Cultivating Researcher-Sensibility in Novice Designers: Exploring Genre-Specific Heuristics for Game Evaluation in a Design Studio

Li，Xueliang1; Xue，Haian2

10.1007/978-3-031-35696-4_35

2023

0302-9743

1611-3349

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

14031 LNCS

483-496

This paper presents an eight-day design studio that teaches heuristic evaluation of games to third-year bachelor students at the School of Design, Southern University of Science and Technology. Through this course, students gain the first-hand experiences of developing heuristics for games through online survey and using them in idea generation and game evaluation. 13 students (working in groups of two or individually) developed 88 heuristics for 8 game genres by analyzing 349 quotes of game reviews collected from online. The heuristics were further developed into questionnaires and tested with invited 51 game players, followed up by post-interviews. The heuristics were also used as inspirational tools to help the students generate design ideas in an ideation exercise. Results of the students’ work indicate usefulness of the heuristics as evaluative and inspirational tools. In the discussion, we reflected on the challenges encountered by the students over the course and how dealing with these challenges could reveal further directions of teaching research methods in HCI studios.

Design Education Design Evaluation Design Research Methodology Studio

First ; Corresponding

English

2-s2.0-85169453499

Scopus

1.School of Design,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,Chuangyuan Bldg. 6, 1088 Xueyuan Avenue, Guangdong,China
2.Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering,Delft University of Technology,Delft,Landbergstraat 15,2628 CE,Netherlands

Li，Xueliang,Xue，Haian. Cultivating Researcher-Sensibility in Novice Designers: Exploring Genre-Specific Heuristics for Game Evaluation in a Design Studio[C],2023:483-496.