We went over Jacob Neilsen’s usability guidelines in the workshop yesterday, and then our design team went on to carry out some more play testing. I’ve taken some time to look over the sections of Neilsen’s guidelines, and will make comments about how our game measures up to some of them.

Visibility of system status – It is very easy to see where all players’ armies and game resources are situated within relation to one another. Part of the uncertainty of our game is that the physical position of a player’s tokens in relation to the finishing space does not accurately represent the temporal position of that player between the current game state and the end of the game. However, it is very easy to see the possible moves by each player over the next few turns from the current game state. The small number of player pawns and the symmetrical board layout contribute significantly to this.

Match between system and real world – The game has a distinct military conquest theme, so we have included objects and events, such as armies and battles, whose roles in the game match their significance in real combat. We believe that players only need a few games to get understand the game mechanics and start developing their own strategies, but that comprehending the significance of the game’s objects is very easy.

Recognition rather than recall – at each turn, players perform the same process to make their move. First, they roll their six-sided die and choose an army to move. Then, depending on the opportunity to battle an opposing army, they declare a battle or ask the next player to make their move. This heavily repeated sequence means that players do not have to remember a range of different options in different scenarios. There are more complex elements to moves that can occur during the game, but they follow the basic moving process described here.

Aesthetic and minimalist design – while we have not finalised our board design for the presentation, the shape and layout is very clear, and we will only need to make decisions regarding board materials and colours. Player tokens are easily identifiable and are well distinguished from the resource tokens. The board spaces form clear patterns and there is no unnecessary information present.

Green is very close to a win

Our design satisfies the other of Neilsen’s guidelines, except for help and documentation, mainly because we haven’t produced a formal game manual. We may compliment the manual with a cheat sheet that quickly illustrates how to make a move and how to execute a battle.