Design websites and apps integrating engagement design principles from game design.

1. Engagement
by
Design
Pietro Polsinelli
All links for this talk:
http://bit.ly/EngByDes

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3. How do we get from this to a more engaging UI/app?
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4. From Bokardo http://bokardo.com
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6. Creating apps meditating on user psychology - examples
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2012

7. The problem: bring movie script writing to the masses.
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8. Obvious approach:
web based writing tool
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9. http://20lin.es
Designer didn’t ask: is it fun to write? Or is it diffcult and boring? Also talking with my customers, who
are Cinema experts, its been hard to pass the message through: not everybody lives for movie
scriptwriting. 9

10. How can I talk about WW2 to today’s hurried reader?
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11. Twitter stories to movies. The loop write – publish – get an answer (or many) / get a like is short, and has
SURPRISES and EFFECTS beyond your action.
Social software for story composition.
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12. The problem: RTFM (Read The F...ing Manual)
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2012

13. Gabriele Farina from aLittleb.it (Milan). This requires smartness, but it is also a quite natural application:
progress in documentation is linear, can be variously “locally” gamified.
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14. aLittleb.it
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15. Starting point is an anthropological question, instead of a “functionally complete” question.
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16. Focus: iA Writer.
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17. Reach of user centered UI design
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2012

18. Not only apps, but always about users.
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19. [add user walks from right to left]
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20. Which company has had a great success recently, with a user model fully impacting design?
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2012

21. No technical, design, game design / mechanics innovation
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22. Why
games
can teach
about UI?

23. Crash course
in game design

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26. Example analysis: Pinball
Works in different media – nice on the iPad.
What is the game about? What is the main loop?
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27. This is its meaning.
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28. 1. Just keep the ball in play
2. Make point rich hits
3. Reach goals
4. Complete the story
5. Not fun any more
Pinball game hermeneutics. Depth by progressive views.
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29. Game are made of loops
To analyze the mechanics of a game, you got to find the loops.
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30. Game loops
contain
surprises
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise
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31. Stick
to
basics
These are some of the mechanics – plus status competition …
This is very important in order to establish deep contact with your users: find the deep motivation.
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32. Is this simple mechanic union relevant only for classical games?
Union of drawing – racing
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33. Drawing with your finger on the iPad is nice. Racing with small cars is beautiful.
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34. Considers shape, speed. Also runtime “turbo” interventions. You don’t drive – which simplifies
development, but is a plus here, not a minus.
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35. Surprises
Flipper surprises us by say enabling additional bats Or by moving parts that were still. In videogames.
Using the same mechanics for different ends is usually very effective and preserves usability used so
far.
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36. HEROICA
Heroica: the hero’s journey, becomes engaging through mini games – typically a DUEL. Race, mystery
solving. Most natural (and most difficoult) game design choice.
Interesting because of cross game gaming.
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37. “This game is engaging”
Engagement can be caused by disparate reasons:
1. Engagement because of s fun base mechanic
2. Engagement by using a virtual world projection mechanics
Engaging design is ambiguous: can mean engaging by using a base mechanic (flipper tower defence,
verify the chapter in theory of fun), or by using a virtual world projection mechanics 37

38. Koster – Deterding definition of fun.
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39. “Fun is
about
learning in
a context
where there
is no
pressure”
But in school there is, and there has to be, pressure. There is here a dynamic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x5YtkTw4wn4#!
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40. the flow
The blurry edge between challenging and too difficoult.
There is the flow. We are tackling the tip of something complex. When we are
kept at the margin of our abilities – it’s the flow graph. So its complex,
there are exceptions everywhere. 40

41. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Author)
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42. Learn more on Classical Game Design
Readings.
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43. A path beyond usability:
Narrative enchantment
Another path for going beyond usability.
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2012

44. Metrics driven
game design intro

45. Feedback is scary – but can help.
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46. http://vimeo.com/32161327
Mafia Wars guy.
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47. Measure, measure, measure.
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2012

48. No narrative ideal, no purpose beyond monetization. Lenses in a skeleton: The Sims Social.
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49. From Bokardo’s Metric Driven Design
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50. Addiction by Design Natascha Schull
http://gelconference.com/videos/2008/natasha_schull
97% is given by the slot machine – study IT
Thursday, September 27,
2012

51. Went there to get milk...
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52. Las Vegas Airport
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53. Overall designed...
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54. A different auro to the zone term
“So annoying when I do jackpot”
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55. Casino Gaming Magazine: indded motivated in working Uis. How to make the user feel she’s winning
when she’s not”
The aim of game design is “get player EXTINCTION” – NO MONEY LEFT
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56. Learn more on Metric driven game design
Study.
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57. Learn more on Metric driven game design
http://www.slideshare.net/wooga/killer-game-loops-in-social-games
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59. New user models.
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60. Playfication

61. Oh how nice it is to work as a
slave for this multinational
http://unmanned.molleindustria.org/
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2012

62. Conflict of interests
“This Bat Man game feels like busywork” -> bad game.
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2012

63. UI’s we meet are hard to handle and cannot be designed from the ground up.
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2012

64. Again here we see the interplay of user model, motivations, actual design.
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65. Teamwork Project manager went from gamification to clean UI.
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66. Image attributions
The Act http://www.chillingo.com/games/act/
Future Pinball http://www.futurepinball.com/
Le Penseur: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_2010_-_Le_Penseur.jpg
Memegenerator: http://memegenerator.net/instance/22994388
RTFM http://tcritic.com/archives/rtfm-people/
Crowd mall: http://kiraturner.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/crowdscene.jpg
Police officer:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22441520@N02/3425534729/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Mau Dau http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-10-18-facebook-refines-mau-dau-
calculations
Lambs http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandlings/4605712227/sizes/l/in/photostream/

67. Engagement
by
Design
All links for this talk:
http://bit.ly/EngByDes
Pietro Polsinelli
twitter @ppolsinelli
e-mail ppolsinelli@gmail.com