COSC 324 - Usability in Game Design
Tuesday, 2:00-4:30 pm
AC 216
Spring 2008
Kathleen Harmeyer

Course Home Page

--- Week 15 ---
Project Presentations, if needed

--- Week 14 ---
Project Presentations

--- Week 13 ---
User Testing of Games

--- Week 12 ---
Usability Testing Procedures
and Reports

--- Week 11 ---
Case Studies

--- Week 10 ---
Serious Games

--- Week 9 ---
Special Populations

--- Week 8 ---
Designing for Usability

--- Week 7 ---
Midterm Exam

--- Week 6 ---
A Simple XNA
Shooter Game

--- Week 5 ---
XNA GSE
Introduction

--- Week 4 ---
Usability Metrics &
Test Design

--- Week 3 ---
Usability Testing &
Playtesting of Games

--- Week 2 ---
Standards & Heuristics
XNA GSE Introduction

--- Week 1 ---
Concepts of Usability

--- Support Files ---

Course Syllabus

Instructor Bio

Welcome Page

Late Breaking News

(04/01/08) We are able to take a tour of the User Research Lab today. That will be our first item of business. Don't be late to class, you will miss out on a great opportunity.
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COSC 324 Welcome Page

Welcome to the Usability in Game Design course. Consult this page often and certainly immediately before class meetings for any Late Breaking News.

This is a relatively new field of study that is growing rapidly. Informed by experimental psychology and man-years of practice, specialists have conducted extensive research into methods and developed heuristics (rules of thumb) for improving the usability of games.

In this course, students will employ Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express game engine to develop a usable game for use in exploring concepts in usability.

The first class of this course meets Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Course Materials

Book cover Microsoft® XNATM Unleashed: Graphics and Game Programming for Xbox 360 and Windows by Chad Carter
ISBN-10: 0672329646

X-BOX Wireless Controller
X-BOX Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows

Suggested, but not required texts:

Microsoft® XNATM Game Studio Creator's Guide by Stephen Cawood and Pat McGee
ISBN-10: 0-07-149071-X

Microsoft® XNATM Game Programming for Xbox 360TM and Windows® by Benjamin Nitscheke
ISBN-10: 0-470-12677-6

Update 01/29/08