Eye-tracking the Kinect
13th July 2011
User Vision used the latest eye-tracking technology to explore the in-game experience for players using the Kinect console add-on. The study identifies a number of issues which game designers should be aware of, particularly that a negative game experience can impact satisfaction with the console as a whole.
We wanted to understand how easy the Kinect was to operate and to understand how easy the games were to play. Using the latest eye tracking glasses
which allowed us to see exactly what gamers are looking at while playing, User Vision tested the usability of Microsoft’s new Kinect for Xbox 360. Kinect recognises the player’s movements and the game is controlled through body and hand movements which are recognised by gesture control technology.
Our twelve participants were infrequent gamers and only one had any experience of using Kinect in the past. We set them a simple task – select and play the game, Reflex Ridge, and achieve the highest score that they could.
We identified that the Kinect system itself is easy to use and intuitive, with the gesture control well understood. However, the game itself was confusing at several points throughout: set-up; the instruction screen and the game play itself which impacted negatively on the overall user experience.
While none of the users were over-awed by the gesture control system, some of the interactions in the 
game set-up were actually too responsive, leading to significant numbers of errors. In particular, to set-up a game, users had to hold their hand up so that it registered over the icon they wished to select.
However, because the system was so responsive and the icons were so close together, users frequently selected the wrong one. Nine of the twelve users made an error here, with most making a mistake more than once.
Once the game was initiated, an instruction screen was displayed. As there was no introduction to the instruction screen, some mistook it for the start of the game, and began to copy the movements of the on-screen avatar, pointing when the avatar pointed and jumping when the avatar jumped. In consequence, the users were not concentrating on learning how to play the game, which led to considerable problems once the game actually got underway.
To launch the game, users had been instructed to hold their hands out in front of them, to grab the virtual bars, and pull them back sharply. But as few had registered this on the instruction screen, players did not know what to do when presented with the game launch screen. A further help instruction “Grab bars” was provided in a box at the top of the screen (seen in Figure Four) and although gamers looked at it, they did not understand what it meant. Figure Four shows the gaze path recorded by the eye-tracking glasses of one player, who looked between the on-screen avatar and the help instruction sixteen times and still got the game underway only by mistake!
The game play involved avoiding on-screen obstacles by physically moving left or right, jumping up or ducking down. Whilst most players understood these basic concepts, few realised that to get the best score they could they were supposed to jump up and down frequently to increase their speed. While, eye tracking glasses showed that players noticed instructions that flashed up on screen during the game, the information was not processed in such a way that would have a positive impact on game performance.
One message that reminded users to “Jump for speed” was rarely acted upon. However, a warning message was also displayed at times, reminding players to “Move backward” to maintain a position in which their movements could be registered by the Kinect camera. This was more frequently seen and acted upon. Across all players this was displayed 26 times and acted upon on two-thirds of occasions.
The “move backward” message was displayed in a warning triangle, which appears to be more effective at attracting attention than the “jump for speed” message which appears to have been dis-regarded as peripheral in-game imagery.
Interestingly, the higher the score a player got in the game, the more likely they were to think that the Kinect system was easy to use, while the lower the score, they reported lower satisfaction, not only with the game they played, but with the Kinect system as a whole.
This throws up some interesting conclusions that console game designers should bear in mind. A game needs to be easy to learn, to provide a satisfactory experience for new users, while being significantly challenging to ensure interest in it lasts. If game play experiences are negative, there is a real chance that this will impact on players’ enjoyment of the console itself and potentially reduce future sales. In order to provide guidance to gamers, improving in-game communication with players is important; particularly in understanding which instructions are ignored or mis-understand. Eye-tracking of games in development could help answer these critical questions and improve the in-game experience.
User Vision would like to thank Anna Basista a Masters Student at Edinburgh Napier University for her help in the design and execution of this study.
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This article was written by Simon Duke . Simon is a Senior Usability Consultant at User Vision,a usability and accessibility consultancy that helps clients gain a competitive advantage through improved ease of use.
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