Design Lessons from a Game: Gamer, User, or Learner - they all want the same things!
Pooja Dubey
Co-Founder & CLO at Talmond ★ Talent Development Leader with experience in Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Blended Learning, Behaviour Assessment, and Gamification ★ Certified - Psychometric | Belbin| NLP
I am not a gamer! So, if I want to play a game, I would do it when I am getting bored and want to kill time, perhaps for a while. It is highly likely that I will use my mobile to play. Now, if you have to design a mobile game for me, you have to remember that I am not a gamer, so you can make it complicated. The reason why I want to play is not the stimulate my intellectual brain but only to kill time, so you have to keep it simple. I do not want to use much energy, so you may design a game that can be played with the least effort, like using just one finger.
A simple ball game, Stack Bounce, on my mobile, has some valuable user or learner experience design lessons embedded in it. As a writer passionate about learning, I would like to extract some of them from my experience with the game.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
This is what the game offers first: I can play it with only the use of one thumb, either right or left, without much cognitive load. And since it only uses one finger, I can play it while sitting, standing, or even lying down on the bed. All I have to do is keep pressing my thumb gently and let the ball roll. With every touch, the ball breaks the colorful wheels circling around the tower. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
A challenge but not a big one!
But if the game were so simple and had no challenge, I would be bored since I am not a kid, so the game has a caveat, some potions of these wheels are black, and if I touch them, boom! I am out for the game. It is easy to bypass them, but it does require some effort. I have to focus but If I have to do it for long, it would increase my cognitive load, so the game is divided into little levels that last only for a few seconds so before my cognitive load could rise, I get to clear a level, and I am rewarded with a score.
The next, I get to finish the level fast and get rewarded with a score. Quick reward gives instant gratification, and as humans, we all look for it.
Variation keeps the user from getting bored
A simple and colorful game with a very easy challenge, For a while, I would play, but then I would get bored if it didn't have variations or some kind of change. Most of the information that our brain gains from the environment is through our eyes so visual variation can do a pretty good job of engaging us. Thus, the game has -
Time to Speed Up!
As I kept playing, I mastered the art of skipping the black blocks, so I do not have many challenges. I have already exhausted all colors, shapes, scores, and challenges. Now, I want more. How about speed? What if I could get more scores by finishing levels fast?
If you are able to kill the wheels continuously without stopping for a little longer, you get a boost of energy, and you can hit the black balls for a while. This allows you to increase your speed and clear levels faster.
I want control!
Increasing levels, growing scores, growing speed, I am excited, but I notice that I can only kill the black balls with high speed for a few seconds, and if I exhaust that time, I can still die in the game. I need more control.
I want to know
So the game gives you the score on top (1), a pipe showing the progress of the level (2), an energy circle pops up showing my energy level - when its full, I get a boost (3), and when it is empty (boost is exhausted), and on either side of the top score are written the numbers showing my current and next level number.
Rewards & Recognition
I keep playing, scores, control, colors, all done. I am confident now that I am a master, but am I really? How will I know without comparing myself with other gamers? So, at the end of the game, a button pops up saying, 'Show ranking'. When I click that, I get to see that others are scoring much higher. This gives me a realization that there is a lot more scope to do better and go higher.
Many more levels may be left. I do not know if the higher levels will continue to look the same or if there will be some extra waiting for me. Still, I am curious, so I will start playing again, and this time, I want to score more because I love bigger rewards, and I what I would love more is to be recognized as the top gamer in the list of rankers for which I will keep playing to score more every time I pick up this game.
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Just when I need it...
If you take a careful look at every feature that is embedded in the game - color, levels, timing, boost, score, ranking - they are all designed based on my needs.
The boost option is automatically triggered when I start speeding up, just when I need it.
The colors begin to change the moment I change my level because I would like to see something new when I cross a level.
Just when I finish the game and stop at my handsome score, I get the option to compare my rank, just when I want to see how my score is.
Just when I begin using my boost and want control, so I do not lose, I have the yellow circle showing me my energy level. I am always in control, something every person wants to have in life. In real life, things are rarely in control, but in games, we can control a lot of things - the shape of the ball, getting a boost, how long we play, the score we want, and so on.
The Claps I hear!
And last but not least, to make my gaming life easier and more fun, there is a sound that keeps telling me when I am hitting right, when I am getting a boost, and when I am finishing a level. These sounds act as applause I get from the game. My mind feels like people are cheering for me.
But what if I like to play silently and don't want others to know that I am passing the time? I can simply put my game on silent and play.
Learning is Easy
I want you to note one more thing. At the start of the game, we do not know how to play it, but we somehow figure it out. We do not even know about the boosts and the catches that make us lose, but we learn by trial. Our learning curve is pretty fast. We learn and master the game pretty quickly. This makes us feel like we have achieved something.
And don't forget the fact that we are playing a game which in itself is a fun activity, not work, not study, so our mind believes that we are here to enjoy. Enjoyment equates to happiness.
Why are games addictive?
It is a game of mind because what it gives is not a bunch of wheels to hit but ease, learning, challenge, rewards, control, colors, speed, applauds, a sense of achievement, and happiness ...These are the things we all want in life, but most of the time, we continue to crave them and do not get.
The game packs all our desires into a virtual form, and little portions of these are delivered to us on a platter. This is why we so easily get addicted to games. Not because the games are intelligent and challenging but because they are intelligently connecting with our emotions and desires that we want to fulfill.
A genie in a box!
A game is like a genie that grants you super speed only for a while, but it goes. It takes you into a world that is full of beautiful colors that excite you. It keeps giving you rewards, not just once in a while but after every few seconds or minutes. It is like a person continuously encouraging you.
Now, whether it is a game that you are designing, a training program, or any application, these same desires can be served to keep your users or learners hooked to your app or program.
Have you seen any such hooks in the mobile apps that you use that are not gaming games?