<p>This is the title of <a href="http://leapfrog.nl/blog/about/">Kars Alfrink</a>&#8216;s <a href="http://leapfrog.nl/blog/archives/2007/09/25/playful-ias-slides-for-my-euro-ia-summit-2007-talk/">presentation</a>  at <a href="http://www.euroia.org/">the Euro IA Summit 2007</a>. Unfortunately I wasn&#8217;t there and I only read the <a href="http://leapfrog.nl/presentations/playful_ias_kars_alfrink_euro_ia_summit_2007.pdf">slides with transcript</a>, but I enjoyed it a lot.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>One good example of this, is the <a href="http://www.discoapp.com/">Disco</a>, 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.</p>

<p>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 :)</p>