Designing UI for non-professional level creation regarding location-specific mobile games

Sammanfattning: The release of the location-based game Pokemon Go saw the creators breaking world records for most revenue grossed by a mobile game within its first month. With location-based games and services such as Pokemon Go becoming mainstream, new opportunities in the market have been opened. But as location-based services become more popular there is a need for research and development of UX-design to keep up. Regarding location-based services there are multiple important questions in the field. For example, how are map interactions made intuitive and how are elements that interact with the map designed for the best user experience? Questions such as these will be explored in this thesis. This thesis is done in collaboration with the company Exenze which develops a location-based mobile game called Oknytt - Jakten på amuletten (Oknytt - The hunt for the amulet). The game is tailored to specific outdoor areas of the company's clients' choosing, such as campsites, parks or playgrounds. As of the writing of this thesis, the way of creating a level for Oknytt was very complex and took a lot of time. Exenze wanted an easier way to create levels, in which clients could make make their own levels; hence, the aim of this study was to create a user interface in which a non-professional user could create their own fun, engaging, and safe level for Oknytt. The method of this thesis consisted of development and testing of a low fidelity prototype, a mid fidelity prototype and a high fidelity prototype. The resulting high fidelity prototype divided the complex task of creating a level on a specific location into four dependable sub-tasks; finding a place, marking the game zone, marking areas that were unsafe for children, and managing collectibles. These sub-tasks were made into steps in a Wizard with one added step for filling billing information. The prototype was generally well received by users. Most of the problems in the interface had to do with the marking of game zones as well as marking areas that were unsafe for children.