Aug
17
2009
Erica Firment
I can’t be self-promotional all alone here, people. I need your help! Vote for meeeee!
My proposal is up for voting right now on the South By Southwest Interactive Panel Picker. It’s a geek frenzy over there. Vote early and often.
VOTE HERE (login required)
Panel Proposal:
Video Game Research: Failing Our Way to Victory
Users are weird. They tell you one thing and do another. They click everywhere and read nothing. Erica Firment, a User Experience designer for Linden Lab/Second Life, chronicles fast and effective ways to make your software suck less by spending a few hours watching users fail.
- How can video games win by watching their players fail?
- What is video game user research?
- What do you mean by “watch users fail?”
- Can’t I just send out a survey? (NO!)
- Why are 3D world interfaces hard to design?
- What are some things in Second Life that got better by watching users fail?
- How does Second Life collect information?
- Why should developers and product managers invest in user research?
- What are some easy ways for me to do user research?
- What are some cheap ways for me to do user research?
6 comments | tags: SXSWi Panel Picker "Second Life" | posted in Linden Lab, Second Life, SxSw, User Interface Design, conferences, information science
Jun
23
2009
Erica Firment
Librarian?
Data junkie? Obsessive compulsive? Come to the Freebase hack day on July 11, 2009 here in SF. There’s food, drinks, an excellent network, plenty of powercords, and a nice room full of geeks to chat with.
It’s a fun way to dive a bit deeper into making cool data mashups, relationally documenting your brain contents, and getting your questions answered by actually standing in front of Metaweb developers and staring at them until they make go.
Drop me a note if you are going. :)
-Erica
2 comments | posted in Avenging, Cataloging, Digital Library, Freebase, Research Obsession, San Francisco, Wikipedia, Wordpress, information science
Feb
3
2009
Erica Firment
Happy news! I was invited to be a panelist at the South by Southwest Interactive conference next month, as part of their ScreenBurn track. 
I’m on a panel called “Funologists live and in person: Guerilla Game Research.”
I’ll share my experience starting some low-budget user research cycles for Second Life, and my work translating those frustrating observations into shippable engineering requirements.
There will be pretty pictures, and possibly cake.
The cake is a lie, but you should stop by anyway. There could be cake.
There certainly won’t be cake and not cake. Not at the same time, I can assure you.
2 comments | tags: erica linden, funologists, game research, Linden Lab, Second Life, sxsw09, sxswi, sxswi09, usability, user research | posted in Avenging, Career, Digital Library, Interface design, Librarianship, Linden Lab, Second Life, SxSw, Tech, User Interface Design, Video games, information science
