Designing For Pleasure Instead of Against Pain

Peddling Pain-Killers with Word2 (Scrabb.ly)

With Aviel Ginzburg

Building Scrabb.ly

• Scrabb.ly was built in 48 hours as part of Node JS Knockout.

• We built it because we wanted to do something none of us had ever done before.

• Without any game design experience, I used what I had… B2B software design experience… and approached it that way.

I Knew We Had Impossible Deadlines

• More about assumptions than research.• Assumptions are almost always wrong

(especially in 48 hour competitions).– Who is going to use our product?– Why are they going to use our product?– Why are they going to like our product?

• Without any expertise, I didn’t know how to design an entertaining, pleasurable experience.

The User We Imagine / Hope For

I have a need and you’re helping me quickly and effectively! YOU ROCK FOR MAKING MY LIFE AWESOME!

• Generally happy disposition.• Excited to use the product.• Forgiving because you are making

life better.

The User We SHOULD Imagine

I hate the critical task I have to perform and despite your help, I’m still in pain! THANKS, BUT YOU’RE ON THIN ICE!

• Generally unhappy disposition.• Has a real problem that needs

solving.• Unforgiving but willing to give you a

chance.

I Went With Assumptions I Was Comfortable With

• Doing something “cool” isn’t usually good enough.• Design for a problem.

– Successful B2B software design is about pain reduction.– Your product is valuable because it saves time and money.– Your user is injured and your product is a pain killer.

• It’s easier to know what people won’t like than will like.• You’re more excited about your product than your

users.

Who I Designed Scrabb.ly For

I’m sick of reviewing these half-baked applications and am only looking for flaws. WHY SHOULD I GIVE YOU THE TIME OF DAY?

• Generally unhappy disposition.• Is looking for things to be wrong

rather than right.• Forgiving but barely willing to give

you a chance… you have 15 seconds of attention.

Who Scrabb.ly is ACTUALLY For

We’re 250,000+ people who want to spend hours and hours distracting and amusing ourselves with low barrier-to-entry word games.

• Really happy to have a new game to play.

• Excited to tell friends.• Forgiving of everything.

Designing For The “Wrong” User Didn’t Matter

• My goals for reducing pain lowered the barrier of entry to enjoyment.– Use a simple and obvious decision tree.– Make it as simple as possible to play.– Utilize realism to convey “Scrabbleness”.

• There were some interesting side effects.– Immersive, full posture game-play.– An addictive flow through rhythmic user actions.

A Simple and Obvious Decision Tree

Low Barrier to Entry Game-Play

Extremely Simple Interface

Immersive Game-Play

Utilizing Realism

In Practice…

• When you don’t know how to please who you’re designing for…– Design for the user you know won’t like your

application.– Design your application with critical judges in

mind, rather than happy users.

A Really Good Painkiller == Pleasure

• You can design for pleasure by simply protecting against pain.

• Effective pain reducing design can result in a new market of pleasure seekers without the problem that you are addressing. (IE: DropBox)