GUXS 25 | Perception in Virtual Worlds at The New School | Colleen Macklin & Ben Van Buren

Original author：Game Master Classes

Original source：https://www.youtube.com/embed/B1yQqyaw0PE

- Perception in Virtual Worlds at The New School - In this talk, Colleen Macklin and Ben Van Buren (Professor of Media Design, & Assistant Professor at The New School) share their experience co-teaching an interdisciplinary graduate seminar that brings together game design and cognitive psychology students through hands-on, research-driven collaboration. Designed to mirror real-world industry practices, the course pairs designers and psychologists in mixed teams to build simple games in Unity, formulate research questions, run controlled experiments, and analyze player behavior using in-game analytics and surveys. Through these “labs,” students learn how game design choices shape player perception, behavior, and experience while developing the collaborative skills required to work across disciplines. The talk presents the rationale, structure, outcomes, and challenges of this teaching approach, along with concrete examples of student research that has led to meaningful insights and academic publications. This session is especially relevant for educators, UX researchers, designers, and human factors practitioners interested in interdisciplinary methods and training for game research and design. Colleen Macklin is a game designer and a Professor in the school of Art, Media & Technology at Parsons School of Design. Ben van Buren is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at The New School, where he directs the Perception Lab.