Mixed Methods for Video Games User Research: Enhancing Qualitative Evaluations with Quantitative Data

我的研究目标是开发快速、经济且易于理解的方法和框架，用于收集、分析和报告混合玩法数据集的发现。其目的是加强对玩家体验的评估，以适应游戏开发周期，为游戏开发者提供形成性反馈。这里提出的工作分为两个研究要素：首先，通过探索当前的方法，我计划开发混合方法，提高定性和定量数据收集和分析的有效性和效率。其次，我计划推进有意义的可视化玩家体验分析框架，将定性和定量数据结合在一起。因此，这项研究的结果将包括适用的工具和方法，以及优化游戏行业人机交互（HCI）方法的最佳实践。**由于电子游戏开发领域发生了许多变化（游戏邦注：如新的商业模式、不断扩大的玩家群体和新的互动模式），在过去几年里，对用户及其与电子游戏互动的研究需求不断增长。游戏用户研究（游戏邦注：GUR）是一个相对较新的领域，它使用HCI和心理学的评估方法，旨在通过为设计师提供足够的游戏玩法信息，从而得出优化设计的最佳结论，从而改进游戏设计。尽管标准的HCI评估方法在理解生产力应用程序的可用性方面取得了进展，但电子游戏的特定特征（如挫折是允许的，只要它是游戏设计的一部分）意味着许多已建立的用户研究方法不能以相同的方式应用于GUR。此外，游戏用户研究人员通常要处理大量复杂的数据集。因此，我们面临的挑战之一便是提高数据收集方法的效率，并让这些数据的解释更有意义，从而更好地理解玩家体验并促进设计决策。**我的研究重点是通过开发工具和框架，使用系统和科学的方法来分析玩家体验，从而弥补这些不足。该方案解决了应用GUR设置中的一个重要问题，即通过开发一种快速、经济且易于理解的方法来整合定量和定性数据，从而提高玩家体验的定性评估。这项研究的主要成果将包括玩家体验评估的新方法，以及基于实际案例研究和玩家体验科学实验的结果生成的最佳实践和游戏设计指南。*我使用定性和定量研究方法，但我对定性研究和实际案例研究更感兴趣，我可以参与到现实世界的复杂性和数据丰富性中。这个建议可以看作是我之前关于与游戏开发者合作加强游戏用户研究方法的工作的延续。我相信，与专业人士的高度接触和对现实世界案例的关注，会给研究问题和发现带来力量。*如果这个提案成功，我希望通过参与我的研究项目，培养多达10名hqp，包括博士生、硕士和本科生的研究助理。

The goal of my research is to develop quick, cost-effective and easy-to-understand methods and frameworks for collecting, analysing and reporting findings from mixed gameplay datasets. The aim is to enhance evaluation of player experience to suit the game development cycle towards providing a formative feedback for game developers. The work proposed here is divided into two research elements: First, by exploring current approaches I plan to develop mixed methods that improve effectiveness and efficiency of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Second, I plan to advance frameworks for meaningful visualisation of player experience analysis, tying qualitative and quantitative data together. Hence the outcome of this research will include applicable tools and methods as well as best practices on optimisation of human-computer interaction (HCI) methods for the game industry.**As a result of many changes in video games development (such as new business models, widening player demographics and new interaction modes) the demand for studies dealing with users and their interactions with video games has grown in the past few years. Games user research (GUR) is a relatively new field using evaluation methods from HCI and psychology aiming to improve game design by providing sufficient information about gameplay for designers to draw the best conclusion possible for optimising their designs. Although standard HCI evaluation methods have made progress in understanding the usability of productivity applications, the specific characteristics of video games (such as frustration being allowed as long as it is part of the game design) mean that many established methods of user research cannot be applied in the same way for GUR. Moreover, games user researchers are usually dealing with massive and complex datasets. Thus, one of the challenges is to improve the efficiency of data gathering approaches and in making the interpretation of these data meaningful in terms of better understanding of player experience and facilitating design decisions. **My research focuses to answer these shortfalls by developing tools and frameworks for analysing player experience using systematic and scientific approaches. This proposal tackles an important problem in applied GUR setting, which is to improve qualitative evaluation of player experience by developing a quick, cost-effective and easy-to-understand methods that integrates quantitative and qualitative data. Major outcomes of this research will include novel approaches for player experience evaluation as well as best practices and game design guidelines generated based on results from practical case studies and scientific experiments of player experience.*I use both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, but I have more interest toward qualitative research and practical case studies where I can get involved with the complexity and data richness of real world. This proposal can be seen as a continuation to my previous works on enhancing games user research methodologies in collaboration with game developers. I believe high involvement with professionals and focusing on real world cases brings strength to research questions and findings.*If this proposal is successful I expect to train up to ten HQPs, including Ph.D. students, Master's and Undergraduate research assistants through participation in my research program.