The main objective is to figure out methodological guidelines and practices for the development of video games that aim to entertain and intend to educate.
To get there, I need to sit game designers, educators, and game researchers in the same room and get them working together, because they each have strengths that the others lack and would benefit from.
I am also happy to talk about museum installations and interactive experiences, if that's what you are into.
The project is funded by the 🇪🇺 European Union under HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01 Project ID 101062788 (EduGames)
I am a trained computer scientist and I have done qualitative research. This means I'm comfortable with analysing numbers and words alike.
An interactive musical tabletop.
When I started my doctoral studies, there was an alarming lack of empirical studies in the area of interactive tabletops as music learning tools. It is not clear what happens when you give people a giant touch screen, and teach them music with it. This means you have to sit down and watch them, record their actions, and analyse their conversations.
Qualitative research
Qualitative research is hard and fascinating work: it gives you insight on what people do and think – like reading minds, if you think about it.
QR is at the heart of user experience research, among other applications – that means figuring out what people think about the things you make, and how they use them.
You can look at pretty much anything for information. Typical data sources include interviews, journals, videos, and so on. However, it is a common misconception that qualitative findings are less rigorous than quantitative findings: they are simply different, and they can even work together to strengthen each other and produce even more rigorous research.
What can I help you with?
Do you have a pressing question that needs answer? Do you want to make your app better and easier to use? Do you have a brilliant new idea and want to know if it's worth developing it?
Things I can help you with include
User research (ethnographies, surveys, focus groups, A/B testing…)
Usability (web sites, graphical and tangible interfaces…)
I can work with your designers and developers to help you look into ideas and products, prototype and evaluate them, and finally build and release amazing solutions.
