How to Use Gamification in Mobile Apps: A Case Study

Posted by

Gamification, or the addition of game-like elements to anything that isn’t a game, pops up all over the design world. In my last post for Boxes and Arrows, I focused specifically on gamification in mobile app onboarding. The moment when users first open your app is critical to the app’s success, and you can use gamification as a tool to get a new user through the learning curve. But gamification doesn’t just fit with onboarding. It’s possible to apply gamification

Continue reading

Creating the Persuasive Pattern Card Deck

Posted by

One of our finest tasks as designers is to filter the abundance of choice into easily digestible bits. Creating great interfaces is as much about motivating, teasing, leading, and guiding users along—so that they experience value, faster—as it is to improve usability by removing friction. This requires an endeavor into product psychology and the art of designing with purpose and intent.

Continue reading

Honing Your Research Skills Through Ad-hoc Contextual Inquiry

Posted by

It’s common in our field to hear that we don’t get enough time to regularly practice all the types of research available to us, and that’s often true, given tight project deadlines and limited resources. But one form of user research–contextual inquiry–can be practiced regularly just by watching people use the things around them and asking a few questions. I started thinking about this after a recent experience returning a rental car to a national brand at the Phoenix, Arizona,

Continue reading

The Power of Collaboration

Posted by

A quote that I stumbled on during grad school stuck with me. From the story of the elder’s box as told by Eber Hampton, it sums up my philosophy of working and teaching: “How many sides do you see?” “One,” I said. He pulled the box towards his chest and turned it so one corner faced me. “Now how many do you see?” “Now I see three sides.” He stepped back and extended the box, one corner towards him and one

Continue reading