Yu Centrik

Five speakers linked to the field of video games and coming from various specialties presented their vision of the video games of today and tomorrow at a conference called “New Frontiers in Gaming”. We heard the standard updates in terms of numbers and jobs, but also fringe opinions in terms of industry, design and interactions.

Jonathan Morin, working on Far Cry 2 for Ubisoft, delivered a presentation entitled “Predictability in Video Games: how to avoid preconceived experiences in game design”. Here’s a short summary of his main points.

The execution of a task can have a different cognitive cost depending on its level of complexity, familiarity and it’s concurrence with other tasks… one of the objectives of the video game universe is to allow the player to develop an abstract level of expertise based on his growing skills. Without this key gameplay concept, the player will become fatigued and lose motivation. This could potentially lead to the player abandoning the video game in question.

An essential point evoked by Jonathan Morin is the importance of rendering the least predictable game environment possible to maintain the player at a behavioural level based on rules and knowledge. Rasmussen’s model perfectly illustrates decision making and the development of automation. (Fig. 1)

Fig. 1 - Rasmussen’s model (1986)

To explain this reasoning, Jonathan Morin presented us with 2 simple, recognizable games: Mario Brothers and Pac-Man.

He started by mentioning that a game like Mario Bros. tends to establish patterns that players learn to automate while relinquishing conscious control.

On the other side, he showed us the value of a game like Pac Man, where randomly moving ghosts force the player to develop strategies. Here, the player bases his gameplay on rules.

Eventually, the human adapts to the gameplay environment and learns how to react to events. This is where proper feedback could have the environment react in turn by learning the player’s behaviour pattern. Imagine a fighting game where the computer could modify its behaviour depending on your gameplay style. This would force you to introduce new strategies to accomplish your goal while continually mobilizing your cognitive resources, immersing you in the game and separating you from reality. Although this goal is not new, I don’t believe it has been achieved yet.

From our point of view, it’s interesting to think about how ergonomics seeks instead to create very predictable interfaces so that users can work effectively and efficiently.

Being able to meet and listen to the professionals is always a rewarding experience and we appreciate the SAT organizing these events regularly. By the way, a video of this conference should be on their site this week.

Last night the second ChitChat Yu Centrik was held, and we can say without hesitation that the evening was a success!

Over sixty people from all sides of the Information Technology community of Montreal gathered in the warm vibes of O Patro Vys to witness five unique presentations. The topics were well received with clear crowd reactions of surprise and laughter. Five eloquent presentations on HTML 5, Feng Shui interfaces, Web 2.0, usability experimentation in physics, and the phenomenology of interactions … subjects which are rich and complex, at the very least. However, since the presentation formula was so rigorous, we also got to see the anguish on our presenters faces while they grappled with the possibility that they might not get their idea out in time.

It’s 1 in the morning and here I am back in Montreal after the last day of the conference: quite the positive experience.

Some of the IA Summit’s strongest attributes are the excellent ambiance, where knowledge sharing and constant encouragement from the event organizers enlightens this unique opportunity to spend four days in the company of world-renowned information architects (it’s not every day that we find ourselves in the same room as Jesse James Garret, Jared Spool, Peter Morville, etc.).  Inevitably, there were also some weaknesses, such as a few less interesting subjects and unprepared speakers.

For those who follow our information architecture training or those who are just interested in the subject, I highly recommend you find your way down there.  Me, I’m already waiting for February 2009 when the next summit will take place in Memphis, Tennessee.

On this third day of the IA Summit, a specific presentation in particular inspired me: ”Extending the gaming experience to conventional UIs” by John Ferrara.  It showed us how concepts based in video games can be applied to more traditional products like desktop applications, websites and traditional intranets.

Other interesting moments were Peter Morville’s ”search patterns”, a collection of online search examples which could be quite useful, and the discussion panel about prototype modes which showed the importance of using prototypes as validation elements for the different design steps of a project, whether it’s a paper wireframe or XHTML.

Tomorrow is the last day and let me just say that the conference is moving so quickly that if I blink I just might miss it.

As expected, the day started off with Jared Spool’s keynote.  Always funny and provocative, his presentation was based on an expression the left everyone perplexed: “User-centered Design has never worked”.  After digesting everything he said, my understanding was that he questioned using UCD systematically in every situation, in every case, and on every project, without first asking whether all the steps and all the tools are really necessary or pertinent.  In fact, we already understand this and use the standard user-centered design method only as a toolbox here at Yu Centrik.

A few other interesting presentations filled the rest of the day.  Luke Wroblewski’s “Content Page Design Best Practices” is a good example.  He described how to optimize internal pages to compensate for the fact that a growing number of visitors are bypassing the welcome page.

But the strongest point of the Summit is the free exchange between the professionals attending.  For example, a wall of deliverables shares ideas for better communication of design solutions, allowing us to actively discuss why the creators chose one approach over another.

It’s also worth mentioning that our friends from Techsmith were present – as always - and also that Axure 5.0 will be available soon, though they are still working on a Mac version (according to the company representatives).

So here I am, at the most important event for information architects, the IA Summit being held in Miami this year.  It’s the moment that the community reunites to share domain-specific knowledge and advance the discipline.

The real conference starts tomorrow, Saturday.  Today is a pre-conference day.  I assisted in Peter Morville’s training session (one of the two fathers of IA - the other is Lou Resenfeld… that’s right, IA has two dads and no mom).  The presentation, “Information Architecture 3.0″, was an interesting talk about the integration of web 2.0 concepts such as user-generated content, social networking tools and dynamic pages with information architecture.

Saturday will be filled with small presentations and discussions which will be kicked off by Jared Spool’s Keynote address, a fact which guarantees us a few laughs to get the conference started on the right foot.