We’ve been collaborating with the amazing folks at Game Dev Local (GDL) on Indie Game Quest, a fantastic series of events crafted for game developers eager to sharpen their games user research skills. It only made sense to bring Laura’s expertise to the GDL Podcast. The mission? To peel back the curtain and give you an insider’s look at how games are made, focusing on user research and player experience.

The first episode drops today, July 15th! Laura kicks things off with a fascinating chat with Dr. Mark Brady, our Senior Research Director at Sutherland Labs. They dive deep into the world of games user research, exploring its benefits and what it takes to plan effective research. Trust us, you won’t want to miss this insightful conversation.

To stay in the loop, follow us or subscribe to the GDL Podcast on Spotify, or your favorite platform. And if you’re curious about our playtesting and games user research services, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re here to help you level up your game development journey.

So, grab your headphones, get comfy, and join us as we explore the fascinating world of game development. See you on the airwaves!

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, this series is your golden ticket to mastering the essential skills needed for effective player research. Conducting research at the right time with the perfect methodology can truly be a game changer. And we’re here to guide you every step of the way.

Join us for an evening (or two) of:

• Learning: Absorb knowledge from your peers and industry experts.
• Collaborating: Work on exciting projects together.
• Feedback: Get real-time insights in an IRL setting that you won’t get anywhere else.

Mark your calendars for July 22nd and August 28th, and head over to Sutherland Labs in London.

Secure your spot now and don’t miss out on these invaluable development learning opportunities!

Grab your tickets, and let’s level up together!

About the Telly Awards

The Telly Awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens. We are delighted to have been recognised this year, alongside top names like Adobe, ESPN, LinkedIn, NASA, and more.

Sutherland Labs Winning Videos

Sutherland Labs won across several categories, receiving recognition for excellence in Help Videos, B2B Marketing Videos and How To Tutorials.

Winners:

• Silver Winner x 2: B2B – Branded Content
• Silver Winner: People’s Telly – Branded Content
• Bronze Winner: Branded Content – Tutorials and How To’s

Celebrating Excellence in Video

Amanda Needham, Telly Awards Managing Director, shared, “This year’s entries reflected the theme of going beyond the frame, with our industry pushing new technologies to craft compelling stories that address pressing issues.”

Anton Artemenkov, Sutherland Labs Creative Director, commented, “Being honored by the Telly Awards showcases our passion for innovation in video production. We are delighted to be recognized for our work on ‘how-to’ and help videos, which help enhance self-serve experiences for our clients and empower their audiences through video.”

Record-Breaking Participation

This year, the Telly Awards received nearly 13,000 entries from around the world. Winner’s were selected by The Telly Awards Judging Council – comprising over 200 industry experts including advertising agencies, production companies, and major television networks, reflective of the multiscreen industry The Telly Awards celebrates.

Our Winning Entries

Discover our winning entries on the Telly Awards site here.

Unlock the Power of Video

From guiding purchase decisions to empowering self-service, leading brands rely on our video content to enhance their customer lifecycle. Find out more about our Video Services.

Image credit: petovarga via Adobe Stock

Sustainable Isn’t Simple

Last year saw a record number of solar panels, batteries, and heat pumps installed in British homes.

Many of us will take similar steps in the coming decades as we inch closer to the government’s net zero deadline (likewise with the adoption of electric vehicles and their attendant infrastructure).

However, green tech still has a long way to go before it is truly ready for mass adoption. Indeed, as many households are now discovering, it is often not as ‘smart’ as some of the other (cheaper) devices in our homes.

Take charging an EV. In some cases it can require as many as three different apps: the car app, the car charger app, and the energy provider app (if you want to take advantage of off-peak rates). Each one has to be individually set up and managed by the user, making for a fragmented – not to say frustrating – user experience.

Not only is the home rendered more complex as a result, but the complexity is largely borne by the user, not the devices.

And that’s just charging your car – if you add solar panels and a battery to the mix, the complexity of the home goes up yet further: more devices, more apps, more interconnections to be coordinated.

Compare this to other smart home technology, such as lighting. Though not uncomplicated to set up, once a lighting routine is in place very little is needed from the user. That’s because the process is automated by a hub, such as Google Home or Samsung SmartThings. However, of the big smart hub players, only Samsung currently offers support for green tech.

What’s needed is an interoperability standard that would allow devices from different manufacturers to be able to work together. However, Matter – the smart home connectivity standard that was introduced several years ago – does not yet support energy/green tech (and, by the sounds of it, still has a long way to go before it delivers on its original promise).

But maybe what’s really missing is some ‘systems thinking’: awareness that these devices do not exist in isolation but within a system i.e. the home.

And perhaps even more importantly: awareness of where the user sits within the system.

Bridging the Adoption Gap

Up to now, whether due to cost or confidence, most of those installing green tech could be described as ‘early adopters’. As the first ones through the door of new technology, early adopters tend to be more forgiving of any flaws or defects.

However, with more and more households looking to install solar panels and EV chargers, there is a real need to provide more joined-up user experiences.

Undoubtedly, ‘smarter’ devices will help with this – as will further advancements in artificial intelligence. But to get there we first need to understand the needs and goals of users, not to mention the pain points of those who’ve already made the leap.

And that’s where UX comes in.

By focusing on the needs of users, UX design can help to strip out unnecessary complexity from experiences (and, indeed, systems), and make products and services easier to use.

Given that ‘late majority’ adopters (i.e. mainstream users) are typically more demanding of new technology, it’s not too much of a leap to say that if we’re going to reach net zero, UX has its part to play.

It is only by spending time with users and understanding their context of use, that we can hope to bridge this adoption gap, and bring green tech into the mainstream.

Ready to discuss your green tech challenge?
Get in touch with our team today.

Hero Image credit:  Martin Mecnarowski via Adobe Stock

At GDC 2024, we asked conference goers how they collect player feedback. We were happy to see that playtesting was most frequently used! Playtesting is a great way to gather feedback at any stage of game development. When planning a playtest, make sure you keep your objective clear, concise, and with an end goal in mind. You could also consider consulting the experts… like us!

Utilizing social media and relying on community managers was also high on the list. Having open betas with open communication channels can instil a feeling of transparency, a refreshing take on the general secrecy of game development at large. We heard though that the volume of player feedback through social channels can be hard to handle. Players can, unfortunately, also be quite cruel. When leaving any kind of feedback, keep in mind that the creators are people who are trying their best, just like everyone else.

One of the most unique answers to how creators collect player feedback was nursing homes! This particular developer was keen to test out tutorials with people who have either never or have very little experience playing video games. Therefore, they decided to visit their local nursing homes to recruit players. The benefits are mutual: developers get vital feedback, and nursing home residents get to have fun and try something new.

So now we turn to you, how do you collect player feedback? Please tell us on our socials.

Why not check out our playtesting services, or sign up for our newsletter to receive more insights about playtesting and user research.

Our client, Iris ®  Identity & Cyber Protection (powered by Generali Insurance), wanted to increase awareness among prospective clients and partners. We used B2B video to boost engagement and increase sales conversations.

Iris Identity & Cyber Protection offers comprehensive solutions which protect millions of consumers worldwide against identity theft and cybercrime. They needed a way to showcase their product’s features and benefits while educating potential customers about the importance of identity and cyber protection.

Our Solution

To better engage and educate our clients audience, we created a B2B ‘Explainer’ video as part of Iris’s ongoing campaign. Here’s what we did:

Full-Service Production: We produced the video from script to screen, offering a complete service from beginning to end. This included developing the script, creative direction, and using both 2D and 3D animations to clearly convey the product’s value.

Spreading the Word: The video was strategically placed online, including on YouTube, and personalized for direct mail.

The Results

Boosted Engagement: The explainer video successfully highlighted the value of Iris’s services to potential clients.

Industry Recognition: Our video won a Silver Telly Award in the B2B category, demonstrating its quality and effectiveness.

Wider Reach: By being available online and on YouTube, the video reached a broad audience, becoming a key tool in Iris’s marketing strategy.

This case study shows how a well-made explainer video can make a big difference in client engagement, effectively communicate product value, and even win industry awards.

We partnered with Corporation Pop to help them develop Xploro®, a pioneering patient app that combines AR, AI and gameplay to make patients feel empowered and engaged, and improve clinical outcomes.

All images: Sutherland Labs

The Challenge

After his daughter Issy was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in 2011, Dom Raban (Chair of Corporation Pop) found there was a significant lack of information for parents and children faced with long-term cancer treatment.

What information there was, was directed at us as parents, which left my daughter feeling isolated and ignored. She was resistant to treatments because their purpose wasn’t explained to her beforehand and she was scared of going to hospital as she didn’t know what to expect.

Issy was not alone in this experience. Research shows that patients who are not well informed about medical procedures and treatment experience increased levels of stress and anxiety, which can lead to delayed procedures or lost hospital resources and often results in poorer medical outcomes.

While clinicians often advise that children attend play therapy prior to treatment, resources in hospitals are spread thinly and play therapists themselves are asking for solutions fit for a naturally digital audience. Building on this, Corporation Pop decided to develop a solution which would improve child patient experiences by giving them access to a wide range of information in a fun and engaging way.

The Approach

To ensure that the digital solution would meet the needs of its users, Sutherland Labs worked closely with Corporation Pop developers across three rounds of research. Ethnographic research took place in hospitals involving children with serious conditions, families, clinicians and support staff to understand needs and responses to initial design concepts for what became the Xploro® app. In subsequent rounds we reviewed the iterated concepts with similar user groups.

Over the course of development our insights were used to guide the application of AR in a way that was compelling and useful, as well as optimising features such as chatbot advisors to suit the particular linguistic, cognitive and contextual needs of this audience.

The Results

The launch and continued success of Xploro® – a health information platform that uses AR, gameplay and AI to deliver health information to young patients, in a way which makes them feel empowered, engaged and informed, whilst having fun at the same time.

As well as winning several awards, the app has been proven to:

• Reduce patient anxiety
• Improve patient health literacy
• Lead to better engagement with health services
• Improve clinical outcomes
• Reduce need for sedation
• Reduce in repeat procedures
• Improve overall patient experience

And, while the app was initially designed for children with cancer, the team behind Xploro® are building a health information platform for any age of condition. For further details visit the Xploro® website.

Xploro, is one of many services we have worked on in the Health and Wellness industries – learn more by contacting us below: 

Our client wanted their digital customer support to work better for customers.

They began by looking at the current experience in a holistic way, involving both their customers and their own support agents.

Customer Journey Maps and Personas identify pain points and reveal opportunities for innovation

The Challenge

Our client, a major technology brand, needed to make improvements to the support experience for their digital work tools. While analytics had identified pain points in distinct areas of the experience they lacked a full picture of how customers were using their digital support channels, or the role that customer service agents played in that process.

To build an effective strategy for the future they needed to understand real customer behaviors around support.

The Approach

Over a series of engagements we helped our client gain a better knowledge of the end-to-end support experience of customers, as well as gather intelligence from their own customer support agents.

Workplace Shadowing with Agents and Home Visits with Customers

We spent time with both customers and agents in their own environments, observing each as they dealt with support issues in real time. Immersive research methods helped us to reveal both the issues users could vocalize, plus unspoken needs and desires. Furthermore we explored problem solving strategies and the language or terminology used by customers and agents to feed into the design of a future support experience.

Customer Journey Mapping and Personas

Our team translated research insights into Customer Journey Maps, providing a holistic view of support journeys for key customer types. These maps, alongside rich behavior based personas helped to identify further pain points and opportunity areas – such as the desire among users for greater self-serve.

Prototyping the Future Support Experience

To inform future design direction, our UX designers produced wireframes to be used as tools to illustrate, test and refine design recommendations as they might appear in future support journeys.

The Results

Our engagements have provided the client deep insight into what makes an ideal support experience from both customers and their own agents. This has been instrumental in shaping their future digital experience.

70+ design recommendations were implemented to improve the overall support experience, including navigation, page design, terminology, content.

40% reduction in support volume since improvements to navigation, self-serve channels and UI design.

Our client wanted to rethink their entire approach to hiring graduates.

The global healthcare and pharmaceutical brand was investing in graduate programmes in EMEA, but a low proportion of these graduates converted into full time positions.

The Challenge

Leaders were questioning the effectiveness of graduate hiring in EMEA, and wanted to see a more strategic approach that would better serve the needs of the business. The hiring and retention of new capabilities is critical to the long term health of the organization and for building a talent pipeline for the future.

We devised an approach to help our client understand pain points in the current graduate experience, identify opportunities for innovation, and to build a strategic roadmap for the future.

The Challenge

To develop a strategy to meet these aims and increase the likelihood of employee adoption, we needed to ground ourselves in the needs of their employees. Our goal was to understand employees day to day challenges and pain points, their preferred tools and workarounds, and to do this at scale to account for employees in multiple locations across the world.

The Approach

To capture insights from a large number of employees we began with a survey, which helped us to refine the focus for subsequent rounds of immersive fieldwork. Over the next 2 months, our team travelled to six countries to interview and shadow a range of employees in their own work environments to understand their workflows, day-to-day working practices, tools, and obstacles. We also used remote interviews to reach employees in another six countries, and to ensure we covered a representative range of roles and responsibilities.

I used to think innovation was in motion here, but I just don’t see it happening as quickly as it should be. Or it’s change for no apparent reason.

The Output

The insights from all rounds of research gave our client a rich picture of how employees really work, including the organisational culture, tools and processes, and current challenges. This fed into their overall digital workplace strategy, with more specific outputs including:

• Behavior-based personas as a tool for creating empathy for employees amongst stakeholders making strategic decisions.
• Digital channel strategy recommendations including collaboration tools and internal communications, broken down into quick wins and long term goals.
• Employee experience best practices which were rolled out as use cases across the business.