Cities VR

Conducted multiple usability tests for Cities VR, mainly focusing on enhancing the tutorial and onboarding experience

1. Project Overview

Brief introduction: As the UX Designer for Cities: VR, a VR adaptation of the city-building game Cities: Skylines, I focused on enhancing the tutorial and onboarding experience to accommodate both new and existing players.

My role: Led prototyping, testing, and design discussions to identify and resolve user experience challenges.

Key objective: Streamline the tutorial to reduce complexity and improve player retention.

2. My Role & Responsibilities

Prototyping & Testing: Developed and tested new tutorial instructions and a controller cheat sheet to aid player understanding

Design Iteration: Identified quick fixes, such as changing the city border color and implementing stationary screens, to enhance user experience.

Documentation: Proofread and formatted the Player Guide to provide ongoing support for players.

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A screen from the initial tutorial
New tutorial screen with GIFs and highlighed controls

3. Research & Design Process

Step 1: Identifying the Problems

Challenges:

These issues led to 40% of players being unable to complete the tutorial.

Step 2: Prototyping & Testing

Want to read a more in-detail description about this step, with findings and changes between iterations? You can find it in the toggle heading below.

Implementation of controls cheat sheet
Changing city border to avoid confusing it with the water
Implementation of controller labels
Implementation of stationary screens, allowing players to look away from the screens

Optional: More research & design details (click to expand)

1. DEFINING THE PROBLEM

The Brief

I joined Fast Travel Games as their first UX Designer after the skeleton of the tutorial had been created.

I quickly noticed that it needed some love to fit the target audiences since not all would be familiar with the Cities: Skylines franchise.

Target Group

City Building Dreamers

VR headset owners who play simulation & casual games, and would be excited about the fantasy of creating a city in VR

City Architects

VR headset owners who like strategy & simulation games, and would be thrilled about creating and managing their own detailed city in VR

Virtual Skyliners

Cities: Skylines fans who own a VR headset

2. RESEARCH

Playtest

I found some low-hanging fruit that would help players.

For example, switching from radio buttons to checkboxes when players can check several options.

Benchmarking

I played other tutorials to check how they solve the cognitive overload issue that often happen in VR

Initial test

To validate the need for an update, and identify the main pain points, I ran an initial tutorial test on Cities: VR.

40% of the players couldn't even finish the tutorial! 

Other insights included:

3. PROTOTYPING & QUICK FIXES

While some fixes could only be tested after a rough implementation, I could test and iterate on the instructions.


Tutorial Flow

I created and iterated on the tutorial texts in Figma, testing each iteration on the target audience through 1-on-1 interviews online.


Controller Cheat Sheet

Cities: VR is a very complex game, and not everything is being taught at the tutorial.

Since players also got overwhelmed by the amount of information and controls, I suggested we add a controller cheat sheet to the game.

While testing the instructions, I also tested my wireframe of the controls.


Quick fixes

I had identified some issues which could be easily fixed by the developers. Some examples are:

The city border looks like water while the player is in the water-view. Just by changing the color, no players thought it was water in future tests.

Players could run out of money and get stuck in the tutorial. We changed the bulldozing so players could get a full refund during the tutorial.

4. PROTOTYPING & TESTING


Test 1: New instructions & button GIFs

The tested, new instructions were in! The test was much quicker, no players got stuck, and they were generally less confused.

We also added GIFS with pictures of the controllers, highlighting the relevant buttons.

While this was a cost-effective and fast way to show button locations, it was ultimately not enough.

Test 2: Stationary screens

During the past two tests, I noticed players trying to look past the instruction screens. It seems like it was interfering with the learning.

We fixed the screens and implemented a Player Guide which would support players with information later in the game.

The result of the stationary screens was better than expected!

But, players still had issues with knowing button placement and remembering controls.

When playing VR games it's a hassle to look at the controls, since you need to remove the headset to do so.

Players also forgot which buttons had which action, since they focused on trying to remember button placements.

Test 3: Controller update

We added a controller model with button labels, to help players remember positions of buttons as well as the actions. I immediately saw that it made the tutorial experience much smoother in the next playtest.

Test 4: PSVR2 enhanced edition

I did a usability test for the game on PSVR2, identifying fun blockers.


Test 5: Tile purchase update

I did a usability test for a new feature to purchase tiles, making sure it was easy to understand.

4. Outcomes & Impact

"Amanda parachuted in to troubleshoot and shape up our player onboarding for Cities: VR ahead of the launch. She ran several playtests to identify our problems, suggested solutions and prioritized the lot in a neat report - all on a short timeline and brand new hardware. Not only did Amanda’s efforts give the dev team the most bang for their implementation bucks, but the quick and noticeable improvements led to great feedback from execs and platform holders."

‒ Andrea Wästlund, Lead Producer

5. Key Learnings