Gary Cooke

Digital games have long been hailed as the epitome of interactivity, allowing players to make meaningful choices and experience a wide range of emotions. As a UX designer who also dabbles in game design, I firmly believe that games can inspire us to create better user interfaces and elevate the overall user experience. Let me take you on a journey through my own experiences with game design and how it has influenced my approach to UX.

Common Elements Between Game Design and UX

Both game design and UX center around how users interact with an interface, but games enable a wider range of interactions than websites and apps. Games transport users to imaginary worlds, allowing them to make choices that shape their experience and evoke various emotions. Unlike UX design, which emphasizes utility, games aim to deliver a memorable and meaningful experience, leaving players feeling rewarded for their time spent.

Key elements in game design include characters, rules, goals, mechanics, and narrative. Characters are the objects players interact with, while rules define what players can and cannot do. Goals give focus to the game, and mechanics determine the capabilities of the characters. Narrative shapes the game world and influences players’ emotions.

Lessons from Games for UX Designers

While gamification, the use of scoring and achievements, can improve engagement, games offer more valuable lessons for UX designers beyond these superficial elements. Let’s explore some key takeaways:

1. Document Everything: Just as game design relies on comprehensive documentation to guide the development process, UX designers can benefit from creating detailed project documents, personas, user goals, and key statistics to track progress. Consistent communication through change logs can also be beneficial when making design updates or significant product decisions.
2. Embrace Complexity: Games understand the importance of offering challenges for players to overcome. Similarly, UX designers should consider complexity in user experiences when it aligns with business or user goals. When assessing complexity, weigh it against the value it adds to the overall experience.
3. Connect through Emotions and Personality: Games evoke emotions and often have a distinct personality. UX designers should aim to evoke specific emotions in users through thoughtful design. Employing journey mapping can help designers understand user emotions throughout the user flow. Additionally, incorporating hidden elements or “easter eggs” can create a more personalized and engaging experience, but be mindful of the context.
4. Provide Feedback: Responsiveness is critical in games as it reinforces the connection between players’ actions and on-screen changes. Similarly, UX designers can provide feedback in interfaces, often referred to as “game feel” or “juice,” which acknowledges users’ actions and creates a more engaging experience.
5. Be Intentional: Integrate game elements into experiences with purpose, avoiding gimmicks or superficial gamification. Understand the context and potential impact before implementing game-like features.

Embrace Game Design and Empower Creativity

Experimenting with game design can be a powerful way to enhance UX design skills. With numerous game development tools accessible today, you don’t need extensive coding knowledge to get started. Game design nurtures creativity, encourages rapid idea generation, and fosters problem-solving abilities—all essential qualities for UX designers.

Furthermore, game design opens avenues to explore different storytelling techniques and ways to convey complex information in user-friendly formats. By thoughtfully integrating game elements into UX design, you can craft more immersive and engaging experiences for users.

If you’re intrigued by the possibilities of game design and wish to delve deeper, there are plenty of resources and game development tools to explore. Whether you prefer visual or audio artistry or possess a knack for organizing complex information, game development offers a flexible and welcoming space for creativity.

Let’s seize the magic of game design and UX, combining these powerful elements to craft memorable and delightful digital experiences for users. Embrace the journey, unlock new possibilities, and empower yourself as a versatile UX designer.