How best to introduce controls and mechanics

As part of a research proposal my initial idea stems from understanding a few key questions:

When playing mobile games, what's the best way to explain the controls and game mechanic to the player without annoying or boring them?

There seems to be a progressive acceptance that mobile game players don’t read or pay attention to tutorials, certainly not to the degree a console gamer will.

While my Honours looked at the feasibility, methodology and impact of usability testing. Id like to focus more on the tutorial aspect rather than the overall game design, specifically how best to implement tutorials so that players enjoy the tutorial process or even dont realise its happening.

This should be done without the player wanting to skip the process.

Things to look at

• User interface, how can mechanics be used early ?
• Introductory video
• In-game
•  Introductory video
• §  Dependant on quality and time (skippable and un-skippable)
• Splash screens
• In-game tutorial

• 
  

How to go about it

·         Show various mobile games to players

o   Varying degrees of complexity

o   See how long it takes them to understand the controls

·         Create different types of tutorial systems for a game

Ill be likely using the game built during my honours project and designing different types of ways to introduce the controls and mechanics.

Notes

• Not all mobile games centre of one mechanic but not necessarily one control
• Players will always touch screen from interest (how can this be used?

Innovation In Game Design - Usability & User Experience

My Honours degree spurned a great deal of interest in the subject of usability and user experience testing towards improving how functional and enjoyable a game design can be.

One of the core difficulties I had last year was distinguishing between the two, while i lazily often refered to user experience as usability testing what I should have made clearer was that testing how efficient, functional and clear a game design is, falls within usability. While testing how enjoyable and fun a game is sits within user experience camp.

I intentionally picked two optional modules during my masters which focus on this specialisation, Usable Interaction & Pschology within security & technology Both looking at the end user of an interactive product. I'm going to integrate my knowledge and findings into my project management as much as possible while continuing to research new ideas and knowledge on the subject.

Grant Clarke, one of the course supervisors did make a good point though that while it may be better to use independent testers, within this project there is no reason not to use fellow developers.