KMDI Speaker Series – Studies in Gameful Interaction Design and Games User Research

Abstract

Human-Computer Interaction research for interactive entertainment has grown in popularity over the last decade. Dr. Nacke will take you on a journey through his research from the last 10 years, which has shaped how we approach gameful interaction and games user research today. In his examples of gameful interaction design, he will talk about transforming non-game tasks into games with the goal to increase user motivation and retention. He will present studies and tools that help personalize those gameful experiences. He will revisit studies where he collected user data to evaluate player experiences and how this informed the design of games. You will take away inspirational insights, current tools, methods, and results from interaction design and user research for interactive entertainment software, systems, and services.

About Our Speaker

Dr. Lennart Nacke is the Director of the HCI Games Group, the Associate Director for Graduate Studies on Stratford Campus, and an Associate Professor for Human-Computer Interaction and Game Design at the University of Waterloo. He researchers cognitive and emotional aspects of user experience in video games and interactive media with a focus on physiological evaluation and gameful design. He has authored more than 100 research publications on these topics, which have been cited more than 8,000 times. He chaired the Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) PLAY 2014 and Gamification 2013 conferences, and is currently the chair of the CHI PLAY steering committee. He was Games and Play subcommittee co-chair for CHI 2017 and CHI 2018.