Alcides Fonseca

Following my last post on Playful IAs, I found an interesting book on how social websites are games (or almost). Websites like Digg, Youtube and Facebook (the case studies) are built so they are not only useful, but also entertaining.

Some social networks work almost as a mmorpg where users have ranks, manage relationships, set trends, etc… And you can have the feeling of winning or losing too. Have this in mind the next time you use of this websites.

I recall Marco, in his Game Design presentation, saying that games must be addictive to be successful. Not addictive in a sickness order, but leaving a feeling in the player that he will want to play that game later on, or even buy the sequel. That’s exactly what web developers want for their sites. Visitors are wanted regular, that’s what generates statistics (for advertising purposes) and the community you need and target.

The book is available for free and it is a great learning tool to improve your website in order to be more fun. The author has also started a blog that I have already subscribed.

This is the title of Kars Alfrink‘s presentation at the Euro IA Summit 2007. Unfortunately I wasn’t there and I only read the slides with transcript, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Kars defends that desktop web applications can be compared a lot with games and that they can be developed in order to be more playful. He complains that most applications out there are designed to fulfill the goals that they are pointed, and not to provide some fun to users while doing it. By learning some gaming techniques, developers might do some interesting applications, not thinking about its purpose, but about its experience.

One good example of this, is the Disco, a disc burning software for the Mac. This application actually smokes while you are burning your CD and you can interact with it by moving the window around or blowing into the mic.

Take a good look at his presentation and next time you do some application (as I will), think of the IA as a game that is meant to be fun! And share your results of course :)