The Impact of Visual Style on User Experience in Games

Abstract

Garver, Stephen A. M.S., Purdue University, August 2015. The Impact of Visual Style on User Experience in Games. Major Professor: Nicoletta Adamo-Villani and Nicholas Dib. The visual style in a game is an aspect of user experience that is often neglected in user experience studies in games. Visual style is often reflective of the tone that a game designer intends to convey or the assumption of what the intended audience would prefer, and it is an important aspect of how a player experiences a game. This thesis investigated how visual style impacts user experience, by observing user experience from two different approaches, moment and memory-based experiences (engagement and enjoyment), through the manipulation of style in a game. The manipulated aspects of visual style were color and form. While the impact of color and form on experience is inconclusive, visual preference by a player does appear to be indicative of whether or not a player will be engaged and enjoy an experience. In order to properly control any unknown variables, the demo being used for this study was made by the researcher, providing the flexibility to manipulate the style as necessary.