5-2 Evaluate Marketing Website

Your team needs to evaluate its marketing website by testing it with users to get feedback on what is effective and what could be improved.

The evaluation will focus on testing the utility, usability, and user experience of your website. This evaluation can help provide evidence of how effective your website is at marketing your game.

YOUR TASK

1. Save a copy of this online evaluation survey in your team's project folder.

2. Recruit a total of 3-5 participants to conduct separate in-person evaluations of your team's website.

   • Let the participant know it will take about 5-10 minutes.

   • Ideally, the participants should be similar to your target player persona.

   • Avoid using participants that evaluated your game, since their familiarity with the game will affect how they view and evaluate the website.

   • However, if you do want to have the same set of participants evaluate both the game and the marketing website (in order to see how the game and website are consistent with each other), then recruit 6-10 participants (i.e., twice as many): Have half the participants evaluate the game first and then the website. Have the other half evaluate the website first and then the game. This will allow you to compare the responses from the two groups and see how the order of the evaluations affected the responses.

3. At the start of each evaluation, briefly explain to the participant that your team wants to get feedback on a marketing website for a new video game. Be sure to mention that:

   • the website is being tested, not the participant

   • the website is the focus of the evaluation, rather than the game

   • the website is a work-in-progress, so you want constructive feedback on what’s working well and what could be improved

   • the participant can ask questions during the evaluation, but you might not be able to answer certain questions until after the evaluation is completed

4. Tell the participant to “Think Aloud” as they use the website for a few minutes to learn about the game by finding answers to these questions:

   • What does the game involve?

   • What kind of players does the game seem targeted towards?

5. Observe as the participant uses the website, and be sure to record notes on any useful feedback.

   • If the participant has questions about the game or website, don't explain the game or website to them. Instead, try redirecting the participant back to the website by responding with your own question (such as: What does the website say? Where would you expect to find that on the website? etc.). If necessary, let the participant know that you can answer their question after the evaluation is completed.

6. After a few minutes, have the participant complete the online evaluation survey.

7. Be sure to thank the participant for their time and feedback. If needed, you can respond to any follow-up questions the participant has.

Repeat Steps 3-7 with each participant.