Human Factors Careers in Gaming

November 11, 2007 3:55 PM

HFIDFilter: What sort of career options are available in the Human Factors field these days that have to do with the video game industry?
posted by trokair to Work & Money (4 answers total)

Not exactly the gaming industry, but avionics use a lot of the same human factors disciplines. You might want to explore companies that make glass cockpits.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:42 PM on November 11, 2007

Some applications:

• Make games accessible to the handicapped.
• Study the ergonomic implications of extended play.
• Design comfortable controllers.
• Develop intuitive control schemes and key bindings.
• Research novel interfaces.

I am not sure what job title each falls under.
posted by nilihm at 4:54 PM on November 11, 2007

Some of the larger publishers hire people to do human factors research on games and controllers. No idea how to find those jobs, they're more specialized than what I'm used to.

A lot of console game design is basically human factors work (ui design, etc). Definitely having a degree in human factors would look great on any user-focused design job resume. You might need some experience, or published indie games, though.
posted by JZig at 5:24 PM on November 11, 2007

Microsoft Games Research is probably the only place you could get a job. No idea how hard it is to get in.

Sure, nihilm's topics sound interesting, but those jobs don't exist in the game industry. If it wasn't obvious. Hahaha.
posted by liet at 10:43 PM on November 11, 2007