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17
Mar

The Meat Behind Game Mechanics (My Talk at Cocoaheads HK)

Game Mechanics: A Glimpse of the Meat Behind the Buzz from cocoahk on Vimeo.

Above is a talk I gave in March 2011 at the Cocoaheads Hong Kong (designers and developers into everything Apple) about Game Mechanics. The idea of this talk was to share my experience with game mechanics from my perspective as a User Experience practitioner, and while doing avoid falling in the trap of focusing on detailed game mechanics and look instead at the bigger picture, namely the psychology behind the mechanics.

Comments are welcome about the talk. It is my second time talking about this and I look forward to improving this talk and sharing ideas with others interested in game mechanics and how they can help the design discipline in general make experiences more engaging.

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2
Mar

Drawing Inspiration

A beautiful animation that shows how great storytelling can reach out and touch us. Can you identify in some ways to the character in this animation? I sure do. Very uplifting.

0
10
Feb

Making your site’s registration a challenge

A great example (from my point of view) of the danger of implementing game mechanics wrongly on a website. Paygr decided to make creating an account a “challenge” for users with the reward being a “concept” video. They have turned around the normal way users approach a website, namely “I watch your demo, if I like it, I sign up” into “I sign up and then I see what the company has to offer”.

This decision I’d guess has been made in order to clearly state that the company has embraced game mechanics on its website, but by making registering to the site a “challenge” and emphasizing on a reward that on any other website comes for free without having to “give” anything… they actually make users uncomfortable and think twice about registering.

This highlights the really important concepts in game mechanics about choosing your challenges right and balancing them with appropriate rewards. If the challenge had been to sign up and then the reward was say a certain amount of “virtual currency” (if any on the site), the reaction from users might be very different. All in all, making users think twice at the registration point of a website seems like a pretty dangerous strategy…

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9
Feb

#2 – Endangered Species

Some extra thoughts

This small strip came to me after a talk by Daniel Szuc – another user experience practitioner – I attended this week at Web Wednesday Hong Kong.

The user experience field and the design field in general are gaining traction in many places around the world and more and more people embrace the approach and understand how it benefits businesses.

In Hong Kong though, the story seems different. When asked about a successful project he had worked on, Daniel struggled to name any. When I was doing consulting, the same held true for me.

So, the question haunts me now. Is Hong Kong slowly maturing and design will gain traction here soon? or are we user experience practitioners on the verge of extinction in this area of the globe.

I’m afraid to try and answer that question…

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9
Feb

Ignore the Fold

Ben the bodyguard - iPhone app

The fold is such a feared element of web design that one have to really respect designs that play entirely around scrolling to get more information. This is a masterpiece to me. It had me scrolling to the bottom without really thinking about it and it was fun all the way.

It takes understanding user behaviour in regards to the fold in order to come up with a design that breaks all the rules and still is a splendid success. I say Bravo! :)

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8
Feb

Les Lapins Crétins – Raving Rabbids

The characters are so cute and well animated. The décors are amazing. The pacing absolutely perfect. This trailer almost make me want to go and buy the whole console to be able to play the game. :o )