USABILITY EVALUATION EMPOWERED GAMING PLATFORM: AN ANOVA-BASED STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

While games like Candy Crush Saga own people's screen time globally, a corresponding question is: what's responsible for these games' popularity and often addictive appeal. This work responds to that question by exploring how usability factors influence gameplay conduct in Candy Crush Saga, a leading casual mobile game sensation. On the strength of a random Google Forms survey of 500 active users, research investigates a broad gamut of usability factors ranging from interface clarity and task efficiency and emotional appeal to user gratification, revenue mechanisms, and psychological consequences like addiction and frustration. Demographics and gaming habits were also investigated in a quest to derive a comprehensive user profile. Why can't players stop taking breaks and putting the game away? Using sophisticated statistical procedures like descriptive and inferential analysis, correlation tests, and measures of effect size we unveil crucial associations and patterns underlying its popularity. Our findings show that Candy Crush Saga not only leads on usability grounds but also masterfully integrates design elements that enhance retention and emotional commitment among players. More than showing what makes this particular title a hit, research offers useful game development takeaways for game developers that would like to create similarly entertaining mobile games. It makes a methodological contribution as well by offering a data-based usability evaluation toolset for digital entertainment. In so doing, it makes a case for empirical techniques based on measuring user interaction and involvement in digital games on mobile devices.