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The UX behind Among Us

The online multiplayer game, Among Us, took the quarantined world by storm. A year ago the game boasted under a hundred players. Today, the social deduction game has nearly 400,000 players in a given month. Players join the online game to play against their friends or randomly assigned players from the internet in a murder mystery free for all. At the start of a game, users are assigned the role of crewmate or imposter. Crewmates must complete mini tasks and identify the imposter who is running around murdering crewmates and avoiding detection. The game has proven to be incredibly successful, but how well does it stand up to user experience standards?

Accessibility

This game appears rather simplistic; however, there are a few major accessibility design flaws. The first of which is something that I personally would have never considered until I discussed the game with a friend. The primary objective of Among Us is to identify the imposter who is sneaking around and killing crewmates. Each character in the game is a different color, and although the game allows you to enter a nickname to appear on screen, in most game play users will refer to other players by the color of the character—not the name. This is even more common in randomly assigned games where players are strangers. This proves to be a particular challenge and flaw among one population in particular, colorblind users. In my friend’s experience, he has struggled in communicating during the discussion portion of this game because when others refer to characters such as “Blue” he doesn’t realize that the character in question is actually his own character. Beyond this, many of the tasks crewmates are expected to complete during the game involve matching things by color, providing an extra challenge to those who cannot differentiate the different hues.

Another concern with the accessibility of this game is the fact that the majority of players employ a secondary application to allow for increased communication capabilities. One of the main components of this game is discussing (or accusing) who the imposter is. The actual game interface allows for text message communication during these times; however, most players opt to host a call on Discord, Zoom, Whatsapp, or other conference call software. This has the potential to hinder users with hearing disabilities, as well as counteract the low barriers for participation that Among Us has with their omittance of a login.

Interactive and Visual Design

The design components of the Among Us interface are very effective. A game concept that could easily have been part of the horror genre is made comical and lighthearted through the different interactive design components.

Graphics and Images

The graphics of Among Us are simplistic and cartoonish. This plays into the lighthearted murder mystery taking place in the game. The high contrast and bold lines in the animation make the interface engaging to look at without feeling too overwhelming. Features that allow users to customize their character’s color and outfit increase the interactions and engagement between the user and game. Additionally, the animations created to show an imposter has killed a crewmate further serve to maintain the game’s classification as murder mystery and social deduction rather than horror.

Aesthetics

The aesthetics of this game are unique and somewhat childlike to further play into the goofy astronaut crewmates the populate the game. The only qualm I have with the visual design of this game is that the visual aesthetic sacrifices some of the usability. As discussed previously, the accessibility of Among Us is flawed in their color schemes for color blind users. However, beyond this is that some tasks are confusing or difficult to complete because of the aesthetic being maintained. For example, there is poor affordance in some tasks that appear on the screen with no directions or indications of what is needed to be accomplished or how. The inclusion of added descriptors on these tasks may change the aesthetic but would increase the usability and user satisfaction in the long run.

User Interaction

The overall interaction between the user and interface is kept constant whether the user is a crewmate, imposter, or ghost. Rather than just having crewmates run away from potential imposters the developers created tasks for them to complete to keep them engaged and provide them with multiple opportunities to beat the imposter. Imposters can also do more than just attack crewmates; they can also sabotage the tasks crewmates are attempting to complete. Once a character has been killed or accused of being the imposter and voted out, rather than sitting idly they can continue completing their tasks as a ghost.

Conclusion

It’s quite clear why this multiplayer game became so popular over quarantine because it is an engaging game that allows for friendly competition and social interaction. As the game has grown in popularity the developers have continued to update and fix the platform, so flaws in usability and accessibility that may exist today may quickly be remedied.

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