Playful Design is primarily written for designers of conventional software, websites, mobile apps, and other computer-mediated user experiences who are looking for novel approaches to creating compelling, satisfying, and enjoyable designs. It’s well suited to anyone who specializes in human-computer interaction, digital product strategy, interaction design, information architecture, usability engineering, graphic design, application development, or similar roles.
This book also is intended to be accessible to a broader audience of readers who aren’t user experience (UX) practitioners, but who want to learn more about how games can achieve great things in the real world. If this sounds like you, then you might like to start by skipping ahead to Part III, where I survey a variety of case studies, before circling back to the beginning of the book.
Game designers will find new ways to think about the impact they can have on the world. Though much of the content in this book reviews practices and design patterns with which you’re probably very familiar (especially in Part II), I hope that the overall picture I draw will lead to fresh insights into your work. I also invite you to explore how opening a relationship with the UX design community can broaden the reach of games.
I do not assume that readers have a ton of experience playing video games, although I believe you need to play a pretty good amount to design well for them. It’s okay if you’re not the world’s biggest gamer, but maybe you can be persuaded to get into what I believe is a very worthwhile use of your time.
If you do play games, then I think you’re going to have a lot of fun with this book. You can consider the countless hours you’ve spent playing them to have been study sessions, as all of your experience will help you to get more out of every single chapter. You’re well prepared to reflect on the design of games and their broader significance in everyday life.
This book is a call to action for UX designers to incorporate game design into their toolkit, and a guide for how to apply it most effectively.
The Introduction offers my perspective on recent fads in the application of game design, and an explanation of why I believe they have been fundamentally flawed.
Chapter 1 makes a case for taking games seriously as a form of human-computer interaction, and explains the reasons UX designers in particular should take an active interest in them.
Chapter 2 provides a basic theoretical background on games, defining their primary characteristics and exploring their relationship to everyday life.
Chapter 3 presents a model for thinking about player experiences that draws on an established UX model. This chapter is intended to provide a basis for thinking through the design choices that make games challenging, satisfying, and enjoyable.
Chapter 4 reviews some of the most common reasons why people feel motivated to play games.
Chapter 5 is a list of things that you can do to improve your chances of creating a successful design. If you’re starting a game project right now and need a quick guide before jumping in, this chapter is a good place to begin.
Chapter 6 lays out some of the key decision points that you should think through when coming up with a vision for a game.
Chapter 7 describes methods for quickly mocking up prototypes that will save time and money in the design and development of a game.
Chapter 8 explains how to evaluate a game with players and get actionable insights for design.
Chapter 9 discusses elements of design that can encourage players to adopt certain behaviors in a game and give shape to the experience.
Chapter 10 lists some of the most common reward systems employed in games, and provides best practices for their design.
Chapter 11 surveys a variety of ways that games have been applied to influence people’s actions in the real world.
Chapter 12 takes a look at games that have been designed to help people learn new concepts and skills.
Chapter 13 describes how games can convince people to adopt a different point of view.
Chapter 14 concludes the book with a speculative look toward the future of games, as suggested by current trends in design.
This book’s companion website (
rosenfeldmedia.com/books/game-design) contains more information about how to incorporate game design principles into your user experience design practice. You can also find a calendar of my workshops and presentations, and a place to engage others in conversation. The book’s diagrams and other illustrations are available (when possible, under a Creative Commons license) for you to download and include in your own presentations. You can find these on Flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia/sets/.