Katherine Isbister
Associate Professor
Computer Science and Engineering
- Phone: (718) 260-3452
- Email: isbister@poly.edu
- Location: 10.096 (2 MetroTech Center, 10th Floor)
- Website:
Education
Stanford University, Class of 1998
Doctor of Philosophy,
Stanford University, Class of 1995
Master of Arts,
University of Chicago, Class of 1990
Bachelor of Arts,
Courses Taught
Social and Emotional Approaches to Human Computer Interaction (graduate Digital Media course) Game Development Studio (undergraduate course cross-listed in CSE and Digital Media) Game Design Seminar (graduate course cross-listed in CSE and Digital Media) Media Coverage: Grand Theft Auto invades the DS, Jamin Brophy-Warren, Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2009. How America got game, Sharon Male, Parade Magazine, November 30 2008. (http://www.parade.com/news/2008/11/how-america-got-game.html). Game theory, Laura Putre, University of Chicago Magazine 100(4), (http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0834/peer_review/arts_letters/game_theory.s...) March/April 2008. Next generation storytelling, Warren Spector, The Escapist Magazine 94(9) (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_94/524-Next-G...), April 24 2007. Hey, man, let’s play videogame dress up, Christopher Healy, New York Times, (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/fashion/01video.html), July 1 2007. The isometric museum: The SimGallery Online project: An interview with curators Katherine Isbister and Rainey Straus, Jane Pinckard, in (Clarke, A. and Mitchell, G., Eds.) Videogames and Art, University of Chicago Press distributing for Intellect Ltd., 2007. Better Game Characters by Design, Bijan Forutanpour, Game Developers Magazine (Skunk Works section), October 2006. Killing Time Online, Mars W. Mosqueda Jr., Readers’ Digest Philippines, October 2006. Books we love, Sarah Gurman, Animation Magazine, September, 2006. GDC tutorial: Emotion boot camp: Putting more emotion into play, Christopher Woodard, Gamasutra, (http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060321/woodard_01.shtml), March 21, 2006. Animated computer characters find role in classrooms, training, Sheila Riley, Investors Business Daily, March 20, 2006. Entrevue avec Katherine Isbister: Des personnages plus attrayants dans les jeux video, Nicolas Ritoux, La Presse, Montreal, November 14, 2005. More colleges offering videogame courses, Michael Hill, Associated Press, (Appeared in over 30 print and web news sources, including USA Today, Wired News, the Washington Post, CNN, Newsday, and the Boston Globe), September 25, 2005. Early in the game: RPI creates video game major, Richard A. D’Errico, The Albany Business Review (also on MSNBC.com), September 4, 2005. Much fun for credit, Susan Brenna, New York Times, April 24, 2005.
Research Interests
Social psychological and affective approaches to human computer interface, with special attention to games and other leisure and social technologies; embodied conversational agents and computer game characters
Awards + Distinctions
- Best paper nomination, CHI conference (2006)
- Nomination for Game Developer magazine Frontline Award for book (2006)
- Junior faculty research recognition, RPI (2005)
- New voices, new visions award, Toronto Digifest (2004)
- MIT Technology Review TR100 Young Innovator (1999)
Affiliations
Senior member, ACM (2009-present)
Advisory board, International Game Developers Association Game Education Special Interest Group (2005-present)
Grants
NYU Games for Learning Institute, (Senior Investigator)
General / Collaborative Research
- Advisory Committee member for NYU Game Center (NYU)
- Researcher in Games for Learning Institute (NYU)
Journal Articles
- Parappa the Rapper: Or how I learned to love Rodney Alan Greenblat and Masaya Matsuura. In Davidson, D. (Ed.) Well Played, etc press, 2009.
- Step two: Understand social play. In Bateman, C. (Ed.) Beyond Game Design: Nine Steps Toward Creating Better Videogames, Charles River Media, 2009.
- Game Usability: Advice from the Experts for Advancing the Player Experience. Co-edited with Noah Schaffer, Morgan Kaufmann, 2008.
- Isbister, K. and Höök, K. (2009). On being supple: In search of rigor without rigidity in meeting new design and evaluation challenges for HCI practitioners. Proceedings of ACM CHI (Conference on human factors in computing) 2009, Boston, MA, USA.
- Isbister, K., Höök, K., Laaksolahti, J., & Sharp, M. (2007). Sensual evaluation instrument: Developing a trans-cultural self-report measure of affect. International journal of human-computer studies 65(4): 315-328.
- Isbister, K., & Höök, K. (2007). Evaluating affective interactions. Introduction to special issue of International journal of human-computer studies 65(4): 273-274.
- Nakanishi, H., & Isbister, K. (2007). Agent technology embedded in videogames. Information processing society of Japan journal 48(3): 250-256.
- Isbister, K., Höök, K., Sharp, D., & Laaksolahti, J. (2006). The Sensual Evaluation Instrument: Developing an affective evaluation tool. Proceedings of ACM CHI (Conference on human factors in computing) 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada. (Best Paper Nomination)
- Isbister, K. & Nass, C. (2000). Consistency of personality in interactive characters: Verbal cues, non-verbal cues, and user characteristics. International journal of human-computer studies 53(2), 251-267.
- Isbister, K., Nakanishi, H., Ishida, T., & Nass, C. (2000). Helper Agent: Designing an assistant for human-human interaction in a virtual meeting space. Proceedings of ACM CHI 2000, 57-64. the Hague, Netherlands.
- Isbister, K. & Ishida, T. (1999). Designing for social interaction in cyberspace. IPSJ (Information processing society of Japan) magazine 40(6), 569-574.
Authored + Edited Books
- Isbister, K. (2006). Better game characters by design: A psychological approach. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann.
- Isbister, K. & Schaffer, N. (Eds.). (2008). Game usability: Advice from the experts for advancing the player experience. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann.
- Ishida, T. & Isbister, K. (Eds.). (2000). Digital cities: Technologies, experiences, and future perspectives. Berlin: Springer Verlag.
Biography
Katherine isbister is director of the Social Game Lab at NYU-Poly, an investigator in the NYU Games for Learning Institute, and an Advisory Committee member of the NYU Game Center. She has written two books: Better Game Characters by Design and Game Usability. Better Game Characters was nominated for a Game Developer Magazine Frontline Award. Isbister serves on the advisory board of the IGDA Games Education Special Interest Group, and on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Human Computer Studies. In 1999 she was selected as one of MIT Technology Review's TR100 Young Innovators most likely to shape the future of technology.