Design playsessions, or playsessions run internally within a design or production team for the purposes of testing a new concept or validating a decision, are happening whether we are a part of them as researchers or not. While these types of testing are most often not with the target audience of the game and can bring their own flaws and biases, how can we embrace these imperfect opportunities as researchers to produce valuable insights?       

Join Lanie and Sebastien Francois, former User Researcher and now UX designer on Rainbow Six Siege, as they discuss how and why you should spend time on integrating yourself and user research into design playsessions to maximize insights, long term UR impact, and influence.

Sébastien François - UX Designer @ Ubisoft Montreal After several years in game design and user research, it felt natural to merge both and focus on UX design. My main interests are in moment-to-moment gameplay, and the intersections of systems building up the player journey.  

Lanie Dixon -  User Research Team Lead @ 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.