Customisable game interfaces impact on game experience

Abstract: A graphical user interface (GUI) is the bridge between the software and the user. In video games the user interface must be easily understandable and apprehensive. In fact, if a user interface is poorly done it will often break the game and make the user choose another game. If a user has the ability to configure and change the look of the user interface, will it then result in improved game experience? That’s what we investigated in this thesis. To carry out the investigation we developed a fully customisable user interface to a game called “World of Warcraft”. We then compared the original “World of Warcraft” GUI with our own developed customisable GUI; this was conducted with a usability test with five participants. The result of the investigation showed that the participants in fact noticed an improvement in game experience and were intrigued to continue playing. With the customisable GUI the users felt that they could make more important abilities more accessible by either position them in a certain way or change the size of them.