2. What is Situated Research?
We do‘in-situ’game research.
We examine how technology can cause specific behavior and apply that
knowledge to help you design better products. You should know exactly
what kind of experience you create: so you can design situations that yield
intended, meaningful outcomes with lasting results.
Situated Research adds insight to your game by recording and analyzing
player interaction within situated gaming environments. Our techniques
uncover user practices and behaviors that will allow you to create spot-
on solutions that balance aesthetics with functionality, while maximizing
interactive experiences.
WHY‘IN-SITU’?
By studying users in their natural settings, we gain insight into actual use rather than‘use in a lab’.
WHAT DATA ANALYSIS PLATFORM?
We’ll gather data showing users interacting with your product, which will be encoded and tran-
scribed on the Transana cloud-based research platform. A recursive analysis allows usability patterns
to emerge through a recursive analysis of gameplay footage.
HOW DOES IT MAKE GAMES BETTER?
Intensive data analysis yields powerful, actionable findings that speak directly from your users: a
most effective way to inform design and create good usability.
3. Collaborative Play Unmatched Expertise to Provide
an Unbiased, Outside Perspective
Identity and Social Engagement Our Published Research
We draw from a wide domain of practical knowledge that is
unmatched by other research firms:
* Information design, programming & computer hardware
* Game design, user interface & user experience design
* Behavioral psychology, engagement & motivation
* Interaction analysis, participatory design & activity theory
* Cross-cultural communication & regional cultural dimensions
* Collaborative gaming, distributed work & online communities
* Human-computer interaction & cognitive mental models
We will help you take an open-ended look at how the design
of specific visualizations, rules, and behaviors manifest in
human interaction and engaging game play in your games.
By studying relationships among game interfaces and player
behavior, you can exploit them to maximize motivation and
flow (a feeling where one loses track of time and their sur-
roundings).
Situated Research understands the importance of role spe-
cialization and complimentary virtual identities in games like
MMORPGs. These game designs often involve high degrees of
role-specialization, where group participation is required for success (such as guild for-
mation, where characters of different ability work together towards mutual goals). We
research how group activities and specialization (assuming roles) can be best leveraged
to provide additional engagement and a social pull to play your games.
Our research on collaborative behavior and learning
provide another tool with which to maximize the gaming
experience. We understand the needs of the millennial
generation, who seek collaborative interaction within
their social networks of friends.
This can be leveraged to create situations where social
groups rely on the collaborative effort of individuals to
achieve success. At Situated Research, we specialize in
designing gaming environments where group participa-
tion can serve game mechanics and goals.
Our academic, self-funded research focuses on creating
engaging, collaborative video game play for learning:
taking an open-ended look at what is accomplished while
playing games.
The research initiated during Dr. Sharritt’s doctoral disser-
tation led him to discover features of commercial games
that manifest in collaborative human interaction and
engaging game play. These discoveries can transfer to the
design of hardware, software, web and game interfaces to
create meaningful interaction.
To learn more about our research (in academic journal
papers, book chapters, and magazine articles), please visit
our website at www.situatedresearch.com.
4. What We Do For You
Research shows that games can communicate
complex ideas through exploration and play, using
constant feedback and assessment such as one
finds in nature. This allows players to learn in-game
properties of objects through play and interaction.
Designing both the affordances of these in-game
objects and their social properites are key compo-
nents of engaging gameplay.
Whether you would like to independently verify
the work of your own usability team, or you could
use usability specialists to supplement your design
process, we assure that we will uncover the often-
overlooked details of game player behavior.
MOST GAME RESEARCH PROJECTS INVOLVE:
1. Investigating current and potential use of your game & target audience
2. Gathering data and footage of game players, in actual gaming environments
3. A rigorous in-depth interaction analysis of player behaviors & interactions
4. A succinct report describing issues that require resolution or further redesign
Our unique, cutting-edge approach draws from a multi-disciplinary background to
construct a complete and detailed picture of actual gameplay to inform design.
Situated Research studies game player interaction after conducting detailed and
recursive analyses of recorded video. Summaries of gameplay patterns, interac-
tions, and collaboration will inform design: supported empirically with video clips
that best illustrate game features requiring attention.
Situated Research finds ways to maximize self-efficacy, fun, and flow by analyzing patterns in gameplay. This knowledge helps to design
gameplay that yields intended, meaningful outcomes that leave a lasting impression on gamers. Our research philosophy guides game
play analysis, observing gamers while they act in their natural environment,“in-situ”. By obtaining information that is highly relevant to the
players themselves, you will be able to inform game design to yield more interactive, fun and playable games.
Research Approach
Trusted by some of the world’s top developers.
5. Utilize user-generated content and collaboration.
Designing for user-generated content, which allows
game players to invest in a game by creating their own
additional content, serves to keep game players inter-
ested in playing the game longer. Whether providing
players with custom content or UI’s, we can help you
design collaborative tools that foster a growing com-
munity of experts, so game content is self-sustaining.
Conduct advanced usability tests on the interface.
While our usability expertise goes far beyond the inter-
face, we have a solid understanding of usability heuris-
tics and what makes a game easy to play. We excel past
other usability experts by connecting the dots for you:
explaining in detail how the user-interface promotes
particular action potentials for players, and how those
action potentials influence the game experience.
Hit a hole-in-one with Situated Research.
Knock out the competition with Situated Research.
As life-long gamers, we are passionate about improv-
ing game experiences, so keep us in your back pocket!
Utilize our expertise in UX design, software engineering,
psychology, and communication to create innovative,
engaging games that boost your ROI and blow away the
competition. Send us a message today to get started.
Boost sales by gaining insight into the experience.
The game player’s experience correlates directly with
game sales: game player ratings and word-of-mouth ad-
vertising contribute to a game’s hype and ability to sell.
Situated Research will help you achieve the experience
that players crave when they purchase games.
By partnering with Situated Research, you can expect a big return on investment on any games in which we collaborate.
Our research and expertise pays for itself through increased game sales. We accomplish this by helping you create a game
that is more fun, engaging, and addictictive to play.
What sort of difference will you realize by choosing Situated Research?
Engagement. Flow. Players are hooked.
Flow, or a game’s ability to immserse players so they
lose track of time and their surroundings, separates
good games from great games. We have the tools
available to determine just how good your game is at
engaging its players.
Find relationships among gameplay and goals.
Our recursive analysis of video incorporates activ-
ity theory to look for relationships among player
actions and larger game objectives to see if they are
in-line. We trace those objectives down to individual
operations within the game interface as well.
