I just came back from the 'playtest'.
I asked two separate groups of four children (in each group 2 boys and 2 girls) what design they liked most for each poster (A3).
First I wanted to know what form they liked best, so I showed them the first poster of the iterations in shape, which had no difference in colors. The original shape was found to be the most favorite, so that was an easy one.
Then I showed them the first 28 iterations (all on one poster) and asked them which one was their favorite. As I expected the girls had other preferences than the boys, but luckily there were some designs loved by both the boys and the girls (they all gave at least three preferences, because they found it hard to choose one). In general, their first decision was the rainbow like designs. When they took a better look at all of the designs they also loved the checked pattern. All of them didn't like the stripes based on my moodboard (the ones on the right). Too bad.
After this, I showed them the third poster with the remaining 10 designs I made later on in my process. I expected the pink one on the left to be loved by the girls and the blue one on the right to be loved by the boys. I was right in this. The big favorite of this poster was the one left, below the pink one. Both boys and girls really loved this.
For each poster I asked the group to choose a favorite design together, to see if they could point a design out they all liked. In the first group the four children really were discussing and negotiating with each other to choose a design they all liked and they came to a clear conclusion quite quickly.
The other group had an other manner in how this was discussed; three of them all pointed one design (without discussing or negotiating) and the other first pointed out an other design, but once he saw that the favorite design was already chosen, he choose that one as well.
The two separate groups had a lot of similarities in their preferences. They all loved the rainbow colors in the start, but when they looked better they all also loved the checked pattern, the one with the white triangular stripes on blue on the other poster and the original design of Virtuoso.
They didn't liked the striped ones, not because they were stripes, but because the combination of colors and width of the stripes didn't appeal to them. I understand this, I think the color palette and pattern I created was a bit too adult for them, it is more something I would choose.
Stripes, colors, triangles and blocks are still very popular. Boys do not mind a bit of pink at all, as long as it is not the focus of the palette, the same means for girls with boyish colors.
I also looked at the chosen design together with Tom van der Linden, also a fourth year game artist. He said that the checked pattern wouldn't be the best choice, because the squares takes the round forms away of the shape of the toy itself. I totally agree with this.
I think I'm going to make one more iteration and then choose the final visual design. Once I've chosen the final visual design, I'm going to make a model of the visual design to see if they understand how to interact with it. If they don't understand it, I will make the 'user script' more simplistic and test it again. If they do understand it, it means that my visual design is finished and ready to be combined with the technical prototype. :) Can't wait!
the favorites.
I however don't like to make it look cheap. So the plastic has to be strong, have volume and a bit of weight. I'm going to cry if my toy will look like the toy on the right.
