In this lecture, you’ll learn how telemetry acts as a silent observer of real player behavior at scale. We break down how to instrument events, read funnels, and detect friction points such as drop-off zones, failed loops, and progression stalls. You’ll also learn the limits of telemetry and why behavioral numbers must be interpreted carefully before decisions are made. By the end, you’ll be able to turn raw gameplay events into actionable UX and design signals.

This lecture focuses on practical playtesting as a core GUR method, with special emphasis on the think-aloud protocol. You’ll learn how to run sessions that capture both what players do and what they think in the moment, revealing confusion that analytics alone cannot explain. We cover moderation technique, observation discipline, and how to convert playtest findings into prioritized recommendations. The goal is to make playtesting a reliable decision tool, not just a feedback exercise.

This lecture explores the power of observation as a method for catching what players do when no one prompts them. You’ll learn how observational studies reveal hesitation, workarounds, confusion patterns, and unspoken friction that surveys often miss. We cover how to plan and run observational sessions, what to capture, and how to avoid injecting bias into interpretation. By the end, you’ll understand how careful observation turns ordinary play behavior into actionable design insight with strong ecological validity.

This deep dive examines Dead Space’s diegetic HUD as a practical case of immersive interface design. You’ll analyze how embedding UI into the game world affects readability, tension, and player cognition, and where this approach can introduce tradeoffs. The lecture shows how to evaluate cinematic interface choices through a GUR lens, balancing immersion with usability. You’ll leave with a stronger framework for assessing whether stylistic UI decisions truly support player performance and experience.

In this lecture, we briefly go over biometric games user research and their use cases in the real world.

In this lecture, you’ll learn how to design game UX surveys that are clear, reliable, and useful at scale. We cover question design, response bias, sampling strategy, and how to avoid common survey mistakes that produce noisy or misleading results. You’ll also see how to structure surveys so results can directly support prioritization decisions rather than just “interesting” stats. By the end, you’ll know how to run survey research that captures player sentiment with practical decision value.

This lecture focuses on interview moderation as a method for uncovering player reasoning, motivation, and friction that behavior metrics alone cannot explain. You’ll learn how to ask non-leading questions, probe deeper without biasing responses, and keep sessions structured while still conversational. We also cover synthesis techniques for turning interview transcripts into actionable themes. By the end, you’ll be able to run deeper qualitative sessions that produce high-signal insights for design and UX teams.

In this session, you’ll learn how to evaluate and improve game information architecture using card sorting and tree testing. We break down when each method is appropriate, how to structure tasks, and how to interpret results to improve navigation, labeling, and discoverability. You’ll see how these techniques reduce menu confusion and shorten task-completion paths in complex systems. This lecture gives you a practical framework for making structure and findability measurable, not guess-based.

This deep dive applies Section 3 methods in a fictional but realistic production scenario focused on ship component organization and discoverability. You’ll examine how survey signals, interview feedback, and IA testing can be combined to diagnose why players struggle to find and understand component options. The lecture demonstrates how research can guide clearer taxonomy, better menu structure, and more intuitive progression flows. By the end, you’ll see how mixed methods turn abstract IA issues into concrete, implementable design improvements.

In this lecture, we discuss how to measure the design 'feel' of game elements like concept arts, UI or character style direction.

In this lecture, we discuss the use of focus groups and how to run them in an effective manner.

In this lecture, we go over longitudinal research methods like diary studies and experience sampling.

In this lecture, you’ll learn how expert heuristic review can quickly identify high-impact usability flaws before expensive player studies begin. We apply core usability principles—like visibility of system status, consistency, error prevention, recognition over recall, and efficiency of use—to game UX contexts. You’ll see how heuristic evaluation helps teams detect preventable friction early and create cleaner, more test-ready builds. By the end, you’ll be able to run a practical expert pass that improves design quality and research efficiency.

This lecture teaches how to simulate first-time player reasoning and evaluate whether core interactions are understandable step by step. We pair cognitive walkthroughs with accessibility audits to ensure systems are perceivable, operable, and recoverable for diverse players and input conditions. You’ll learn how to identify onboarding bottlenecks, interaction ambiguity, and weak feedback loops before they scale into retention problems. The result is a practical framework for improving both learnability and inclusive UX quality.

This lecture teaches you to look at bug reports and QA data through a new lens. You'll learn how to analyze these existing technical logs to uncover valuable insights into underlying usability flaws, design confusion, and sources of player frustration that might not be immediately obvious.

This deep dive analyzes Skyrim’s inventory through a usability lens to show how a successful game can still carry major interaction friction. You’ll evaluate efficiency-of-use issues, cognitive load, and recognition-vs-recall tradeoffs in text-heavy inventory systems. The lecture demonstrates how expert review could have flagged these pain points earlier and guided more player-efficient patterns. You’ll leave with a sharper ability to critique inventory UX and propose practical, evidence-based improvements.

In this lecture, we will go over community and social listening. After this lecture, you know how to monitor social spaces to collect information about the state of your game.

Learn how to combine multiple GUR methods to study the same player problem from different angles, cross-validate findings, and make stronger, more defensible design decisions than any single method can provide.

Discover how to prevent research amnesia by turning scattered findings into a centralized, searchable knowledge system, and how to structure reports (including BLUF summaries) so teams can act quickly and confidently.

Master how to present research for impact by tailoring message depth to audience type, framing findings around player-centered narratives, and pairing clear visualizations with human quotes to drive action.

Analyze a realistic fictional case from Starlight Odyssey showing how triangulated evidence and persuasive presentation can reframe an apparently failing feature as a solvable UX problem and save it from being cut.

In this lecture, we discuss how to incorporate games user research into your software development lifecycle.

In this lecture, we discuss how AI can be used in games user research.