One of the many things I am paying close attention to is the demographic group called “Tweens.” These are young people, aged 11 to 14, who grew up in a world where Internet access and mobile devices are ever-present. These aren’t the future users, in many instances they are already users of the solutions that professional user experience designers like myself create.
So how do you support these users, both now and when they are buyers of technology (not just consumers)? What interaction models will they be comfortable with? To answer these questions, I recommend you start playing with, and looking at, the UI designs found in game systems.
No, this is not because all kids these days play video games (though a majority have or do) – it is because quite often the menu design and control mechanisms found in said game platforms are incredibly innovative and well done.
All the major systems – the Wii, the XBox 360 and the Playstation 3 – have a well-designed and throughout menu structure, allowing for contextual options to be presented in the appropriate places. While none of them are perfect, it is obvious that a lot of thought was applied to to the information architecture.
Additionally, all feature some degree of 3-dimensional menuing which allows for the content provider to expand the options available to the users both “horizontally” and “vertically” – which in turn allows for an extensible experience that can evolve over time. The design was forward-thinking, understanding that new options (like social media plug-ins) can and will appear. This extensibility should be appreciated and, where applicable, emulated.
Finally, the controllers used to browse these designs provide limited input, the limits of the hardware has encouraged additional focus on ergonomics and simplicity – two keys to affective design.
So, is it crazy to play games to do design research? Nope – the next great design idea you may have may have its origins in a good game of Call of Duty.