Three Basics of Games User Research

First published as an Acagamic Tip Tuesday on acagamic.com. Edited for this archive.

Games user research bridges the gap between what designers intend and what players experience. With that bridge, designers can make informed decisions and check whether those decisions have the effect they want. Many teams underestimate user research in games, or they struggle to make it useful. Usually the barrier is domain knowledge.

Why researchers stumble in games

Researchers new to games often miss what makes the medium different. Four problems come up again and again:

• Unfamiliarity with games. You can’t research a medium you don’t play. A background in user interfaces, human-computer interaction, or even gamification helps, but you still need to know how games work and how players talk about them.
• Ignoring emotion. Usability research for apps prizes efficiency. Games need a balance of challenge and enjoyment, and research that overlooks this misses the point.
• Ignoring the designer’s intent. Research in games depends on knowing what the designer wanted. Analytics and heat maps can’t tell you whether a mechanic works without that context.
• Secrecy. Game development is confidential, which limits the research methods teams can use.

Here is how to get past these hurdles.

1. Play the games

Learn the language and mechanics of games by playing them. If you study an adventure game, play it. Learn the challenges players face, the rewards they seek, and the path they take. Watch other people play and ask them questions. Playtests, surveys, and qualitative studies come later. First-hand experience tells you what to look for, and every project will teach you something different.

2. Study emotion, not only efficiency

A common mistake is to treat game research like usability testing for web apps. Games aim for enjoyment, not efficiency. Wireframes, information architecture, and card sorting can improve game UIs, but testing your assumptions with real players matters more.

Picture a player fighting a dragon. They may not want to win quickly, because casting spells and swinging weapons is the fun. A researcher who misses this emotional side will misread the player’s experience.

3. Learn the designer’s intent

Player experience research hinges on the designer’s intent. Intent is the bridge between a design decision and the feature players get.

Say a designer hides a passage on purpose to challenge players. A researcher might flag it as a problem because players can’t find it. If the difficulty matches the designer’s intent, it isn’t a problem. Knowing the intent helps you spot the issues that really hurt the experience.