CMPM 80A Report: Strengths and Weaknesses of Bubble Shooter Prototype

This report analyzes the design and prototype of a Bubble Shooter game developed to be accessible for colorblind individuals. The game replaces color matching with shape matching, utilizing five distinct shapes in a black and white format. The report discusses the application of design thinking principles, particularly empathy, to ensure the game's usability for the target audience. It details the methodology of a play test involving both colorblind and normal-sighted users, presenting the results in a comparative table that evaluates various criteria such as visibility, user control, consistency, and error prevention. The findings highlight both the advantages, such as its adaptability to different screen sizes and its inclusivity, and disadvantages, such as the game's perceived slowness. The report concludes by summarizing the overall strengths and weaknesses of the prototype, offering insights into its potential for further development and refinement to improve the gaming experience for all users, especially those with color vision deficiencies.

Running head: CMPM 80A
CMPM 80A
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CMPM 80A
Introduction
The name of the game is bubble shooter and it is very useful for the people who suffer
from colour blindness (Samson, Intelligentie & Gavves, 2016). This game is a little bit
different from the original one where bubbles with same colours need to be matched. In place
of colour, shapes are to be matched. This has helped the colour-blind people to play this
game. The shapes are of five different shapes and the version of the game is black and white.
The report will discuss about the strengths and the weakness of the prototype of
bubble shooter.
Discussions
Everyone can play the game but in this game some new features has been added for
the people who suffer from colour blindness (Jaramillo-Alcázar, & Luján-Mora, 2017). After
the game has been developed, it should be seen that the game is accessible to the target
audience those are the colour-blind people. Various methods can be used in order to
accomplish this task. First, by the use of empathy tool.
Empathy is an essential element in Design Thinking and design that is centred on
Humans (Kim et al., 2018). Empathise is the first step of the procedure of design thinking. It
has several phases like define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. From here. It can be said that
empathy tool will help the designers and the developers to make a prototype that will help the
colour-blind people to play the game (Giugliano & Veneziano, 2017).
The second method that will be used in order to make the prototype accessible to the
game is by performing a play test (Zook, Fruchter & Riedl, 2019). Two people User 1 and
User 2 will take the play test. One of the players will be colour blind and the other people will
be normal. The table below shows the result of the play test.

2CMPM 80A
Criteria User 1 (colour blind) User 2
Visibility of the status of
system
the game keeps the user
informed about the status of
the game
The status of the game is
always informed
Match between real world
and system
No match between real world
and the game
Some match is there between
the real world and the game
User freedom and control The user can use it freely and
it is very useful for the colour
blind people
The control is good and in
this, only the colour is
changed to shapes.
Standards and consistency The game is consistent and
after a few rounds, it
becomes easier to play the
game.
The game is very standard
and consistent and it is very
easy like the old bubble
shooter game
Prevention of error No errors are there is the
game but at first; it is
difficult to understand the
game.
Some errors are there in the
game such sometimes it
becomes slower
Appreciation rather than
recall
The users do not have to
recall any moves. The
instructions are easy.
The users do not have
remember any moves, it is a
very easy game
Efficiency and Flexibility The game is efficient and
flexible and it can be played
anytime.
The game is flexible and
efficient and it takes the
shape of any screen
Documentation and help Help is provided in order to
play the game and it is easy to
Help and documentation is
provided

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play the game with the shapes
given in place of colours
Conclusion
It can be said that the prototype of the game has a good design but it has several
advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of the game is that for normal people and the
people who suffer from colour blindness can play this game. Another advantage is that the
game takes the shape of any screen. The disadvantage is that the game is very slow.

4CMPM 80A
References
Giugliano, G., & Veneziano, R. (2017). Open design approach, a project for inclusion of
blind people. Hong Kong Design Institute.
Kim, W., Choo, K. T. W., Lee, Y., Misra, A., & Balan, R. K. (2018, June). Empath-d: Vr-
based empathetic app design for accessibility. In Proceedings of the 16th Annual
International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (pp. 123-
135).
Samson, L., Intelligentie, B. O. K., & Gavves, E. (2016). Deep reinforcement learning
applied to the game bubble shooter (Doctoral dissertation, Bachelor’s Thesis,
University of Amsterdam).
Zook, A., Fruchter, E., & Riedl, M. O. (2019). Automatic playtesting for game parameter
tuning via active learning. arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.01417.
Jaramillo-Alcázar, A., & Luján-Mora, S. (2017, October). Mobile serious games: an
accessibility assessment for people with visual impairments. In Proceedings of the 5th
International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing
Multiculturality (pp. 1-6).