Our goal was to increase ease of use, ease of learning and enhance the overall gameplay experience. To better understand how this could be done, we entered a discovery phase to investigate past Call of Duty titles’ user interfaces and menu systems. Several menu and shooter configuration concepts were then developed that focused on a preview-centric approach and introduced the notion of left and right controls for navigation.
Console gamers of varying ages and experience levels participated in usability testing in our usability labs in San Jose, CA. To replicate the experience gamers would naturally be in, we converted our usability lab into a living room and created a menu simulator for PS4 to drive the prototype version on a computer to allow participants to go through the design concepts as they would if they were at home.
