The first few minutes of play, commonly referred to as the onboarding phase, of Free-to-Play mobile games typically display a substantial churn rate among new players. It is therefore vital for designers to effectively evaluate this phase to investigate its satisfaction of player expectations. This paper presents a study utilizing a lab-based mixedmethods approach in providing insights for evaluating the user experience of onboarding phases in mobile games. This includes an investigation into the contribution of physiological measures (Heart-Rate Variability and Galvanic Skin Conductance) as well as a range of selfreported proxy measures including: a) stimulated recall, engagement graphs, b) flow state survey and c) post-game experience questionnaire. These techniques were applied across 28 participants using three mobile Free-to-Play titles from different genres. This paper makes two important contributions to the games user research (GUR) domain: 1) evaluates different research techniques (e.g. physiological measures and experience graphs) in the context of mobile games; 2) provides an empirically based recommendation for design elements that result in high arousal.

The onboarding phase of Free-to-Play mobile games, covering the first few minutes of play, typically sees a substantial retention rate amongst players. It is therefore crucial to the success of these games that the onboarding phase promotes engagement to the widest degree possible. In this paper a set of heuristics for the design of onboarding phases in mobile games is presented. The heuristics are identified by a lab-based mixedmethods experiment, utilizing lightweight psycho-physiological measures together with self-reported player responses, across three titles that cross the genres of puzzle games, base builders and arcade games, and utilize different onboarding phase design approaches. Results showcase how heuristics can be used to design engaging onboarding phases in mobile games.