Usability Laboratory: Human and Human Experiments

What is it? Pointer laser sight? The program immersing the user in hypnosis? The answer is under the cut ...
Fifth floor, a small office. In front of the monitor sits a young girl, covered with sensors. All her actions are recorded by the camera, and in the next room several observers are watching what is happening. She is tense. However, it seems, it does not bother close attention. The thing is different: on the monitor, the hostilities unfold, in which she is one of the main participants. The atmosphere is heating up ...


Today, to test the reactions and emotions of a person, various methods are used, thanks to which one can not only register the fact of emotional excitement of the subject, but also determine its intensity, as well as belonging to one or another emotion or experience.
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Everyone knows such traditional methods used in lie detectors (polygraphs), such as recording the pulse rate, changes in skin moisture, respiration rate, changes in pressure on the seat. However, these tools do not allow to accurately determine what kind of emotions a person is experiencing.

They only help to fix the fact. And new technologies related to neuromarketing technologies are being applied, which allow, without surgical intervention (the subjects breathed a sigh of relief), to scan the electromagnetic fields in different areas of the brain.

To do this, use external devices with sensors that are located on the head and other parts of the body, registering weak electromagnetic signals arising from the testing of various emotions. Breath sensors are also used, as well as sensors that record the direction of the gaze (after all, you need to know exactly where the person looked and what reaction followed).

Special algorithms decipher the data and provide the observer with information about what kind of emotions a person actually experiences in one way or another.

You may ask why such difficulties, because a person will be able to say with words what he likes and what does not? This is partly true, however, when it comes to milliseconds and involuntary reactions (especially in such dynamic virtual environments as games), it is important to fix every moment, every emotion that accompanies the gameplay.

Not many people know that there is a usability laboratory in the Mail.Ru Group, where projects are tested for convenience, clarity and intuitiveness. At the next test, we looked into the laboratory with a camera.
Next is a small report on how usability testing was performed on the Warface shooter (photo of the equipment is attached).



Volunteers with different gaming experiences are invited to the lab for testing: among the subjects are both casual and hardcore gamers. Each of them will play Warface under supervision. Everything will be tracked, from actions in the game and comments to the direction of gaze and physiological indicators. The main goal of the study is to observe how a person behaves, starting his acquaintance with the game, to reveal difficult moments for experienced and inexperienced players and successful decisions.

We have come to the beginning. First on Tanya wear a breath sensor, encircling the chest. The sensor should be fixed tight enough to fix the reaction, but not cause discomfort.



Then a bag with sensors is opened, which will monitor the heartbeat and galvanic skin response - the change in skin resistance. Resistance varies depending on how actively the subject is sweating, and this, in turn, reflects emotional reactions.



The package, by the way, came to the lab straight from California. The idea of ​​California beaches causes us to have a slight bout of envy and a galvanic skin reaction. Having coped with it, we continue to observe the process.
The sensors are mounted on the index and ring fingers of the left hand ...



On the forehead ...



For the ears ...



... on the wrists ...



... and connect to the device.



Such devices for electrophysiological studies are used in medicine, and they can also be used as a lie detector. True, today we will not need this opportunity.
Everything! Tatiana is ready for the test.

Further according to the plan - calibration of the eye tracker sensor built into the monitor.





A red dot appears on the monitor on a white background; Tanya needs to observe her movements on the monitor. After calibration, the equipment will be able to accurately track the direction of gaze.



Calibration is followed by a round of test questions that test reactions to normal stimuli under calm conditions. This is the final stage of preparation; Now you can proceed to the test itself.

In order not to disturb Tanya, we move to the office where the observers are sitting. You can see in the photo that there is no tinted glass between the cabinet and the test part of the laboratory - instead, a camera is installed in the test room. Everything that happens is broadcast in real time. On the monitor of the observers - the image from the desktop of Tatiana. On the screen rushing point, indicating the direction of his gaze. The respondent himself can be seen in the window in the corner of the screen. In addition, we hear everything he says.

In action: there was a small castling on this photo - in the picture in the corner of the screen you can see not Tanya, but Nastya - our employee, the testing system.





Volunteers go the same way as players outside the lab: go to the site, register, download the distribution, install, undergo training and go into battle. Thus, along with the game, they also test its website with a forum.

Based on the test results, a report is compiled in the laboratory, where observations of the players' behavior are collected, a list of problems they encounter, their comments and impressions.

During the test Warface confirmed the assumption that the majority of respondents immediately download the game without studying the site. However, sometimes the site returned at a time when the game is installed. Some went to the site after the first igroseansa. Most of the players were interested in screenshots and videos.



By the way, it turned out that the players on the site did not have enough clips with gameplay. Players noted that developers' video diaries are not enough to familiarize themselves with the game, and, moreover, I want to occupy myself with something while the client is downloading and being installed. Note to all game devs: do not forget to put on the site more media materials - real gameplay clips and screenshots!

According to the test results, we concluded that it was necessary and half a year had passed and we filled the site with video diaries

PS Not only games are tested in our laboratory:



PPS In the usability lab there is a vacancy specialist in UX-research