what board games can teach us about designing experiences

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What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences Stephen P. Anderson @stephenanderson #canux t

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Page 1: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Stephen P. Anderson

@stephenanderson #canuxt

Page 2: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Stephen P. Anderson

@stephenanderson #canux

DesigningTabletop

for

t

Page 3: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

What UX can learn from baking bread!Marvel comicsmotorcycle maintenanceLEGO bricks

Page 4: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

W h y ta b l e t o p g a m e s ?

Page 5: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Rich, nuanced, engaging experiences…

W h y ta b l e t o p g a m e s ?

Page 6: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

A “ B o a r d G a m e ” R e n a i s s a n c e

Page 7: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

W h y ta b l e t o p g a m e s ?

Because it’s our job.

Page 8: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Experience design is the design of anything, independent of medium or across media, with human experience as an explicit outcome and human engagement as an explicit goal.”—Jesse James Garrett

W h y ta b l e t o p g a m e s ?

Because it’s our job.

Page 9: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Game Design

Architecture

Restaurants

Industrial Design

Filmmaking

Fiction

ScreEnwriting

Graphic NovelsSpeech writing / Public Speaking

Advertising

Music/Entertainment

Improv/Comedy

Theater / Dance / Performing Arts

Fine Arts

teaching / Training

Behavioral Economics

Psychology / Counseling

Politics / Leadership

nursing & medical consultations

Fashion Design

Wayfinding

Instructional Design

graphic design

customer support

Marketing / PR

Service Design

Similar / adjacent disciplines that also focus on human experience and engagement…

Event Planning

Page 10: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

“Game Design and Interaction Design are fraternal twins. They share almost all their DNA”—Christina Wodtke

Page 11: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

W H AT c a n w e l e a r n f r o m ta b l e t o p g a m e s ?

Page 12: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

A Focus on the Whole

FRICTION!Use of SpacePlaytestingExperience-Driven OrientationDealing wtih emotions

tactility

MDA

Onbo

ardi

ngSocial interactions Su

stai

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Play

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Page 13: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

A Focus on the Whole

FRICTION!Use of SpacePlaytestingExperience-Driven OrientationDealing wtih emotions

tactility

MDA

Onbo

ardi

ngSocial interactions Su

stai

ning

Eng

agem

ent

Play

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otiv

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nsIn

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Experience-Driven Orientation

Page 14: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Meaningful

Pleasurable

Convenient

Usable

Reliable

Functional (Useful)

Focused on

Experiences(People, Activities, Context)

Focused on

Tasks(Products, Features)

© 2006 Stephen P. Anderson | poetpainter.com

SUBJECTIVE / QUALITATIVE

OBJECTIVE / QUANTIFIABLE

Has personal significance

Memorable experience worth sharing

Super easy to use, works like I think

Can be used without difficulty

Is available and accurate

Works as programmed

Prioritize Aesthetics (no, not Graphic Design) (visual, behaviors, sounds, psychology)

Design for FLOW (boredom vs anxiety)

Leverage Game Mechanics/Learning Theory (completeness)

Have a Personality

Create conversational and context aware interactions (“Adaptive Interfaces”; narrative IA structures)

Elicit Desire (Limited availability, limited access, curious and seductive experiences)Simplify, organize, and clarify

Display information visually

Reduce features and complexity

Use language for more natural

Add features that support desired ine browsing)

Have a believable story

Co-create value with customers

Connect people in community

Are part of a bigger system

Appeal to emotional, spiritual, and

Create a tolerance for faults at

Are tied to a person’s self-image, highly personal

Creating Pleasurable Interfaces: Getting fom Tasks to Experiencespresented by Stephen P. Anderson | Nov 8, 2006

“It is not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable -we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and yes, beauty, to people’s lives.”

THIS IS THE “CHASM” THAT IS REALLY, REALLY HARD FOR ORGANIZATIONS TO CROSS

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Experience Focus

Product Focus

Page 16: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Experience Focus

Product Focus

Page 17: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

people, activities & context

tasks & features

outcomes and experiences

output and functionality

perceptions, emotions, attention, memory…

interfaces, interactions, usability, etc.

Experience Focus

Product Focus

Page 18: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Thinking about the player encourages experience-driven (as opposed to feature-driven) design. As such, we begin our investigation with a discussion of Aesthetics, and continue on to Dynamics, finishing with the underlying Mechanics.

Page 19: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/

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http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/

The key was to go down a level deeper. At work, we were doing a branding exercise for a product, and we listed off the adjectives we wanted to describe the product. I realized that a similar exercise would work here…

I mulled over all the feedback on the mechanics: what type of experience were they creating on their own? What adjectives did players use to talk about the mechanics? Players described the game as simple and elegant. It was calming and relaxing to play. They were surprised and delighted by the richness of the decisions. They said it flowed smoothly, that they could play it over and over again.”

— R A N D Y H O Y T , G A M E D E S I G N E R / P U B L I S H E R

Page 21: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/

The key was to go down a level deeper. At work, we were doing a branding exercise for a product, and we listed off the adjectives we wanted to describe the product. I realized that a similar exercise would work here…

I mulled over all the feedback on the mechanics: what type of experience were they creating on their own? What adjectives did players use to talk about the mechanics? Players described the game as simple and elegant. It was calming and relaxing to play. They were surprised and delighted by the richness of the decisions. They said it flowed smoothly, that they could play it over and over again.”

— R A N D Y H O Y T , G A M E D E S I G N E R / P U B L I S H E R

Page 22: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

This image captured perfectly the feeling that the playing the game produced, and I knew a theme and narrative woven around this could work to produce a great experience.

http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/

Tangled

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Page 24: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/

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How often do we really let a singular, desired experience drive every product decision?Ta k e away

UX

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How often do we really let a singular, desired experience drive every product decision?

adding features

pushing back on customer requestsprioritizing the backloghow we design a familiar feature

eliminating features

Delaying releases

Ta k e away

UX

Page 29: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

“Until my players feel __________, I will not ship”

Page 30: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

“Until my players feel __________, I will not ship”

“Games often ship late because they ship basedon exit criteria, not deadlines… Either you shipsomething tiny before you run out of money, oryou ship late something that is sufficiently fun.The first are higher risk, but if the core works,they’ll make it.”

—Christina Wodtke

Page 31: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

A Focus on the Whole

FRICTION!Use of SpacePlaytestingExperience-Driven OrientationDealing wtih emotions

tactility

MDA

Onbo

ardi

ngSocial interactions Su

stai

ning

Eng

agem

ent

Play

er M

otiv

atio

nsIn

form

atio

n De

signA Focus on the Whole

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“The Whole is Other than the Sum of the Parts”

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“An Experience is Other than the Sum of the Parts”

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The pieces are the same…

…but the final experience here is just WRONG!

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!=

The pieces are the same…

…but the final experience here is just WRONG!

Page 40: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Experiences Product

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Production. Direction. Balance. Orchestration. Choreography.

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Page 43: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

“Designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what you want. And every day you discover something new that is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently. And it’s that process that is the magic.”  — Steve Jobs

Page 44: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Do your processes encourage a focus on the whole and how all parts fit together for a desired effect?Ta k e away

UX

Page 45: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

“Now imagine a different scenario, where the designer never actually addressed the color of any of the buttons at all. Instead they presented their complete vision where real people experienced a complete system with satisfaction… The question of a simple hypothesis of whether a color button would be good or bad would be completely ignored.Why? because the story version of the presentation focuses on the experience people will have and the value they will (hopefully) receive from the holistic design, instead of focusing on the individual featured components — any one of which is quite meaningless by themselves.”—Dave Malouf

https://medium.com/@daveixd/most-valuable-story-523a9fd023e6#.91qy0bsy2

Page 46: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Do your processes encourage a focus on the whole and how all parts fit together for a desired effect?Ta k e away

UX

Page 47: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Ta k e away

UX

what gets defined as a release? Is it a complete set of things?

Do you test small parts or the entire experience?

what do you measure?

What’s the scope of projects you take on? (more epics and themes vs stories and tasks)

what is the critical “core” to your experience?

does your team consider how new features might play with or disrupt existing features?

Do your processes encourage a focus on the whole and how all parts fit together for a desired effect?

Page 48: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

A Focus on the Whole

FRICTION!Use of SpacePlaytestingExperience-Driven OrientationDealing wtih emotions

tactility

MDA

Onbo

ardi

ngSocial interactions Su

stai

ning

Eng

agem

ent

Play

er M

otiv

atio

nsIn

form

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Playtesting

Page 49: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Research Strategy Design Test/Validation Measurement

Empathize Design Ideate Prototype Test

Discover Define Ideate/Test/prototype Build & Deply Measure

User Research Analysis Design Prototype User testing

TIME

Discovery ideation Design Validation

Page 50: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Research Strategy Design Test/Validation Measurement

Empathize Design Ideate Prototype Test

Discover Define Ideate/Test/prototype Build & Deply Measure

User Research Analysis Design Prototype User testing

TIME

Discovery ideation Design Validation

Page 51: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

IDEA!

Page 52: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

IDEA!

Game is complete enough to begin

playing

Page 53: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

IDEA!

Game is complete enough to begin

playing

w/ inner circle of friends

repeat until fun!

Playtest!

Page 54: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

IDEA!

Game is complete enough to begin

playing

w/ inner circle of friends

repeat until fun!

w/ outer circle of friends

(to hammer out bugs; to try and break the game)

Playtest!

Playtest!

Page 55: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

IDEA!

Game is complete enough to begin

playing

w/ inner circle of friends

repeat until fun!

w/ outer circle of friends

(to hammer out bugs; to try and break the game)

w/ random strangers

(to test rule book and onboarding)

Playtest!

Playtest!

Playtest!

Page 56: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

IDEA!

Game is complete enough to begin

playing

w/ inner circle of friends

repeat until fun!

w/ outer circle of friends

(to hammer out bugs; to try and break the game)

w/ random strangers

(to test rule book and onboarding)

Playtest!

Playtest!

Playtest!

“Test whatever you can, as soon as you can… Learn whatever you can along the way”

Page 57: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

To what extent do you include users throughout the entire design and development process? How early in the process are users able to play with a semi-complete version your product?

Ta k e away

UX

Page 58: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

A Focus on the Whole

FRICTION!Use of SpacePlaytestingExperience-Driven OrientationDealing wtih emotions

tactility

MDA

Onbo

ardi

ngSocial interactions Su

stai

ning

Eng

agem

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Play

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Use of Space

Page 59: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences
Page 60: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Before the page, there was space itself. Perhaps the simplest way to use space to communicate is to arrange or rearrange things in it.”

!om “Visualizing Thought” Barbara Tversky

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Scrap Heap

our Space

Their Space

MY Space

Page 68: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

ExplorersTrade Deck

Scrap Heap

Trade Row

Page 69: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

ExplorersTrade Deck

Scrap Heap

Trade Row

DiscardDeck

Persistent cards

cards played this turnPoints

Page 70: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Spatial arrangement can be a powerful signal of meaning.

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“GRID VIEW”

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How are you using space and the spatial arrangement of information in your work?Ta k e away

UX

Page 82: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

A Focus on the Whole

FRICTION!Use of SpacePlaytestingExperience-Driven OrientationDealing wtih emotions

tactility

MDA

Onbo

ardi

ngSocial interactions Su

stai

ning

Eng

agem

ent

Play

er M

otiv

atio

nsIn

form

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signFRICTION!

Page 83: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

“UX design is about removing problems from the user. Game design is about giving problems to the user.”— Raph Koster, Game design vs UX designhttp://www.raphkoster.com/2015/06/29/game-design-ux-design/

“People play games for no productive reason. You go out of your way to put up with unnecessary obstacles…”—Randy Hoyt

“The friction is the game. In UX a lot of what I did was around eliminating friction. Friction is almost always bad (and only sometime strategically good). You’re just ruthless about getting rid of it. In games it’s the total opposite. Whenever I’m ruthless about getting rid of friction, there’s no game left. For me, the practice of game design is the practice of thoughtfully using friction to create a great experience.”—Dirk Knemeyer

Page 84: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Bad Friction -VS- Good Friction

Page 85: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

About the wrong stuff, yes.

About the critical stuff though, we should be thinking!

Page 86: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

About the wrong stuff, yes.

About the critical stuff though, we should be thinking!

Is there learning or understanding involved, or should there be?

Page 87: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Game Experiences

Learning Challenge & accomplishment (Element of Play, Learning, Discovery, Pattern Recognition…)

introduce friction to create a…

Page 88: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences
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Game Experiences

Learning Challenge & accomplishment (Element of Play, Learning, Discovery, Pattern Recognition…)

introduce friction to create a…

Page 91: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Game Experiences

Learning Challenge & accomplishment (Element of Play, Learning, Discovery, Pattern Recognition…)

Product Experiences

—VS—

introduce friction to create a…

may (or may not) already contain inherent friction begging to be

reframed as a…

Page 92: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences
Page 93: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

“People play games for no productive reason. You go out of your way to put up with unnecessary obstacles…

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• …but people do enjoy things that are not easy to learn. There’s a sense of accomplishment. Most things that are rewarding aren’t that easy to do… Within UX, there’s a lot to be said for other kinds of experiences, not just the usability or how quick something is to learn.”

• —Randy Hoyt

“People play games for no productive reason. You go out of your way to put up with unnecessary obstacles…

Page 95: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

In what mays might you introduce friction to achieve a desired effect? In what ways is your work about more than ease of use or efficiency? Is there learning challenge inherent in the experience you’re working on? If so, could this be reframed as a playful learning experience?

Ta k e away

UX

Page 96: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

A Focus on the Whole

FRICTION!Use of SpacePlaytestingExperience-Driven OrientationDealing wtih emotions

tactility

MDA

Onbo

ardi

ngSocial interactions Su

stai

ning

Eng

agem

ent

Play

er M

otiv

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nsIn

form

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sign

Page 97: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Learning through Play

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PATH

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PATH SANDBOX

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⟳PATH SANDBOX

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PATH SANDBOXLOOP

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PATH SANDBOXLOOP

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ENDS IN AN EXCHANGE

PATH

SANDBOXLOOP

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ENDS IN AN EXCHANGE

ENDS IN LEARNING THROUGH DISCOVERY

& CONSTRUCTION

PATH SANDBOX

LOOP

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ENDS IN AN EXCHANGE

ENDS IN LEARNING THROUGH DISCOVERY

& CONSTRUCTION

ENDS IN LEARNING THROUGH PATTERN

RECOGNITION

PATH SANDBOXLOOP

Page 108: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

Games. Play. Simulations. Role-Playing. Making.

These can be powerful tools for learning.

More than ever, we need new tools and systems to help us understand each other and the world we live in.

More than ever, we need tools to help us learn through safe, playful interactions.

Page 109: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

“It feels rewarding to overcome a difficult challenge. You put a game back in the box and we’ve not changed the world at all. But we’ve changed something about ourselves.” —Randy Hoyt, Foxtrot Games

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Change hearts & Mindsget everyone to embrace the mental model behind an agenda

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Change hearts & Mindsget everyone to embrace the mental model behind an agenda

create a shared, emergent mental model by working together

Work & Learn together“

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Thank you…

Stephen P. Anderson @stephenanderson www.poetpainter.com | www.slideshare.net/stephenpa

…and go play some games!

Page 114: What Board Games can Teach Us about Designing Experiences

LUNCH!Stephen P. Anderson @stephenanderson www.poetpainter.com | www.slideshare.net/stephenpa

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Interested in learning more?

http://bit.ly/uxandgames