The in-house tools of a small research team

Jean-Luc Potte

jlpotte.com

Paradox's user research

  • 6 employees
  • Central team
  • Young team
  • NOT wanted by top management

4 researchers

1 administrator

1 team lead

Me

Development teams

User research

Publishing teams

Tools!

A tool about study results
It worked for a while

Who's working on the issue?

Is it done?

Takeaways

  • Design for interruptions
  • Show progress
clipgen

Blackbox = good surprises

Understanding devs better

  • "This is easy to change"
  • Hey, those guys write code

In-house tools are motivating

  • Ownership
  • Autonomy

Takeaways

  • Avoid blackboxes
  • In-house tools are motivating
  • GUI are for losers
Gamepad visualizer

Gamepad controls

Describing

gamepad controls

"Was he pressing on A before he released the right trigger?"
Link to the gamepad tool
In the game build?
Work with devs on this?

NOPE

  • We're a central team
  • 40h/week

Takeaways

  • Words don't always help
  • Each tool has a maintenance cost
Streaming web page

Each participant has

  • video player
  • text field
"Is she the right player profile?"
"Can we ask her something?"

Takeaway

  • New tool can break tedious habits
Next challenge: booking schedule
Work for us, not for clients
When can I book a playtest?

Takeaway

Thanks to

  • Johan Dorell and Karl Leino
  • Max Birk

The in-house tools of a small research team

Jean-Luc Potte

jlpotte.com

SaiDa

SeulRene