Gareth R. White is a Ph.D. student researching the design and evaluation of usability and user experience for video games, with a particular interest in practical solutions for titles under development by professional studios.
Gareth has been playing video games since the Atari VCS 2600 arrived in his living room in the late 1970s, subsequently going on to teach himself how to program computer games on the BBC Micro as a child in the 1980s, and earning a B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of Brighton in 1998.
Since graduating, Gareth has published several games as a professional programmer working for studios in London, England, as well as in Adelaide, South Australia, and with Rockstar Games in Vienna, Austria where he worked on titles in the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt series.
More recently Gareth has consolidated his professional and personal interests with academic research, earning an M.A. in New Media from the University of the West of England in 2007 where he wrote about the nature of embodiment in Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition.
He has presented talks at the Australian Game Developers Conference about programming techniques for console development, and has helped to launch and run Vertical Slice, a professional video game research company focusing on usability and user experience. He also organises the 2009 Human-Centred Technology Postgraduate Workshop
Contact
Email: G.White@sussex.ac.uk
Web
Informatics Profile
Projects
Blind Second Life
Publications
White GR. Embodied Evil - The Aesthetics of Embodiment in Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (MA thesis)
White GR, McAllister G and Fitzpatrick G. Toward Accessible 3D Virtual Environments for the Blind and Visually Impaired
McAllister G and White GR. "Video Game Development and User Experience" in Bernhaupt R (Ed.) Evaluating User Experiences in Games (forthcoming - Springer)
