When I first started my design career, I worked at AOL doing a lot of web design for Media, Safety & Security, and Community. I could have never guessed that I would be designing games.
I would like to say that what I have learned that web/app design has a lot to offer game design, but it has been the opposite.
Game design has more to offer web design.
This is non-obvious as there have been entire companies dedicated to the shell of games, called gamification — an amalgation of points, badges and leaderboards to keep a user engaged.
But the truth is that a really good game like a really good product is far more than gamification.
In both types of design you need to focus on the core. The core meaning:
What is the purpose of the product?
This is where game design and web design divulge pretty quickly. In app design, the focus is on a task. In game design, the focus is on the purpose.
In other words, game design asks “WHY is the user here?”, app design asks “WHAT does the user want to do here?”
Great games give the person interacting with their app a purpose, reason and role for that person to meet at that time. Great games pull the user in, not as a user but as a person — given them for that short brief period of a time a purpose.
Never underestimate how more engaged that person will be when you give them a purpose.
Humans work interact with the app, so we must cater to purpose over task. We are all that but human beings and not human doings.
At the heart of a game is the story is built between the game to where the person using it is the protagonist: accomplish a quest, defeat that boss,or create a character. At the heart of non-game, the person is someone who executes your tasks — create a blog post , accept friend request, search query.
So, to make your product as engaging as a game — give your product a purpose where the person interacting with it can be a human. The best way is to start with WHY.
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I am the co-founder of Kabam, a mobile gaming company that built hit games such as Kingdoms of Camelot, The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth, Fast & Furios: The Game, and Marvel: Contest of Champions. I was lead designer on Kingdoms of Camelot, which grossed over $250 MM dollars in its lifetime.
Post originally appeared on Medium