sebastianlong – Page 4 – Sebastian Long

NNGroup on Games User Research

sebastianlong on August 18, 2017

My talk on designing a playtest lab had a certain Jakob Nielsen in the audience. It was subsequently featured in the NNGroup article explaining the myriad differences between mainstream user research and games user research.

Sebastian Long from Player Research in the UK described his company’s playtesting lab: The observation room included a big projection display with reduced versions of 12 users’ screens, as well as a pushbutton switch for observers to select one of the 12 screens to be magnified. […] This need to alternate between surveying many peoples’ broad behavior and detailed attention to a single person’s specific interactions is rare outside games research.
Jakob Nielsen, NNGroup

What Should A Playtest Smell Like?

sebastianlong on August 18, 2017

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 lens of the playtester’s five senses.

To get unbiased and honest feedback from invited members of the general public you’ll need to carefully consider their every sight, sound and smell during your playtests. So what does a great playtest smell like?

Games User Research Book

sebastianlong on August 4, 2017

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. I contributed two chapters on playtest lab design and player research methods.

What is Games User Experience?

sebastianlong on August 4, 2017

A long-read article on the voice of games user experience.

Read it on Medium.

Building Confidence in GamesUR

sebastianlong on May 18, 2017

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 be expected?

At GamesUR SF 2017 I co-presented a talk on GamesUR foundations with Ubisoft Researcher Lanie Dixon to answer commonly-asked questions from the community.