vidyogames

User interfaces designed to trick people

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:45:40 -0500

User interfaces designed to trick people

5 Design Decision Styles

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:35:00 -0600

This article puts design decision making processes into five nice, little categories with descriptions and examples. I think activity centered design is particularly relevant for mobile game designers. Their definition is pretty succinct, so here are a couple more links I pulled from Wikipedia if you’re interested in reading more about this design style and it’s background:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activity-centered_design

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activity_theory

Video

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:32:31 -0600

Design Tip: Never Use Black

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:30:50 -0600

Design Tip: Never Use Black

The Flat Design Era

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:20:31 -0600

layervault:

When LayerVault 2 launched earlier this spring, we believed that we were taking a risk by pursuing an entirely flat interface.

Well-loved products on the web share a similar design aesthetic, with roughly the same kinds of bevels, inset shadows, and drop shadows. For designers, achieving this level of “lickable” interface is a point of pride. For us, and for a minority of UI designers out there, it feels wrong.

We certainly didn’t invent the flat style but arriving at it was a violent process. We tore through hundreds of revisions (we have the LayerVault timelines to prove it) to potential interfaces before arriving at the answer that now makes us say “of course.” The desk at LayerVault’s original headquarters (my Manhattan apartment) still has the battle scars from objects being slammed down in anger. At one point, while working on a mockup, a MacBook was slammed shut so hard it was nearly unhinged.

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Max Rudberg: ✎ If you see a UI walkthrough, they blew it

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:11:05 -0600

Max Rudberg: ✎ If you see a UI walkthrough, they blew it:

maxrudberg:

Clear, Rise and Solar are three examples of a trend of “gesture driven” apps with a flat UI. These are novelty apps for people lusting for the very latest in app design. Besides using a more flat UI style, which is a topic for a different discussion, all apps contain non-standard…

Photo

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:57:54 -0600

Wi-fi in a spray can provides low power wireless everywhere.

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:40:48 -0600

Wi-fi in a spray can provides low power wireless everywhere.

A digital display in your eyes, like Google glass in a contact...

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:37:14 -0600

A digital display in your eyes, like Google glass in a contact lens.

Photo

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:29:43 -0600

Photo

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:24:54 -0600

Check out this playful typography tutorial.

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:23:00 -0600

Check out this playful typography tutorial.

Max Rudberg: ✎ Flat UI is not the only way forward

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:00:49 -0600

Max Rudberg: ✎ Flat UI is not the only way forward:

It’s curious how Apple’s hardware and software have taken such divergent paths. Looking at iOS hardware and software separately, one might think they were produced by different companies. The drop-shadows and textures of iOS stand in sharp contrast to the clean lines and invisible seams of…

supersonicelectronic: Adrian Kupcsik. New work from Adrian...

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 00:00:24 -0600

supersonicelectronic:

Adrian Kupcsik.

New work from Adrian Kupcsik:

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smallnudges: Fab adds urgency by showing a timer for the...

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:09:08 -0600

smallnudges:

Fab adds urgency by showing a timer for the reserved time left.

In inside peak into the design process for Polygon, video game news site.

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:56:02 -0600

In inside peak into the design process for Polygon, video game news site.

Cool design book publisher

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:06:00 -0600

Cool design book publisher

How will you make Mobile Games in 2013?

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:56:00 -0600

The pace of change in the video game market increased exponentially as I made the shift from colossal AAA titles into mobile games. We used to burn years in pre-production, then crunch for a year (or two) after that. Saving time in pre-production meant saving our own health, and that of our team members. We took that lesson with us to mobile games. We streamlined our production processes and tools so we can squeeze out several games a year. Our burn and development time has to be a fraction of AAA games to keep up with the pace of change in the mobile games market.

2010’s social game successes cemented the three R business model (retention, revenue and reach). By the end of 2012, we saw these mechanics saturate the mobile games market. There are plenty of resources on these monetization mechanics.

The successes in social and mobile gaming demonstrate a shift in what we’re designing and who we’re designing for. Innovative monetization mechanics in social games like Farmville were the product of good design methodology in pre-production. Designers evaluated the anatomy of a social gaming experience and exploited it in their game designs to make billions of dollars. The designers chose time-based activities like farming because they were a great metaphor for their games’ monetization mechanics.

I think it’s important for traditional game developers to consider why we came to mobile gaming. Trying to make Halo when you aren’t Microsoft, or WoW if you’re not Blizzard, doesn’t pay the bills when everybody else is doing it too. Now we use monetization mechanics, that were the product of good design methodology in pre-production. Our traditional game development background tells us that we should ”jump right in” and “get our hands dirty” in the tools and content so we can push a game out in a few months that focuses on the three R’s. I’m not saying every game needs to change the face of gaming. However, the mobile games market is changing quickly, and I think a little innovation in such a climate is necessary, to keep pace. Now might be a good time for traditional game developers to delve a little deeper into the anatomy of the experiences we are about to create.

A good design process, yields a good product.

This article describes the anatomy of an experience map. The experience map examples in the article are extremely extensive. Few, if any, mobile gaming experiences are this extensive because, fortunately, they don’t need to be! Envision an Angry Birds user experience map, using the anatomy described in this article. If it looked like the examples in the article, it wouldn’t be Angry Birds.

Understanding tools like this can help us know what to look for as we evaluate our own user experiences. Spending a little time in pre-production to look at the anatomy of your user experience helps you dodge predictable pot holes. It keeps your team honest and aware, and gives you an edge over the competition, the same way the three R’s gave you an edge before everybody else was using them.

Social Game Monetization Mechanics

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:55:02 -0600

Social Game Monetization Mechanics:

This book taught me quite a bit about monetization mechanics last year. If you design mobile or social games and haven’t read it, you probably ought to, as it contains It contains quite a bit of “must know” information.

The Zeitgeist of Snapchat

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 15:17:00 -0600

Nathan Weyer’s post, The Reductive Social Network: Technology Finally Gets Personal, describes the cultural relevance of apps like Snapchat to a T:

“Facebook is not personal. It is social, but it is evolving into the next iteration of the Internet. Today’s technologies, products, and services do not adequately serve the human need for intimacy and personal connections. The early days of Facebook and Flickr felt this way, but now our social networks and hard drives are swamped with a deluge of digital data that we can’t process. Our Internet personalities have evolved into amplified personas that aren’t truly us. The current fervor around cloud computing only exacerbates the problem: now my 10,000 digital photos are in the ether, but am I any more emotionally connected with them and sharing them with my three closest friends in a meaningful way? 2012 is about culling from the terabytes and sharing with the single digits. In 2012, product companies will deliver new products that begin narrowing the social circle and capturing intimacy and authenticity.”