The second edition of David Lightbown's Designing the User Experience of Game Development Tools is out now from CRC Press. If you build editors, pipelines, or any other internal tools, this is still the one book written specifically about making them pleasant and efficient to use.
David Lightbown has been a driving force in bringing user experience and tool design to the forefront of the game industry. Through his book and public speaking, he has exposed the costly impact of neglecting UX in tools, including wasted production budgets, frustrated teams, and inefficient workflows. His insights demonstrate how well-designed tools remove bottlenecks, prevent unnecessary rework, and preserve the creative energy of your team. By applying the concepts and strategies he shares, studios can streamline their pipelines, maximize productivity, and empower their teams to focus on making great games. If you want to develop tools that accelerate, rather than obstruct, your next game's production, David is the expert to learn from.
Game Developer ran an excerpt from the new edition that shows off the book's approach: take ideas players already understand from competitive games and apply them to tool design.
- Chunking, from RTS games. Experienced StarCraft players recognize familiar unit compositions at a glance and decide quickly. Tool users do the same with UI patterns, so keeping layouts and data presentation consistent across your tools lets people build those mental chunks and move faster.
- Eye movement, from fighting games. Top players position their gaze to minimize how far their eyes travel. The same idea applies to property editors: right-aligned labels sit closer to their values and need fewer eye movements than left-aligned ones.
- Match the standards. Following conventions users already know from other software, such as translate, rotate, scale ordering for transform controls, means skills carry over instead of being relearned.
You can get your own copy from Routledge.