Students test the tests!

Staff from Arctic Shores, which has offices in Manchester, London and Singapore visited the college to ask interactive media students for their opinions on the design and usability of online psychometric games.

Traditionally, organisations use psychometric paper tests when going through the recruitment of new employees. The results of these tests reveal a candidate’s skills and knowledge, abilities, personality traits and attitudes.

Sam Higham, product manager at Arctic Shores said: “At Arctic Shores we’ve taken the traditional psychometric test and produced it in game format. We believe the paper-based tests can be inaccurate and the candidate is unable to influence the result on the game version.

“We believe that using the game format reduces anxiety during the interview process. It’s engaging, fun and contains a lot of psychometric science all backed by psychologists and data analysts.”

Sam Higham, together with lead artist Stacey Ray, who was a West Notts interactive media student back in 2010, approached students on the Level 3 Interactive Media course to seek their feedback on the product.

Stacey said: “We approached the students West Notts to get their feedback on the tests. They are the next generation of individuals to go through job applications. The recruitment process is changing as well as the HR sector. We believe what we do is fairer and provides everyone with a better process.

“To get people who will be using this in the future, and get some feedback from them, especially creative students has been a valuable process to ensure we continue to get our systems and designs just right. The more voices we hear, the better.”