Maria Åresund at HiQ Göteborg

In May 2007 I decided to leave the academic world for a career in industry after having worked for the previous two and a half years as an interaction designer at a research institute where I studied different aspects of pervasive games and also worked with game design. When changing my workplace I wanted to maintain my gaming and game design skills. What I was looking for was a group of talented, creative and well-organised people who worked with interactive media and games. At HiQ Interactive I found what I was looking for.

HiQ attracted my attention because of the mix of business areas and, with my education as an interaction designer, I was interested in several of them. I quickly discovered that there were many options for me. Although I am primarily employed to test and evaluate educational games, my workday is very varied, which suits me just fine. I have had the opportunity to use my expertise as an interaction designer and a game designer, but I am also using my project manager and university lecturer experience. My work involves everything from conducting preliminary studies, meeting clients, setting up training goals and/or analysing clients’ training goals, to ensuring that we stay focused on these goals throughout the design process.

Designing educational games is different and in many ways more difficult than designing commercial games. While everyone might associate “fun” with “games,” educational games are not just about “fun” – and sometimes they don’t have much to do with “games” either. There are different types of games and many different interactive media can be used for educational purposes.

Confusing? Let me explain. We not only design for entertainment purposes, as is the case with commercial game design. Our objective is to produce a product that satisfies a need. In our case this means creating a product that meets our client’s corporate training needs, but also a product that suits the various learning styles of a large group of employees. It’s about getting the group to study independently. Instead of emphasising “fun” experiences, we work hard to create experiences that get the players/students to interpret the information in the same way and reflect on their own actions. If the learning process is to be successful, it’s essential for students to be interested and motivated and to offer them good games that are engaging. This is something our clients understand.

In summary: I am glad I took the step from the academic world into the “World of HiQ.”

Maria Åresund

HiQ Göteborg