There’s a reason so many board gamers show up UX events. The same skills that make us great information wranglers are the same things that make board games like Catan, Pandemic and yes, even Exploding Kittens so appealing! It should come as no surprise that we’ve seen prominent UX leaders cross over into board game design (Matt Leacock, Dirk Knemeyer). If we scratch beneath the surface, there’s a set of shared skills (and struggles) common to these different professions. Specifically: the spatial arrangement of information, visual encoding of information, creating designed spaces, a systems view, playtesting / user testing, competing tensions, triggering emotional responses, and many more. Okay, so what? Sure, it’s kind of neat that we have so much in common. But how might this change what I do at $largecompany? Here’s the honest truth: The game design profession is just a little bit farther down the road than us, and we have a lot to learn from this group if we can look past the superficial differences. We talk about designing for emotions, but let’s face it, game designers are actually winning at this. Processes? We talk about lean and agile, but game designers have mastered playtesting (and the design to playtest ratio should make us embarrassed at how little we actually iterate with users). And there’s plenty more. I’m confident that if we can look our our own profession through the lens of game design, we’ll see plenty of glaring opportunities for improvement, and a few tricks we might pick up, as well.

1. WhatBoardGames
canTeachUsabout
DesigningExperiences
Stephen P. Anderson
@stephenanderson #canux
t

2. WhatBoardGames
canTeachUsabout
DesigningExperiences
Stephen P. Anderson
@stephenanderson #canux
DesigningTabletop
for
t

3. WhatUXcanlearnfrom bakingbread!
Marvelcomics
motorcyclemaintenance
LEGObricks

4. Why tabletop games?

5. Rich, nuanced, engaging
experiences…
Why tabletop games?

6. A “Board Game” Renaissance

7. Why tabletop games?
Because it’s our job.

8. Experience design is the design of anything,
independent of medium or across media, with
human experience as an explicit outcome and
human engagement as an explicit goal.”
—Jesse James Garrett
Why tabletop games?
Because it’s our job.

9. Game Design
Architecture
Restaurants
Industrial Design
Filmmaking
Fiction
ScreEnwriting
Graphic Novels
Speech writing / Public
Speaking
Advertising
Music/Entertainment
Improv/Comedy
Theater / Dance /
Performing Arts
Fine Arts
teaching / Training
Behavioral Economics
Psychology / Counseling
Politics / Leadership
nursing & medical
consultations
Fashion Design
Wayfinding
Instructional Design
graphic design
customer support
Marketing / PR
Service Design
Similar / adjacent disciplines that also focus on
human experience and engagement…
Event Planning

10. “Game Design and Interaction
Design are fraternal twins.
They share almost all their DNA”
—Christina Wodtke

11. WHAT can we learn from tabletop games?

12. A Focus on the Whole
FRICTION!
Use of Space
PlaytestingExperience-Driven Orientation
Dealing wtih emotions
tactility
MDA
Onboarding
Social interactions
SustainingEngagement
PlayerMotivations
InformationDesign

13. A Focus on the Whole
FRICTION!
Use of Space
PlaytestingExperience-Driven Orientation
Dealing wtih emotions
tactility
MDA
Onboarding
Social interactions
SustainingEngagement
PlayerMotivations
InformationDesign
Experience-Driven Orientation

14. Meaningful
Pleasurable
Convenient
Usable
Reliable
Functional (Useful)
Focused on
Experiences
(People, Activities, Context)
Focused on
Tasks
(Products, Features)
© 2006 Stephen P. Anderson | poetp
SUBJECTIVE / QUALITATIVE
OBJECTIVE / QUANTIFIABLE
Has personal significance
Memorable experience worth sharing
Super easy to use, works like I think
Can be used without difficulty
Is available and accurate
Works as programmed
Prioritize Aesthetics (no, not Graphic Design)
(visual, behaviors, sounds, psychology)
Design for FLOW (boredom vs anxiety)
Leverage Game Mechanics/Learning Theory
(completeness)
Have a Personality
Create conversational and context aware
interactions
(“Adaptive Interfaces”; narrative IA structures)
Elicit Desire
(Limited availability, limited access, curious and
seductive experiences)Simplify, organize, and clarify
Display information visually
Reduce features and complexity
Use language for more natural
Add features that support desired
ine browsing)
Have a believable story
Co-create value with customers
Connect people in community
Are part of a bigger system
Appeal to emotional, spiritual, and
Create a tolerance for faults at
Are tied to a person’s self-image,
highly personal
Creating Pleasurable Interfaces:
Getting fom Tasks to Experiences
presented by Stephen P. Anderson | Nov 8, 2006
“It is not enough that we b
products that function, tha
understandable and usable
we also need to build produ
that bring joy and excitem
pleasure and fun, and yes
beauty, to people’s lives.”
THIS IS THE“CHASM”THAT IS REALLY, REALLY
HARD FOR ORGANIZATIONS TO CROSS

15. Experience Focus
Product Focus

16. Experience Focus
Product Focus

17. people, activities
& context
tasks & features
outcomes and
experiences
output and
functionality
perceptions, emotions,
attention, memory…
interfaces, interactions,
usability, etc.
Experience Focus
Product Focus

18. Thinking about the player encourages experience-driven (as
opposed to feature-driven) design. As such, we begin our
investigation with a discussion of Aesthetics, and continue
on to Dynamics, finishing with the underlying Mechanics.

19. http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/

20. http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/
The key was to go down a level deeper. At work, we were
doing a branding exercise for a product, and we listed off the
adjectives we wanted to describe the product. I realized that a
similar exercise would work here…
I mulled over all the feedback on the mechanics: what type of
experience were they creating on their own? What adjectives
did players use to talk about the mechanics? Players described
the game as simple and elegant. It was calming and relaxing to
play. They were surprised and delighted by the richness of the
decisions. They said it flowed smoothly, that they could play it
over and over again.”
— R A N D Y H O Y T , G A M E D E S I G N E R / P U B L I S H E R
“

21. http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/
The key was to go down a level deeper. At work, we were
doing a branding exercise for a product, and we listed off the
adjectives we wanted to describe the product. I realized that a
similar exercise would work here…
I mulled over all the feedback on the mechanics: what type of
experience were they creating on their own? What adjectives
did players use to talk about the mechanics? Players described
the game as simple and elegant. It was calming and relaxing to
play. They were surprised and delighted by the richness of the
decisions. They said it flowed smoothly, that they could play it
over and over again.”
— R A N D Y H O Y T , G A M E D E S I G N E R / P U B L I S H E R
“

22. This image captured perfectly the feeling that the playing
the game produced, and I knew a theme and narrative
woven around this could work to produce a great experience.
http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/
Tangled

24. http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/the-themes-they-are-a-changing/

27. How often do we really let a
singular, desired experience
drive every product decision?Takeaway
UX

28. How often do we really let a
singular, desired experience
drive every product decision?
adding features
pushing back on customer requests
prioritizing the backlog
how we design a familiar feature
eliminating features
Delaying releases
Takeaway
UX

29. “Untilmyplayersfeel__________,Iwillnotship”

30. “Untilmyplayersfeel__________,Iwillnotship”
“Games often ship late because they ship based
on exit criteria, not deadlines… Either you ship
something tiny before you run out of money, or
you ship late something that is sufficiently fun.
The first are higher risk, but if the core works,
they’ll make it.”
—Christina Wodtke

31. A Focus on the Whole
FRICTION!
Use of Space
PlaytestingExperience-Driven Orientation
Dealing wtih emotions
tactility
MDA
Onboarding
Social interactions
SustainingEngagement
PlayerMotivations
InformationDesign
A Focus on the Whole

34. “The Whole is Other than the Sum of the Parts”

35. “An Experience is Other than the Sum of the Parts”

39. !=
The pieces are the same…
…but the final experience here is just WRONG!

40. Experiences Product

41. Production. Direction. Balance. Orchestration. Choreography.

43. “Designing a product is keeping five thousand
things in your brain and fitting them all together
in new and different ways to get what you want.
And every day you discover something new that
is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit
these things together a little differently.
And it’s that process that is the magic.”
— Steve Jobs

44. Do your processes encourage a focus
on the whole and how all parts fit
together for a desired effect?Takeaway
UX

45. “Now imagine a different scenario, where the designer
never actually addressed the color of any of the
buttons at all. Instead they presented their complete
vision where real people experienced a complete
system with satisfaction… The question of a simple
hypothesis of whether a color button would be good or
bad would be completely ignored.
Why? because the story version of the presentation
focuses on the experience people will have and the
value they will (hopefully) receive from the holistic
design, instead of focusing on the individual featured
components — any one of which is quite meaningless
by themselves.”
—Dave Malouf
https://medium.com/@daveixd/most-valuable-story-523a9fd023e6#.91qy0bsy2

46. Do your processes encourage a focus
on the whole and how all parts fit
together for a desired effect?Takeaway
UX

47. Takeaway
UX
what gets defined as a release?
Is it a complete set of things?
Do you test small parts or the entire experience?
what do you measure?
What’s the scope of projects you take on?
(more epics and themes vs stories and tasks)
what is the critical “core” to your experience?
does your team consider how new features might play
with or disrupt existing features?
Do your processes encourage a focus
on the whole and how all parts fit
together for a desired effect?

48. A Focus on the Whole
FRICTION!
Use of Space
PlaytestingExperience-Driven Orientation
Dealing wtih emotions
tactility
MDA
Onboarding
Social interactions
SustainingEngagement
PlayerMotivations
InformationDesign
Playtesting

49. Research Strategy Design Test/
Validation Measurement
Empathize Design Ideate Prototype Test
Discover Define Ideate/Test/
prototype Build & Deply Measure
User Research Analysis Design Prototype User testing
TIME
Discovery ideation Design Validation

50. Research Strategy Design Test/
Validation Measurement
Empathize Design Ideate Prototype Test
Discover Define Ideate/Test/
prototype Build & Deply Measure
User Research Analysis Design Prototype User testing
TIME
Discovery ideation Design Validation

51. IDEA!

52. IDEA!
Game is complete
enough to begin
playing

53. IDEA!
Game is complete
enough to begin
playing
w/ inner circle
of friends
repeat until
fun!
Playtest!

54. IDEA!
Game is complete
enough to begin
playing
w/ inner circle
of friends
repeat until
fun!
w/ outer circle
of friends
(to hammer out
bugs; to try and
break the game)
Playtest!
Playtest!

55. IDEA!
Game is complete
enough to begin
playing
w/ inner circle
of friends
repeat until
fun!
w/ outer circle
of friends
(to hammer out
bugs; to try and
break the game)
w/ random strangers
(to test rule book
and onboarding)
Playtest!
Playtest!
Playtest!

56. IDEA!
Game is complete
enough to begin
playing
w/ inner circle
of friends
repeat until
fun!
w/ outer circle
of friends
(to hammer out
bugs; to try and
break the game)
w/ random strangers
(to test rule book
and onboarding)
Playtest!
Playtest!
Playtest!
“Test whatever you can, as soon as you can…
Learn whatever you can along the way”

57. To what extent do you include
users throughout the entire design
and development process? How
early in the process are users able
to play with a semi-complete
version your product?
Takeaway
UX

58. A Focus on the Whole
FRICTION!
Use of Space
PlaytestingExperience-Driven Orientation
Dealing wtih emotions
tactility
MDA
Onboarding
Social interactions
SustainingEngagement
PlayerMotivations
InformationDesign
Use of Space

60. Before the page, there was space itself.
Perhaps the simplest way to use space to
communicate is to arrange or rearrange
things in it.”
“
!om “Visualizing Thought” Barbara Tversky

67. Scrap
Heap
our Space
Their Space
MYSpace

68. Explorers
Trade
Deck
Scrap
Heap
Trade Row

69. Explorers
Trade
Deck
Scrap
Heap
Trade Row
Discard
Deck
Persistentcards
cards played this turn
Points

70. Spatial arrangement can be a
powerful signal of meaning.

71. “GRID VIEW”

81. How are you using space and
the spatial arrangement of
information in your work?Takeaway
UX

82. A Focus on the Whole
FRICTION!
Use of Space
PlaytestingExperience-Driven Orientation
Dealing wtih emotions
tactility
MDA
Onboarding
Social interactions
SustainingEngagement
PlayerMotivations
InformationDesign
FRICTION!

83. “UX design is about removing problems from the user.
Game design is about giving problems to the user.”
— Raph Koster, Game design vs UX design
http://www.raphkoster.com/2015/06/29/game-design-ux-design/
“People play games for no productive reason. You go out
of your way to put up with unnecessary obstacles…”
—Randy Hoyt
“The friction is the game. In UX a lot of what I did was around
eliminating friction. Friction is almost always bad (and only
sometime strategically good). You’re just ruthless about
getting rid of it. In games it’s the total opposite. Whenever I’m
ruthless about getting rid of friction, there’s no game left. For
me, the practice of game design is the practice of thoughtfully
using friction to create a great experience.”
—Dirk Knemeyer

84. Bad Friction -VS- Good Friction

85. About the wrong stuff, yes.
About the critical stuff though,
we should be thinking!

86. About the wrong stuff, yes.
About the critical stuff though,
we should be thinking!
Is there learning or understanding involved, or should there be?

87. Game
Experiences
Learning Challenge &accomplishment
(Elementof Play, Learning, Discovery, Pattern Recognition…)
introduce friction to
create a…

90. Game
Experiences
Learning Challenge &accomplishment
(Elementof Play, Learning, Discovery, Pattern Recognition…)
introduce friction to
create a…

91. Game
Experiences
Learning Challenge &accomplishment
(Elementof Play, Learning, Discovery, Pattern Recognition…)
Product
Experiences
—VS—
introduce friction to
create a…
may (or may not) already contain
inherent friction begging to be
reframed as a…

93. “People play games for no productive reason. You go
out of your way to put up with unnecessary obstacles…

94. •…but people do enjoy things that are not easy to learn.
There’s a sense of accomplishment. Most things that
are rewarding aren’t that easy to do… Within UX,
there’s a lot to be said for other kinds of experiences,
not just the usability or how quick something is to
learn.”
•—Randy Hoyt
“People play games for no productive reason. You go
out of your way to put up with unnecessary obstacles…

95. In what mays might you introduce friction
to achieve a desired effect? In what ways
is your work about more than ease of use
or efficiency? Is there learning challenge
inherent in the experience you’re working
on? If so, could this be reframed as a
playful learning experience?
Takeaway
UX

96. A Focus on the Whole
FRICTION!
Use of Space
PlaytestingExperience-Driven Orientation
Dealing wtih emotions
tactility
MDA
Onboarding
Social interactions
SustainingEngagement
PlayerMotivations
InformationDesign

97. Learning through Play

98. ⟳

100. PATH

101. PATH SANDBOX

102. ⟳PATH SANDBOX

103. PATH SANDBOXLOOP

104. PATH SANDBOXLOOP

105. ENDS IN AN
EXCHANGE
PATH
SANDBOXLOOP

106. ENDS IN AN
EXCHANGE
ENDS IN LEARNING
THROUGH DISCOVERY
& CONSTRUCTION
PATH SANDBOX
LOOP

107. ENDS IN AN
EXCHANGE
ENDS IN LEARNING
THROUGH DISCOVERY
& CONSTRUCTION
ENDS IN LEARNING
THROUGH PATTERN
RECOGNITION
PATH SANDBOXLOOP

108. Games. Play. Simulations. Role-Playing. Making.
These can be powerful tools for learning.
More than ever, we need new tools and systems
to help us understand each other and the world
we live in.
More than ever, we need tools to help us learn
through safe, playful interactions.

109. “It feels rewarding to overcome a
difficult challenge. You put a game
back in the box and we’ve not
changed the world at all. But we’ve
changed something about ourselves.”
—Randy Hoyt, Foxtrot Games

110. Change hearts & Minds
get everyone to embrace the mental model behind an agenda

111. Change hearts & Minds
get everyone to embrace the mental model behind an agenda
create a shared, emergent mental model by working together
Work & Learn together
“

113. Thank you…
StephenP.Anderson
@stephenanderson
www.poetpainter.com | www.slideshare.net/stephenpa
…and go play some games!

114. LUNCH!StephenP.Anderson
@stephenanderson
www.poetpainter.com | www.slideshare.net/stephenpa

115. Interested in learning more?
http://bit.ly/uxandgames