A clickbait title to generate clicks

or an amazingly true statement?

You are reading this,

so the first part is true.

I will take the next few slides to prove the

second.

In 5-7 minutes, you too will learn

how gaming changed the world Of UX.

Something’s wrong with the world today, I don’t know what it is...

But humanity spends 3 Billion hours a week

playing games.

We are playing various games,

like Call of Duty and GTA...

But also very weird games..

like this one.

Cookie clicker

A game created for the sole purpose of clicking

on cookies, which in time generate more cookies…

to infinity and beyond.

Everybody in the crowd playing Cookie Clicker say “Yeaaaaaa!!!”

And how about the title Papers, Please, where you

take the role of an immigration officer

Deciding who is eligible in your communist

country and who is excluded for good?

How boring this sounds, and yet, more than 1 mil

people found it interesting enough to pay for it.

If you want to know what engagement truly looks

like, take a look at the work of Phil Toledano.

A photographer who took pictures of gamers

while at play.

Photo by Phil Toledano

I know of only two conditions where the human

face look like this.

One of them is while playing games.

Based on slides 3-19, I think that we can safely

say that games are...

Kings of Engagement

Has gaming changed the world?

During the 70’s and 80’s, gaming was a thing for

young male geeks, no more.

Until non-gaming apparatuses- PC, Facebook and

mobile, brought gaming to the masses.

1972 20091982 1988 2008

1 7

It caught like wildfire.

Now Everybody is a Gamer!

1 Billion $$ in 3 days

Acquired by Amazon for 1 Bil $

I stumbled upon a Business Insider list,

titled “The Richest YouTube Stars”.

And guess what? 15 out of 20 review games!

You know the top dog:

PewDiePie. 32 mil subscribers

That’s twice as much as Rihanna.

Is Gaming Changing the World

of UX?

The single most important thing for a

game designer is the user experience.

Games are all about user experience.

Let’s Recap

Games are kings of engagement.

The world is playing.

Changing the world of UX.

It’s no wonder that everybody wants a piece of

the gaming pie.

And everyone would like to put the engagement

ring on their user’s finger...

Using games as their matchmaker.

In the rest of the deck, you will gain more

understanding of games...

And I’ll give 2 different examples of great game-

like experiences in non-game environments.

But hey, we haven’t been properly introduced!

doriadar@gmail.com @ Dori Adar

My Name is Dori Adar.A speaker,

deck builder,

game maker,

ice cream eater.

Find my latest decks here:

www.doriadar.com

Today’s Agenda

1. the ingredients of a game2. The hero product3. the villain product

1The ingredients

of a game

I’m going to take a high level approach

on this one.

A Game

Components

Rules

Objectives

Components: Board, soldiers

Rules: A turn based game, a

certain movement to each soldier

etc.

Objectives: Kill your opponent’s king

But a game is not going to go anywhere,

unless it provides constant feedback.

Visual feedback, sure. But not only.

Feedback is more than that.

Lives

High score

Progress bar

Feedback is the engine that drives the plot

forward, in the form of a loop.

Kill monsters Get treasure Buy weapons

Repeat

Here’s the classic RPG loop

Components

Rules

Objectives

FeedbackFeedback

So now we have it. A game.

How simple to grasp.

Why can’t our lives be more like games?

Why do we rarely have clear goals and

objectives in life?

Why is feedback, AKA

“Good job!”, seldom

given?

Photo by Sarah Reid

No wonder we are getting hooked on feedback

provided to us by social media.

We yearn for it.

Social products are “gamified” by nature,

presenting view counts and like counts. This is

the equivalent of user score.

Other products might enhance game mechanics,

usually score and badges. This is known as

gamification.

And there are a few examples of products built

like games from the ground up.

I find those the most interesting.

Here are two examples:

Adventure Free to Play

Heroes Villains

2The hero product

Adventure games emphasize character growth.

Leveling up and acquiring skills are the brick

and mortar of this genre.

This can come in handy when a product’s goal is

to educate.

Components

Rules

Objectives

is an adventure game

A man and his keyboard, interactive lessons

etc.

Finish lessons to acquire dev skills.

Learn to code!

But learning to code is a long term goal. As in

adventure games, “saving the world” goes through

mid term and short term objectives.

Codacademy make smart use of short and mid-term

objectives.

Mid term goals

Short term goals

And what about our engine? Well, Codeacademy’s

interactive nature is ripe for feedback loops.

Immediate feedback when writing code

Community feedback (multi-player)

FeedbackFeedback

And some badges and progress bars, off course.

Codeacademy is considered to be a shining example

of gamification done right.

I find Codeacademy not a gamified product,

but a game whose purpose is to teach code.

That’s a major difference.

One thing though, that could make Codeacademy an

even better game, is the badass factor.

Games make us feel badass.

badass!

Codeacademy still doesn’t make me feel like a

coding ninja… yet.

I think they will get there eventually.

3the villain product

Casual games, especially the free to play ones,

are different than adventure games.

Whereas adventure games emphasize the hero within

us,

Casual games focus on our need for constant

“feel-good” feedback.

Hence, here’s my definition of a F2P game

(Free 2 play):

A F2P game is a feedback machine that is built and shaped

to bring you the best feedback experience.

Spotting patterns A small, low effort

act

Anticipation The variable reward

Here’s the addictive Candy Crush feedback loop.

Tinder uses the exact same feedback loop.

Let’s see it in action.

We love spotting patterns.

And we love looking at (eye) candies.

Lucky us, everyone on Tinder looks just

marvelous!

Spotting patterns

A small, mindless act, not requiring

any real brain effort.

A small, low effort

act

Anticipation. Did I make it? Did he

like me too?

Waiting...

Anticipation

And the reward, which is also of a

variable outcome. Not all people are

created equal, what can you do.

The variable reward

Here’s the thing about Tinder objectives.

There’s a long term objective (that may vary)

A mid term objective

And the ultimate short term objective.

The match.

Waiting...

Spotting patterns A small, low effort

act

Anticipation The variable reward

The beauty of Tinder is that unlike Candy Crush,

it does solve a real problem.

Hell, I just went to a Tinder wedding a couple of

weeks ago.

(Mazal Tov Sharon and Dudi! Was awesome!)

Similar to Codeacademy,

I do not see it as mere gamification.

Tinder uses the mechanics of a casual game,

from the ground up.

Alright kids,Let’s wrap it up.

1The

ingredients of a game

Components

Rules

Objectives

FeedbackFeedback

2The hero product

Components

Rules

Objectives

FeedbackFeedback

3The villain product

Components

Rules

Objectives

FeedbackFeedback

The most important

Famous last words:

When building products…

think like a game designer.

Thank you

doriadar@gmail.com

doriadar.com

And one more thing...

Thank you

Sarah Keyes

for editing

the slides so

elegantly.

Play Games

Cause you’ll learn from it, get tons of inspiration, and most important: it’s fun!