Discovery-driven Design in Social Games: Techniques, Processes, and Problems

This session explores and explains how developers of online social games use insights from analytics in order to refine game designs.

We will look at:

• the market context for social games
• the analytical tools and techniques commonly used to provide insight into design effectiveness, and how and why this landscape is evolving
• the processes through which designs are modified in response to results from design testing
• the challenges of adopting leading edge practice

Analysis and action are most effective when they are tied together in an organised and adaptive feedback loop. Getting this cycle working properly is tricky. Being discovery-driven can help. I explain the implications that being discovery-driven has for the design process, and for the relationship between design and analytics.