Overview
Welcome!
Our team has set the blueprint for games research and together we are enabling the magic of gaming for every person on the planet. Our researchers have an accountability to making great games and experiences while providing impact through analysis and strategic guidance. We focus on driving ongoing engagement and enjoyment of our products for gamers, franchises and platforms.
We believe that our people are fundamental to our success. That is why diversity and inclusion are at the front line of our hiring experience.
Our team members have a diverse set of backgrounds including cognitive psychology, social psychology, interaction design, human factors, ethnography, and neuroscience. We are just getting started and we need you to level up. See the links below for more information. You can reach us at SUR@microsoft.com.
Let’s create magical moments together!
People
In the news
A Golden Age of Research
Keynote address, 2019 Games User Research Summit. Featuring Randy Pagulayan.
Gaming is for Everyone
“Gaming is For Everyone: On Games, Access, and Inclusivity”, Not Your Mama’s Gamer (NYMG) Podcast Episode 176, 2018. Featuring Jerome Hagen and Melissa Boone.
Sea of Thieves and Toxicity
“Sea of Thieves team put anti-toxicity strategies into game’s core design”, by Julia Alexander, Polygon, 2018. Featuring Jerome Hagen and work by Joseph Chisholm.
Leveling the Playing Field
Leveling the playing field: Understanding players’ experiences with online harassment, lightning talk at the Fair Play Alliance Summit, 2018 Game Developers Conference. Featuring Melissa Boone.
Understanding and Addressing Your Players’ Negative Online Gaming Experiences
Talk at the 2018 Game Developers Conference. Featuring Tracey Fuller, Melissa Boone, and Jerome Hagen. Whether they’re playing, streaming, or viewing, you’re probably only hearing about a fraction of your audience’s negative online experiences with your game.
Constructive Conversations about Sexism and Racism
Roundtable discussion at #GamesUR, 2018 Games User Research Summit. Featuring Deborah Hendersen, Jerome Hagen, and Melissa Boone.
“Hear Here!”
Halo Waypoint News, 2018. Featuring Jessie Thomas
Applied User Research in Games (2017)
The Wiley Handbook of Human Computer Interaction Set, Volume 1, First Edition (pp. 299-346). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Written by Randy Pagulayan, Daniel Gunn, Jerome Hagen, Deborah Hendersen, Todd Kelley, Bruce Phillips, JJ Guajardo, Tim Nichols.
How to Playtest Games with Deborah Hendersen
Game Dev Loadout Podcast, 2017. Featuring Deborah Hendersen.
“We get our review”
Spawn On Me Podcast, 2017. Featuring Melissa Boone.
Behind the Bias Panel
Association for Women in Science, University of Notre Dame, 2017. Featuring Jessie Thomas.
Reducing Biases in User Research
Talk at #gamesUR, 2017 featuring Jerome Hagen and Melissa Boone.
How Design Can Ensure Impartial Scientific Fairness in User Research
Talk at GDC 2017 by Deborah Hendersen
Guidelines for Inclusive and Accessible Games
Talk at #gamesUR, 2017. Lauren White and Tom Lorusso.
Quantum Break – A Tour of Methods We Used To Test This Rather Odd Product
Talk at #gamesUR, 2017 featuring Deborah Hendersen.
Designing for Gamers with Deafness
Talk at #gamesUR London, 2016 by Tom Lorusso.
Fireside Chat PS Loves Xbox
Keynote at #gamesUR, 2016. Featuring Kevin Keeker and Randy Pagulayan.
Could Analyzing How Humans Think Make Better Video Games?
by Alexandra Ossola. Popular Science, 2015. Featuring Randy Pagulayan.
Why Should Game Stories Make Sense?
by Chris Dahlen. Polygon, 2014. (Featuring Deborah Hendersen)
Brain Dump: 9 Creators share “One Weird Trick” to Game Development
Panel at Penny Arcade Expo – PAX Prime 2014. (Featuring Deborah Hendersen)
Research Driven Design
Panel at SIEGE, 2014. (Featuring Deborah Hendersen)
The Xbox Science Machine, by Scott Butterworth.
Official Xbox Magazine, May 2014 print edition. (Featuring Randy Pagulayan, JJ Guajardo, and Kristie J. Fisher)
Learning the Language of Players
Giant Bomb Podcast, 2014. (Featuring Deborah Hendersen)
A History of Games User Research
Talk at 2014 Games User Research Summit. (Given by Michael Medlock)
Using User Research to Improve Game Narratives
Talk at GDC 2014. (Given by Deborah Hendersen)
IT’S A TRAP! 3 Remarkably Common UI Traps and How to Avoid Them in Your Designs
2014 //build Conference. (Featuring Michael Medlock)
UI Tenets & Traps
Winner of the 2013 Microsoft Engineering Excellence Award for Planning & Design Excellence. (Featuring Michael Medlock, Todd Kelley, and Kristie J. Fisher)
Games User Research Bootcamp at GDC 2013
see GDC Vault for access. (Featuring Tom Lorusso & Kristie J. Fisher)
Games user research with children: Reaching a difficult demographic
At CHI 2012 (Sarah Walter & JJ Guajardo)
Rated M for Mainstream
by Monica J. Vila. Huffington Post, 2012. (Featuring JJ Guajardo).
Data Entry, Risk Management, and Tacos: Inside Halo 4’s Playtest Labs
by Matt Leone. Polygon website, 2012. (Featuring Eric Schuh)
Video Game Design and Development
by Rebecca Clay. APA GradPYSCH, 2012. (Featuring Tim Nichols)
Cognitive Flow: The Psychology of Great Game Design
Gamasutra website, 2012. (Written by Sean Baron)
Peering into the Black Box of Player Behavior: The Player Experience Panel at Microsoft Game Studios
talk at GDC 2010. (Given by Bruce Phillips)
Microsoft to Debut Final Halo Game
by Wendy Kaufman. NPR Radio. (Featuring Randy Pagulayan & John Hopson)
User-centered Design in Games
in the Second Edition (2007) of the Human-Computer Interaction Handbook. (Written by Randy Pagulayan, Kevin Keeker, Thomas Fuller, Dennis Wixon, Ramon Romero, and Daniel Gunn)
Halo 3: How Microsoft Labs Invented a New Science of Play
by Clive Thompson. Wired Magazine. (Featuring Randy Pagulayan)
Quantifying “Magic”: Learnings from User Research for Creating Good Player Experience on Xbox Kinect
IJGCMS 6(1), pp. 26-40. (Featuring Tim Nichols & Kristie Fisher)