Christopher Gregor

Website and User

Website – roll20.net

Roll20 is an online toolset allowing people to host Tabletop Role-Playing Games remotely on a virtual tabletop. People primarily use it to play games when they are far apart from each other and increased in use over the pandemic lockdown. I personally use Roll20 to manage and run multiple Dungeons and Dragons games via this online tool system with friends across Florida.

Roll20.net main page

User – Brother

My tester was my younger brother who does not play Tabletop Role-Playing Games or use any similar website to Roll20. He is a Risk Management major and while familiar with the common use of computers and websites is mostly experienced in the Microsoft programs like Excel which are used heavily for his major.

User Actions

My brother began by exploring the main page’s header links and drop-down menus. He attempted to use Play Now but it directed him to a sign-in page, after exploring other links he found the only link he could use without a sign-in was to view the community discussion threads about the site and games. Following this, I provided my brother with a temporary email to create an account and continue to explore the site.

Now logged in, he proceeded to attempt to join a game and I noted his confusion at trying to view other people’s games and what they were playing. He then explored the tools and marketplace section which he was able to navigate fairly easily with only some confusion on jargon and terminology from the Tabletop Role-Playing community found across the site.

Finally, I asked him to attempt to create a new game and delete it. Creating a game was pretty easy, he was surprised how many options there were for gaming systems, but he found it difficult to adjust the settings for a created game and locate how to delete it.

Novice vs Expert Users

Novice

The interface seemed to be useful for my user to follow along with their exploration only getting caught up on the settings for an individual game and being confused with the Jargon, names of gaming systems, and terminology indicative of the Tabletop Role Playing culture and not the interface itself.

Screenshot of some of the settings (Without an account you can’t see this page)

My user detailed that he found the site navigable and useful, the systems for the marketplace used to buy new books and assets for games were easy to search and use despite not knowing any of the names of systems or books being sold. He remarked that if he played Dungeons and Dragons or any other game on this website, he probably would understand what’s going on better.

Expert

I have used Roll20.net for 8 years and over that time it has seen many updates and changes to parts of its user interface design. With the knowledge I have on Tabletop Role-Playing games I find this site very easy to navigate and design entire campaigns for players to use with journal segments, specific sheets, and handouts. I am even able to effectively use some of its advanced features like Dynamic Lighting which allows me to design game maps with the ability to limit each player’s visibility of the map to only their token.