How can role-playing games help create better user experiences? And what in the heck does UX mean, anyway? Find out with PBJS Technical Director Ryan Davidson's key takeaways from SXSWi 2014 sessions on UX design, gamification and decoding developer lingo.

1. SXSW 2014
Tools and Inspiration
Ryan Davidson
Technical Director
@Discorax

2. Octalysis by Yu-kai Chou
Key Takeaway:
There are tools available to analyze your game/app/site to
optimize the User Experience to be most effective.
Note: I did not say “most fun.”
• The 8 Core Drivers of Gamification
• Left Brain vs Right Brain Drivers
• White Hat vs Black Hat Gamification
http://www.yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/octalysis-
complete-gamification-framework/
Also read about how to build habits in a multi-device world.
http://www.nirandfar.com/2014/03/multi-device.html
@yukaichou

3. Age of the Alchemist: D&D and User Experience
Let’s start with a question…
Why would someone use a Role Playing Game to help
them create a marketing campaign?
The answer…
… because at the core, RPGs and Experience Design
have the same goals. Look at the image. Both strive to
create opportunity for users to engage in an experience
that is fun and memorable. RPGs are personal. This is
also why gamification is such a popular method of user
engagement.
This all starts with a spreadsheet…
Age of the Alchemist is created and presented by
Vincent Higgins and Tyler Wilson from DDB California
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP24635

4. Age of the Alchemist: D&D and User Experience
Creating Personas
We all know that personas help guide our creative
approaches, but how can we adjust for the variety of
“real life”? The answer is market research and dice.
Market percentages can be assigned to dice values
and then rolled to instill a variety of real variables
into your personas. This eliminates bias you bring to
personas. Creating the character as a team also
helps you relate to your persona from various
perspectives as you would a character in a game.
Different agencies see users differently. These
personas can embody these differences if created
together as a team.
Tip: always narrate your persona’s story.
Give them a background and depth.
Tip: Sometimes you can’t relate to a
persona. Don’t force it, let someone who can
drive the story.

5. Age of the Alchemist: D&D and User Experience
Embrace the funnel: Building the Dungeon
Your game can use some or all levels of the funnel.
• Awareness/Inspiration (mass media, user motivation)
• Consideration/Interest (consumer behavior)
• Conversion/Intent (brand-initiated communication)
Each level has a series of rooms.
Entering a room triggers an event. Events are based on
Use Cases pulled from your market research. The goal
is to get your persona through the dungeon
(advertisement and noise of everyday life) to a
conversion (sale).

6. Age of the Alchemist: D&D and User Experience
Gathering the insights
As you play through the scenarios in different levels
of interest, the game mechanic throws random (but
real) use cases at your character. You use these
scenarios to gain insights you may have overlooked
and help team members see the users perspective
differently.
For Example: Your persona has a preference for winter vacations. They receive advertising for summer
sale from a competitor. Do they have enough constitution to overcome that and move on toward a
conversion on your product? If not, maybe you need to adjust your creative to account for that. See what
just happened? Now imagine hundreds of those insights being gathered in a matter of hours.
This is a powerful tool, driven by real data. Oh yeah, and it’s A GAME! The whole team is having fun and
engaged throughout the process.

7. Age of the Alchemist: D&D and User Experience
Valuable?
Consider how often teams approach a
marketing challenge from their own narrow
discipline (account manager, art director,
content creator, developer, producer, etc). The
playing of this game can bring all of the
expertise to the table (pun intended) at once
and help build a holistic approach to User
Experience that is grounded in REAL DATA!
Key Takeaways:
When you start with the right set of market research, you can gain incredible insight quickly and
get your entire team fully engaged in solving complex problems by treating User Experience and
the creative process like a game. Now break out your D20 and let’s get started!

8. Nano Size Me: The Science of Small Talk
Key Takeaway:
The future of data is trust.
Regardless of devices,
experiences, or ownership, the
relationship between a
brand/company/government and
a person hinges on trust.
Note: the brand is part of the
conversation again.
Re: Data Privacy Concerns
Some panelists felt like data concerns were “generational,”
and we’ll grow out of them. Others think that people don’t
like to be surprised regardless of age, and I agree. People
want transparency into data about them. They want to
know how it’s being used and to curate if necessary.
The Opportunity:
Users know companies have data about them. Users
want access so they can put it to good use themselves.
To make behavioral changes (Fitbit, shopping habits,
geodata) or to delete parts they don’t want shared.
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP27072

9. Transformational Design: Beyond UX
Key Takeaway:
Experience is…[Feeling] what we are
[Doing] with/in the [Material]
Design is…Rearranging materials to
transform experience.
So….What is Transformational Design?
It’s the moment when the experience is changed as a
result of what you’ve designed.
Client comes with a problem…
Don’t think about the final solution at the
outset, think about the experience. That’s
how you innovate.
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP21585

10. Mastering Interactive Development Lingo:
Understanding what your developer just said
The Hidden Costs of Miscommunication
• Unfamiliar Lingo
• Unfamiliar with Process
• Making Assumptions
• Rework & Lost progress
The single biggest problem
in communication is the
illusion that is has taken
place.
- George Bernard Shaw
“ ”Key Takeaway:
Communication is a two-way street. It’s the
responsibility of the expert to communicate
clearly, but it’s also the responsibility of the
rest of the team to express when things are
unclear.
Webinar from The Nerdery
http://nerdery.com

11. Mastering Interactive Development Lingo:
Understanding what your developer just said
Wireframes vs Visual Design
Interactions between elements Does it do what it needs to do?
Layout and functionality All present and accounted for?
Look and feel … and more Function meets form
Your visual vocabulary Form improves function
What they are: What they mean to you:

12. Mastering Interactive Development Lingo:
Understanding what your developer just said
QA: SUPPORTED ENVIRONMENTS
Combination of hardware/OS/Software Need to be specific
Environments users use Best ROI to reach your users
Environments Development targets Can limit functional/visual options
Environments QA tests
Check software functions/looks as
designed
What they are: What they mean to you:

13. Mastering Interactive Development Lingo:
Understanding what your developer just said
Buzz Word Bingo!
If you hear these terms and don’t understand them, you should speak up.
• Information Architecture
• User Research
• Contextual Inquiry
• Visual Design
• Template
• GIT,SVN,VCS
• FE Dev, BE Dev
• Unit Test
• API
• CMS
• UAT
• Penetration Testing
• Vulnerability Assessment
• Regression Testing
• Issue Tracker
UX Dev QA

14. THANK YOU