1. B ret St a udt W i l l et
December 2013
Michigan State
University
TC841
CART QUEST
Playtesting
1 s t i te ra ti o n

2. PURPOSE OF THE PLAY TEST
GAME PURPOSE
This playtest was conducted to aid in the development of Car t Ques t, a mobile game that will
help low -income shoppers at the Lancaster city Giant Food Store navigate decisions for healthy
food.
CORE MECHANIC
The core mechanic tested in this early prototype of Car t Ques t was using the game to locate a
specific food item in the physical grocer y store.
PLAY TEST GOALS
The two specific goals of this playtest were to obser ve whether players would instinctually know
how to navigate the user inter face of the game, as well as to see if there were any navigation
dead ends while using the game to locate specific food items in the physical grocer y store.

3. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROTOT YPE
The mobile game Car t Ques t will ultimately live on a 7 -inch tablet attached to the handle of a grocer y
car t. For this first playtest, a paper prototype was developed by sketching the outline of the tablet
and then creating the screen frames with dif ferent colored sticky notes. The Sidebar Menu is made of
g r e e n s t i c k i e s , t h e “ B a c k ” b u t t o n i s a n o r a n g e s t i c k y, t h e S c o r e b o a r d i s t e a l s t i c k i e s , a n d t h e d y n a m i c
center frame is composed of changing yellow stickies. For this playtest, all the frames were static
e x c e p t f o r t h e c e n t e r, y e l l o w f r a m e , w h i c h w a s u p d a t e d b y t h e g a m e d e s i g n e r a s t h e p l a y t e s t e r s
“tapped” on dif ferent buttons on the screen.
Playtesters began at the Main Menu screen and were instructed to use the game to locate and pick up
two food items in the store. An arbitrar y list of four food items (avocado, garlic, onion, and tomato)
w e r e a v a i l a b l e i n t h i s p r o t o t y p e , w h i c h c o u l d b e a c c e s s e d t h r o u g h t h e M a p , S t o r e D i r e c t o r y, S h o p p i n g
List, and Recipes features.

4. DESCRIPTION OF PLAY TESTER SAMPLE
Sampling Strategy:
For this first playtest of an early prototype, a sample of four playtesters was selected by convenience
t o t h e g a m e d e s i g n e r. O n e p l a y t e s t e r w a s t h e s p o u s e o f t h e g a m e d e s i g n e r, a n d t h e o t h e r t h r e e
p l a y t e s t e r s w e r e n e i g h b o r s o f t h e g a m e d e s i g n e r. A l l f o u r p l a y t e s t e r s r e g u l a r l y s h o p i n t h e L a n c a s t e r
city Giant Food Store, which is the physical store setting of the mobile game.
The four playtesters were given pseudonyms based on their gaming personality exhibited during the
p l a y t e s t . T h e f o u r p l a y t e s t e r s w e r e I m p a t i e n t I r e n e , Q u i c k K a t h y, C u r i o u s G e o r g e , a n d T h o r o u g h Te d d y .
Impatient Irene Quick Kathy
Gaming Personality
Gender
Age
How often do you go to the
grocery store?
Do you own a web-enabled
mobile device (a
smartphone or tablet)?
How often do you use this
mobile device?
Do you use this mobile
device to help with grocery
shopping?
If yes, what shopping app do
you use?
Curious George Thorough Teddy
dislikes clutter and grinding super efficient to goal
female
female
31
59
experimenter and explorer deep understanding of all possibilities
male
male
55
28
2/week
2/week
2/week
1/week
yes
no
yes
yes
many times per day
n/a
once per day
2-3 times per day
yes
n/a
no
yes
n/a
to look at nutritional info at home out of
curiosity; used to use a calorie counter
app but quit after a couple of days
because it took so much effort to keep up
with
shopping list app: Out of
Milk
n/a

5. OBSERVATIONS
Key Moments
in the Game

6. The starting screen for
the playtest. The Main
Menu screen mirrored
the same options as the
fixed Sidebar Menu..
For this playtest, the
scoreboard was
static and did not
change.
OBSERVATIONS: Main Menu
The playtest began on the Main Menu page (picture above), and all of the
playtesters had some trouble with this star t screen; playtesters found it
unclear where to begin. Quick Kathy was unfamiliar with touchscreens and
did not realize she needed to tap on the screen to navigate. Impatient Irene
had a lot of experience with touchscreens, but really disliked too much
tapping and found this star t screen far too cluttered. She wanted to know
the correct place to star t and did not want to have to tap through a number
of screens to figure out how to reach the objective of locating two food items.
In the end, both Quick Kathy and Impatient Irene chose to star t with the most
familiar menu option, the Shopping List.
In an interesting gender dif ference, the two male playtesters, Curious George
a n d T h o r o u g h Te d d y, w e r e n o t a s p u t o f f b y t h e c l u t t e r o f t h e s t a r t s c r e e n .
R a t h e r t h a n s t a r t i n g w i t h w h a t w a s m o s t f a m i l i a r, t h e y l o o k e d t o e x p l o r e .
C u r i o u s G e o r g e e x p l a i n e d , “ I ’ m a n e x p e r i m e n t e r. I w a n t t o t r y a l l t h e
p o s s i b i l i t i e s . ” T h o r o u g h Te d d y c o m m e n t e d , “ I k n e w r i g h t a w a y w h a t i t e m s I
w a n t e d t o b u y, b u t f i r s t I w a n t e d t o s e e w h a t a l l t h e g a m e o f f e r e d . ” A s a
result, Curious George star ted with Recipes to look for new ideas, and
T h o r o u g h Te d d y s t a r t e d w i t h S t o r e D i r e c t o r y f o r t h e b i g p i c t u r e o f a l l
possibilities.
R E C O M M E N DAT I O N S
•
•
•
•
SERIOUS: Use
Shopping List as the
start screen. After
login, take user
straight to Shopping
List, making it
obvious where to
begin the shopping
trip.
MEDIUM: Eliminate
Main Menu. The
redundancy with the
Sidebar Menu is
unnecessary and
needlessly clutters
screen real estate.
MEDIUM: Add a Help
button on the Sidebar
Menu. This feature
would give confused
players an
introduction to the
game and more
detailed instructions
on game possibilities.
COSMETIC: Reorder

7. How does a player
know which item to
find first? This ended
up being an arbitrary
choice based on the
familiarity or appeal
of the different items.
6 avocados! This is
unreasonable
amount of fruits for
a person cooking for
one, as avocados
spoil quickly.
OBSERVATIONS: Shopping List
Regardless of which menu option playtesters chose, the decision of which
f o o d i t e m t o l o c a t e f i r s t s e e m e d r a t h e r a r b i t r a r y, i n f l u e n c e d b y t h e a p p e a l
and familiarity of the various items on the shopping list. This did not
translate into an ef ficient path through the grocer y store, as the players
walked by closer items on the shopping list to get the item they had chosen
to find first.
R E C O M M E N DAT I O N S
•
•
Also, the Shopping List feature did not allow players to adjust the quantity of
i t e m s o n t h e l i s t . A s T h o r o u g h Te d d y l a m e n t e d , “ I ’ m a s i n g l e g u y a n d I o f t e n
cook for one, so I’m not going to buy 6 avocados even if the recipe tells me I
need them. Avocados go bad too quickly for that.”
•
SERIOUS: As stated on
the previous page,
make the Shopping
List the new start
screen.
SERIOUS: Put the
Shopping List in order
of items closest to
the player’s current
location in the
grocery store. This
will allow for a
rational choice of the
next item to locate,
instead of an arbitrary
decision.
MEDIUM: Allow users
to scale recipes up or
down to match life
stage, (single,
married, big family,
dinner party, etc.),
and have this scaling
automatically update
the quantities on the
Shopping List.

8. The most important
features on the Item
Description page
are the photo of the
item, the button for
find in the grocery
store, and the
connection to the
shopping list.
The overall effect of
this screen is too
cluttered.
OBSERVATIONS: Item Description
The playtester s found the Item Description page too cluttered. They
appreciated many of the features of the page, but did not feel that all the
features should be given equal weight. The key features were the photo of
the food item, the button to locate the item in the grocer y store, and the
connection to the Shopping List (both easily adding the item to the list as
well jumping to view the list). The price of the food item and the nutritional
information about the food item felt like secondary features. Impatient Irene
exclaimed, “ Why would anyone look at nutritional info while they’re in the
store?” This was likely hyperbole, but her point was made: it would take a
good bit of time and concentration to pause grocer y shopping to read through
n u t r i t i o n a l i n f o r m a t i o n o f d i f f e r e n t i t e m s . T h o r o u g h Te d d y h a d a m o r e
practical approach, noting that he did not need to read the nutritional
information on tomatoes because he is ver y familiar with them.
Suggesting recipes using this ingredient was a popular feature among
p l a y t e s t e r s . T h o r o u g h Te d d y e x p l a i n e d , “ I ’ m u s u a l l y b a d a t f i n d i n g r e c i p e s ,
so I liked that I could start with ingredients I liked and then find recipes from
there.” In fact, he hoped for even more possibilities, saying, “I kept wanting
to explore, wondering, what else will it show me? I wondered if there would
be dif ferent kinds of avocados.”
R E C O M M E N DAT I O N S
•
•
•
MEDIUM: Highlight the
essential features on
the page, particularly
the item photo, the
button to locate the
item in the grocery
store, and the link the
the Shopping List.
COSMETIC: Minimize
Nutritional Info, Cost,
and Recipes. These
are great features,
but will not be
essential for all
players to see at first
glance. Locate the
buttons to link to
these features on the
periphery.
COSMETIC: Add a
button to link to other
varieties of the food
item. This is another
secondary feature, so
the location of the
button should be on

9. The Navigation
heads-up display
gives a continuously
updating distance
and direction to the
food item. As the
player walks
through the grocery
store, the distance
and direction
change.
OBSERVATIONS: Navigation
Three of the four playtesters thought the Navigation heads -up display was the
most memorable moment of the playtest. Impatient Irene was impressed:
"Cool--it tells me how to get there! ” Curious George commented, “ These
instructions were helpful because items in the store are not always where I
would intuit.” The Navigation feature was helpful enough that only one of the
four playtesters needed to look at the Store Map for help in locating a food
item.
While overall reaction to the Navigation feature was ver y positive, two
playtesters also voiced concerns about walking around the grocer y store with
their attention diver ted downward to look at the game screen. Impatient
I r e n e w o r r i e d a b o u t b u m p i n g i n t o t h i n g s i n t h e s t o r e , a n d T h o r o u g h Te d d y h a d
a more obvious concern: “I felt very self -conscious about the prospect of
walking around the store staring down at this game. Especially when I could
just look up and easily spot the item in the store.”
R E C O M M E N DAT I O N S
•
•
SERIOUS: Due to
shorter distances and
slower moving speeds
in a grocery store, the
Navigation feature
does not need to
exactly mimic the GPS
of a car. As a result,
design the Navigation
to point players in the
right direction and
then just alert players
to a needed course
change. Minimize the
amount players need
to look down at the
game.
MEDIUM: Add a “View
on Map” button to
allow the player to
view their current
location and distance
to next item; but keep
this button on the
periphery as a
secondary feature.

10. Instructions on how
to properly select a
ripe avocado. 3 out
of 4 playtesters
loved this feature.
OBSERVATIONS: Item Selection
Three of the four playtesters loved the feature that gave instructions on how
to pick fresh produce that is ripe and best to eat. Curious George thought
this reflected highly on the store itself, saying, “I’m impressed the store
would tell me how to select the best food items, because that leaves the bad
ones behind . This gives the store credibility in my mind. ” Impatient Irene
appreciated the learning component to this feature, noting, "There's lots of
stuf f like that that I don't know.”
Once the playtesters got to this screen, read the information on how to
select the best item, and took the item in hand (represented by a plush toy
ver sion), they were confused what to do next. They were uncer tain how the
game would know that they were ready to move on.
Once the game designer manually moved the playtest past this point, the
game took the playtesters back to the shopping list. Here the playtesters
face the same dilemma as at the star t —how to choose the next item to
locate.
As before, the playtesters chose the next item based on the most appealing
o r m o s t f a m i l i a r.
R E C O M M E N DAT I O N S
•
•
•
•
•
SERIOUS: Add a “Got
it!” button for the
player to tell the
game that they have
secured the food item
and are ready to move
on.
SERIOUS: To follow
the “Got it!” button,
display the Shopping
List sorted by items
closest to the current
location.
MEDIUM: Add a button
to view recipes made
with this food item.
This is a secondary
feature, so make the
option on the
periphery.
COSMETIC:
Automatically update
the total cost of items
in the cart.
COSMETIC:
Automatically update

11. PLAYER EXPERIENCE SURVEY:
IMPATIENT IRENE
Impatient Irene
gender
age
How often do you go to the grocery store?
Do you own a web-enabled mobile device (a smartphone or tablet)?
How often do you use this mobile device?
Do you use this mobile device to help with grocery shopping?
If yes, what shopping app do you use?
During the playtest, what was your actual path to the objective?
What was the most memorable moment from the playtest?
What emotions did you experience during the playtest?
At what points in the playtest did you experience positive emotions (delight,
surprise, enjoyment, etc.)?
At what points in the playtest did you experience negative emotions
(frustration, confusion, anxiety, etc.)?
What were some possibilities for the game that you wished were available but
were not in this prototype?
What suggestions would you have for the game designers as they continue to
develop this game?
female
31
2/week
yes
many times per day
yes
Out of Milk (shopping list)
list-->tomato-->onion
"Cool--it tells me how to get there!" "Interesting, from one ingredient it suggests
things to make."
worry at beginning, distracted by baby, elation to learn how to select a good onion,
anticipated frustration of tapping and walking
how to select an onion--"There's lots of stuff like that that I don't know."
don't like tapping a lot; confusing walking around a store looking at tablet screen
rearrange path of shopping according to nearest ingredient
add a "Got It!" button once item is located; fewer taps; tuck nutritional information
out of the way--don't need it prominently displayed when walking around the
store

12. PLAYER EXPERIENCE SURVEY:
QUICK KATHY
Quick Kathy
gender
age
female
59
How often do you go to the grocery store?
2/week
Do you own a web-enabled mobile device (a smartphone or tablet)?
How often do you use this mobile device?
Do you use this mobile device to help with grocery shopping?
If yes, what shopping app do you use?
During the playtest, what was your actual path to the objective?
What was the most memorable moment from the playtest?
What emotions did you experience during the playtest?
At what points in the playtest did you experience positive emotions (delight,
surprise, enjoyment, etc.)?
At what points in the playtest did you experience negative emotions
(frustration, confusion, anxiety, etc.)?
What were some possibilities for the game that you wished were available but
were not in this prototype?
What suggestions would you have for the game designers as they continue to
develop this game?
no
n/a
n/a
n/a
list-->onion-->garlic
first glance--wondering where do I start?
a little anxious--hoping a I get it right; also could imagine getting easily frustrated
while using this
when I figured out how to tap a button on the screen; the directions to get to the
first item (the onion)
first glance
give other options other than shopping list
suggestions for recipes would be helpful--I like this being included; show
cumulative money spent based on what has been added to the cart

13. PLAYER EXPERIENCE SURVEY:
CURIOUS GEORGE
Curious George
gender
age
How often do you go to the grocery store?
male
55
2/week
Do you own a web-enabled mobile device (a smartphone or tablet)?
yes
once per day
How often do you use this mobile device?
Do you use this mobile device to help with grocery shopping?
If yes, what shopping app do you use?
During the playtest, what was your actual path to the objective?
What was the most memorable moment from the playtest?
What emotions did you experience during the playtest?
At what points in the playtest did you experience positive emotions
(delight, surprise, enjoyment, etc.)?
no
n/a
recipes-->ingredients for guacamole-->garlic-->avocado; wanted to see all the features
instructions that led me where to go in the store, which was helpful because items were not
necessarily where I would intuit
mostly curiosity--I am an experimentor and I wanted to see all the features and press all the
buttons
when advised how to pick a good avocado (I was surprised they would tell me how to pick
the best one, because that would leave the bad ones still in the store; in my mind this adds
credibility to the store)
At what points in the playtest did you experience negative emotions
(frustration, confusion, anxiety, etc.)?
when I pressed Free Roam, which was listed in the menu but was not an available feature
What were some possibilities for the game that you wished were
available but were not in this prototype?
What suggestions would you have for the game designers as they
continue to develop this game?
BONUS points from the store based on purchases or savings; calculating the total cost of
items in the cart (would let you know if you have enough cash); social feature--view sample
shopping lists from other shoppers; if store doesn't have an item I'm looking for, the game
could tell me when it would arrive in the store, or what other stores in the area would have
it (which would put my health first instead of the store's ability to make money); have the
game recognize the bluetooth in my personal phone, so when I get to my shopping cart the
game tablet logs turns on and logs me in automatically
have a "My Gamer Profile" feature--save shopping lists such as "My Basics"--create online
at home before you go to the store; give ability to eliminate certain foods, such processed
foods, gluten--be able to focus on vegetarian, local, organic, etc.

14. PLAYER EXPERIENCE SURVEY:
THOROUGH TEDDY
Thorough Teddy
gender
age
How often do you go to the grocery store?
Do you own a web-enabled mobile device (a smartphone or tablet)?
How often do you use this mobile device?
Do you use this mobile device to help with grocery shopping?
male
28
1/week
yes
2-3 times per day
yes
If yes, what shopping app do you use?
to look at nutritional info at home out of curiosity; used to use a calorie counter app but quit
after a couple of days because it took so much effort to keep up with
During the playtest, what was your actual path to the objective?
directory-->map-->avocado-->shopping list-->recipes-->ingredients for guacamole->tomato; wanted to know what all the game offered; knew immediately that he wanted an
avocado, which made navigation easy and wanted to click through as quickly as possible
What was the most memorable moment from the playtest?
information on the food item page; being guided while walking
What emotions did you experience during the playtest?
curiosity and wanting to explore--wondering, what will it show me? Will there be different
varieties of avocado?; confused--what is Free Roam? What is being scored?
At what points in the playtest did you experience positive emotions
(delight, surprise, enjoyment, etc.)?
looking at the recipes--I'm usually bad at finding recipes; I liked that I could start with
ingredients that I like and then find recipes from there
self-conscious about looking down at the tablet when I could just look up and easily spot the
At what points in the playtest did you experience negative emotions item in the store; scared to push a wrong button--I didn't know if the game was connected
(frustration, confusion, anxiety, etc.)?
to actually buying something, and I didn't want to accidentally charge my credit card; the
lack of of instructions or introduction
What were some possibilities for the game that you wished were
available but were not in this prototype?
an introduction with instructions; varieties of foods (different types of avocados); different
languages (Spanish especially--my mom would benefit from this)
What suggestions would you have for the game designers as they
continue to develop this game?
provide a Search feature where you could type in the name of a food

15. SUMMARY OF ADVICE TO DESIGNERS
SERIOUS FIXES:
• Use Shopping List as the start screen .
• Put the Shopping List in order of items closest to the player’s current
location in the grocer y store .
• Design the Navigation to point players in the right direction and then just
aler t players to a needed course change. Minimize the amount players
need to look down at the game.
• Add a “Got it!” button for the player to tell the game that they have
secured the food item and are ready to move on .
• To f o l l o w t h e “ G o t i t ! ” b u t t o n , d i s p l a y t h e S h o p p i n g L i s t s o r t e d b y i t e m s
closest to the current location .

16. SUMMARY OF ADVICE TO DESIGNERS
MEDIUM FIXES:
• Eliminate the Main Menu.
• Add a Help button on the Sidebar Menu .
• Allow users to scale recipes up or down and have this scaling
automatically update the quantities on the Shopping List.
• Highlight the essential features on the Item Description page,
par ticularly the item photo, the button to locate the item in the grocer y
store, and the link the the Shopping List .
• Add a “ View on Map” button to allow the player to view their current
location and distance to next item.
• Add a button to view recipes made with this food item .

17. SUMMARY OF ADVICE TO DESIGNERS
COSMETIC FIXES:
• Reorder the Sidebar Menu from most central feature to suppor ting
features.
• Minimize Nutritional Info, Cost, and Recipes on the Item Description
pages.
• On the Item Description pages, add a button to link to other varieties of
the food item.
• During navigation, make the food item photo as large as possible and
the directional arrow big and bright .
• Automatically update the total cost of items in the car t .
• Automatically update the scoreboard .