Gaming is insanely huge and the world of user experience catches up fast. In this deck you will gain understanding on what games are, learn about the hero and the villain products, and how to build a product as a game from the ground up.

2. A clickbait title to generate clicks
or an amazingly true statement?

3. You are reading this,
so the first part is true.

4. I will take the next few slides to prove the
second.

5. In 5-7 minutes, you too will learn
how gaming changed the world Of UX.

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

7. But humanity spends 3 Billion hours a week
playing games.

8. We are playing various games,
like Call of Duty and GTA...

9. But also very weird games..

10. like this one.
Cookie clicker

11. 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!!!”

12. And how about the title Papers, Please, where you
take the role of an immigration officer

13. Deciding who is eligible in your communist
country and who is excluded for good?

15. How boring this sounds, and yet, more than 1 mil
people found it interesting enough to pay for it.

16. If you want to know what engagement truly looks
like, take a look at the work of Phil Toledano.

17. A photographer who took pictures of gamers
while at play.

18. Photo by Phil Toledano

19. I know of only two conditions where the human
face look like this.
One of them is while playing games.

20. Based on slides 3-19, I think that we can safely
say that games are...

21. Kings of Engagement

22. Has gaming changed the world?

23. During the 70’s and 80’s, gaming was a thing for
young male geeks, no more.

24. Until non-gaming apparatuses- PC, Facebook and
mobile, brought gaming to the masses.

25. 1972 20091982 1988 2008
1 7

26. It caught like wildfire.

27. Now Everybody is a Gamer!

28. 1 Billion $$ in 3 days

29. Acquired by Amazon for 1 Bil $

30. I stumbled upon a Business Insider list,
titled “The Richest YouTube Stars”.

31. And guess what? 15 out of 20 review games!
You know the top dog:

32. PewDiePie. 32 mil subscribers
That’s twice as much as Rihanna.

33. Is Gaming Changing the World
of UX?

34. The single most important thing for a
game designer is the user experience.

35. Games are all about user experience.

36. Let’s Recap
Games are kings of engagement.
The world is playing.
Changing the world of UX.

37. It’s no wonder that everybody wants a piece of
the gaming pie.

38. And everyone would like to put the engagement
ring on their user’s finger...
Using games as their matchmaker.

39. In the rest of the deck, you will gain more
understanding of games...

40. And I’ll give 2 different examples of great game-
like experiences in non-game environments.

41. But hey, we haven’t been properly introduced!

42. 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

43. Today’s Agenda
1. the ingredients of a game
2. The hero product
3. the villain product

44. 1
The ingredients
of a game

45. I’m going to take a high level approach
on this one.

46. A Game
Components
Rules
Objectives

47. Components: Board, soldiers
Rules: A turn based game, a
certain movement to each soldier
etc.
Objectives: Kill your opponent’s king

48. But a game is not going to go anywhere,
unless it provides constant feedback.

49. Visual feedback, sure. But not only.
Feedback is more than that.
Lives
High score
Progress bar

50. Feedback is the engine that drives the plot
forward, in the form of a loop.

51. Kill monsters Get treasure Buy weapons
Repeat
Here’s the classic RPG loop

52. Components
Rules
Objectives
Feedback
Feedback
So now we have it. A game.
How simple to grasp.

53. Why can’t our lives be more like games?

54. Why do we rarely have clear goals and
objectives in life?

55. Why is feedback, AKA
“Good job!”, seldom
given?
Photo by Sarah Reid

56. No wonder we are getting hooked on feedback
provided to us by social media.
We yearn for it.

57. Social products are “gamified” by nature,
presenting view counts and like counts. This is
the equivalent of user score.

58. Other products might enhance game mechanics,
usually score and badges. This is known as
gamification.

59. And there are a few examples of products built
like games from the ground up.

60. I find those the most interesting.
Here are two examples:

61. Adventure Free to Play

62. Heroes Villains

63. 2
The hero
product

65. Adventure games emphasize character growth.
Leveling up and acquiring skills are the brick
and mortar of this genre.

66. This can come in handy when a product’s goal is
to educate.

67. Components
Rules
Objectives
is an adventure game
A man and his keyboard, interactive lessons
etc.
Finish lessons to acquire dev skills.
Learn to code!

68. But learning to code is a long term goal. As in
adventure games, “saving the world” goes through
mid term and short term objectives.

69. Codacademy make smart use of short and mid-term
objectives.

70. Mid term goals
Short term goals

71. And what about our engine? Well, Codeacademy’s
interactive nature is ripe for feedback loops.

72. Immediate feedback when writing code
Community feedback (multi-player)

73. Feedback
Feedback
And some badges and progress bars, off course.

74. Codeacademy is considered to be a shining example
of gamification done right.

75. I find Codeacademy not a gamified product,
but a game whose purpose is to teach code.

76. That’s a major difference.

77. One thing though, that could make Codeacademy an
even better game, is the badass factor.

78. Games make us feel badass.

79. badass!

80. Codeacademy still doesn’t make me feel like a
coding ninja… yet.

81. I think they will get there eventually.

82. 3
the villain
product

84. Casual games, especially the free to play ones,
are different than adventure games.

85. Whereas adventure games emphasize the hero within
us,

86. Casual games focus on our need for constant
“feel-good” feedback.

87. Hence, here’s my definition of a F2P game
(Free 2 play):

88. A F2P game is a feedback machine that is built and shaped
to bring you the best feedback experience.

89. Spotting patterns A small, low effort
act
Anticipation The variable reward
Here’s the addictive Candy Crush feedback loop.

90. Tinder uses the exact same feedback loop.
Let’s see it in action.

91. We love spotting patterns.
And we love looking at (eye) candies.
Lucky us, everyone on Tinder looks just
marvelous!
Spotting patterns

92. A small, mindless act, not requiring
any real brain effort.
A small, low effort
act

93. Anticipation. Did I make it? Did he
like me too?
Waiting...
Anticipation

94. And the reward, which is also of a
variable outcome. Not all people are
created equal, what can you do.
The variable reward

95. Here’s the thing about Tinder objectives.

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

97. A mid term objective

98. And the ultimate short term objective.
The match.

99. Waiting...
Spotting patterns A small, low effort
act
Anticipation The variable reward

100. The beauty of Tinder is that unlike Candy Crush,
it does solve a real problem.

101. Hell, I just went to a Tinder wedding a couple of
weeks ago.
(Mazal Tov Sharon and Dudi! Was awesome!)

102. Similar to Codeacademy,
I do not see it as mere gamification.

103. Tinder uses the mechanics of a casual game,
from the ground up.

104. Alright kids,Let’s wrap it up.

105. 1
The
ingredients
of a game
Components
Rules
Objectives
Feedba
ck
Feedback

106. 2
The hero
product
Components
Rules
Objectives
Feedba
ck
Feedback

107. 3
The villain
product
Components
Rules
Objectives
Feedba
ck
Feedback
The most important

108. Famous last words:
When building products…
think like a game designer.

109. Thank you
doriadar@gmail.com
doriadar.com
And one more thing...
Thank you
Sarah Keyes
for editing
the slides so
elegantly.

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