Find A Mentor: User Research (Advanced Career)

I’m a Principal Experimental Psychologist previously at Valve, and I’ve been there about 12 years. My work focuses on the application of knowledge and methodologies from psychology to game design. I also do a bunch of statistical analysis and Brain-Computer Interface/Biofeedback research as well.

At Valve, I’ve worked on Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, Alien Swarm, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DOTA 2, Artifact, Dota Underlords, Half-Life: Alyx, some of our hardware projects, and Steam. I’m happy to help answer any questions you have about getting started in the industry, acquiring a useful skillset, analyzing particular problems, or well, anything at all really.

Hi, my name is Jonathan. I have been in the video game industry for over a decade now conducting user research. Currently, I run my own company which conducts user research for video games, Good Game Research. Before that though, I worked at Activision, 2K, Paradox Interactive, and Nordisk Games. Throughout my journey, I worked on over 60+ video games from most genres and platforms. The most popular video games being the Call of Duty (Franchise), Civilization VI, XCOM 2, Borderlands (Franchise), Mafia 3, Cities: Skylines 2, Crusader Kings 3, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology (Franchise).

A little about myself, I have been playing video games since I was a child, like most in this industry, and still play very often today. My favorite genres to play are Horror, Stealth, RPGs, Survival, and Strategy. A few of my favorite games are Elden Ring, Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Resident Evil 4, Super Mario World, XCOM 2, and The Long Dark. When I am not playing video games, I am either traveling the world, outdoors somewhere, or trying out some new restaurant. I have been to 17 different countries and still counting. Also, I had the privilege of dinning at Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark. Feel free to reach out if you want to chat about user research, video games, or both!

Talk to me about:

GUR Methods
GUR Processes
Career & Personal Development
Team Training & Development
Past Work Experiences
Video Games

Hi, I am Suzanne, a Senior User Researcher at EA / Respawn. I have been working in the industry for almost 3 years. Prior to that I was a licensed Clinical Psychologist with my own private therapy practice (10+ years of professional psych work). I took a leap of faith and transitioned into the games industry and have been loving it. I have a PsyD In Clinical Psychology. 

Hiya! I'm Rui, Head of Research Craft at Player Research! I spend my days playing games nonstop leveling up the amazing User Research we run here, so it is even more amazinger...? Er... amazingest! Among dozens of games I ran research for, I am very proud of my contributions to Life is Strange True Colours and one special quadruple A game that cannot be named because NDAs (blast'em!) My background is in computer science, and I've also a PhD in Information Sciences and Technology. In a pre-GUR life, I wrote for IGN Portugal, and lectured at uni all things videogame related, from HCI, to Game Criticism, Design, and Programming.

Mostly, what I do have are a very particular set of skills, and if you think they'd be of help, I will find you and I will mentor you! Love to chat all things GUR, but especially the crossroads where authorial intent, game design, and UX methods meet to make beautiful games. I also love cats and memes, which is to say, I love cats twice, and before you ask, yes, even though we worked on Elden Ring, Stray is my GOTY... sorry From Software!

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I am currently a User Researcher at Ubisoft Montreal and a former member of the Steering Committee for the SIG. Before I arrived in Montreal, I was the Co-Founder and Director of User Research of Octothorpe, an indie games studio based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work with small teams with even smaller budgets as well as large teams on AAA titles. I have experience making test plans & strategies, scraping test plans, providing insights and communicating with development teams, and most things in between.

I am always happy to share my journey into GUR, thoughts about graduate school, generally, what GUR means to me, and of course answer any of your questions. Talk to me if you are interested in chatting about where to get started while still in University, as well as early career advice and professional development. I will probably end up sharing some cat photos and asking you more questions than you ask me but if I cannot help you, I can certainly point you in the direction of someone that can!

Talk to me about:
GUR Methods
GUR Processes
Working in small teams/indie
Transitioning from indie to AAA
Tech & Tools
Career & Personal Development
GUR & Academia

I’ve been working on games since the mid aughts in the academic, indie, and AAA space, and I’ve been an underpaid contractor, a professor, director of an academic UR lab, a UX consultancy business founder, and a central team manager at a AAA publisher. I’ve made lots of interesting mistakes in each of those roles along the way, and I’m happy to share my experience to help you avoid them while you’re developing your career!

Talk to me about:

Research Methods

UR Entrepreneurship

GUR Processes and Procedures

GUR in Academia

Team Development and Training

Career & Personal Development

Hi there! I’m a Senior UX Researcher for Sony PlayStation’s San Diego Studio, where I spend most of my time conducting research on our yearly Triple-A baseball title, MLB The Show. I’ve been at PlayStation for about 6 years now, and aside from my primary work on MLB The Show, have also had opportunities to work on a number of different projects including virtual reality titles, free-to-play titles, mobile games & apps, and even system software research.

I have a BA in Cognitive Science with a specialization in Computer Science from UCLA, and a Masters in Human Factors in Information Design from Bentley University.

I love to talk about anything UX, but some of the things that I’m most passionate about are the power of combining qualitative and quantitative data, relationship-building with stakeholders, data analysis processes, and the creation of user mental models/frameworks from complex data. I’m also always happy to talk about getting started in the industry and getting your foot in the door (I started here at PlayStation as an intern and have learned a lot along the way!). I look forward to sharing my experiences and learning from you, too!

Talk to me about:

GUR Methods

GUR Processes

GUR Technology and Tools

GUR for specific platforms & genres - Console, Sports games

Business and Personal skills

GUR and Academia

I’m a Lead on the Games User Research team at Blizzard where I’ve been for over 9 years.  I began my career at Google supporting many features (Gmail, Ads, Website Optimizer, Video Chat,etc.).  I’ve had an opportunity to work on many types of products whether it’s websites, apps, or consumer products (TVs, DvD players, Roku, etc.), but the majority of my research career has been in the video game space.  I started at Blizzard on the Battle.net team helping launch the first bnet app, supporting our various websites, customer support portal, and many corporate applications.  I then transitioned to supporting Game Development and have experience building research teams for all of our main franchises (WoW, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Diablo) from the ground up.  I’ve worked with feature level designers up to game directors, in pre-production, production, and live/post launch phases of development.  I also have experience running international research (APAC, EU, NA).   

I really enjoy helping others get into the Games User Research field or help them learn more about what it’s like working as a Games User Researcher.

Talk to me about:

GUR Methods

GUR Processes

GUR Technology and Tools

GUR for specific platforms & genres: PC mostly, but can also dip into console and mobile, MMO, ARPG, TCG, and FPS.

Business and Personal skills

Hellu~!! My name is Celestia and I’m 15 years deep into games research; 5 years in a user research role. Unsurprisingly, my background is in research and academia. I have a B.App.Sci in Psychology from RMIT (Melbourne, Australia), and two Master degrees from Lund University (Sweden); a MSc in Psychology Research and a MSc in Entrepreneurship. As a games user researcher, I have worked with entrepreneurial start-ups, consultancies, investors, publishers, and developers in the games industry.

I’m currently the User Research Project Manager (URPM) for Ubisoft Reflections (Newcastle, United Kingdom). Previously, I was a User Researcher at Paradox Interactive (Stockholm, Sweden), and also did some work as a Senior User Researcher with Nordisk Games (Copenhagen, Denmark). 

In my current role as a URPM, my expertise is in relationships, communication, building trust, and project stalking. I am responsible for driving the business value of qualitative insights alongside quantitative data in GUR- through coffee breaks, professional friendships...and lots and lots of informal, candid chatting. As a mixed-methods researcher, I specialise in research methodology, data triangulation, analysis, and asking the right questions. Therefore, my work experience history comes with ALL THE THINGS *fistpump*. Some of my day to day activities have included: conducting user research studies, delivering insights, communicating with global development teams, drafting documentation, developing UX strategy plans, and engaging company-wide initiatives.

Having said all this, I’m a huge advocate of the growth mindset. So regardless of what level you are in your career, I expect I’ll learn a thing or two from you as well :)

Talk to me about:

Games User Research Methods

Career and Professional Development

Academia

Psychology

I am a Senior Player Researcher at King, helping players crush those candies. Prior to King, I’ve solved user problems in different contexts ranging from looking at mobile input experiences at Microsoft, launching a new physical and ebook reading product at Amazon, and designing software for finance professionals at Thomson Reuters / Refinitv. I have worked in market research, analytics, and product management before making the switch to user research full-time so I am happy to talk about alternative career paths and perspectives on user research.

Talk to me about:

Games user research methods

GUR processes

GUR Technology and Tools

GUR for specific platforms & genres - mobile games

Career & personal development

GUR and Academia

Transitioning to games research from other career paths

Differences between gaming industry and big tech

Seb is an experienced Games User Researcher, and Director of Player Research. He has contributed to hundreds of videogames, including games from LEGO, Sonic, FIFA, Harry Potter, Talking Tom and Star Wars—and to seminal titles including CONTROL, Elden Ring, Life Is Strange 2, and World of Tanks.

Ahoy GURlings, my name is Jordan (he/him) and I've been a User Researcher for 12 years now, working across the industry in console, PC, and mobile spaces. My entire career has been built on the principle of helping game teams realize their visions for design and implementation through iterative testing and providing a voice for the player. I've served on the Steering Committee of the IGDA SIG as well as serving as Director of the GUR Summit several years ago. I've primarily learned my way through my career by making mistakes (usually face-first into a brick wall) and then iterating processes until those mistakes of yesterday become the best practices of tomorrow. Let me tell you all about my mistakes so you can dodge some of those brick walls too!

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My career in games started many years ago playing Counter-Strike professionally, taking part in tournaments and organising them. This fun experience led me to do a BA in Advertising, followed by 2 Masters. I have a MSc in Marketing Management and a MSc in Consumer Psychology. 

I worked at Bossa Studios as a Research & Insights Lead, leading qualitative and quantitative studies for games, such as Worlds Adrift, Hogwash, Surgeon Simulator, Surgeon Simulator 2 and I Am Fish. I also worked closely with the Prototype Team to identify the gameplay potential of the “jamlets” that were created during Game Jams. ‘I Am Fish’ was one of them!

I currently work at King as a Senior UX Researcher, leading research studies for the game teams and helping inform them on player experience. I’m part of the Portfolio Games team, consisting of five King live mobile games: Pet Rescue, Candy Crush Friends, Farm Heroes, Candy Crush Jelly and Bubble Witch 3. 

This year I’ve  started a very exciting research project about APX (Accessible Player Experience) at King. The studies aim to detect accessible barriers King players are facing and understand how we can make our mobile games more inclusive. This project is my big passion and for anyone looking to gain understanding on APX, I’d be really glad to share the knowledge I’ve gained so far.

I’d be happy to discuss your career path and answer any questions you might have about the games industry. In addition I would be happy to discuss how you can find your passion and niche within an industry you already love like I have with my APX project.

Talk to me about:

APX (Accessible Player Experience)

Games User Research methods

PC, Mobile and Videogames

Career and Professional development

Academia

Hello! I'm a Senior User Researcher at Activision supporting the Call of Duty franchise. I'm also the current GRUX SIG Chair and a former member of the Steering Committee. Prior to my time at Activision, I started my UR career in finance then eventually transitioned to games UR at Epic Games, followed by Xbox. 

I have a BA in Psychology and a Masters in Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota, and have conducted academic research on the effects of gameplay on body-image perception. 

I am always open to sharing my experience navigating GUR, the overall GRUX community and it's direction, and my thoughts on graduate school. I am also happy to offer advice on gaining experience while still in school and chat about networking and navigating the industry and community. 

Talk to me about: 

Games User Research methods

GUR Processes

Console / PC GUR

Career and Professional Development

Academia

Contract Work

I am a Senior UX Researcher at Electronic Arts, currently focused on leading research efforts for Maxis Studio. Before moving to Maxis, I spent several years leading research for EA's mobile sports portfolio, as well as smaller projects across several franchises. Prior to my time in games user research, I was an academic researcher with a PhD in psychological and brain science (JHU), conducting spatial cognition research at the University of Notre Dame.  I'm always happy to chat about all things research and games.

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 I'm a senior researcher at Kabam, a mobile games company where I lead research for two of our titles - Disney Mirrorverse and Marvel Contest of Champions. Before that, I worked at EA where I led research for The Sims, Dragon Age, and FIFA. With that variety of titles, I'm happy to talk about different methods for different genres.

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Creating positive gaming communities

GUR for specific platforms & genresL Mobile vs HD research, sports, rpgs, sandbox/unstructured games

Business skills

GUR Methods

GUR Processes

GUR Technology and Tools

Business and Personal skills

Experienced product and studio leader. Shipped games across many devices, genres, and business models. Have worked at a variety of game publisher and development studios (Microsoft Games, Big Huge Games, Zynga, Disney Mobile). 

My “bat power” is improving games at the speed of development. I help teams prioritize UX goals, assess risks, and adjust schedule and development processes to better integrate rapid iterative UX feedback and direction.

These days I help teams "find the fun" and drive better UX into their games by mentoring individual contributors, guiding team leadership, and providing feedback and direction on products and processes.

Happy to chat about Publisher/Developer Relationships, Working Effectively with Development Teams, Mentoring UX Designers, and Life as a Consultant.

  I got my PhD in Human Factors Engineering from Texas Tech University, my dissertation work was on affordance perceptions when tele-operating robots. Following my graduate work I joined Sony PlayStation where I’ve been able to work on incredible titles like Horizon, Days Gone, Far Point, Firewall, Spider-man, and The Last of Us Part II!

Talk to me about:

Games User Research Methods

GUR Processes

Tech and Tools

Console, open world, first person, narrative, action adventure, RPG games

Career and professional development

Academia

I am currently a Senior UX Researcher at Electronic Arts supporting Maxis.  My focus is on supporting early stage incubation projects using a hypothesis driven R&D process.  I also study online gaming communities and multiplayer gameplay.

Talk to me about:

Games User Research methods

GUR Processes

Mobile Games

Life Simulation games

Career and personal development

Transitioning to games research from other career paths

Hello, I'm Jess. I have six years of industry experience in GUR, having worked for teams situated at the publisher-level as well as being embedded at the studio level. I have a PhD in Media Arts and Sciences, and have several years' experience of academic research under my best as well. I can help folks the most looking to make the move from academia to industry, as well as help early and mid-level career folks drive impact in their roles as a researcher.

Talk to me about:

GUR methods

Scrappy GUR

GUR specific platforms and genres- PC and console

Communication skills

Transitioning from academia to industry

Nicolaas VanMeerten is the Director of Insights and Co-Founder at GLITCH. Nicolaas is a leader in the fields of data science, user experience research, and player behavior. He has served on the Steering Committee of the Games User Research SIG and is combining his analytics work at GLITCH with his PhD program at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities on player engagement patterns in video games.

Hi! I'm Elizabeth Zelle, currently the User Research Manager at Amazon Games and living that WFH life from a suburb of Dallas, TX. I've been in the games industry since 2008, with over a decade in games user research. I have a breadth of experience working with both developer and publisher stakeholders on a wide variety of genres and platforms, can speak to challenges I've faced as a woman in the games industry, like to wax poetic about the philosophy of survey design, and am an undercover marine biologist.

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I have about 8 years of experience researching games and player behavior, and started at PlayStation as a UX researcher following an internship opportunity in 2019. Prior to this, I was a doctoral student in Human Factors Psychology at Wichita State University. There, I completed my Masters degree and was ABD on my Ph.D. before receiving a job offer and converting to industry fulltime.

I love talking about the pros and cons of grad school, and can give some insight into the process of shifting from academia to industry. My game development experience primarily centers around large AAA titles, though I have worked on a few indie projects as well. If you have questions about working with dev teams, smart research design, balancing qualitative and quantitative methods, narrative testing, and/or telemetry, let’s talk! I was in your shoes not too long ago and would love to trade experiences.  

Talk to me about:

Game User Research methods

GUR Processes

Console and PC

Narrative Driven Games

RPGs

Career and Professional Development

Academia

Grad school/PhD programs

Human factors psychology

Hi everyone! My background is in HCI, in which I completed a PhD in before I transitioned to games user research back in 2018. I've worked as a consultant under Player Research, where I've had the pleasure in leading projects of all sorts of game genres and platforms, working with clients and dev teams of varying sizes — from small indie teams to big AAA studios. I currently work as a Senior UX Researcher at Electronic Arts, where I help game teams realize their vision and improve the user experience of some of their well-known sports titles.

Talk to me about:
GUR methods
GUR Technology and Tools
GUR and Academia
Business and Personal skills
GUR for specific platforms & genres: Mobile, VR, PC

Hi there! My name is John. I started my transition into the games industry about 4 years ago having spent the prior years in traditional user research after completing an MA in Visual Sociology. I was part of the PlayStation Studios User Research team from 2020 to late 2023, where I worked on research across several AAA titles and had a particular focus on Accessibility and Game Settings UX/IA. Nowadays I am doing the same at Tencent Games in London, U.K. as a Senior User Researcher, working in a new but fast growing team. Outside of work I am a big music nerd, listening to and playing all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff.

Talk to me about:

Transitioning from Trad UR to Games UR

GUR Methods

GUR Processes

Advocating for User Research

Advocating for Accessibility

Accessibility Research and Processes

Console, PC, VR research

Information Architecture in Games