What can software product designers learn from game designers?
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What can software product designers learn from game designers?
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)
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
XH • Internet Playgrounds
Consider your own product. Is it fun, even without a goal? Does it indulge moments of playful exploration? Does it create moments of pleasant surprise? If so, congratulations because then you have a toy and you're on the way to building a great game.