Here are the notes for the Tool Design Roundtables of GDC 2023! https://rystorm.com/blog/roundtables-gdc-2023 Thank you to everyone who visited!
There was no official note taker in the room, so I wrote these myself afterwards. If you have more detailed notes, feel free to let me know.
Big things that I found interesting from these GDC roundtables:
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Pretty much everyone is using Figma. It has completely taken over in comparison to previous years.
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The discussion of one off tools vs long term tools is a fun one. Folks were adamant about one or the other.
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Having in-house experts do tutorial sessions is getting much more popular over textual documentation. Folks like to see images, videos, and explanations instead of pages of text. We've known for a while, but now we also see folks are moving towards presentations and videos.
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Someone made a stream deck and midi controller input for their toolset, so users can use physical buttons and knobs to operate values. Especially audio folks liked this. I polled the room, and nobody else in the room was doing that, so it sounds like this is a big opportunity.
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Studios still deal with making tools that are then not used by users. User research is critical, and we have to find out what the end goal is that needs to be accomplished, as well as make sure that new tools are better than the old tools they are replacing. Basic, but true!
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Sometimes you shouldn't upgrade an old tool, and you should instead throw it out. That is a valid end result of your research.
Thank you to everyone who visited! Also I miss your greatly detailed notes, Victor Stepanov. Hope to see you again next year!