Published: A KTH Thesis on Iterum's User Experience

Earlier this year, KTH students Anton Hammar and Ludwig Flodin ran two rounds of user testing on Iterum as part of their bachelor’s thesis. Many of you came to the KTH Library to play, think aloud and eat snacks. Thank you! The finished thesis is now published.

User Experience Design in the Real-time Strategy Game Iterum

Real-time strategy games ask players to keep track of a lot at once: resources, armies, settlements and the map. All of that can quickly turn into high cognitive load. Anton and Ludwig took a user-focused approach to Iterum’s interface:

They prototyped new interface designs in Figma.
They built them into the game using C++ and Iterum’s own UI language.
They evaluated them through iterative user testing, comparing the redesign with the original.

Participants reported lower perceived cognitive load and preferred the redesigned interface. The thesis concludes that established UX principles can make a game easier to use without reducing its depth, which is exactly what we want for Iterum.

Read it here:

Interested in doing your own thesis or internship with us? See our Internships & Thesis page.