I (and others) have talked about game usability (and there is a new Games User Research SIG as part of IGDA) and I think it would be really cool to do a joint presentation on Game Usability — from both a game player and from a tool user perspective.

Why?

You can only iterate on features and content as quickly as your tools allow. More usable tools mean increased velocity of iteration. More iteration means more chances to do user-testing with gamers and incorporate that feedback back into your game.

Nothing is more frustrating to coders, content creators, producers, and usability experts than being unable to get a new build, a fixed feature, or some new content in response to user-testing feedback because it’s “too hard”, “too costly”, or “takes too long”. Better tools mean you can respond to user experience problems rapdily and both test and fix deeper into the game.

Personally I like the “principle of least astonishment” design philosophy coupled with sensible form layout that mimics other software out there. People often forget that even though we’re designing tools only for internal use, we still have clients who will be using our software whose daily productivity depends on the software being stable and easy to use!