In this presentation from the 2012 Games User Research Summit, I talk about physiological research methods for games and why this matters for examining user experience with physiological measures.

1. Physiological User Research
On the Usability of Psychophysiological User Research for the Games Industry
3rd Annual Games User Research Summit of the IGDA GUR SIG
Lennart Nacke
@acagamic

2. 10 ideas to make physiological
user research meaningful for you

3. Why should you listen
to me?

4. You wrote a
book about it,
eh?
CC by Jason Pratt (Flickr)

5. Quantitative measures of
gameplay experience
• Physiological responses
• Behaviour metrics
• Questionnaires
• Logging
Download from http://phd.acagamic.com

6. 3 -2-1… Let’s Go!

7. Physiological Sensors

8. Quick Hitlist
1. GSR
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00
2. EMG
3. Cardio (EKG,HR,BVP)
4. EEG
5. Other brain imaging

9. 10 ideas to make physiological
user research meaningful for you*
* Thank you, Steve!

10. Continuous Recording
• Not interrupting play
• Don’t break experience
• No memory bias
• Wearing sensors
1

11. We need a vocabulary
Measured Activities
• Motor
• Skin
• Brain
2

12. One aspect at a time
• Hypothesis-driven
• Based on literature
3 CC by Rob Boudon (Flickr)

13. Physiological success metric
• Link between ideal
experience and physiological
responses
• Financial success games
• Critical success games
4 Street Fighter IV (Capcom) Screenshot

14. Context Influence
• Human body
• Real world
• Sensitivity
5 CC by The World According To Marty (Flickr)

15. Three activity components
• External physical
• Internal emotional
• Internal cognitive
6 CC by familymwr (Flickr)

16. Noise and confounds
• Signal-to-noise ratio
• Experimental protocol
• Record with more sensors
7 CC by Andrew Morrell Photography (Flickr)

17. Demographics
• Skill level
• Preferences
8 CC by ÐIÐËO (Flickr)

18. Experiment conditions
• Systematic changes
• Start with one variable
9

19. Record ALL the data
• Better analysis through
correlation with metrics
• Used mixed methods to
get subjective results in
addition
10 Screenshot by Anders Drachen and Alessandro Canossa

20. Still with
me?
Ok, a word
about UX!
CC by istolethetv (Flickr)

21. User
eXperience
• Volatile/Feeling
• Knowledge/Learning
Kahneman’s
memory of experiences
Peak-end rule
End of event more
important for encoding of
experience
CC by Pink Sherbet Photography (Flickr)

22. Our 2 selves
“We choose between memories of experiences”
(Kahneman)
• Experiencing
• Remembering
CC by Robert Snache - Spirithands.net (Flickr)

23. Takeaway
Emotional experiences are important in games for
financial and for critical success, but most important
for memorability.
Keep in mind the complexity of physiological
recording and analysis. This approach will only yield
meaningful results if it is used correctly and with
care. There is no quick fix.

24. ASK ME ANYTHING
THANKS!
Lennart.Nacke@acm.org
@acagamic (Twitter)
facebook.com/hcigames
Images © Lennart Nacke unless different CC license noted on Slide