GUR Cafe: What does it mean to be a blended researcher? - GRUX Online 2021
Channel: GRUX SIG
Date: 16/12/2021

Join the GUR Cafe Podcast in a discussion inspired by a talk from Julien Huguenin, "Blending User Research into the Design Cycle to Maximize Impact" given at the 2019 #gamesUR Summit in San Francisco.

There is certainly no shortage of discussions regarding the importance of building influence as a researcher, but what does it mean to be a blended researcher? What have we learned and how have times changed in the last 2 years since Julien's original talk? In this episode we'll discuss:


The difference between embedded vs blended, as well as what it means to be a partner vs support to our design teams

Some of the current issues that can and do hold us back as researchers
The many ways in which we can be blended into the design cycle and begin to own at least a portion of the iteration process
How we and our teams have built healthy relationships with our stakeholders and production teams, as well as how Covid has (or hasn't) changed all that
Steps we can all take to move towards a more blended relationship with our design teams while fighting the iteration black box

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About The Podcast
GUR Café is Lanie Dixon, Olivier De Maeyer and Sébastien Lourties.

Lanie Dixon - User Research Team Lead at Ubisoft Montreal All-around GUR evangelist. 6 years in GUR with experience working on games in everything from VR, educational, indie, and AAA. Former indie game studio owner. Getting fun out of watching my siblings play games growing up trained me for this. Find Lanie on Twitter.


Olivier De Maeyer - User Research Manager @ Ubisoft Montreal UR Veteran. 19+ years of studying human interaction with everything that has screens and buttons, including 6 years in games. Obsessed with methods. My appeal to UX started at 8 years old when I discovered how painful "ergonomic" scissors were for left-handed people like me.

 
Special thanks to Julien Huguenin – Cell Owner of the Game Intelligence team on Rainbow Six Siege at Ubisoft Montreal.