Come Play! Using Games to Teach, Motivate, and Engage  

What have you done lately to make your training lively, fast-paced, innovative, participative, and imaginative? Baranich and Currie discuss using games in learning and business environments.

Baranich, Karen L. and Cynthia C. Currie. Intercom (1995). Articles>Education>Multimedia>Games

The Development of a Game Playing Framework Using Interface-Based Programming

The Java programming language contains object-oriented features enabling the construction of interface-based application frameworks. Interfaces separate module implementation from core implementation, thus simplifying module development. The following article demonstrates how to take advantage of Java interfaces by designing and implementing a game playing application framework.

Cohen, Mark A. ACM Crossroads (2004). Design>User Interface>Programming>Games

Driving Over Jakob Nielsen

A web-based game, in which you master the usability issues of driving a Mack truck over well-known usability experts.

Urbanev.com (2000). Humor>Usability>Traveler Information>Games

Gameful Art

So, you think you'd like to get into Games development? Follow along as Sessions School of Game Art advisory board member Jolene Spry interviews Dave Taylor, independent video game producer and long-term veteran of the gaming industry.

Spry, Jolene and Dave Taylor. Design, Typography and Graphics (2006). Design>Document Design>Graphic Design>Games

Games, Information Design, and New Technologies for Technical Communicators  

Developments in communication technologies such as video scriptwriting and interactive multimedia require that technical communicators develop the skills and literacies necessary for adapting to the demands of designing information for media other than print. This paper presents a semiotic theory and model of multimedia discourse which will help technical communicators conceptualize and produce texts in new media. The model operates on the premise that communication practices can be considered as language games. The model focuses on the rhetorical and semiotic features of multimedia language games, and how to manipulate them.

Heba, Gary M. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Information Design>Multimedia>Games

Games: A Transactional Context  

Communication was not a theorized space until after World War II, it was just something we did. Both Claude Shannon’s seminal model of communication and Norbert Wiener’s model of feedback dealt with the technical transmission space for communication. From the beginning of communication theory, attention focused on technical aspects and broadcast models in which the recipient of the communication was presumed to be passive. All that was necessary was to use understandable codes (language, symbols, images) with which the recipient was familiar. Since those early days, a wealth of communication models have been developed that deal with various perspectives on communication including discourse models that seek to establish rapport; gratification models that attempt to sustain interest; innovation models that promote behavior change; and context models that seek to recognize and plan for the specific conditions in which a communication occurs. With these models the varieties of ways in which communication was received and interpreted came to the foreground, but the variables that influence any particular person’s interpretation remain daunting and undiscoverable in their totality.

Poggenpohl, Sharon. University of Alberta (2003). Articles>Communication>Theory>Games

Immersion in Videogames

User experience is a term that is widely used these days to refer to all sorts of interactions between people and technologies. But when it comes to videogames, experience is the only sensible word to use. Games are pure experience. And the range of experiences they offer is huge from what it is like to land a 747 at Heathrow Airport to slaying space dragons with a team of like-minded warriors. Thus, when it comes to really understanding user experience in games, it can be hard to say anything that would apply in general. However, one expression that does seem to crop up regularly, and that gamers relate to, is that games are immersive: when people are having a good experience, they get lost or immersed in the game and the world outside the game fades into the background. So what is this notion of immersion? What causes it? And is it the heart of what makes a good game? These are the questions that I have been trying to answer, together with my colleagues and students, over the last few years.

Cairns, Paul. uiGarden (2008). Articles>User Experience>User Centered Design>Games

Learning from Games: Seven Principles of Effective Design    

Why do players of computer games seem to approach those applications without fear, eagerly exploring and learning as they go, while users of business applications will go out of their way to keep from using the tools? Why do business applications require volumes of documentation when the most complex games come with a brief tutorial and a strategy guide for exploration? Why can games teach pilots to fly multi-million-dollar jets better than books and classroom training? These questions have led us to ask another question: Why can’t business applications be more like games? In this article, we attempt to lay the ground work for future research by defining seven design principles found in games that we believe contribute to the creation of more usable applications.

Houser, Rob and Scott Deloach. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Usability>Information Design>Games

Learning from the Success of Computer Games

I have long been struck by the power of the computer game to mesmerize, to hold the attention of otherwise restless children for hours and even days. I have watched otherwise unruly children focus, study, collaborate, and problem-solve. They read hint books, save checkpoints, the better to be able to try 'what-if' scenarios. They consult, the create. They solve. They do all the activities we wish them to do in pursuit of an education: What a shame that what is being learned is so trivial, so worthless. Now imagine a time when we transform education. When we can craft educational problems as cleverly as the game creators create theirs, allowing students to delve into the complexity of topics as deeply and as thoroughly as they delve into the games. Excite them to dive into the task, voluntarily working hard to learn the skills necessary to succeed. Only this time, the skills learned will be the ones necessary to be successful, well-educated citizens of society: mathematics, history, writing, science, art, and so on.

Norman, Donald A. JND.org (2000). Design>Usability>Interaction Design>Games

Localization of Digital Games: The Process of Blending for the Global Games Market  

The process of localizing digital games can be significantly different from the process of localizing productivity software.

Thayer, Alexander and Beth E. Kolko. Sakson and Taylor (2004). Articles>User Interface>Localization>Games

Mobile Phone Games Designed for Girls

Unlike many game developers, one company creates games primarily targeted at young women and girls. MiniFizz is certainly not just a traditional boys’ game painted pink.

Allaeys, Sabine. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>User Centered Design>Wireless Web>Games

Noddys Guide to Usability Testing and Gaming  

Discusses how usability testing can be useful at all stages of games development.

Weedon, Ben. Serco (2007). Articles>Usability>Testing>Games

Genre, Activity, and Collaborative Work and Play in World of Warcraft: Places and Problems of Open Systems in Online Gaming    

This article examines the characteristics of collaborative work and overlapping activity systems in the popular online game World of Warcraft. Using genre theory and activity theory as frames to work out the genre ecology of gameplay, the article focuses on how players coordinate ad hoc grouping activity across and through genres. It articulates the related development of open systems in online gaming in a discussion of interface modifications (AddOns) and online information databases that players generate, drawing on De Certeau's formulation of strategies and tactics and Warner's discussion of publics and counterpublics. The article concludes by discussing implications of online gaming for an open-systems approach to information design in professional communication and for professional communication in general.

Sherlock, Lee. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2009). Articles>Collaboration>Social Networking>Games

Engaging the User: What We Can Learn from Games

As an Interaction Designer, I’m perpetually impressed with the continual design success inherent in most video games. We are taught to know our users by understanding their goals, leveraging mental models, and taking ourselves out of the equation in order to design useful and appropriate interfaces. And although a user-centered design approach is invaluable, I can’t help but wonder how game designers just seem to nail it time and again for what are large and diverse audiences.

Sasinski, Marc. Johnny Holland (2009). Articles>User Experience>Interaction Design>Games

Bringing Gaming to the Disabled

To a huge number of gamers and would-be gamers, though, even the most sensible and well-laid-out controller scheme is unplayable. For them, accessibility and interface issues make gaming at best an incomplete experience and at worst a total impossibility.

Hartford Courant (2009). Articles>Accessibility>User Interface>Games

Six Things Video Games Can Teach Us About Web Usability 

Those who think video games are not educational, this post is for you. Not only can video games be an enjoyable experience, they can teach us many things. Websites and video games often use similar concepts about usability in order to achieve an amazing end-product. I’ve come up with 6 essential concepts that video games can teach web designers about usability.

Riggan, Mark. Atlantic BT (2009). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Games