Thinking About User Interfaces as Games

Really interesting article by my colleague over at Lost Garden. Dan talks about a new project that he’s been working on to blend game design and user interface principles. As a game developer and someone who works a lot with user interfaces I found his piece very provocative, so I thought I would share it with you!

Ribbon Hero Turns Learning Office Into a Game

I don’t want to dissect the article — at least not until you’ve had a chance to read it yourself — but I thought I would share a couple impressions.

I think Dan hit on something really important about the limitations of traditional user interface design
Games are a natural testbed for presenting complex interactions and scenarios to users, we have an opportunity to lead as designers
We shouldn’t limit ourselves to just considering user experience, though, for instance this project offers a glimpse of how games could address other problems
I’m also skeptical of injecting “social gaming” into every conceivable activity, what can we do to make Dan’s game fun even without that element?
Where else could we see game design principles pop up?

I hope you enjoy Dan’s post and I hope you’ll share any comments you have below!

Found this post interesting? Consider sharing it: