Game Research
Since the pandemic, I have been deeply embedded in the world of game development as a researcher with a focus on user experience, decision-making, and audience engagement. I’m fortunate enough to have been involved with a variety of intellectual property including the worlds of “Titanfall” and “Star Wars”.
Research is a supremely important component of making effective products, and games are no different.
My work sits at the intersection of psychology, design, and production. I help development teams answer difficult questions early, before they become expensive problems later, and my methods are applicable anywhere customer experience, business strategy, and creative intent collide.
The combination of art and science is central to how I do my job. I'm comfortable discussing creative intent in a language designers can understand, while also translating that intent into testable questions, measurable outcomes, and defendable evidence. The ability to act as a bridge between groups of people in a company that don't naturally share vocabulary makes me extremely valuable to any team, regardless of the product.
Games fail when teams misread the player, and my skillset is built around preventing that class of failure.
My research toolkit includes…
-
Anything can be measured accurately given the right framework. Subjectivity is the input, not the output. The ability to construct reliable ways of measuring psychological phenomena is well known to science and has immensely valuable applications in the design of digital experiences. I consider this part of my toolkit because it’s emblematic of how I approach my role in an organisation. If the tools we have don’t meet our needs, why not just make our own?
-
Conducting a great research project once is valuable in itself, but it’s only when we start spending time in the real worlds of our audience that we are truly able to understand the nature of experience for them. A well executed diary study for example, can generate insights so robust that they can reliably predict issues long before they show up on dashboards or social media posts. If the goal is to truly see reality for what it is, then there’s no better way to do it.
-
First developed by researchers at Microsoft, rapid iterative testing and evaluation (RITE) is by far the most cost effective and most efficient method of grounding a digital product in the realities of the end user experience. If used in the right circumstances, it can dramatically increase the quality of a digital experience in a reliable fashion with a surprisingly small sample of participants.
-
We can’t design for everyone, even though we should always try. Segmentation is a brilliant way to cluster the shared traits of a product’s audience so that their unique needs can be more easily factored into the development process. A good segmentation can speed up the creative process and make scoping conversations much more efficient. Without it, you’re more likely to be shooting from the hip or appealing to an much narrower group of potential customers.
How I Like to work with Development teams
Fully embedded
I do my best work when I am allowed to live and breathe the product, the team that built it, and the environment it is intended for. This is essential for building trust and credibility with the team in question, and for knowing where the high value opportunities are hiding.
Information on demand
A full blown study isn’t always the answer. Teams get the most from my work when they can ask me anything, anytime. When I am allowed to be a resident expert of the customer’s experience with a product, I become an invaluable resource to all members of the organisation, regardless of their discipline.
Triangulation by default
Truly robust information doesn’t just come from one source, and all great conclusions are synthesized from multiple angles. This is a mantra I apply rigorously in my work, selecting tools and designing studies based on the decision being made and the questions being asked, not the other way round.