Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Computer Science · University of York, UK
I study the experiences of people who play video games. My research looks at what makes games challenging, how expectations shape what players feel (the placebo effect of technology), and the emotionally meaningful experiences games can create.
I also work with indie developers on how they playtest their games, and develop validated questionnaires that make evaluating player experience easier for researchers and developers alike. I did my PhD at York on how players' perception of adaptive technology affects immersion.
Research themes
Background
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2024–now
Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor)
Department of Computer Science, University of York
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2022–2024
Lecturer (Assistant Professor)
Department of Computer Science, University of York
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2019–2021
Lecturer (Assistant Professor)
Department of Computer Science, City, University of London
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2016–2018
Tutor (Associate Lecturer)
Department of Computer Science, Swansea University
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2016–2017
Research Technician
Department of Psychology, University of York
Driving simulations for a study of how people behave around driverless cars
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2016
Research Intern
IBM York Labs
User experience research on data analytics software
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2013–2016
PhD in Computer Science
University of York
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2012–2013
MSc Human-Centred Interactive Technologies
University of York
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2009–2012
BSc (Hons) Computer Science
University of York
Teaching
- Created and lead Player Experience in Digital Games, for MSc Human-Centred Interactive Technologies and BEng Computer Science students.
- Have led Human-Computer Interaction for around 300 undergraduates, and User-Centred Design and Advanced Topics in HCI on the MSc.
- At City, led Games Development Process on the MSc Games Technology and redesigned the undergraduate final-year project module.
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, with a PGCert in Teaching in Higher Education.
Service
- General Chair of ACM CHI PLAY 2026 in York.
- Associate Editor of the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies and IEEE Transactions on Games.
- Member of the CHI Reviewing Working Group and the SIGCHI Publications Committee.
- Papers Chair of CHI PLAY 2024 and 2025.
- Subcommittee Chair for Games and Play at CHI 2024 and 2025, and Associate Chair at CHI 2020–2023 and 2026.
- Track Chair at the IEEE Conference on Games in 2022 and 2026.
- Recognised 12 times for outstanding reviews at CHI and CHI PLAY.
Where to start
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Researchers
Browse all publications, most with free accepted-version PDFs, or start from the research themes.
Use my validated questionnaires: CORGIS for challenge, PUGS for uncertainty and BANGS for basic needs, each with instructions, scoring and a Qualtrics import.
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Game developers
See what we learned about playtesting challenges of indie developers and other work on games industry practice.
The questionnaires can help you measure how challenging, uncertain or satisfying players find your game.
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Students
Meet the PhD researchers I supervise and see the kinds of projects we work on, from challenge and agency to game audio and coping.
Each paper page has a plain-language summary and key findings, a good way into games research.
Featured work
"It's a terrible choice to make but also a necessary one": Exploring player experiences with moral decision making mechanics in video games
Playing Through Tough Times: Exploring the Relationship between Game Aspects and Coping Strategies during Difficult Life Challenges
The Basic Needs in Games Scale (BANGS): A new tool for investigating positive and negative video game experiences
Towards Democratisation of Games User Research: Exploring Playtesting Challenges of Indie Video Game Developers
Keep Calm and Aim for the Head: Biofeedback-Controlled Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in a Horror Game
"Whatever the Emotional Experience, It's Up to Them": Insights from Designers of Emotionally Impactful Games
Measuring Perceived Challenge in Digital Games: Development & Validation of the Challenge Originating from Recent Gameplay Interaction Scale (CORGIS)
The Placebo Effect in Digital Games: Phantom Perception of Adaptive Artificial Intelligence
Recent news
Attended BiGGi Con 2026, the iGGi conference on research and innovation in games, at Queen Mary University of London.
Presented our paper comparing proactive and reactive difficulty adjustment in running exergames at IEEE CoG 2026 in Madrid, Spain.
Two papers out in PACM HCI (CHI PLAY 2026), on agency in video games with Xuechen Xu and on games as coping systems with Sahar Mirhadi.