HCI Archives - Page 11 of 11 - Situated Research

GDC: Sid Meier’s Lessons On Gamer Psychology

March 18, 2010

Sid Meier is known as the mastermind behind some of the most respected and influential video games of all time, such as Civilization, Railroad Tycoon and Pirates.

But in his pursuit of conveying a realistic experience for players, he says his logical mind wasn’t taking into account enough what was going on in players’ heads.

“Gameplay is a psychological experience,” Meier acknowledged during his GDC keynote. Today he is director of creative development at Firaxis Games. “By acknowledging that gameplay is actually a psychological experience we … can end up with a better game.”

Meier outlined specific psychological elements that occur in players’ minds, such as “The Winner Paradox.” Game designers are supposed to give gamers a challenge, but the gamer at the same time expects to win. “In the real world you don’t always win, however in the world of games, you always win” in some capacity, Meier said.

Steve Krug – The Least You Can Do About Usability

February 4, 2010

Gaming Usability 101

January 16, 2010

This list of ten features should be embraced by game designers

Steve Krug argues in his book Don’t Make Me Think! that a good program or product should let users accomplish their intended tasks as easily and directly as possible. The less time it takes a person to complete a desired task (even if only by a few seconds), the more satisfying it becomes. When that happens, people are more likely to use a product in greater frequency and return for more. So in the spirit of improved usability, here are ten standard features every videogame designer should embrace.

Video Game Usability – Why is it Important

September 15, 2009

Usability is an integral part of software development and has been so for the past 20 years. For one reason or another, usability has not gained similar popularity in game development. This, however, is about to change.

User Community and ROI

July 31, 2009

Every time I give a talk, someone always asks, ”That’s all good and nice that helping users learn is the key to creating passionate users… but who’s going to do all that extra work? Who’s going to make the extra tutorials and better docs?” Answer: your user community.

Usability Tips – Websites

June 6, 2009

User-Centered Design

User-centered design (UCD) is an approach for employing usability. It is a structured product development methodology that involves users throughout all stages of Web site development, in order to create a Web site that meets users’ needs. This approach considers an organization’s business objectives and the user’s needs, limitations, and preferences.

About Situated Research, LLC

April 18, 2009

Situated learning focuses on learning in situ, in the environment or context for which that knowledge applies. At Situated Research, we focus on examining technology in the actual environment in which it is used, in order to uncover user practices and behaviors that suggest ways in which technology is expected to behave.