Epic Games
Accessibility Information

Usability Study

Date

January - March 2022

Duration

10 weeks

Role

Generalist

Team

2 Researchers, 1 Generalist

Tools

Miro, Figma

Executive Summary

This research was conducted with the intent of assessing the presentation of accessibility features of games on the Epic Games Store online marketplace. Working with 5 participants through a usability study we discovered:

1.

Accessibility information is scattered and ambiguous.

2.

Community content drives feature discovery, but Epic fails to build community.

3.

Site information architecture related to accessibility information is unintuitive and limited.  

Overall, there is a lot of potential for improvement regarding community building and the availability of accessibility information in gaming. Our design suggestions follow the case study below.

My Role

I took lead on creating the interaction map and on crafting design suggestions. After the completion of the project, I also prototyped potential implementations. As part of the team, I was involved in every step of the process and collaborated on protocol development, data analysis, and research synthesis.

Overview

The product

The Epic Games online store is the digital marketplace of Epic Games, Inc. where users can purchase and download games to their computer. It is available in 15 languages, with over 180 million monthly active users, over 30 million daily users, and over 450 games. The store is available both in-browser and as a standalone Mac or Windows desktop client.

The space

2 out of 3 gamers with a disability have barriers for gaming, with 70% using built-in accessibility features. According to one study, 2 in 5 disabled gamers have actually purchased games that they’re unable to play-- this is the main problem we’re trying to address.
Source

Goals and Questions

Goals

  • Assess the Epic Games online marketplace on the availability of information about accessibility features for the games, i.e. are users able to find information before they purchase a game
  • Learn how consumers find accessibility information for purchasing games
  • Propose design considerations aimed at creating a more accessible video game shopping experience

Research Questions

  • RQ1 - How is accessibility information presented in the Epic Games store, if at all? How difficult is it to find? 
  • RQ2 - Where do users expect accessibility information to fit within the Epic Games store's current information architecture? 
  • RQ3 - Currently, how do users go about finding accessibility information about video games?

Methods

Interaction Map

First we set out by understanding what the experience is like on the Epic Games store desktop website. We mapped out the interaction map to better understand the potential user journeys for going about purchasing a game in this marketplace.

Moderated Usability Session

Next we decided upon a moderated usability study in order to adequately tackle our core research questions. A moderated usability study allows for the researcher to help guide the participant and probe for additional feedback from the participant while also quantifying the success (and pains) of the tasks the participant is set out to complete.
Usability Session Participants
P#
Do you or a loved one identify as disabled?
Have you downloaded or purchased any video games over the last 6 months?
Which of the following video game marketplaces have you previously used?
Age
Gender Identity
P1
No
Yes
Microsoft Store
18-25
Male
P2
No
Yes
Nintendo Games Store
18-25
Female
P3
No
Yes
Steam
26-41
Male
P4
No
Yes
Nintendo Games Store, Epic Games Store, Steam, Origin
18-25
Female
P5
No
Yes
Microsoft Store, Google Play Store
18-25
Male
Task 1
Mobility: Controller Support
Task 2
Vision: Color Options
Task 3
Hearing: Subtitle Availability

Metrics

To answer our research questions, we collected data from our sessions to aggregate into our findings.

Quantitative Data

  • Rate of success [success/failure]: Were users able to accomplish the task and find what they were looking for?
  • Level of difficulty [1-5 likert]: How easy or hard did users find the tasks? Rated in the post session questionnaire.
  • Level of confidence [pre and post 1-5 likert]: How confident were users that they could find the relevant information? Rated both pre and post session.
  • Timing threshold [15 min max]: Did users complete the task in the allotted time?
  • Lostness: A score calculated from the path users take when doing a task, used to measure the degree of clarity as the user is able to find their way to the relevant information.

Qualitative Data

  • Frustrations and pain points: What did users have difficulty with?
  • Expectations: What did users expect to find? How did they expect the site to be like?
  • Suggestions: How would users change the website?

Findings

From our research, 3 main themes emerged.
1. Accessibility information is scattered and ambiguous.
2. Community content drives feature discovery, but Epic fails to build
community.
3. Site information architecture related to accessibility information is
unintuitive and limited.

Design Suggestions

For each finding, we created a recommendation to address the user needs, as well as more concrete suggestions.

After the conclusion of the project, I created mockups to demonstrate how implementation may look like.

Recommendations

  • Highlight accessibility as accessibility - in one location, centralize the accessibility features of each game and use accessibility-related terms to improve clarity (e.g., a dedicated section on the game page, assigning accessibility “grades” in the reviews section, changing/separating “text languages” to “subtitle languages,” etc.)
  • Epic games, epic community - directly host and highlight crowdsourced or user-generated information, such as reviews, FAQs, and forum discussions
  • Accessibility in IA - reconstruct site information architecture with explicit areas dedicated to accessibility information (e.g., accessibility feature filters, an “Accessible Games” banner on the homepage, etc.)

Searching and tags

The search tool could contain an option to search by specific accessibility features

Rating

Having an "accessibility rating/score/grade" in the reviews section could be helpful, because it would give users an idea of the depth/breadth of the accessibility settings. Partnering with external reviewers (e.g., Can I Play That?) could be an option to help validate game accessibility.

Details

A section under system requirements with all the accessibility accommodations a game has could be helpful. Within the specifications section, details about what support the game has may be an option as well.

Reflections

Next steps

Next steps could include further design iterations stemming from the recommendations. A competitive analysis with other services such as Steam could also be helpful.

Takeaways

As a designer first and foremost, undertaking a research project was a very educational experience. I developed skills in qual analysis, interviewing, and structuring usability sessions.
simon sun, 2023
made you look