S60 Open to new features

There is something in this entry for everyone. For developers, you can read about how to create a mobile game that results in a positive user experience. For the rest of you, there are good tidbits about general ways to improve mobile usability.

Navigating in the waves of a game experience

When playing a game, users should experience the game world. In order to do this, the game navigation structure should support the experience. Use of high-level UI components should be avoided. Game menus should look and feel like the game. If high-level UI components are used, they should support the game experience seamlessly.

Designing for interruptions

Mobile games are played in a context where interruptions often occur: somebody might call or send an SMS message, or the player might need to pause the game to buy a bus ticket. Therefore, the game design should support saving and pausing.

There are novice and expert users among mobile gamers. Novice users often need more help than expert users. Help should be available if needed, easy to access and quick to read. These design principles are useful:

• Make help text brief. Concentrate on the controls in the help text.


• Provide in-game help.


• Display short text on the screen to explain new items, characters, and situations in the game. Provide a setting to disable in-game help, too.

The user has expectations of how his/her surrounding environment works. The game world should match that model. Movement and moving objects in the game world should be intuitive, and obstacles and possibilities should be easy to detect.

The game should function like the real world, to the degree that it's possible. For example, when characters are jumping or throwing objects, the flight path should be predictable

• There must be no invisible barriers that the player cannot pass or holes that s/he cannot reach.


• Do not kill the user/game without letting the user do something about it.


• Match functionality and outlook. Things should do what they seem like they are supposed to do, and look appropriate to the function they perform in the game.


• Do not force the player to learn new things if s/he can utilize his/her prior knowledge. Implement a realistic physics model.

The user must always understand his/her current status and the status of other players. Critical information about the game character's health, weaponry, money, etc., must be conveyed to the user clearly, without risk of misinterpretation.

• Determine the most important information for players and display it clearly on the screen, making sure there is not too much information - one or two status indicators are plenty for most games. If this is not sufficient, the design may need to be refined to allow a simpler interface.
• In multiplayer games, players must be able to identify both their own and the other players’ status at all times. For example, in racing games the player should be able to follow where others are on a map, and in puzzle games the player should be able to see the scores of the other players. Players can’t imagine a good action game if they can’t at least select the opponent and view his/her status. An even better solution is to show the status on the small screen all the time.

Mobile games are often played in public places with other people around. Music and sounds might be a good addition to the game experience, but a great disturbance for others. Therefore:

• Provide a silent start-up, rather than one with music.


• Provide a sound menu in the game to make sure the player can deactivate or activate sounds.

Usability guidelines are handy and useful design tools. In order to guarantee good usability, evaluation should be a fundamental part of the development process. Even though mobile game development processes are very short, there are techniques and methods, such as expert evaluation and group testing, which have proven to be useful for mobile game developers. Usability is not the only factor that produces good games and gaming experiences, but without it no games could ever be played.