Just One Thing - A Lesson from Game Design
By Joshua on March 15 2010
Working in web design can feel incredibly confining at times. Header goes here. Sidebar here. Duplicate your base HTML and CSS templates. Rinse. Repeat.
In a field so governed by conventions, what can we do to breathe life and originality into our work? Focus on just one thing.
A Lesson from Games
Consider the case of 2D platform games (ala Mario Bros.) Like web design, this genre is bound by convention. Run, jump, dodge your enemies, grab powerups.
But a recent crop of games manages to be strikingly original while adhering to all the conventions of the genre.
And Yet It Moves gives you a simple task: walk to the end of the level. But to achieve that goal, you have to literally make your world spin.
In Mimeo and the Kleptopus King you have to find various powerups to complete your quest. But instead of the powerups affecting your character, they affect the entire world, gradually evolving it from 2 bit to 16 bit.
Probably the best known (and most radical) of these games is Braid, in which you are given control over time itself. As a consequence of this idea, entirely new forms of gameplay become possible while retaining all the elements of a classic platform game.
The Moral of the Story
What do all these games have in common? They take just one thing and push it to the limit.
That's something I think web designers can learn from. We work under deadlines with limited resources. As much as we'd love to polish every single part of a website, that's rarely realistic.
Instead we should pick just on thing. Yes, make it all professional, but pick that one thing to go above and beyond.
Designing a site? Make the typography amazing. Coding a site? Add an extra layer of semantic richness with microformats. Building a web app? Make the signup process smooth as butter.
What are you working on right now? And what is just one thing that you can make remarkable about it?
What our readers said
Great article, despite the fact that I didn’t get the link between video games and webdesign :)
Nice article. (to Benjamin) I think the link between video games and webdesign is that we still do same things same way and it could be better when we try to do some experiments and not just working but composing (to be creative)
And Yet It Moves is probably inspired by SHIFT, which introduced the concept. That’s a classic.
Well said. I just recently started a new project where I actually focus on just one thing (whilst doing the rest at my usual standard). I’ve been creating an awesome jQuery powered administration panel and focused on smooth animations that will increase the overall user experience. It’s been fun, enjoyable, given amazing results and WOWed the customer.
After reading this, I might switch focus form time to time. :) ¡Perhaps next time I’ll create the ultimate navigation system!
I like how it applies to any design discipline.
@Benjamin: The link is that both are constrained by design requirements and conventions, so you can use the same strategy for achieving excellence in both. Find one thing that you can twist (within the requirements) a little bit and focus a lot of attention on.
@Marek: Thanks!
@Ricardo: I’ll have to check SHIFT out.
@Enrique: That’s a great example of what I was talking about. Let me know once you’ve built that ultimate navigation system! :-)
@eyezwise: Thanks!