceptual experience further proves the rationality of ERP measurement.(3)Interactive experience of mobile game navigation was measured based on eye-movement tracking technology.Four mobile games with different interactive experience were selected from the mobile game APP store.According to the differences of visual information processing,two experimental modes of free browsing and task-oriented,were simulated to analyze the changes of eye movement data induced by mobile game navigation with high and low levels of interactive experience.The results showed that in the free browsing mode,the fixation count,saccade count and saccade amplitude average could be used to reflect and predict the interactive experience.In task-oriented mode,the fixation count,first fixation duration,dwell time ratio and saccade count can be used to reflect and predict interactive experience.The experimental results showed that when evaluating or improving the navigation of mobile games by using eye movement indicators,users' motivation for using products and corresponding eye movement data should be considered comprehensively.The relationship model between eye movement indicators and subjective interactive experience further proved the rationality of eye movement measurement.(4)EEG technology was used to measure the interactive experience of mobile game in wartime.Two mobile games with different interactive experience were selected as stimulus materials.The EEG technology was used to record the changes in the brain activity of the subjects at three levels:resting stage,high interactive experience and low interactive experience.The relationship between the EEG indicators and subjective evaluation and behavioral performance were analyzed.The results showed that alpha rhythm wave in the posterior parietal and occipital areas of scalp and delta rhythm wave in the anterior parietal and temporal areas could be used to reflect and evaluate the interactive experience in wartime.The analysis of the relationship between EEG indicators and subjective interactive experience further proved the rationality of EEG measurement.(5)fNIRS technology was used to measure the interactive experience of mobile game in wartime.Two mobile games with different interactive experience were selected as stimulus materials.fNIRS technique was used to record the changes of hemoglobin concentration in brain areas caused by game pairs with different levels of interactive experience,and calculated the average changes of HbO and HbR.The relationship between fNIRS indicator(the channel where the scalp significantly activated area is located)and subjective evaluation and behavioral performance were analyzed,and two measurement methods of EEG and fNIRS were compared and analyzed.The results showed that when players played mobile games with high levels of interactive experience,HbO concentration in the left prefrontal lobe increased.The analysis of the relationship between fNIRS indicator and subjective interactive experience further proved the rationality of fNIRS.Compared with EEG technology,fNIRS technology was more suitable for measuring the interactive experience of mobile games.This study promotes a phase division for user experience measurement of mobile games,and the measurement method for different phase.The methods will provide new ideas for the research on mobile games,and was helpful for game company implement user experience measurement and design optimization,and improve the development quality of mobile games.