Katherine Isbister

Just a reminder that if you wanted to volunteer to be Editor in Chief of ACM Games, you have until Feb 20 to submit your self nomination (or to nominate someone else): dl.acm.org/pb-assets/st... Please spread the word, and consider coming forward for this important role!

Designing for "Last-Mile" Climate Resilience with Communities Welcome to our CHI 2026 workshop website! Climate resilience tools and solutions are essential for mitigating risks and adapting to the impacts of climate change, particularly in vulnerable communiti...

so sorry try this: sites.google.com/york.ac.uk/d...

HCI folks please spread the word about our #CHI2026 workshop: sites.google.com/.../designin... It will take place April 14 2:15-6:00 p.m., if you are interested in design for community climate resilience you might enjoy taking part! Short and informal submissions ok, deadline Feb. 15

GDC Call for Submissions | Game Developers Conference Submit talks for GDC 2026.

Game educators, GDC submissions are due much earlier! (Aug 7). Please submit, I can vouch that the conference is really excited to have educator content and even opened up ideas like workshops and debates. Here's the call: gdconf.com/gdc-call-for... Feel free to reach out to me with any questions 🙂

🔥 The labs of #BaskinEngineering Professors of Computational Media @kcisbister.bsky.social, Magy Seif El-Nasr, and Sri Kurniawan, along with Visiting Professor Edward Melcer, are using game design to help communities build resilience to wildfire. 🤯 👀 Read the story: bit.ly/44ugpTN

Game Professor Help Desk Game courses and degree programs have exploded in popularity over the last decade. This has led to a lot of good things—more students heading out into the game industry and related fields with excelle...

Have a burning question or thought about Game Education? Put it here for discussion at this year's Game Developer Conference Educator Summit: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I'm finding this one helpful some former WaPo folks there... contrarian.substack.com

Key California airport along SFO approach may lose all air traffic controllers The San Carlos Airport, along the approach to San Francisco International Airport, may have no air traffic controllers following an FAA contract change.

www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

This sounds like the kind of thing that the 'implications for design paper' was aimed at quashing many years ago (dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...) -- feels like it's maybe time for thoughtful re-articulation of research methods and best practices in our communities...

I personally find hard to read very small but tightly constructed studies that don't seem to offer much in the way of ecological validity or broader impact, that make it through reviewing with flying colors. I guess that's my internal straw man :)

And I used the word 'rigor' because others and I have been exploring why lately design papers have been attacked more and more for 'lack' of it... I think we all could use a well-written primer in research methods of HCI/Games to help reviewers and give us a solid foundation for our conversations.

Thanks for these thoughtful remarks, Sebastian--much appreciated. There's poorly conducted research on many fronts these days, and I agree, rushing things is a big part of it. I really crave kind, thoughtful, uplifting communication and wise decision making these days, condolences accepted!

The vitriol in your tone here is unfortunate. I believe (as someone who does design research) that there is some valuable work in this area. There's certainly poorly conceived work taking any approach, including 'rigorously' designed studies that honestly might lead us nowhere.

Deep discount today on How Games Move Us--$1.99 Kindle sale! www.amazon.com/How-Games-Mo...