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Spore and the changing game experience

Connections - March 30, 2009: Computer game design is changing as games become more of a platform for play, creativity and collaboration and not just a challenge of skill and reasoning.

Lunar's Gretchen Anderson talks with Mike Khoury, a game designer at Maxis Software and contributor to the hot new game Spore, about changing approaches to designing the gaming experience and some surprising ways Spore's fans have taken the game in new directions.

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Value creation, with feeling

I’m making my way through Wired to Care, the latest answer to that burning business question:  how do we make stuff that people want?   I’d be done by now, but I’m actually reading this book with my eyes because it’s not out in audio format yet, and I don’t have a text to speech reader of any kind.  (Dying for this, by the way.   Especially if it can sound more like William Hurt than Rosie the robot maid from the Jetsons.  But I digress.)

So this is my half book review.   Short answer:  worth reading.   In full disclosure, I’m biased.   Author Dev Patnaik graduated from my program at Stanford, and knowing him certainly colors my reading, positively.   He’s a smart guy always ready with a wise contribution to any discussion.

Wired to Care is a readable proposal for how to institutionalize connecting with your customers.   At the highest level, that’s where value creation happens.   The rest of business is a bunch of scrambling around to deliver products and services at a profit – necessary busywork that can distract us from the über goal.   Orienting an entire organization around customer empathy gives purpose and focus in each employee’s day to day work – focus that is meaningful to creating customers who love you.

If you’re audio/visually oriented, there’s a nice presentation of the big idea here, but I urge you to buy the book because, well, I want Dev to recommend you buy mine... when it comes out!

-- John Edson

Life is Short and Unknowable

I don’t often enjoy “new media” art and exploration, as it quickly turns to navel gazing silliness. But Michael Kontopoulos’ sculpture is bringing a smile to my face today. Check out Inner Forests and Machines That Almost Fall Over -- both nice commentaries on the impermanence and delicateness of our existence.

-- Gretchen Anderson

Taking out the trash

Alameda County, Calif., has a rather progressive waste management program, with a goal of diverting 75% of our waste from landfill by 2010. This would be a remarkable achievement, and according to this report, we’re currently diverting up to 68% of our waste. A key strategy for the county is bringing about “behavior change” around trash, composting and recycling.

But, Oakland has a classic service design problem to solve. Last week my homeowner’s association tried to be good citizens and swap one of our trash bins for a recycling bin. Instead of being celebrated for our waste reduction, we were greeted by multi-page forms authorizing a “site inspection.” Wait a minute, I was expecting a gold star for helping my community, so what’s with the suspicion and bureaucracy?

In my “mental model,” I’m a good citizen trying to help reduce waste. To the city of Oakland, I’m a potential scammer trying to get out of paying for trash collection by throwing my trash in the street. While enforcement of waste management is certainly important, Oakland needs to clean up their communication and outreach.

As we transition away from the first tier of “getting people to use recycling and green bins” and start seeing actual reduction, Alameda County will need new tools to support the behavior change they are bringing about. At the same time, they can further improve educational tools for us. Because I can never remember, is that milk carton recycling, or compost?

And does it matter?

-- Gretchen Anderson

Democratizing the TV?

In 2007, I was that guy that didn’t know how Tony Soprano died. I missed out on one of the biggest events in HBO history because I was in a “no time for television” phase, meaning I thought TV was an isolating medium and I had better things to do. That is, until I found myself in more social situations where, surrounded by Lost conspiracy theories, I’d have to cleverly change the topic or go get another drink.

So what is TV? An aging medium of solitude and popcorn? Or a potential igniter of social sparks?

Consider this: Back in the 50’s, when families could afford one television, it sat in the middle of the living room surrounded by people and was social glue. Shortly thereafter, prices dropped and family members started disappearing behind closed doors to watch their favorite shows on their personal TVs. Today, headphone-clad commuters watch streaming TV or YouTube clips on handhelds on their way to work, and social network chatter has elevated TV to a social medium once again. 

Imagine, however, a night in with sofa full of your friends or family members. Old TV doesn’t care how many people are in front of the TV. When you’re with your girlfriend/boyfriend, your spouse, your friends or family, when TV watching becomes the main event, what’s different?

Last year, I started exploring what it means for a remote to know who you are. With industrial designer Alex Rochat, I explored what a “democratic TV” might feel like, giving equal share of play to everyone sitting around the coffee table. The concept is simple – a set of plush “remotes” each tied to an individual. They feel more like furniture than technology. There are no buttons – only a twist, squeeze and pull to access not only basic TV functions but a collection of social tools that let you grab and broadcast content, and provide live feedback to programming and web clips. We’re also toying with the notion of 3rd party TV apps (think iTunes Store for your television). Can’t decide what to watch next? Maybe it’s time to download the “Rock, Paper, Scissors” app?

There are a lot of exciting things happening in UI innovation. Kicker Studio recently published a YouTube video of a conceptual interface prototype that allows a TV watcher to gesture in the air to control basic TV functions. Dan Saffer does a good job keeping it TV-simple and feeling like entertainment, not work, with a UI that makes it easy to get at the core functions of TV. Gesture-based enhancements could raise the bar for the TV experience as a whole, and the industry just might be ready to give it a go.

-- Ron Goldin

Shame for good?

Can shame be a force for good?

Since my neighbor’s weight problem impacts what I pay for health care, should I get a say in what they weigh?

The Netherlands just deployed bus stops with screens broadcasting the weight of the person sitting at the stop. This actually might work, as some people won’t sit, thereby burning extra calories. (via kottke)

-- Gretchen Anderson

Closing the Loop

Many companies talk about designing the “end to end” experience, although in practice what they generally end up doing it putting a pop-up ad to “win an iPod if you take our survey” at the end of the checkout process. But it’s been interesting to see some companies really upping their game around customer loyalty.

I recently ordered some area rugs from FLOR. Their stuff looks great, is inexpensive and is pretty fun to play with. After seeing the results I snapped a photo to show my friends on Flickr and Twitter. Moments later I got  response. From FLOR. “Hey,” they suggested, “email a photo to us and get 10% off your next order.” I checked out their twitter feed and found a host of links to blog entries and articles about home design. While it’s no HGTV, I am intrigued to see if FLOR can generate and aggregate content that will inspire people.

Of course, not every brand is appropriate for this type of strategy. One wonders what folks on a Wal-Mart “community site” might have to say besides, “this stuff is real cheap.” (Although IKEAFans certainly seem to generate a fair amount of content.) But for companies whose products center around a passion or activity (in this case, home design) the web is finally starting to deliver the 1:1 connection that marketers have been promising for years.

Ad Age recently wondered if such “Web 2.0” technology might replace some typical agency functions about what customers want, think and do. And still others are saying Twitter’s already over.

In any case, we’re finally seeing an evolution over ad banners and spam. The first is too impersonal and the second too intrusive, and yet there does seem to be room for communication between people and brands.

I am always amazed when I do user research and people say that they are interested in receiving email from certain companies. I guess what they imagine is that instead of pointless promotional emails, they might actually get useful content.

Here’s hoping that more relevant and directed marketing becomes interesting and useful.

-- Gretchen Anderson

It’s About Time

LUNAR’s graphic design maven, Becky Brown, presented some work at San Francisco’s Pecha Kucha Night recently.   I am terribly familiar with the work, but remarkably I was blown away as if seeing it for the first time again.   Rather than showing the work in the usual, ordinary, plain, expected way, Becky crafted a story whose main character, Clive, befriended us, made us care – and then led us around an unexpected corner.  And then another.  And then there was the special bonus reel.

Beck’s presentation was a double whammy.   The content of the work was great, engaging.   And it’d have been enough, by many accounts.  But she didn’t rest there.   She used some very simple story telling tools to reshape the invisible components of her presentation.  With the story in place, the direction of the visuals became obvious, and the result was perfection.   It’s really just about caring.  About applying design to the usually forgotten 4th dimension, time.    For some easy inspiration, read Made to Stick, by Stanford professors Dan and Chip Heath.

-- John Edson

Redesigning the California Academy of Sciences

Connections - March 9, 2009: The world's great museums have attractions that capture the imagination of visitors. The very best museums also design their experiences to connect with visitors in ways that may not always be readily apparent.

In this episode, Lisa Dunmeyer, project manager with BBI Engineering, talks with Lunar's Gretchen Anderson and Lisa Leckie about how visitors are connecting with the newly redesigned California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

BBI Engineering of San Francisco served as primary integrator of the audiovisual design within the new Cal Academy.

See photos from a visit Lisa, Gretchen and Lisa made to the Academy on our Flicker photostream.

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