Articles and Talks
A complete list of my public talks, articles and authored content.
Accessible & Approachable, What’s The Difference?
There are two commonly-used phrases relating to the broadening of a game’s future audience: ‘accessible’ and ‘approachable’. Although these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are…
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Metaplay ‘Under The Hood’ Feature
Industry heavyweights Metaplay interviewed me for their gamedev insights blog. In a wide-ranging discussion we covered research, player-centricity, accessibility, and finding the balance between high-tech and…
Playtest Lab Design, Revisited
Seven years after delivering a talk on the design of playtest labs, I returned to the gamesUR stage to deliver an update. Two further labs and…
Unite 2022
Thanks to Unity for their invitation to speak at Unite 2022, discussing the importance of understanding players.
GUR Café Podcast
Ubisoft Director of Insights Lanie Dixon and I talk about user research methods: At what point does proficiency in methods stop making you a better researcher?…
How Do We Teach Them To Play?
In my second tutorial talk on gamesUR foundations, I’ve covered the topic of learnability. How do players learn to play? What strategies can game design teams…
GamesUR Talk For Old Timers
Am I an ‘old timer’? Well, I guess this settles it. (more…)
Game UX Podcast
A podcast about the people behind interface design and development in video games – now including yours truly. Ahmed Salama and I discussed the successes (and…
Getting More From Usability Testing
Another post for Player Research, this time covering some tips and tricks for usability testing your game effectively.
Imaginary Fun for Imaginary Players at ChinaJoy
If there is no agreement on who our players are – or what they consider ‘high quality’ – then how do we make good creative decisions…
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The Last Days of Control
User research sessions like these had been a staple of Control’s development. Remedy even built a playtesting lab in their Espoo offices. For the final months…
When Debug UI Ruins Game Design…
Thinking about the design of debug UI seems like misspent time. It is, by its nature, only to be used by our development team, and never…
Should Players Buy Their Own UI?
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is full of interesting design choices. In this article I explore why their designers may have chosen to have players unlock their…
What Makes a Great Expert Review?
Heuristic Analyses – otherwise known as ‘expert analyses’ – are a powerful method in games user research. They’re also some of the most difficult to perform:…
Player Data on Retention at GDC
A GDC microtalk session on the types and value of player data for exploring retention. Slides are available free, but the video requires GDC Vault access.
Level Design Lobby Podcast
Max Pears – level design guru and podcast host – invited me onto Level Design Lobby. We discussed the origins of games user research, the role…
Panel on UX process
At 4C in Prague I joined Shawn Stafford, Mia Lahteenmaki, Celia Hodent & Jason Schklar to discuss the challenges, practices, and methods of UX researchers. (more…)
Player Data in Gamedev
4C Conference in Prague hosted a user experience track. I shared advice on the means by which player data can be used throughout development. (more…)
What Should A Playtest Smell Like?
Running playtest sessions is remarkably difficult. It’s easy to overlook simple practices that can ruin the feedback you collect. This article considers common mistakes, through the…
Games User Research Book
Published by Oxford University Press, the Games User Research book is the first major text on the modern commercial application of player data in game development.…
What is Games User Experience?
A long-read article on the voice of games user experience. Read it on Medium.
Building Confidence in GamesUR
There were remarkably few talks or resources on the commercial realities of games user research: What does a typical day look like? What’s the workload to…
Forging a Career in GamesUR
What advice do hiring managers have for prospective applicants in games user researchers? (more…)
Designing a Playtest Lab
In this talk from 2016 I shared lessons from designing Player Research’s large-format playtest labs in Brighton. (more…)
Pokémon Go Learnability
During the heady launch period of Pokémon Go I published a teardown of its UX design. Could the learnability and usability of the game have been…
Panel on Lab Design
I joined Adams Greenwood-Erickson, Ben Lille, and Nana Wallace to discuss learnings for designing, constructing and utilising playtesting labs.
Flappy Bird vs. Ironpants
Flappy Bird was a simple viral hit. Why couldn’t competitor games copy its success? An article on the simple UX choices that kept Flappy Bird flying…