Don Norman, one of the biggest advocates of user-centered design, defines User Experience (UX) as “All aspects of the end user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products”. What does that mean though and how does it link to gamification? In this session, Melinda will explain why it’s time we start talking about UX in gamification. We need to be aware of how we use it to create experiences that help us better engage audiences with the narratives we want to tell. This session will give a crash course on why UX matters, why it’s a part of everything we do, and how it narrative and gamification fit in.

1. UX & Gamification: The Big Picture
Gamification Europe 2018
Amsterdam, the Netherlands - November 26, 2018
Melinda Jacobs
@melindajacobs

2. Photo: https://www.nngroup.com/people/don-norman/
“I invented the term
because I thought
human-interface and
usability were too
narrow.
I wanted to cover all
aspects of the person’s
experience with the
system.” - Don Norman

3. Photo: https://www.nngroup.com/people/don-norman/
“User Experience
encompasses all
aspects of the
end-user’s interaction
with the company, its
services, and its
products.”
- Don Norman

4. What the
product will do.
User-centereddesign.
System design.
Product
accessibility.
Enhancing the
user’s
experience.
The user’s
interaction with
a product.
Design based on
the user’s needs.

5. STORY
(OBJECT, ARTIFACT)
INTERACTION
USER

6. UX IS ALL ABOUT
UNDERSTANDING AND LEARNING
FROM REAL USERS.

7. STORY
(OBJECT, ARTIFACT)
INTERACTION
USER
UI

8. We are designing the
user’s experience.

9. We are designing the
user’s experience intended
experience.

10. “Usability exists in the experience of
the person. If the person
experiences a system as usable, it
is.”
- Whiteside and Nixon

11. An observation that games are
extraordinarily successful at
creating engagement and
triggering states of flow ...

12. and a decision to design
experiences based on a
narrative(s), in a similar manner
as we would design a game ...

13. with the goal of achieving similar
levels of interactivity and
engagement.

14. STORY
(OBJECT, ARTIFACT)
INTERACTION
USER

15. Gamification is a purposeful,
attentive, playful way to talk to,
and alter, the story (and have the
story talk back).

16. STORY
(OBJECT, ARTIFACT)
INTERACTION
USER
CHARACTERS RULES GOALS MECHANICS
NARRATIVE
MAGIC
CIRCLE

17. NARRATIVE
(BIG PICTURE, CONTEXT)
INTERACTIVE
STORY
INTERACTIVE
STORY
INTERACTIVE
STORY
INTERACTIVE
STORY
INTERACTIVE
STORY

18. "Storytelling is the most
powerful way to put
ideas into the world
today.”
- Robert McKee

19. Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED
Our brains are
most active
when we’re
listening to
stories.

20. ESA MRI Brain Scan
When you read
bullet points only
the language
processing part
of your brain is
active.

21. ESA MRI Brain Scan
Listening to a story,
the parts of your
brain used to
experience the
events in the story
also become active.

22. “Sometimes
reality is too
complex.
Stories give
it form”
- Robert McKee
https://culturedvultures.com/jean-luc-godard-jean-pierre-gorin-five-films-1968-1971-blu-ray-review-radical-collaboration/

23. It’s important for us to recognize and
be conscious of the stories we are
telling and understand how we need
to tell them.

24. Angry Birds

25. Mass Effect example narrativeMass Effect

26. “Sometimes magic is
just someone spending
more time on something
than anyone else might
reasonably expect.”
- Teller
Esquire
Photo: GQ

27. Understand how your
users think by
actually interacting
with them.

28. UX: Perception vs. Reality
● We can easily become oblivious to causes of disparities between the design of our game
and real player’s’ actual experience of our game
Perception vs. Reality
Photo: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-the-blue-and-red-pills-in-The-Matrix

29. Test your
assumptions with
actual users.

30. Example: too difficult to shoot
Photo: https://www.polygon.com/2017/8/3/16091000/fortnite-review-pc-ps4-xbox-one-epic-games
Fortnite

31. Understand human
psychology beyond
assumptions.

32. User Experience Tools
User Personas StorymapsStoryboards Customer Journeys
Surveys Competition Reports

33. Be sure your system
is usable.

34. We are architects that
make choices in how we
tell stories.

35. How aware are people of the story?

36. Thank you.
Melinda Jacobs
@melindajacobs