Fortnite: Quest to conquer
Human Factors
Whether it was Drake and Travis Scott streaming themselves playing Fortnite, or seeing a Fortnite “star” on TIME’s list of 100 most influential people — you most likely know or have heard of “Fortnite”. Fortnite may be one of the most ground-breaking games of the decade. With over 250 million players worldwide, Fortnite is able to understand and adapt to its consumers.
A force to be reckoned with
Fortnite is an online action game focused on exploration and discoverability. It’s available in three distinct game modes: Save the World, Battle Royale, and Creative. However, in this piece, I’ll be specifically covering the game mode, ‘Battle Royale’, as it is the most recognized in pop culture and is available on all platforms. ‘Battle Royale’ is a game mode where a player has one life and is put in a pool of up to 100 players where they battle to be the last person standing. The core elements of the game are: combat, building, and harvesting.
Fortnite was initially released in 2017, by Epic Games — an American video game company based in North Carolina, which was founded by Tim Sweeney. However, Fortnite: Battle Royale was inspired by other similar games like PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) and H1Z1 (now known as Z1 Battle Royale), which also share the same concept of ‘Battle Royale’; survival of the fittest.
In relation to Human Factors
Human factors in regards to user experience, focuses on understanding people’s perceptions and the human behaviour.
Users don’t completely rely on visual cues to respond to a product or service. They are also driven by their discernments and emotions. Based on the steps that are explored in human information processing, some examples pertaining to the: Detection and discrimination and Learning and long-term memory steps will be analyzed to better grasp the subject.
Detection and discrimination
Signals are a way for us to decode something. It allows us to determine how we should respond. We are also capable of detecting changes, especially in high contrasts. However, we struggle with interpreting these differences and comparing them from memory.
Humans are great at detecting change and contrast.
Fortnite is exceptional at providing its users effective signals and feedback for a seamless gameplay.
Contrast:
Since survival is the game’s main goal, utilizing the colour red, which contrasts against green is an indication that your health is in danger — informing the player that they may have to recover or be cautious to preserve or extend their life in the game.
Feedback:
When a specified action is prohibited, the game provides the user feedback to inform them that they cannot proceed with the action. (i.e. When a player attempts to ‘build’ without the necessary materials, it is highlighted in red, signifying that it cannot be completed.)
Learning and long-term memory
Though our working memory may be limited, our long-term memory contains enormous capacity to hold information. People use their experiences from previous systems as a guide to maneuver in a new one.
‘Cognitive scaffolding’ are guides that acts as a foundation to help users navigate and build familiarity, which are later removed. However, this can be permanently put in place if the environment is frequently changing.
HUD:
Fortnite’s HUD is excellent in reducing memory load. For example, the weapon icons are paired with the quantities of ammunition. Trying to remember the amount of ammunition a weapon has can be difficult when in combat because you wouldn’t know how to use them accordingly when faced with multiple opponents.
Signals and sounds:
Signals that indicate an object can be interacted with is a form of cognitive scaffolding because it informs the user what objects can/cannot be interacted with throughout the game (i.e. a hand icon that appears when you come in close proximity to a treasure chest; to open).
When there are enemies around or a high level of activity (players battling, shooting, etc.), flashing red highlights and footsteps are displayed to notify the user — accompanied with sound effects of weapons firing. This knowledge can build awareness for a player in future battles (i.e. a player who’s goal is to eliminate as much opponents they can may use this awareness to locate areas with a high level of activity because it would signify that there are other players).
They don’t shift the burden of learning onto the user, rather they embed learning into the experience.
Design Implications and Opportunities
As Fortnite continues to evolve to continuously engage its users, we learn that human factors focuses on the processes of information that work in unison, contributing to the whole system, that is intuitive. Perception can be challenging because we cannot simply expect something to be perceived as intended. That’s why it is important we understand our target audience and their behaviours, as well as conduct necessary testing to allow us to create meaningful and effective experiences.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortnite
Qualls, D. (2017, January 20). Basics of Human Factors Engineering for UX Designers. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@DanoQualls/basics-of-human-factors-engineering-for-ux-designers-bedb0c29ef1c
https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2019/
Webb, K. (2019, December 29). ‘Fortnite’ was the most important video game of this decade, and it will be for the next one too. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/fortnite-most-influential-video-game-decade-2019-12
