COSC 324 - Fall 2007
Usability in Game Design
Kathleen Harmeyer

Welcome

--- Week 14 ---
Project Presentations

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

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

--- Week 11 ---
Case Studies

--- Week 10 ---
2D Graphics in
XNA Game Studio

--- Week 9 ---
Serious Games

--- Week 8 ---
Special Populations

--- Week 7 ---
Midterm Exam

--- Week 6 ---
Usability by Design

--- Week 5 ---
Emotions as Feedback

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

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

--- Week 2 ---
Standards & Heuristics

--- Week 1 ---
Concepts of Usability

--- Support Files ---

Course Syllabus

Instructor Bio

Welcome Page

Late Breaking News

(10/04/07) Class will be conducted as regularly scheduled.

( 09/25/07) Thank you for checking this page - I also sent campus email to you.

There has been a death in my family and I will not be able to conduct class in person on Thursday 9/27. Please consult the Web page for Week 5 for your assignment.

Continue to acquire and install Visual Studio and XNA Game Studio Express and search for Tutorials for XNA. I will be available via email, but the response time may not be immediate.

To accommodate this missed class, I will adjust the midterm exam requirement.

COSC 324 Welcome Page

This is the Web site for COSC 324, Usability in Game Design, a core course in the Bachelor of Technical or Professional Studies in Simulation & Digital Entertainment

If you haven't gotten a free Gamasutra account, this is a good opportunity to do so. Today's feature story is about redesigning Heads-Up Displays. Depending on your threshhold for reading industry news, you may wish to subscribe to their GamaDaily or Weekly Gamasutra newsletters.

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

Update 09/25/07