Submission Tips
Get Your Talk Accepted for the GamesUR Conference: 10 Tips
Our annual Games User Research Conferences (GamesUR) host professionals dedicated to improving player experiences through research, player testing, and insights.
We’d love for you to submit a talk proposal, so here are ten tips tailored specifically for the GamesUR community to maximize your chances of acceptance:
1
Understand the Conference Audience
The GamesUR Conference audience includes researchers from industry & academia with a wide range of seniority, and often includes non-insights developers who are passionate about user research. Focus on topics that resonate with these groups, including specific player behavior insights, practical research methodologies, or case studies demonstrating impactful results at work in commercial gamedev.
2
Address Practical Challenges
Successful submissions often address real-world issues that GUR professionals and game studios face. Discuss how you tackled challenges like tight development timelines, tricky stakeholder dynamics, or balancing qualitative and quantitative insights.
3
Focus on Actionable Takeaways
Conference attendees value talks that offer advice they can take away and implement for themselves. Include clear steps, frameworks, or templates that listeners can immediately apply to improve their research practice.
4
Show Evidence and Results
The GamesUR community values data-driven insights. Proposals that showcase outcomes, such as improved player retention rates, enhanced UX designs, or concrete evidence of research impact, tend to stand out.
5
Tell a Story
Great GUR talks often follow a compelling narrative. Rather than simply listing facts, frame your submission around a clear problem, your investigative approach, and the ultimate impact of your findings.
6
Show Evidence and Results
The GamesUR community values data-driven insights. Proposals that showcase outcomes, such as improved player retention rates, enhanced UX designs, or concrete evidence of research impact, tend to stand out.
7
Provide a Fresh Perspective
While there are some frequently-revisited topics in the GUR talks we host, our content team are often looking for novel insights. If you’re covering familiar ground, make sure you highlight your unique angle, or nuanced advancement — for example, how research methods for ‘flat’ games can adapt for VR testing, or how accessibility features can include new audiences, or the use of novel technologies like AI.
8
Be Transparent About Mistakes
Our community values learning from failed experiments just as much as successful ones. Sharing lessons from projects that didn’t go as planned can provide invaluable insights to others in the field: no judgement here!
9
Go Beyond The Methods
Research on commercial games relies on a host of standard methods, but our jobs are more than execution of research. Consider topics of team architecture, cross-disciplinary working, organisational structure, career growth, research operations, and the business of game development
10
Collaborate with Colleagues
Joint submissions featuring multiple perspectives—such as a researcher and a designer sharing their collaboration experience—can be highly engaging. Combining insights from different roles within game development often makes for a richer talk.
Bonus Tip: Review Past Talks
Make sure you review previous GamesUR Conference videos for insights into successful presentations, and the topics that have already been covered at our events. Understanding the tone, style, and structure of past talks can help shape your submission for success.
By following these GamesUR-specific tips, you can craft a submission that speaks directly to the conference’s audience and improves your chances of acceptance.
Best of luck!