#sxsw recap: tools & inspiration by ryan davidson

SXSW 2014 Tools and Inspiration Ryan Davidson Technical Director @Discorax

Octalysis by Yu-kai Chou

Key Takeaway: There are tools available to analyze your game/app/site to optimize the User Experience to be most effective. Note: I did not say “most fun.”

• The 8 Core Drivers of Gamification • Left Brain vs Right Brain Drivers • White Hat vs Black Hat Gamification http://www.yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/octalysis-complete-gamification-framework/ Also read about how to build habits in a multi-device world. http://www.nirandfar.com/2014/03/multi-device.html

@yukaichou

Presenter

Presentation Notes

The 8 Core Drives of Gamification 1) Epic Meaning & Calling This is the Core Drive where a player believes that he is doing something greater than himself or he was “chosen” to play. An symptom of this is a player that devotes a lot of his time to maintaining a forum or helping to create things for the entire community (think Wikipedia or Open Source projects). This also comes into play when someone has “Beginner’s Luck” – an effect where people believe they have some type of gift that others don’t or believe they were “lucky” to get that amazing sword at the very beginning of the game. 2) Development & Accomplishment This is the internal drive of making progress, developing skills, and eventually overcoming challenges. The word “challenge” here is very important as a badge or trophy without a challenge is not meaningful at all. People often ask me what Core Drive Google has used to become so successful – I would say that Google makes you feel smart and accomplished within seconds (On the other hand, Yahoo does not, but appeals to the Core Drive #7: Curiosity). This is also the core drive that is the easiest to design for and coincidently is where most of the PBLs: points, badges, leaderboards mostly focus on. 3) Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback This is when users are addicted to a creative process where they have to repeatedly figure things out and try different combinations. People not only need ways to express their creativity, but they need to be able to see the results of their creativity, receive feedback, and respond in turn. This is why playing with Legos and painting are fun in-and-of themselves (intrinsic motivation) and often become Evergreen Mechanics (a good state for Gamification). 4) Ownership & Possession This is the drive to “want” something. When a player feels ownership, she innately wants to make what she owns better and own even more. If you feel ownership over your job, you will work harder. If you want ownership over the digital sheep, you will harass your friends. This is the driving force behind all virtual goods and “collection” games. 5) Social Influence & Relatedness This drive incorporates all the social elements that drive people – including: mentorship, acceptance, social responses, companionship, as well as competitionand envy. When you see a friend that is amazing at some skill or owns something extraordinary, you become driven to reach the same level. Also, it includes the drive we have to draw closer to people, places, or events that we can relate to. 6) Scarcity & Impatience This is the drive of wanting something because you can’t have it. Many games have Appointment Dynamics within them (come back 2 hours later to get your stuff) – the fact that people can’t get something NOW motivates them to think about it all day long. In the early days of Twitter, the service kept going down due to bad infrastructure (that’s how the Fail Whale became so famous). However, BECAUSE people couldn’t use Twitter when they wanted to, they wanted to use it even more. When it came back up they rushed to tweet before it went back down. That was also the secret of Cartmanland‘s success. 7) Curiosity & Unpredictability Generally, this is a harmless drive of wanting to find out what actually happens. Many people watch movies or read novels solely because of this drive. However, this drive is also the primary factor behind Gambling addiction. Researchers have shown that people irrationally want to see what’s next if there is a chance of a positive outcome – even when they know it will most likely be a negative. The very controversial Skinner Box experiments are usually referring to this drive though (but many people get it mixed up and claim that earning points is like putting people into a Skinner Box). 8) Loss & Avoidance This drive is based upon the avoidance of something negative happening. On a small scale, it could be to avoid losing previous work. On a larger scale, it could be to avoid admitting that everything you did up to this point was useless because you are now quitting. Also, opportunities that are fading away has a strong utilization of this Core Drive, because people feel like if they didn’t act, they would lose the opportunity to do something forever.

http://www.yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/octalysis-complete-gamification-framework/

http://www.yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/octalysis-complete-gamification-framework/

http://www.nirandfar.com/2014/03/multi-device.html




Age of the Alchemist: D&D and User Experience

Let’s start with a question… Why would someone use a Role Playing Game to help them create a marketing campaign?

The answer… … because at the core, RPGs and Experience Design have the same goals. Look at the image. Both strive to create opportunity for users to engage in an experience that is fun and memorable. RPGs are personal. This is also why gamification is such a popular method of user engagement. This all starts with a spreadsheet…

Age of the Alchemist is created and presented by Vincent Higgins and Tyler Wilson from DDB California http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP24635

https://twitter.com/vincenthiggins

https://twitter.com/DDB_Worldwide

http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP24635



Creating Personas We all know that personas help guide our creative approaches, but how can we adjust for the variety of “real life”? The answer is market research and dice. Market percentages can be assigned to dice values and then rolled to instill a variety of real variables into your personas. This eliminates bias you bring to personas. Creating the character as a team also helps you relate to your persona from various perspectives as you would a character in a game. Different agencies see users differently. These personas can embody these differences if created together as a team.

Tip: always narrate your persona’s story. Give them a background and depth.

Tip: Sometimes you can’t relate to a persona. Don’t force it, let someone who can drive the story.


Embrace the funnel: Building the Dungeon Your game can use some or all levels of the funnel. • Awareness/Inspiration (mass media, user motivation) • Consideration/Interest (consumer behavior) • Conversion/Intent (brand-initiated communication)

Each level has a series of rooms. Entering a room triggers an event. Events are based on Use Cases pulled from your market research. The goal is to get your persona through the dungeon (advertisement and noise of everyday life) to a conversion (sale).


Gathering the insights As you play through the scenarios in different levels of interest, the game mechanic throws random (but real) use cases at your character. You use these scenarios to gain insights you may have overlooked and help team members see the users perspective differently.

For Example: Your persona has a preference for winter vacations. They receive advertising for summer sale from a competitor. Do they have enough constitution to overcome that and move on toward a conversion on your product? If not, maybe you need to adjust your creative to account for that. See what just happened? Now imagine hundreds of those insights being gathered in a matter of hours. This is a powerful tool, driven by real data. Oh yeah, and it’s A GAME! The whole team is having fun and engaged throughout the process.


Valuable? Consider how often teams approach a marketing challenge from their own narrow discipline (account manager, art director, content creator, developer, producer, etc). The playing of this game can bring all of the expertise to the table (pun intended) at once and help build a holistic approach to User Experience that is grounded in REAL DATA!

Key Takeaways: When you start with the right set of market research, you can gain incredible insight quickly and get your entire team fully engaged in solving complex problems by treating User Experience and the creative process like a game. Now break out your D20 and let’s get started!

Nano Size Me: The Science of Small Talk

Key Takeaway: The future of data is trust. Regardless of devices, experiences, or ownership, the relationship between a brand/company/government and a person hinges on trust. Note: the brand is part of the conversation again.

Re: Data Privacy Concerns Some panelists felt like data concerns were “generational,” and we’ll grow out of them. Others think that people don’t like to be surprised regardless of age, and I agree. People want transparency into data about them. They want to know how it’s being used and to curate if necessary.

The Opportunity: Users know companies have data about them. Users want access so they can put it to good use themselves. To make behavioral changes (Fitbit, shopping habits, geodata) or to delete parts they don’t want shared.



Transformational Design: Beyond UX

Key Takeaway: Experience is…[Feeling] what we are [Doing] with/in the [Material] Design is…Rearranging materials to transform experience.

So….What is Transformational Design? It’s the moment when the experience is changed as a result of what you’ve designed. Client comes with a problem…

Don’t think about the final solution at the outset, think about the experience. That’s how you innovate.


Mastering Interactive Development Lingo: Understanding what your developer just said

The Hidden Costs of Miscommunication • Unfamiliar Lingo • Unfamiliar with Process • Making Assumptions • Rework & Lost progress

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that is has taken place.

- George Bernard Shaw

“ ” Key Takeaway: Communication is a two-way street. It’s the responsibility of the expert to communicate clearly, but it’s also the responsibility of the rest of the team to express when things are unclear.

Webinar from The Nerdery http://nerdery.com


Wireframes vs Visual Design

Interactions between elements Does it do what it needs to do?

Layout and functionality All present and accounted for?

Look and feel … and more Function meets form

Your visual vocabulary Form improves function

What they are: What they mean to you:


QA: SUPPORTED ENVIRONMENTS

Combination of hardware/OS/Software Need to be specific

Environments users use Best ROI to reach your users

Environments Development targets Can limit functional/visual options

Environments QA tests Check software functions/looks as designed

What they are: What they mean to you:


Buzz Word Bingo! If you hear these terms and don’t understand them, you should speak up.

• Information Architecture • User Research • Contextual Inquiry • Visual Design • Template

• GIT,SVN,VCS • FE Dev, BE Dev • Unit Test • API • CMS

• UAT • Penetration Testing • Vulnerability Assessment • Regression Testing • Issue Tracker

UX Dev QA

THANK YOU