The first-time user experience (FTUE) is often easier to assess through player observation; but there are questions that you can use in surveys here to examine the basics, which are especially useful in working with larger numbers of players.
How to use these questions
Where possible, we try to provide survey response option scales that include:
Five or seven response points, in order to provide a reasonable trade off between granularity and ease of response,
A central neutral option,
Negative responses below the neutral response, and positive responses above it.
This structure allows us to assign positive, negative or neutral scores to responses (from -2 to +2, or -3 to +3) which can be helpful in visualising and communicating outcomes later on.
Some questions are scored in specific ways:
Where questions are reverse coded, this means that responses on the upper end of the scale are negative. If you want to compare these questions directly with other questions that are non reverse coded, you will need invert the scores.
Where questions are middle-optimal, this means that the most positive response is in the middle of the response scale. The lowest and highest scores here represent negative extremes: e.g. 'too hard' or 'too easy'.
These questions are not formally validated or part of a single tool or scale, so feel free to use individual items or modify questions for your current research goal. However, you might find more value in them by using them repeatedly, whether across multiple playtests, or in some cases, on multiple days on a longitudinal playtest. This way you can track changes to these responses over time, especially where you have enough players to aggregate responses.
How helpful or unhelpful was the tutorial in explaining the basics of the game?
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Very unhelpful
2 – Unhelpful
3 – Slightly unhelpful
4 – Neither helpful nor unhelpful
5 – Slightly helpful
6 – Helpful
7 – Very helpful
How prepared or unprepared did you feel to play the game after the tutorial?
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Very unprepared
2 – Unprepared
3 – Slightly unprepared
4 – Neither prepared nor unprepared
5 – Slightly prepared
6 – Prepared
7 – Very prepared
The length of the tutorial felt...
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Much too short
2 – Slightly too short
3 – About right
4 – Slightly too long
5 – Much too long
How likely would you have been to keep playing the game after finishing the tutorial if you were not in a playtest?
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Very unlikely
2 – Unlikely
3 – Slightly unlikely
4 – Neither likely nor unlikely
5 – Slightly likely
6 – Likely
7 – Very likely
How often did you feel frustrated during the tutorial?
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Never
2 – Rarely
3 – Sometimes
4 – Often
5 – Always
How often did you feel bored during the tutorial?
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Never
2 – Rarely
3 – Sometimes
4 – Often
5 – Always
How often did you feel confused during the tutorial?
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Never
2 – Rarely
3 – Sometimes
4 – Often
5 – Always
How often did you feel that you wanted to stop playing during the tutorial?
Multiple choice (single selection)
1 – Never
2 – Rarely
3 – Sometimes
4 – Often
5 – Always