ExperienceLab

Advice on international user experience testing during travel disruption

Northern European airspace has only just opened after nearly a week of closure due to volcanic eruptions in Iceland. It's likely to be May before things return to normal and the possibility of future disruption cannot be entirely ruled out.

While not wishing to court doom, those of us involved in global research need to be ready for this. So what do we do? Here are 10 things to think about.

Operation Flashpoint : a flash in the pan?

Looks like I'm in for a bit of a walk...

Last weekend as I was browsing my local games shop I came across a copy of Operation Flashpoint : Dragon rising. Now I've never played any of the previous titles in the series before, so I bought a copy for my 360.

The case promised that the game would put you as close to war as you would ever want to get, and now that I've played it I can certainly agree with them. However if I was going to get close to war in my decidedly un-military trained self then it would help if I had a bit of assistance, especially as I'm placed in charge of three other men.

The first mission of the game placed me directly onto a very nicely rendered landscape with my 'squad', having been told to take out a target on the map. I spent a few seconds moving myself around, seeing what the world had to offer and then was ready for what they had to throw at me. Now the game is pretty realistic, too realistic some might argue especially as I spent the next 20 minutes walking to a target some distance away only to be killed at my first encounter with the enemy.