A Conversation around Best Practices, Challenges, Career Advice, and Trends in Games Users Research

With growing industry interest in Games User Research, the Game Access Conference ’24 hosted a panel to discuss its challenges, necessary skills, and future trends. This paper presents an extended conversation based on the panel discussion, where international experts from industry and academia share their knowledge, experiences, and insights about this field. The discussion emphasized the important role of user research in refining game design and improving accessibility. Panelists also reflected on how academic research can support industry practices, although priorities remain different. Finally, the following key challenges for games user research were debated: raising awareness of accessibility, dealing with time constraints, and ensuring that research is integrated early in development.