Randy Pagulayan, Ph.D.
User Research Manager
Microsoft Game Studios
Randy Pagulayan is the latest in the line of “work enthusiasts” to manage the User Research group at Microsoft Game Studios (MGS). Joining in 2000, Randy was one of the early members as they pioneered methods in the entertainment space. During his time, Randy has led user research efforts on many games at Microsoft Game Studios, including Halo 2 (Xbox) and Halo 3 (Xbox 360). Randy also co-authored several book chapters on user-centered design in games and has been an invited speaker for the Nielsen Norman User Experience Event (2003) and the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen (2005). Most recently, he was featured in a cover story in Wired Magazine (Sept, 2007) representing the work of his team. Before joining Microsoft, Randy was part of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Group at Motorola. Randy is also obsessed with all things design (although has no design skills himself).
Randy has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Maryland, and a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cincinnati, and has published in several journals, including Journal of Experimental Psychology, Brain Research Bulletin, and Human Movement Science.
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Kevin Keeker
User Research Lead
Microsoft Game Studios
Kevin Keeker is a founding member of the Games User Research Group at Microsoft Game Studios. Prior to working in games, Kevin was a Usability Engineer at Microsoft working on MSN, web content, web communications tools and interactive television. He received three years of postgraduate training in social and personality psychology at the University of Washington, studying the impact of social support on relationships and well-being.
Kevin joined Microsoft Game Studios in 1999 and co-founded the Games User Research Group shortly thereafter. After leading and then managing the group, Kevin spent two years designing sports video games at Microsoft, chaired the CHI 2004 Special Area on Games and then rejoined the Games User Research Group in October 2004. Recently he has helped to bring user research to Japan and led user research efforts on a host of hit franchises, including: Gears of War, Flight Sim, Mass Effect, Zoo Tycoon, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Viva Pinata, Alan Wake and Ninja Gaiden.
When not conducting research, Kevin supports unpopular bands, professional sports and public transportation initiatives.
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Tom Fuller
User Research Lead
Microsoft Game Studios
Tom Fuller has been working in the MGS User Research team since 2000, where he has provided support for dozens of games and services on Xbox, Xbox Live Arcade, Windows PC, MSN Games, MSN Messenger, and mobile devices. Tom is currently a User Research Lead managing a team of user research engineers who provide usability and consumer research services for RARE and Microsoft Casual Games studios, and their various game development partners.
Focusing mainly on broad-appeal titles, Tom is also involved in projects that improve user research’s ability to get feedback from somewhat under-represented segments of the target audience including kids, women, and non-hardcore game players. Prior to working at MGS, Tom was a research associate at the University of California, Los Angeles where he supported research and development of behavioral skills training and software solutions for treatment planning, and diagnostic survey and interview tools in mental health. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology in from University of the Pacific, focusing on experimental psychology and behavior analysis. In his spare time enjoys collecting records, digital photography, contemporary art, snowboarding, and an occasional dance lesson.
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Eric Schuh
User Research Lead
Microsoft Game Studios
Interested in games ever since a square white ball bleeped and blooped across his screen in the early 70’s, Eric has been a member of the Games User Research team since 2002. In that time, he’s worked on games such as Fable, Project Gotham Racing, and Grabbed by the Ghoulies.
Eric has been doing user research on how people use technology since 1993, working on projects as varied as MSN, Access, printers, and network administration tools. Not a bad career for a guy who almost, but not quite, got his PhD from the University of Washington in social psychology.
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Chuck Harrison, M.A.
User Research Lead
Microsoft Game Studios
Chuck Harrison is a User Research Lead joining the group in 2005. Chuck’s primary focus has been on Microsoft’s non-retail gaming experiences such as Xbox Live Arcade titles and web-based games. Chuck has helped ship many games such as XBLA’s UNO!, Texas Hold’em, Cloning Clyde, Hexic 2, & Small Arms as well as Carbonated Game’s Sudoku Too, Solitaire in Motion & Hop It!. Chuck is currently working on several exciting titles including arcade classics, brand new games designed just for Live Arcade, gesture-based experiences, and retail RTS games.
Chuck has over a dozen years of user research experience ranging from consumer products to back office and business applications. Before joining Microsoft, Chuck worked at several other high tech companies such as Siebel, BMC, Intel, & Netscape. Over the years, Chuck has presented research at several HCI and game related conferences and has published researched focused articles and book chapters. Chuck has a BS in Human Factors from the University of Idaho, an MA in Engineering Psychology from New Mexico State University and an MBA from the University of Houston.
In his off hours, Chuck spends his time with his wife and four boys running, skiing, playing various team sports, and of course – “researching” games.
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Ramon Romero
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Ramon Romero joined Microsoft Game Studios in 1998 becoming one of the founders of the Games User Research group. Ramon was the primary User Research Engineer for several notable titles including MechWarrior 4, Munch's Oddysee, NFL Fever 2004 and numerous others. Ramon has managed the work of User Research Engineers on games such as Brute Force, Rallisport Challenge, Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege 2, Sudeki, Zoo Tycoon 2, and Jade Empire just to name a few.
Currently Ramon is working on two unannounced titles. By 2000, Ramon had already observed, analyzed and reported on the experiences of more than 3000 users, at which point he stopped trying to track. Ramon has presented talks on the subject of User Research in games at numerous locations including the Game Developer's Conference and the Montreal Games Summit. In addition to his work with MGS, Ramon is a co-author on several book chapters pertaining to the subject of User Research and games.
Before starting at Microsoft, Ramon received graduate level training in research at the University of Washington while studying cognitive neuroscience. Prior to that Ramon was employed at the Geriatric Psychiatry Clinical Research Center located in La Jolla, California where he assisted in the research of neuropsychological problems of later life, including Alzheimer's and Huntington's Disease but focused mostly on late-life Schizophrenia. In that role Ramon was the co-author or presenter on 11 research papers or presentations. Ramon received a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California at San Diego in 1993.
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Jun Kim
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Jun Kim is a User Research Engineer for Microsoft Game Studios and has been a member of the User Research group since 2000. He has worked on numerous games in the group and is currently working on creating innovative tools, data analysis, and methods to collect user behavior and attitudinal data. Before joining Microsoft, Jun received three years of postgraduate study in Developmental and Neurobiology at the University of Washington, studying primate models of human developmental disabilities. Jun is a technology geek who has to have all the new “toys”.
In his spare time, Jun likes to read everything but romance novels, hang out with his 2 Rhodesian Ridgebacks and fiancée, trying to create the perfect system so all his gadgets can communicate/control each other, and often thinks about what kind of robot hand attachments he would install if he lost one of his hands. Jun was born in Pusan, South Korea, where he almost fell into an outhouse and died at the age of 2. He moved to Texas at the age of 3 and started dressing like JR Ewing of Dallas fame (3 piece suit and cowboy boots). Jun finally moved to Seattle in the middle of high school and he still lives there.
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Jerome Hagen
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Jerome Hagen is a User Research Engineer with Microsoft Game Studios and has been working in a variety of User Research roles on computer and console games for the past eight years. His background includes a BS in Psychology from the University of Washington, where he studied social cognition and attitudes. His lifelong love of games has led to a frighteningly large collection, with the systems alone now in the double digits. Jerome’s current projects include the Project Gotham Racing franchise and Crackdown for the Xbox 360.
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Bruce Phillips, Ph.D.
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Bruce Phillips has been working as a User Research Engineer with Microsoft Game Studios since 2001. Bruce received his BA in Psychology from Carleton University and his Ph.D. from the University of Victoria where he studied language use, gestures, and social interaction. In addition to his work on games such as MechAssault and Voodoo Vince, Bruce manages the MGS beta program and is interested in player-to-player interactions in multiplayer games and social matchmaking systems.
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John Hopson, Ph.D.
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
John Hopson received his Ph.D. in Behavioral and Brain Sciences from Duke University in 2002. He has written and given talks on the interaction of psychology and game design and his article Behavioral Game Design is required reading in many college game design programs. Games he has worked on include Halo 2 and Age of Empires III.
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David Quiroz, M.Ed
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
David Quiroz is a User Research Engineer for Microsoft Game Studios, where he provides consumer based research on PC and console games. The user research team is recognized as a leader both in innovative methods and for playing a pivotal role in the success of many of Microsoft's popular games. David has worked in the user research team for over five years and has worked on games for the original Xbox and Xbox 360 and is currently working on Rare™ Studio titles such as Viva Piñata and Perfect Dark Zero. He is an avid First Person Shooter gamer and is currently playing Call of Duty 2 (PC) under the alias "shiver." Besides video games, David enjoys playing ultimate Frisbee, cycling, frequenting the gym, and looking for buried gold.
David holds a Masters in Educational Psychology from the University of Washington and has been published in the Journal of School Psychology. Past research activities have included a meta-analysis of interventions to decrease disruptive behaviors in the classroom and various studies to help diagnose and treat reading related disabilities.
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Daniel V. Gunn, Ph.D.
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Daniel V. Gunn is a User Research Engineer within the User Research Group at Microsoft Game Studios and has been an avid gamer for over 27 years. Prior to joining the group, he taught college courses for over seven years including Research Methods in Psychology, Psychology of Learning, Physiological Psychology, and Statistics. Daniel received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology with an emphasis in Human Factors from the University of Cincinnati (UC) in 2002.
During his graduate tenure at UC, he worked as a statistics consultant for the College of Nursing and as a research scientist within the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Human Effectiveness Directorate. While working at AFRL, Daniel conducted Human Factors research in the RAIVE lab (Research on Adaptive Interfaces for Virtual Environments) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Daniel has presented at several Human Factors related conferences and has published in the American Journal of Psychology as well as Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. In addition, some of his past work can be seen in the Proceedings of the International Symposium on Aviation Psychology and the Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Daniel’s research expertise and interests include: human visual perception, sustained attention, attention and time-sharing, integrated multisensory displays (visual, spatial audio, and haptic), and applied statistics. His work at MGS has been on titles such as Forza Motorsport for the Xbox and Forza Motorsport 2 for the Xbox 360 as well as Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends and Viva Piñata PC for the PC.
Daniel’s favorite foods have remained relatively stable over the past 3 decades: pizza, macaroni and cheese, and ice cream. In his spare time, he enjoys hanging out with his wife and two sons, playing his guitar, playing games, and watching movies.
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Kevin Goebel
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
In his role as User Research Engineer with Microsoft Game Studios, Kevin Goebel supports in-development games, through consumer research, with the goal of evaluating and improving the entire gameplay experience. Previous to Microsoft, Kevin accumulated a rich and varied experience in user-centered design by virtue of his work on consumer home productivity applications at SierraHome and web-delivered business applications at Expeditors. He has had the privilege of contributing user-research efforts to various Microsoft titles, but spends the majority of his time on the Zoo Tycoon and Flight Simulator franchises. Aside from games (his favorite being Spades, with bemo bidding), his interests include music, aquaria, speculative fiction and backyard culinary arts.
Kevin holds a BS in Computing and Software Systems from the University of Washington.
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Philip Hove, Ph.D.
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Philip Hove joined Microsoft Game Studios in 2005. He’s currently supporting games produced by Ensemble, FASA, and Bungie game studios by working with a small team of user researchers, which include Halo 2 for Windows Vista and Shadowrun. Prior to joining the User Research team, he was a usability specialist at Whirlpool Corporation where he worked on improving the usability of cooking appliances for the Whirlpool brand. Philip earned a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Calgary and a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cincinnati.
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Tracey Sellar
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Tracey Sellar is a User Research Engineer at Microsoft Game Studios. Before joining Microsoft, Tracey was the founder and Director of the User Experience Lab - a games usability consultancy based in New Zealand. She has worked on game titles across a variety of platforms, including console, PC, handheld, and mobile. She is currently the lead User Researcher for Fable 2, and recently worked on Forza 2 with Turn 10.
In addition to games, Tracey has conducted user research on a range of products including websites, productivity software, videoconferencing systems, and large interactive display technologies. Prior to getting into technology, she ran a dance company, worked as a professional dancer, and held various roles in the arts industry.
Tracey has completed three years of her PhD, exploring new research strategies and methods for evaluating game user experience. She also holds a Bachelor of Business (Honors) in Information Technology, a Diploma in Contemporary Dance, and a Black Tab in Karate. In her spare time, she collects mid-century modern furniture and contemporary art, and enjoys martial arts and boxing.
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Tim Nichols, Ph.D.
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Tim Nichols joined the Games User Research group in January 2006, fresh out of grad school. He’s since moonlighted on several products, including Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania, Gears of War, and Flight Sim X. Tim is a southeasterner, which means he’s not used to cloudy weather or good microbrews, but he’s getting used to both. He’s a sucker for wacky Web memes, Josh Ritter songs, and reef aquariums. His most recent publication is a co-authored chapter on design for aging in the Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 3rd Ed.
Tim received his Ph.D. in Engineering Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, studying implicit learning, attention, and cognitive aging. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was responsible for adding at least six months to his time at Tech. He claims it was a small price to pay.
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Kris Moreno, Ph.D.
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Kris Moreno joined the Microsoft Game Studios User Research Team as a User Research Engineer in 2006. Products she has worked on include Halo 3 and Shadowrun. Before joining the MGSUR team, she worked on two other Microsoft products: the Xbox 360 console and the 2005 Media Center Edition of Windows XP. Before Kris went into user research, she was a postdoctoral research psychologist at the University of Memphis in Tennessee. Kris earned her Ph.D. in social psychology from Northwestern University in 2000. In her free time, Kris enjoys spending time with her cats and playing video games. Role-playing games are her favorite genre, although she enjoys playing many other genres as well.
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Nick Hillyer
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Nick Hillyer started life with GUR way back in the winter of 2005. Before his big break in the games industry he worked at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where he spent 5 years investigating the long term impacts of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation on patients and their caregivers. Nick’s current work is focused on a little title by the name of Gears of War.
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George Amaya, Ph.D.
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
George Amaya has been doing usability work for almost 15 years. He has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He started in usability during grad school, working as an intern at General Motors. Upon graduation he accepted a teaching position at Seattle University and moved to the Pacific Northwest. Since then he’s had the opportunity to work on lots of different products at a few different companies, including user research for the Microsoft Learning group, studying how people learn and what we can do to maximize the effectiveness of learning products. Currently he is working on Windows Mobile games, Messenger games, and anything else that fits into his schedule.
Right now Dead Rising is taking up all his Xbox 360 time (although he still loves to play Jade Empire when he gets stuck or needs a break). His PC desktop at home has shortcuts to Sims 2 (with all expansions), EverQuest 2 (with Fire and Sky expansions installed – his main character is a level 56 human troubadour), and NWN (he’s been working on developing his own module, but it never seems to be finished). His cell phone has Sonic the Hedgehog on the Favorites page.
Outside of work, he and his partner are very excited about being in the process of adopting siblings from the foster care system.
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Hiroko Nakata, B.A.A.
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Hiroko Nakata is a User Research Engineer with Microsoft Game Studios. While she moved from home to home, county to country, she developed a strong passion for International Usability and Cultural Psychology and an extraordinary skill of packing and unpacking. Hiroko recently lived in Tokyo for 2 years where she worked for Microsoft Game Studios Japan and shipped titles such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. She is now back in North America, working on both American and Japanese titles in the USA. Hiroko enjoys working on the standardization of research methods in games for Japan and the US as well as the investigation of cross-cultural issues in Game Research.
Hiroko received a B.A.A. in Psychology from Kwantlen University in 2005. As a bilingual/bicultural girl who grew up in Kyoto (Japan) and Vancouver B.C. (Canada), Hiroko enjoys shopping, going to cafés and beaches, hanging out with her family and friends, and pursuing any fun++ that the life can offer. She loves playing casual games and Viva Piñata with her pet hamster until she can no longer stay awake!
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Mac Smith, Ph.D.
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Mac realized the need to make games fun early in life, when Ghosts n’ Goblins fueled a pre-pubescent tirade that ended with a broken NES. Since then, Mac’s worked to understand how to improve users’ interactions with technology and attempted to avoid insanely difficult platformers.
Mac has a background in aviation research, collaborating with both NASA and the FAA on human factors issues related to display design and training. He also led a small gaming lab at George Mason University, where he examined issues ranging from integrating eye tracking with in-game evaluation to quantifying subjective estimates of game preference. Mac has also worked as a user researcher for a usability consultancy, and as a UX designer for Motorola. In his spare time, Mac enjoys trolling game forums for industry rumors and getting owned in the latest FPS du jour.
Mac has a B.S. in Psychology from Old Dominion University, and an M.A. and PhD in Human Factors/Applied Cognition from George Mason University.
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Steven Mathiesen
User Research Engineer
Microsoft Game Studios
Although Steve joined the Microsoft Games User Research group full time in 2008, he has worked with the group on casual game projects as a vendor since 2003. His area of expertise within the group is research focusing on Web games, Messenger games, and Xbox Live Arcade games.
Prior to working at Microsoft, Steve conducted research for the German automotive industry; completing his thesis and an internship at DaimlerChrysler investigating CAD interfaces.
Steve holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Utah and a German graduate degree (Diplom-Psychologie) in Work, Organizational, and Industrial Psychology from Friedrich-Alexander University located in Erlangen, Germany.
In his free time, Steve enjoys playing board games, cooking, and hiking around the Puget Sound region with his wife, son, and dog in tow.
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