Deliver Intuitive User Inputs with Recommended Controller Button and Action Mapping

As a gateway to positive user experiences, button mapping is an integral yet often overlooked aspect of video games, apps, and digital interface design due to mapping schemas that have become commonplace as the games industry matures. These actions quickly become second nature to both casual and experienced gamers and are largely dependent on the type of experience being played.

For example, whether people are opening up a brand new FPS title or find themselves replaying their favorite for the hundredth time, they will likely associate the right trigger with the game’s shooting mechanism on a gamepad. With a strong knowledge of common button-to-action associations, you can help ensure people focus their attention on the amazing experiences you’ve created, and less time figuring out how to navigate your experience.

While traditional video games have benefited from common button mapping designs over the past few decades, VR and MR present unique challenges due to the breadth of actions, inputs, and freedom of motion that users can take in-headset. As a developer, this expanded freedom can make it difficult to know which button should be used for a specific action.

To gain a better understanding of user preferences and provide you with recommendations for button mapping as you build out your apps, our User Research team conducted extensive research studying the most common button-to-action associations for both general apps and shooter games specifically.

This research consisted of 345 Meta Quest 2 owners reporting which buttons they most associate with what actions. For shooter games, we also compiled a list of the top 23 shooters in the Meta Horizon Store by top usage, assessed button and action associations, and calculated a Player Expectation Score to understand strong associations for gear slot expectations, and weapon reload mechanics in shooter games. These findings were gathered using Quest 2 Touch controllers, but also apply to the Quest 3 Touch Plus controllers which have the same button layout. Across both studies, player button schemas remained similar across game genres, gender, and Quest ownership tenure.

Using these insights, you can make more informed decisions to determine the most intuitive button mapping for your app and your audience. Dive in below to learn more about the studies and what our User Research team found.

Our research into general button-to-action associations revealed that most buttons have strong or moderate correlations with a specific action. Configuring your button layout to reflect strong associations can elevate comfort and ease of use within your apps, whether you’re building a mixed reality tabletop game, an immersive painting app, or anything in between. The image below conveys a visual illustration breaking down strong and moderate button associations.

Blue associations were considered strong, with at least 50% of the study participants reporting high associations between buttons and their corresponding actions shown above. The associations shown in yellow were found to be less common and therefore less impacted by deviations from the actions shown above. While the associations were only moderate (20 - 49%), we recommend leveraging these configurations when possible to align with user expectations.

The charts below show the action that players associate with each button, separated by controller, as well as the association strength and percentage of respondents reporting the association.

The weakest associations were attributed to the Y button and the right thumbstick click, with less than 20% of participants expecting an association with these buttons. When you’re designing your app, this means that you can take more creative liberties with these buttons to create unique configurations for your app experience without contrasting user expectations.

Shooters are historically one of the most popular genres in the games market, and our research suggests that maintaining expected button mappings will lead to a stronger initial player experience which could lead to higher retention. To provide more relevant insights into the associations for this genre, including gear slot expectations and reload mechanics, the most popular games were weighted higher due to more players being exposed to their systems.

The Player Expectation Scores shown in the image below represent the likely strength of players’ expectations for particular in-game interactions and are based on current configurations/mechanics in popular Meta Quest shooter games. Scores are out of 100, with higher scores reflecting greater expectations and associations.

These findings suggest that players are likely to have somewhat strong to very strong action associations with all buttons, with no associations being reported as low. If you’re building a shooter game, we recommend designing around these associations to provide consistency between your app experience and other shooters your audience has been exposed to. The emphasis on reaction speeds and quick actions taken during shooter gameplay means that deviations may result in frustration due to players being required to “relearn” popular mechanics.

The tables below display the actions players likely associate with each button due to previously played shooters, separated by controller, and the association strength and Player Expectation Score.

When you’re in the heat of battle and run out of ammo or need to switch weapons, even a delay of a second or two can be the difference between getting eliminated or taking out the enemy. When players instinctively know which buttons correlate to actions like reloading and changing gear, their performance is likely to improve—and their enjoyment.

Four-fifths of the games used in this study are classified as realistic shooters, meaning shooter games with higher fidelity and realistic body and shooting mechanics. In the image below, you can see that item gear slots associated with the shoulders, hips, and chest have the highest expectation score with large firearms, grenades, small firearms, and ammo. Players also have a moderately strong association between the hip/belt regions and small firearms and ammo.

Using these positions for item gear slots can help ensure that players can intuitively switch between weapons and stay present within their experience, rather than consciously think about where to move their arms during action-packed moments.

The image below illustrates the strongest Player Expectation scores for reloading to provide guidance on common button associations. It should come as no surprise that firing a weapon is most strongly correlated with the trigger button, but for other reload steps like removing empty magazines or retrieving ammo, players have the freedom to not only use buttons to complete actions but also use their hands.

While using physical movements in VR to complete actions may provide players with novelty and deepen immersion when compared to traditional shooters, providing simple button solutions is important for enhancing accessibility and comfort. For example, the A, B, and Y buttons are commonly associated with removing empty magazines, while the grip button is commonly associated with inserting fresh ammo into the chamber. Even if you plan on providing players with the option to use their hands, utilizing the strong associations shown below can foster more positive user experiences for a variety of actions.

Button mapping can present challenges in determining the most intuitive input method to achieve a specific action. Using the research laid out above, you now have a better understanding of the expectations players currently have for specific buttons. You can strengthen feelings of immersion by designing input methods that require minimal effort or thinking on the player’s part, allowing them to stay engaged within their environment and with others.

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