Novice Game guide Design (middle)

Previous Game Novice Guide design (above) we have introduced how to analyze the product characteristics and target users ' ability to "slimming" the content of the Novice guide, this time we will explore how to accurately pass on the thin content to the user, and in the guide process to stimulate the user's enthusiasm for participation, namely: from the time of guidance, Hint style, level open and create demand, four ways to share how to design a novice-led form.

First, the opportunity to guide-when there is a need to guide

People who have played the game know that the novice in the game is divided into mandatory guidance and situational guidance, the mandatory boot refers to the user in the game can not skip the boot method, and situational guidance is when users use some of the features of the boot. Many people like situational guidance, because situational guidance does not limit the user's "freedom", but also at the right time and place, and many situational guidance can be skipped. To sum up, the greatest advantage of scenario guidance is that it can meet the user's current needs and will not force the user to interrupt the operation flow.

We hope that all the guidance should occur when the user needs, because only when the user has the need to learn to guide the content, without the feeling of cramming teaching, so good guidance should be in the user when the need to appear.

Here's what we've come up with in the "Novice game guide," where we need to analyze the user-generated scenarios based on the characteristics of the content to determine the timing of the boot:

Note: All diagram representation Examples in this article are schematic, not real content.

As you can see from the table, many of the guides are "post" guided, that is: when the user to determine the needs of the boot, rather than the user into the game immediately after the boot, which avoids the user to create a sense of bondage, reduce the operation of the flow is interrupted, thereby enhancing the user's fluency in the game feeling, Let it feel more free.

The timing of the operation of the user to play a very good protection, but just right guide, at the same time inseparable from the appropriate hint style, below we share the hint style design ideas.

Second, hint style-farewell help button to avoid a single style

Novice-led process is to assist the user to remember the process, and the style of the various prompts is the user memory guide content of the main media, different tips to bring users the effect of a big difference, we can learn from the Gold Tower experience:

From the pyramid we can see that the content that can be remembered by "saying and doing" is the most. Some games use the "Help" button to prompt the way, is undoubtedly questioning the results of the pyramid, which encourage users to use the Help button to solve various problems, because designers believe that users will actively use the Help button when there is a need, and this feature will not interrupt the user's operation flow when there is no need. This design certainly ensures that users are looking for help when there is a need. However, this prompts the user to take a longer time to solve the problem, because the Help function only allows users to use the "read" 10% of the knowledge to solve the problem.

The following is the word's help interface, and when confronted with a problem I would rather ask people around than to use it, at least 5 times times better to listen and watch (demo) than to read:

In addition to the text narrative should be avoided in the hint, but also to use a variety of styles to help users understand the content of the guide.

In many games, the novice guides the user to finish all the content or nothing. One of the main reasons is that the style of the boot hint is too simple, the user will be the Novice guide into the "click the arrow Point", and each time the guidance prompts appear, users are practicing the results of the induction, and tried. As for the function and the use of the method, the user did not care about.

The following is an example of a set of same guide hints that can feel the "inertia thinking" effect that a single style brings to us:

When we adopt a unified hint style, users can easily find the location of the hint, but when the user read the first few hints, they only remember "click the arrow pointing to", and no longer notice how the function in the end. Therefore, in the course of the boot process we need to change the style of the hint, interrupting the user's "inertia thinking", so that users seriously understand the function of being guided. As far as possible from the point of view of the operation method to prompt the user is a good choice, the following is based on the operating characteristics of the function summed up the hint style:

From the point of view of the operation method to determine the hint style can let the user better grasp the solution to the problem, because it uses the "look" way, first let the user Master 50% of the information, and then let users to "do", which greatly increase the user's ability to master skills. Of course, the excellent hint style and the timing is not omnipotent, because they can not reduce the amount of learning, the game will still have users because of excessive amount of learning and loss. In order to avoid this situation, the game in the Novice guide will also use the form of a hierarchical open function, to avoid users to withstand the excessive amount of learning.

Third, the level of open function to reduce the amount of single learning-interface optimization is the key

The level of open functionality for novice users is undoubtedly a boon, the need for a single mastery of the content is divided into different stages to learn, so that beginners have a moderate transition period. However, for many of the closed-level games, the effect of the hierarchical opening is not up to expectations, the reason, or the interface function information has not been optimized. Some of the features that were supposed to be open later in the game were put into the interface in the early stages, adding to the player's learning and the number of misoperation (after the Click was told that the function could not be used). Therefore, features that are open to high levels should not be shown in advance in the interface.

"Immortal Road" in the optimization of the main interface of information, so that the function button in the opening of the function will appear, not only to effectively reduce the initial user learning, but also to avoid user misoperation, and will not be used to generate "active power can not use" the binding sense:

Through the previous work, we have optimized the player's learning volume, and can give players timely and efficient tips, novice guidance seems to have been completed, in fact, we still lack the most important content: How to ignite the user in the novice to play the power of the game.

Four, the essence of Novice Guide-create demand, ignite the user's participation in passion

Although we have designed a perfect guidance system, so that users can use the lowest learning costs to obtain efficient returns, but these are not the essence of the novice-led presentation form, as the first contact with the user Content, good Novice Guide to allow users to gain the power of the game.

Do you remember the user information we analyzed in the last article? We have also recorded the user's preferences:

As you can see from the above, user A is eager to gain a strong ability in the game, while User B expects to experience a rich plot in the game. For user A, advanced equipment, cool skills, beyond the strength of ordinary people is undoubtedly its motivation to stay in the game, and for User B, to get the corresponding sense of mission, will let it actively participate in the game.

In many games there are two major categories of users, but only a small number of games (mainly from other media adaptation games) pay attention to the development of the user's ultimate goal and mission, these games will often use a separate cut animation to force users to build this feeling, but there is a more excellent form of performance for the user to design the storyline task:

In "The Stars Change", novice users to enter the game after the first plot task, these tasks and common task is that they pay more attention to game culture, game goals and the message of mission, so that users through the "Do" form, easier to remember the content of the plot, so as to gain game power. Compared to the cramming of the scene of animation, the screen gorgeous plot task is undoubtedly a mission to convey the progress.

Through the plot task can inspire all kinds of user's game power, for a class of users, he can learn from the plot that he was a strong role, in order to restore their ability to change their own destiny. In this scenario, the opening of each new function will play a positive role in promoting this type of user. For Class B users, the focus of the story conveyed, not only to better integrate into the game culture, but also to consolidate the sense of mission of such players, increased his motivation to continue the game. Of course, for other types of users, you can also use the Skip feature, because closing these plot tasks does not affect their ability to continue the game.

Finally, I would like to say that the Novice guide as an important part of the game should not be added to the game after the production is completed, but in the production process combined with the game's plot and function together to design, because he is the key to control the loss of users.

Not to be continued ... (Introduction to the next phase of the pilot inspection)

Article Source: Kunlun User Experience design team