Christian Roth, PhD

Media psychologist, researcher, and lecturer, teaching interactive narrative design and meaningful game design at HKU Games & Interaction. Co-founder of GameCamp Berlin. I consult on transformative user experience design and evaluation of interactive narratives, games and virtual realities.

I study the transformative effects of interactive media, my research spans user experience design and evaluation, interactive digital storytelling, game studies, and virtual reality. Typical research questions are: What makes an application enjoyable and entertaining? What do users experience when using an application and what do they learn?  How to improve user experiences and application design?

Academic Positions

  • present2016

    Lead user experience researcher

    HKU University of the Arts Utrecht

    Within the professorship for Interactive Narrative Design, I’m conducting user experience studies to evaluate prototypes. My teaching includes interactive narrative design, user experience research for designers, and meaningful, transformative design (HKU Games & Interaction). I am docent at the Minor Interactive Narrative Design.

  • 20162009

    Doctorate researcher

    VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    My doctoral research was in the scope of the European FP7 project Integrating Research in Interactive Storytelling (IRIS), design and implementation of a user experience measurement battery to evaluate Interactive Storytelling applications. As part of the IRIS project, I was the researcher and project manager of the IRIS WP7 team, coordinating the efforts of a research assistant and two MA students in conducting experimental lab studies.

  • present2011

    Co-founder and organisator

    The GameCamp Berlin (#gcberlin) is the annual meeting of game experts in Germany’s “GamesCapital” Berlin. 

    Formerly known as researching games BarCamp, part of GamesWeek Berlin.

  • 20082008

    Research assistant

    Hans-Bredow-Institute for Media Research, Hamburg, Germany

    Research on digital games as a challenge for the protection of minors.

  • 20082007

    Research assistant

    University of Music and Drama, Hanover, Germany

    As part of the Department of Journalism and Communication Research (IJK), I participated in
    the design and analysis of studies within the EU Project: Fun of Gaming – Measuring the Human
    Experience of Media Enjoyment (FuGa).

  • 20082007

    Extern associate

    at the Center for Youth Protection Lower-Saxony (Landesstelle Jugendschutz Niedersachsen). Development and application of strategies that integrate computer games in youth work and the training of pedagogical media. Production of the film Computer Games in the Youth Culture (German)

Education

  • PhD 2016

    PhD in Communication Science

    VU University Amsterdam

  • MSc 2006

    Master of Science in Psychology

    Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg

Selected Media Appearances

Print

Radio

Television

Online

Awards and Grants

  • 2018
    Best Poster Award at the International Conference on Interactive Storytelling, ICIDS
  • 2012
    Best Poster Award at the International Conference on Entertainment Computing, ICEC
  • 2009
    PhD Scholarship, Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation