What can software product designers learn from game designers?
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What can software product designers learn from game designers?
I would advise, as an industry, to pull back from this obsession with user wants and user needs and instead to design for fun. What you want your players to feel, what is the emotional path for them to get there, and how does your software—your business product, if that's what you're building—take them along the path?
Ben Gilbert • Superhuman Part II - Designing Software to Feel like a Game (with Rahul Vohra) | Acquired Podcast
Above all, people need agency. They need to feel in control. Sometimes, that means designing for subversive behavior. I mean, isn't the most fun often had when you're breaking rules? But this is enormously difficult in software, where you must design almost everythingfrom scratch. Unlike life, you don't get a common repertoire of actions for free –... See more
Internet Playgrounds
the good game designer may begin by thinking, “Okay, how do I want my users to feel? Do I want them to feel inspired? Do I want them to feel proud? Should they be scared? Anxious? What’s my goal for their intended experience?
Yu-kai Chou • Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards
In Design, we often strive for minimalism—using as little as needed to get a job done or a message across. A key tactic in that aim is to avoid redundancy. [...] But adding game feel requires just the opposite. Our digital products are trapped behind a hard pane of glass. We use the term “touch”, but we never really touch them. To truly Feel a digi... See more
(Not Boring) Software Inc. • The World's Most Satisfying Checkbox
Whenever we design an interface that requires high learnability, we always look at computer games for inspiration. Game designers are extremely good at teaching complexity and giving the right kind of feedback at the right time so people aren’t even really aware they are learning something new.
Irene Pereyra • Universal Principles of UX: 100 Timeless Strategies to Create Positive Interactions between People and Technology (Rockport Universal)
Superhuman Part II - Designing Software to Feel like a Game (with Rahul Vohra) | Acquired Podcast
acquired.fmThe most challenging products must EXPLAIN how something should be done (think Adobe Photoshop, where users must be find training on YouTube or elsewhere to engage — even initially—with the product). Having to explain your product is the least effective way to engage new users (and explains why products like Photoshop struggle to attract non-Pros).... See more